Mike Laidlaw leaves BioWare

[Cael]

Yeah well, it's how it works in every company, not just BioWare. Even Avellone was very positive about PoE when he was still in Obsidian, then when he left he started saying less positive things about it (and especially about Obsidian and the owners).
The same is true for a lot of other people: the game is getting release in the next week "wow, what a ride it has been, so proud of the team and the game we made", then some years later and they're "yeah well, it wasn't so good after all, this thing sucked and we couldn't do what we wanted with X because Y".

It has more to do with professionalism, something that the majority of modern day workers seem to have never learnt. While you are an employee of a company, you say good things about it to your customers. You are a representative of the company, regardless of your position within the company, and as such, must always portray it in the best light possible, even in the event of the customer speaking very inconvenient truths about your company. At worst, you just grin and keep quiet.

After you have left the company, however, you are a free agent, and therefore can say whatever you want. That said, during certain situations, it is still considered bad form to say bad things about your previous employer.

 

[Roguey]

We've been noticed.


https://twitter.com/Mike_Laidlaw/status/1000186641779118081

I just checked my own "personal thread" on a notably hardcore RPG site. Hooooboy do they despise literally - everything- about me. Good fun .

Well, he's not wrong. I'm probably the most Laidlaw-positive poster itt and even I called him a dummy.

 

[Cael]

We've been noticed.


https://twitter.com/Mike_Laidlaw/status/1000186641779118081


Well, he's not wrong. I'm probably the most Laidlaw-positive poster itt and even I called him a dummy.

Well, I can honestly one-up the hate: Who is Mike Laidlaw?

 

[Projas]

I think you are a lovely human being Mike. When I called you a cuck earlier in the thread, I meant it in a friendly way.

 

[Zed]

Well, I can honestly one-up the hate: Who is Mike Laidlaw?

this is apparently what he thinks is the most important things about himself

 

[Cael]

this is apparently what he thinks is the most important things about himself

Doesn't really tell me much. I read that as:

So what? So was a lot of other people.
I can tell from just looking at you.
Poly-what? Gamous? That's illegal in most countries, bud.
Ok... You "stream" there, and I will, uh, "stream" in the loo like the other polite people, OK?

 

[agentorange]

why are you people still paying attention to let alone playing bioware games

 

[Zed]

Doesn't really tell me much.

there's not much to tell.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Liberals: It's 2018, why would you care about sexual preferences of two consenting adults?

Also liberals: LOOK AT ME I'M POLY

 

[Cael]

there's not much to tell.

Ouchies! That would hurt more than raging :D

 

[Roguey]

Liberals: It's 2018, why would you care about sexual preferences of two consenting adults?

Also liberals: LOOK AT ME I'M POLY

Reasonably confident he put that in there for potentially-interested women.

 

[Cael]

Reasonably confident he put that in there for potentially-interested women.

And suddenly, the phrase "you don't know where that's been" takes on a whole new meaning...

 

[Vlajdermen]

I think designers on big games don't have much influence on the game. The finance people say dumb shit sells, so the boss tells the designers to make more dumb shit. The designers make some dumb shit that smells RPG ish.

Yeah, that goes for all genres, sadly. Bottom line: just don't play big games.

Except maybe the Witcher 3. It's still fine.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Reasonably confident he put that in there for potentially-interested women.

Maybe he just wants a cracker.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Liberals: It's 2018, why would you care about sexual preferences of two consenting adults?

Also liberals: LOOK AT ME I'M POLY

Reasonably confident he put that in there for potentially-interested women.

What does poly even mean?

 

[Roguey]

What does poly even mean?

Polygamous, polyamorous.

 

[santino27]

What does poly even mean?

Polygamous, polyamorous.

Polymorphic.

 

[cruelio]

Fuck this idiot. I still remember him hyping the shit out of DA2 when it was a clear downstep to Origins.

According to Knowles, Bioware employees are required to do this even if they agree with the criticism (he had to white knight some aspects of NWN he wasn't happy with).

Shockingly, you have to defend your employer in public even if you disagree with them to keep your job. Wait, I have more breaking news.... scientists confirm water IS wet.

 

[Roguey]

Shockingly, you have to defend your employer in public even if you disagree with them to keep your job. Wait, I have more breaking news.... scientists confirm water IS wet.

This isn't Obsidian Entertainment's attitude.

 

[Cael]

What does poly even mean?

Polygamous, polyamorous.

The first is illegal in civilised countries. The second is never going to happen for that guy.

 

[Zanzoken]

this is apparently what he thinks is the most important things about himself

Hi, I'm Mike. I am a cis male who likes video games and sex. Ever heard of the awesome button?

 

[Falksi]

What does poly even mean?

 

[Lutte]

We've been noticed.


https://twitter.com/Mike_Laidlaw/status/1000186641779118081

I just checked my own "personal thread" on a notably hardcore RPG site. Hooooboy do they despise literally - everything- about me. Good fun .

Well, he's not wrong. I'm probably the most Laidlaw-positive poster itt and even I called him a dummy.

The codex always had a couple devs here and there posting with their real world identity in the open but.. precisely because of how despite the reputation of the place, devs keep looking at it.. have you never wondered how many are posting here anonymously?

:thunking: the next time you see some random poster defending garbage

DU should IP check to see if there's anything geolocalized in the general vicinity of certain studios.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

Late to the party but after ignoring NuBioware for many years I recently bought a used copy of DAI for half a potato. Works been exhausting lately and its easier to play something stupid on a console at the moment than getting into the hardcore shit that actually requires thought and attention (an thats what you need popamole games for, boys.).

So what I expected was the typical story heavy Bioware stuff and what I got was hours of collecting shards in some mind-bogglingly boring area, that I can only assume was designed for fun exploration but really just feels dull and mindless and soulless and boring.

You people already know this but I didn't follow this game and discussion and bought it on goodwill essentially because I liked DA. Anyway, after torturing myself for a couple of hours I couldn't take it anymore and did some research if others also thought that shit was boring as hell. Naturally, now I get all those forum posts by people saying they can barely stand it. "Get out of the first area as soon as you can", then you can play the actual game. You need the filler to unlock the real game but there is much more filler than youd ever need. But I wonder, could not the whole game be fun? Even decline gaming magazines with their hypocritical 'zomg 90% bestests RPG ever but also really boring' schizophrenic articles say the same shit.

And then I come accross an interview with Laidlaw.

And he says, he acknowledges the criticism the game gets but doesn't agree with it. Because people don't have to do the side content, its just something they choose to do on their own. So in other words, its perfectly okay to pack your whole game chock-full of mindless boring filler content because after all the players don't have to do it. So to boil this down even further, he says, its okay to make a game boring because players don't have to play it. Its okay that a huge chunk of your game content is boring because you are not supposed to play it and have fun.

Again, you guys already know all of this but it was new to me and it blew my mind. Its so delusional I struggle to even put the thought process and consequences of it into words. "If you actually play that boring crap we designed and put into the game than that shits on you, player!" Happend just yesterday and now I stumble over this thread, so I felt like sharing my experience.

I can't understand how a company can decide to so completely derail their own formula that people know and buy their games for. What irks me most about this is that I didn't really expect much. I didn't expect to play Age of Decadence, you know. I wanted to play a NuBioware title with a bmovie story and cutie homosex companions and cinematic storytelling and all that shit. I think that shits alright. But somehow they managed to fuck up even their own stupid formula and turn into something worse.The actual Biowarean content is there, you just have to play an empty boring MMO for a couple of hours first. Great.

The tl;dr is that as far as I am concerned Laidlaw can get fucked if thats his design sensibility. The only thing I'd allow in his defense that I have little hope that him leaving will make anything better. EA meddling will make things only worse.

 

[Infinitron]

And he says, he acknowledges the criticism the game gets but doesn't agree with it. Because people don't have to do the side content, its just something they choose to do on their own. So in other words, its perfectly okay to pack your whole game chock-full of mindless boring filler content because after all the players don't have to do it. So to boil this down even further, he says, its okay to make a game boring because players don't have to play it. Its okay that a huge chunk of your game content is boring because you are not supposed to play it and have fun.

I've always thought this kind of design is meant for players with a strictly casual mindset towards gaming. That is, players who are basically playing the game with only the dimmest awareness of what they're doing in it on a timescale longer than a few minutes. They don't even think of games in terms of "content", as a structured space where you're supposed to systematically find and achieve objectives. They're just kind of fucking around and randomly running into stuff.