BioWare's Anthem (PC/XB/PS)

[SolidSnakeUS]

Bioware really not taking this well. They seriously need a complete turnover of the management for Bioware to bring back any sort of good faith.

The press is not your enemy, BioWare

 

[Commander Clueless]

The article doesn't go hard enough on unionization, tbh. Schreier unfortunately comes across here as painting a picture of "life ruining crunch isn't benefiting the games" when the angle should instead be "life ruining crunch isn't benefiting the employees."

I feel like both are true and important, personally.

Obviously people's health should take a priority over a form of entertainment.

I was about to write up a post about how Schreier and his dedicated fans are all-in on unionization (Schreier is very political) but I see Syz made that point in far quicker fashion!

I spent a lot of time last night reading reactions to this article and they almost all completely laughable. The article itself is fine of course, Schreier is very good at his job, my comments were aimed at the reactions rather than the article itself.

Well now I feel a little silly for all that typing I did...

 

[Commander Clueless]

Bioware really not taking this well. They seriously need a complete turnover of the management for Bioware to bring back any sort of good faith.

The press is not your enemy, BioWare

One of the interesting things I saw in the article was the opposition to Gaider's writing "something similar" for Anthem, when a lot of people wanted to go in a new direction.

I'm not saying a new direction would be bad if it actually had the time and effort required to make it successful (it did not), but there are many fans who love that style of storytelling (myself included). I feel like a good BioWare style story was exactly what this game needed, but I may be biased.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

Don't feel silly, it is nice to be able to have a discussion online without it devolving into a mess. It feels like we are back in 2007

My main issue with the article is that it is mostly one-sided. Someone told him "I sometimes went to cry in a backroom" doesn't tell me if that person has anxiety issues; not because that would absolve management (the game itself makes that entirely impossible) but because I have worked in ultra toxic environments and I am all too familiar with the disgruntled employee who is quick to blame everyone around them for the lack of support but never brings up their own personal demons as part of rhe equation.

They had hour-long creative meetings and not a single person took ownership. That tells me two things:

- management was awful
- the employees were too passive

This whole thing feels very passive-aggressive and I really dislike that. It would be nice to hear a bit more than "well the people on top sucked and the people above them were also terrible".

And yes. The Bioware/EA response is pretty terrible

 

[KingBran]

As someone who has worked in the game industry I have some thoughts:

It has ALWAYS been a high-stress job.

Lots of companies are great to work for.

Turnover rate is super high. Just like any other media industry. One minute you're hot, the next minute you are not.

It's way too easy to just say "unionize!" and I have a feeling that well over half the people who say that don't even know everything that implies. You ever see all those construction workers standinf over a sewer hole shooting the breeze when theres just one guy down there doing all the work? 99% of the time that is either union workers or government. Flip a coin.

Not everyone wants to unionize.

Unionizing wont stop terrible companies from being terrible. Especially with an industry such as video games where every kid wants to work for them and will take crappy pay and bad work conditions to do it. Unions wont fix that. It will just add a TON more red tape to get anything done.


I could go on and on about unions but people really need to get it out of their head that everyone in the industry wants unions or that it will fix everything.


The software (not just gaming) industry usually ends up like this:

Company makes product. Product doesnt sell well, company goes under. People look for new jobs.

Company makes product. Product does great and company is bought out by larger company. People look for new jobs.

Company makes product. Product does great. Company now has stable income and will cut ties with employees until they need more to make another product. People look for new jobs.

Game is released, as many devs arent needed anymore, goodbye! Till next time.


What gets me is people think this is some new thing. Like making games in the 90's / early 2000's was all roses and rainbows. No. You worked your ass off to make a game. It was released. You hope the company needed to keep you for the next game and if not, you moved on.

 

[18Hossa]

The article doesn't go hard enough on unionization, tbh. Schreier unfortunately comes across here as painting a picture of "life ruining crunch isn't benefiting the games" when the angle should instead be "life ruining crunch isn't benefiting the employees."

Here you go Opinion | Making Video Games Is Not a Dream Job

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

Anthem's biggest upcoming features are all being delayed until god knows when | PC Gamer

The fact that it took them 2 months post launch to add the ability to swap head mid mission in a looter shooter does not bode well for them to even get the rest of the fixes done in any relevant time. The game will probably be pretty dead by that point and even if they relaunch it, I doubt it'll being that many back.

 

[Dolemite]

The game is slowly going down the tubes and stuff is still broken.

 

[Blitzkrug]

Pretty sure Division 2 launching killed that game where it stood anyways.

And by the sounds of it, Bioware had the same issues plague this game like it did Mass Effect Andromeda. Poor leadership, unclear vision on what the game should be, leading to a rush to get it out the door.

Should just close that studio at this point.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

Pretty sure Division 2 launching killed that game where it stood anyways.

And by the sounds of it, Bioware had the same issues plague this game like it did Mass Effect Andromeda. Poor leadership, unclear vision on what the game should be, leading to a rush to get it out the door.

Should just close that studio at this point.

Insanely crushing crunch, poor management and vision and dev sites that should be working together being hostile. I honestly, don't see this shit ending either. This is what, the third game in a row with Frostbite for them and they still don't exactly know how to work it? Honestly, if Bioware fell on its own blade, it may keep some dignity.

 

[Commander Clueless]

I'm no fan of what BioWare has spewed out lately, but they have built such good worlds in the past, it seems a shame to let them rot at the bottom of EA's barrel of dead franchises.

....not that that's the first time it'd have happened to franchises I love.

 

[Starry Knight]

I'm no fan of what BioWare has spewed out lately, but they have built such good worlds in the past, it seems a shame to let them rot at the bottom of EA's barrel of dead franchises.

....not that that's the first time it'd have happened to franchises I love.

I mean, it's the people that make the game, and all the talented people who built those worlds have left Bioware. If Bioware folds, another studio (independent of EA and poor management) will pop up with the talented designers.

 

[Commander Clueless]

I mean, it's the people that make the game, and all the talented people who built those worlds have left Bioware. If Bioware folds, another studio (independent of EA and poor management) will pop up with the talented designers.

And eventually be crushed by the EA machine, I know.


I just mean I'd hate to see Mass Effect and Dragon Age sent to sleep with the fishes next to Command & Conquer.

 

[RandV]

Insanely crushing crunch, poor management and vision and dev sites that should be working together being hostile. I honestly, don't see this **** ending either. This is what, the third game in a row with Frostbite for them and they still don't exactly know how to work it? Honestly, if Bioware fell on its own blade, it may keep some dignity.

Apparently they never get much internal support for it, priority for help from the Frostbite team always goes to FIFA or Battlefield with Bioware a few rungs down the ladder.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

Apparently they never get much internal support for it, priority for help from the Frostbite team always goes to FIFA or Battlefield with Bioware a few rungs down the ladder.

And not only that, they had to make so many parts from scratch for Anthem when it came to Frostbite. If I remember right, if any studio member showed that they knew how to work Frostbite well, they would take them away from their group/company to go focus on Frostbite stuff for other games. That hurt as well.

 

[Dolemite]

Jesus Christ what a shit show Anthem turned out to be. I’ve hardly played it and I’m going to try to get a refund.

Dragon Age 4 becomes BioWare's next big focus, as Anthem loses its lead creators? | GamesRadar+

 

[NyQuil]

DA 4 is going to be crap.

They don't know what they're doing so they'll aimlessly scrabble at whatever is popular at the time and make an inferior copy.

 

[Nizdizzle]

DA4 being a "game as a live service" is the worst news I've heard in a while.

Jesus Christ what a **** show Anthem turned out to be. I’ve hardly played it and I’m going to try to get a refund.

Dragon Age 4 becomes BioWare's next big focus, as Anthem loses its lead creators? | GamesRadar+

I believe that was always the plan for Anthem. BioWare EDM to move on, and BioWare Austin to take over. I mean, I hope you get a refund because the game is a shell of what it should be, but I think the bit about "loses the lead creators" is a bit of clickbait.

 

[GlassesJacketShirt]

Man, what a disappointing mess Bioware has become. The days of KOTOR feel so far removed.

 

[PeteWorrell]

Man, what a disappointing mess Bioware has become. The days of KOTOR feel so far removed.

In this era of live services and microtransactions if your favorite studio is bought by EA, you know that eventually they will become something else entirely and most probably close down.

 

[SniperHF]

In this era of live services and microtransactions

I think this particular phenomena unfortunately crosses eras Origin, Westwood, Bullfrog, etc.

 

[SuperScript29]

I think the idea is that the working conditions are currently unacceptable, and that forcing restrictions on them might actually force management to plan rather than rely exclusively on crunch time to "finish" games as they have in the past. In reality, it's likely not that easy, but it's obvious something must change - both for the workers, and for the quality of games. What isn't as obvious, is what needs to change IMO.

Crunch time will always be a thing (experienced it myself in the software development world), but relying on it almost exclusively is obviously not a sustainable model.

True, but it's not a good condition for either the workers or the productivity and, hence, the company itself. There are steps that can be taken to mitigate this, as a project being mismanaged like this should not be "how it is". I realize the real world isn't an ideal scenario, but that doesn't mean it can't and shouldn't be improved - particularly from our perspective, where the product obviously suffers.

Creating a union will not fix this, it will actually bring on new set of problems to the table. The solution to this problem is sadly not a happy one, BioWare shot themselves in the foot the day they signed with EA, and it's only a matter of time until the studio is shut down. This should be a lesson to any successful studio wanting to have a good future in the industry.

I personally think that Bioware is also a victim of open world syndrome. This idea of making games bigger and non-linear has really destroyed story based games, which is what Bioware was built upon. Instead of Devs making small worlds filled with detail, the idea has become to make huge worlds with very little detail. You end up with a repetitive mess. Very few devs can pull it off well. Really the only open world games that I've ever seen pull it off well are Bethesda games (even then I get bored with it), The Witcher 3 (which I personally think could have been stronger story-wise if more linear), and Kingdom Come Deliverance (the open world was on the smaller side which made it less daunting to play without fast travel and also made most of the locations more memorable).

Agreed, they should have stuck to their roots and what they were good at. But it's also possible that the whole open world stuff was due to pressure from EA.

 

[Commander Clueless]

Creating a union will not fix this, it will actually bring on new set of problems to the table. The solution to this problem is sadly not a happy one, BioWare shot themselves in the foot the day they signed with EA, and it's only a matter of time until the studio is shut down. This should be a lesson to any successful studio wanting to have a good future in the industry.

Sorry, to clarify....what is the unhappy solution you are proposing?

 

[SuperScript29]

Sorry, to clarify....what is the unhappy solution you are proposing?

The solution is shutdown and let it be a lesson learned for other promising studios that are thinking about signing with companies like EA.

BioWare is done, they had a good run while it lasted and it's time to move on.

 

[Commander Clueless]

The solution is shutdown and let it be a lesson learned for other promising studios that are thinking about signing with companies like EA.

BioWare is done, they had a good run while it lasted and it's time to move on.

Shutting down isn't really a solution, though, is it? I'm not necessarily for or against unionization (also not at all my decision and thus any opinion I might have had is pretty much irrelevant), but the problem remains that developers are being pushed to their limits in a clearly unsustainable development cycle, they suffer, and (the part that directly impacts us as conusmers) the product suffers.

I think the other problem with that idea is EA isn't the only problem in this regard.