Did EA ruin BioWare?

[Gizmo_Duck]

Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider talks of EA's influence seeping into BioWare, EA taking support of "nerds" for granted, live service woes​

He says that EA considered those mechanics - the kind that shaped games like Dragon Age: Origins - to be "slow and cumbersome," rather than the "action-y and slick" presentation that the studio was being pushed toward. That meant that Gaider's views "were often not very welcome" despite his long tenure at the studio and work on many of its most famous RPGs.

That's partly because, he says, EA didn't think the traditional RPG audience was one that was worth focusing on. He claims that the overseers referred to those mechanics as being "'in the cave'". The cave, he explains, "was where nerds went. The nerds were in the cave. You made an RPG and the nerds in the cave would always show up for an RPG, because it was an RPG."


That devotion to their chosen genre, in EA's eyes, meant that "you didn't have to worry" about the nerds. "You didn't have to try and appeal to them. You had to worry about the people who weren't in the cave, which was the audience we actually wanted, which was much larger."

"It's really hard to talk about the years that led to my departure," he told us. "At its height, it was a glory to work there." He begins by reminiscing about what the studio was like in the late '90s, when it was pushing out Baldur's Gate 2. "It was D&D, I was fresh. They would they refer to me as the machine, because I wrote so quickly. I think I wrote half of BG 2 myself, honestly."

While he described the studio's best years as "glorious," he's also aware that things weren't entirely perfect when BioWare was still independent. Crunch was prevalent at the company, but Gaider remembers it felt like "that was just part of the job, like, I didn't think it was feasible to question it. You worked until it was done and that was just the way it was."

...

Things slowly began changing after EA acquired the company, though. Gaider's impression was that studio co-founders Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka planned to change the publisher from the inside out - "It was the snake eating the elephant." At the time, BioWare wanted to make "prestige games" and focus on high Metacritic scores "that will lead to profits, not the other way around." And, for a while, EA leadership supported that goal.


However, changes in EA leadership meant that "suddenly, suddenly, suddenly things were different." Zeschuk and Muzyka left not long after. Gaider's "impression" was that the duo had realized their goal of changing EA from within was no longer doable. "And then things started to change more rapidly."

That's mostly because of what happened after Dragon Age Joplin was canceled by EA. Nodding to another BioWare veteran, Mark Darrah, he says "I would not have survived the end of Joplin, because the end of Joplin would have been 'now we're making this live service Dragon Age'. Me, Mr. Old-Fashioned RPG Mechanics, and them coming down and saying, 'we're canning this whole narrative-focused Dragon Age thing, and we want you to make a live-service version?' I would have been like, see ya."


Gaider makes it clear that he would have been gone regardless, even if BioWare and EA had suddenly bestowed a creative director title on him after he was passed over for promotions for years. "Even if there was a world where they would have asked me to be creative director after Mike on Live Service Dragon Age - what a devil's contract that would have been."

Dragon Age maestro says EA always spoke about a hypothetical 'nerd cave' full of diehard RPG fans who would "always show up," so you "didn't have to try and appeal to them"

Maybe they were right, but they shouldn't have said it

www.gamesradar.com

Former Dragon Age lead writer says being at BioWare was "glorious," but under EA it "surrendered more and more of its independence until we got to where we got to"

David Gaider recalls the storied RPG developer's good and bad days

www.gamesradar.com

Dragon Age legend says even if he didn't leave BioWare 9 years ago, he still would have dipped over EA's live service Dragon Age push: "What a devil's contract that would have been"

David Gaider wasn't hanging around for the Thedas battlepass

www.gamesradar.com

 

[Novembruh]

*Did EA Ruin Video Games.

the answer to both is yes.

 

[Bubba T]

People called this shyt back in 2008, especially after the first Mass Effect.

 

[42 Monks]

bioware is a big reason why crunch was seen as the norm fr

also they played themselves and derailed the trajectory of the company by limiting jade empire to the OG xbox. that bump would've protected them long enough to finish other major projects on their own terms

 

[Umoja]

It is not surprising.

Anyone that understands how businesses work would understand this.

With start up comes, you get people who might be interested in realising a vision. When someone buys a company, they're interested in making a profit.

 

[CoolinInTheCut]

They pretty much ruined everything good that ever happened to them.

Ruined Bioware and their IPs.
Ruined Battlefield (DICE)
Ruined Star Wars Battlefront (DICE)
Ruined Titanfall (Respawn)
Ruined Dead Space (Visceral)
Ruined Need For Speed (Various Studios)
Ruined Burnout (Criterion)
Ruined Medal of Honor (Various Studios)

You can even go back to SimCity and the Command and Conquer franchise.

FC and Apex are two big crutches for them and their fanbases are becoming increasingly more frustrated every year.

 

[Animal House]

It’s crazy BioWare made some of my all time favorite games but reality set in after DA Inquisition that the “glory” days were over

 

[TDT]

They pretty much ruined everything good that ever happened to them.

Ruined Bioware and their IPs.
Ruined Battlefield (DICE)
Ruined Star Wars Battlefront (DICE)
Ruined Titanfall (Respawn)
Ruined Dead Space (Visceral)
Ruined Need For Speed (Various Studios)
Ruined Burnout (Criterion)
Ruined Medal of Honor (Various Studios)

You can even go back to SimCity and the Command and Conquer franchise.

FC and Apex are two big crutches for them and their fanbases are becoming increasingly more frustrated every year.

Still on the fence about the new Battlefield(looks like DICE back on that bullshyt with the classes thing )

Now we'll never get a Titanfall 3

as far as Mass Effect goes i don't think a new installment will happen in this lifetime..and if it does,and it were to flop Bioware's doors will shut for good

 

[Jigganaut]

bioware is a big reason why crunch was seen as the norm fr

also they played themselves and derailed the trajectory of the company by limiting jade empire to the OG xbox. that bump would've protected them long enough to finish other major projects on their own terms

Man Jade empire one of my favorite games of all time too

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

A lot of their first games being locked to OG xbox probably didn’t help them in the long run after Baldur’s Gate.

KoTOR, Jade Empire, and Mass Effect one being a timed exclusive to 360

 

[Cᵣₐₛₕ&ₜₕₑCₒᵤₚ]

Weren't these the f***bois that tried to popularize the online pass as well for consoles ?​

 

[Bubba T]

Weren't these the f***bois that tried to popularize the online pass as well for consoles ?​

Not only did Mass Effect 3 have that bullshyt, but they locked a character whose race is a huge part of the story behind a completely arbitrary paywall.

 

[Arcavian]

Yes.

 

[Based Lord Zedd]

They do the same cave shyt with every game, which is why you can play mixed mens/women's hockey on NHL and soccer on FC

They leave people who want to play a decent sim soccer game in the cave and instead try to figure out ways to increase the ultimate team audience.

 

[daze23]

cause I be kickin' the real
while they be losin' the race, trying to chase mass appeal