Anthem 2019: why is there a hole in my bread?

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Anthem 2019: why is there a hole in my bread?

Moola: Aug 16, 2006

Bust Rodd posted:

Anyone who has never spent $10 on junk food or cigarettes is allowed to throw stones about a stupid cosmetic skin from their shiny glass house.

This is an extremely dumb argument

# ? Nov 11, 2019 17:17

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# ? Jun 10, 2024 01:15

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Star Citizen upped the DLC ante by inventing the macrotransaction.

# ? Nov 11, 2019 17:22

Tetrabor: Oct 14, 2018; Eight points of contact at all times!

exquisite tea posted:

Star Citizen upped the DLC ante by inventing the macrotransaction.

I recently watched their ship commercials since I've been out of the loop, I don't understand how anyone can trust them. What's the point of a super-yatch in a video game, so you can stare at the space pixels extra hard?

# ? Nov 11, 2019 18:14

Pozload Escobar: Aug 21, 2016; by Reene

Tetrabor posted:

I recently watched their ship commercials since I've been out of the loop, I don't understand how anyone can trust them. What's the point of a super-yatch in a video game, so you can stare at the space pixels extra hard?

What is the point of one irl?

(An easy guillotine target identification device)

# ? Nov 11, 2019 18:17

Overbite: Jan 24, 2004; I'm a vtuber expert

Is it dead yet

# ? Nov 11, 2019 19:22

ErrEff: Feb 13, 2012

Overbite posted:

Is it dead yet

60 viewers currently on Twitch.

Viewership is definitely not the same as player count but it can be used to get a rough idea of public interest. For reference:

Artifact - 67
Star Citizen - 879
Heroes of the Storm - 3K
Conan Exiles - 531
Halo 5: Guardians - 153
Agents of Mayhem - 1

# ? Nov 11, 2019 20:00

RagnarokZ: May 14, 2004; Emperor of the Internet

ErrEff posted:

60 viewers currently on Twitch.

Viewership is definitely not the same as player count but it can be used to get a rough idea of public interest. For reference:

Artifact - 67
Star Citizen - 879
Heroes of the Storm - 3K
Conan Exiles - 531
Halo 5: Guardians - 153
Agents of Mayhem - 1

Who the gently caress is watching Agents of Mayhem? Better yet, who the gently caress is actually playing it?

# ? Nov 12, 2019 00:00

Father Wendigo: Sep 28, 2005; This is, sadly, more important to me than bettering myself.

RagnarokZ posted:

Who the gently caress is watching Agents of Mayhem? Better yet, who the gently caress is actually playing it?

They released a licensed board game with a poo poo-ton of miniatures. I have no idea what the quality is like, but it just released an expansion so I guess someone's buying.

edit: Come to think of it, Bioware/EA would probably make decent bank selling the license to let someone make a mini-centric game.

Father Wendigo fucked around with this message at 00:38 on Nov 12, 2019

# ? Nov 12, 2019 00:27

Moongrave: Jun 19, 2004; Finally Living Rent Free

Moola posted:

This is an extremely dumb argument

yeah it's extremely damaging to poors like me where $1 is a considerable chunk of my income!!!!!!!!!!

# ? Nov 12, 2019 01:44

Lambert: Apr 15, 2018; by Fluffdaddy; Fallen Rib

BARONS CYBER SKULL posted:

yeah it's extremely damaging to poors like me where $1 is a considerable chunk of my income!!!!!!!!!!

What does that have to do with anything. Is this drunkposting?

# ? Nov 12, 2019 01:56

Moongrave: Jun 19, 2004; Finally Living Rent Free

Lambert posted:

What does that have to do with anything. Is this drunkposting?

please stop calling my transactions micro :smith:

edit oh i thought he was quoting the other post

this one

Bust Rodd posted:

Micro transactions really aren�t so bad, it�s the fact that we�ve accepted our conditioning and think of $10 as a �Microtransaction� instead of it just being a �Transaction�

# ? Nov 12, 2019 01:57

Kaysette: Jan 5, 2009; ~*Boston makes me*~
~*feel good*~

this but bioware:

# ? Nov 12, 2019 03:12

Moola: Aug 16, 2006

BARONS CYBER SKULL posted:

please stop calling my transactions micro

edit oh i thought he was quoting the other post

this one

This is an extremely dumb BARONS CYBER SKULL

# ? Nov 12, 2019 03:14

Pattonesque: Jul 15, 2004; johnny jesus and the infield fly rule

ErrEff posted:

60 viewers currently on Twitch.

Viewership is definitely not the same as player count but it can be used to get a rough idea of public interest. For reference:

Artifact - 67
Star Citizen - 879
Heroes of the Storm - 3K
Conan Exiles - 531
Halo 5: Guardians - 153
Agents of Mayhem - 1

Man there's gotta be some big feature to be written on the disappearance of Halo from the zeitgeist

like it'd be one thing if they ended the series and it faded away, but they keep on making them but they have zero cultural footprint anymore. Same with Gears tbh

# ? Nov 12, 2019 03:19

Moongrave: Jun 19, 2004; Finally Living Rent Free

Moola posted:

This is an extremely dumb BARONS CYBER SKULL

Look I see $10 and my brain shuts down ok

# ? Nov 12, 2019 03:21

drkeiscool: Aug 1, 2014; Soiled Meat

Ha ha ha, BARONS CYBER SKULL has microtransaction, lol

# ? Nov 13, 2019 07:57

Siljmonster: Dec 16, 2005; by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

Pattonesque posted:

Man there's gotta be some big feature to be written on the disappearance of Halo from the zeitgeist

like it'd be one thing if they ended the series and it faded away, but they keep on making them but they have zero cultural footprint anymore. Same with Gears tbh

It's called Destiny now

# ? Nov 13, 2019 08:35

Lambert: Apr 15, 2018; by Fluffdaddy; Fallen Rib

Just lol if you're not bringing the thunder. It's an online game, impressions matter!

# ? Nov 13, 2019 09:15

Bust Rodd: Oct 21, 2008; by VideoGames

Yeah HALO was only a cultural touchstone because of the massive impact it had on FPS. Every game in the genre has internalized Halo�s DNA (regenerating health vs a static bar, carrying fewer than 9 guns, etc) so now there isn�t any reason to keep being impressed by Halo.

# ? Nov 13, 2019 14:50

Moola: Aug 16, 2006

I'm at the pub and that 'I'm only human' song came on and I thought about how bad bioware is

# ? Nov 13, 2019 15:55

AngstPenguin: Oct 10, 2006

An online game with cosmetic microtransactions that you can only show off to 3 other people at a time.

# ? Nov 13, 2019 18:33

SubponticatePoster: Aug 9, 2004; Every day takes figurin' out all over again how to fuckin' live.; Slippery Tilde

BARONS CYBER SKULL posted:

Look I see $10 and my brain shuts down ok

Well, that explains your posting

(I kid, I kid)

# ? Nov 14, 2019 03:35

queef anxiety: Mar 4, 2009; yeah

SubponticatePoster posted:

Well, that explains your posting

# ? Nov 14, 2019 04:56

Moola: Aug 16, 2006

https://kakuchopurei.com/2019/11/04/anthems-head-of-live-service-leaves-bioware/

So the guy in charge of anthems live service left bioware

I'm sure that turn around will happen any day now though...

# ? Nov 14, 2019 14:42

BexGu: Jan 9, 2004; This fucking day....

I really do wonder if Anthem will be just quietly shutdown and its art assets cannibalized into a real Iron-man like game some time in the future.

# ? Nov 14, 2019 14:54

Wheeee: Mar 11, 2001; When a tree grows, it is soft and pliable. But when it's dry and hard, it dies.

Hardness and strength are death's companions. Flexibility and softness are the embodiment of life.

That which has become hard shall not triumph.

Why would they cannibalize the art assets from Anthem when they're all poo poo

and lol at the dumbass trying to defend the idea of buying that bad skin

# ? Nov 14, 2019 16:15

Lambert: Apr 15, 2018; by Fluffdaddy; Fallen Rib

Maybe that guy wouldn't have left if you had all bought that skin/brought the thunder.

# ? Nov 14, 2019 16:21

Pattonesque: Jul 15, 2004; johnny jesus and the infield fly rule

Siljmonster posted:

It's called Destiny now

yeah fair. I'm also curious about how Halo's esports scene never quite caught on like, say, Counterstrike or the like. It feels like it had a brief moment where it could have become a thing but then never did

# ? Nov 14, 2019 16:58

Father Wendigo: Sep 28, 2005; This is, sadly, more important to me than bettering myself.

Wheeee posted:

Why would they cannibalize the art assets from Anthem when they're all poo poo

and lol at the dumbass trying to defend the idea of buying that bad skin

Skull.jpg is high art and I refuse to hear any argument otherwise.

# ? Nov 14, 2019 18:07

Onmi: Jul 12, 2013; If someone says it one more time I'm having Florina show up as a corpse. I'm not even kidding, I was pissed off with people doing that shit back in 2010, and I'm not dealing with it now in 2016.

hobbesmaster posted:

Where does a MS or PhD in game design fuckups qualify you to work?

My Masters is in Digital Media and specifically covers things like UX design, Design management, and other skills in that field.

# ? Nov 15, 2019 10:19

BexGu: Jan 9, 2004; This fucking day....

I love how the "Plans" here can lead so easily to "....and then we found it was too hard/expensive and gave up".

quote:

Sources: BioWare Plans A Complete Overhaul For Anthem

Recent silence and a couple of high-profile departures from BioWare have led fans and pundits to speculate that the studio has abandoned its most recent game, Anthem, but the opposite is true. For the last few months, BioWare and parent company EA have been planning an overhaul of the online shooter, according to three people familiar with those plans. Some call it �Anthem 2.0� or �Anthem Next.�

Many of the details are still in flux, and there�s no clear timeline for the Anthem Next project just yet. In fact, from what I�ve heard, the developers at BioWare haven�t even decided how it�ll be distributed. They�re still figuring out whether updates should be released all at once or over an extended period of time. Anthem could be overhauled through a series of updates, a la No Man�s Sky, it could get a game-changing expansion like Destiny�s critically acclaimed Taken King. Most of Anthem�s biggest systems�its mission structure, its loot, its world�will change drastically, but the developers have not yet figured out exactly what that will look like. They�re even considering releasing Anthem Next as a brand new game, although those who work on the project said that could take a lot of forms (and it�s unlikely they�ll charge full-price to Anthem players).

The one thing that�s for sure is that BioWare has not abandoned Anthem, despite recent breathless declarations that the game is dead. (There are few better ways to get views on YouTube than declaring Anthem to be dead.) Right now, dozens if not hundreds of developers at both of BioWare�s offices�in Austin, Texas and Edmonton, Alberta, Canada�are quietly working on plans to overhaul the game.

�We spent a few months just tearing it down and figuring out what needed to change fundamentally (a lot),� said one person on the project. �And we�ve been rebuilding for another few months since.�

n the coming months, BioWare would delay Anthem�s endgame Cataclysm event, and on September 17, the developers said they were moving away from previously announced update plans in favor of long-term fixes. �We hear your concerns on core issues in Anthem and are acting on it,� wrote BioWare head of live services Chad Robertson in a blog post. �Those systems require a more thorough review and re-working versus quick fixes. We�ve got a team working on that now, and early results are promising.�

A month and a half later, Robertson had quit, following in the footsteps of lead producer Ben Irving, who�d left in August. The optics of these departures combined with EA�s vague messaging about Anthem�s future have led to non-stop speculation. �Bioware Ditches Anthem For Good,� proclaimed the YouTube news show Inside Gaming Daily on November 1. Around the same time, Forbes journalist Paul Tassi wrote: �I no longer really care about hearing about future plans for Anthem because I simply cannot imagine they will be anything beyond the bare minimum of keeping the game alive on life support, if that.�

But the reality is that BioWare is still putting a lot of work into Anthem. Details on Anthem Next are hazy, but among other things, the game�s developers plan to overhaul the loot, the quests, the social aspects of the game, the difficulty, the progression system, and the world map. One person on the project said they�re planning to change the game�s entire structure. Right now, the entire world of Anthem is set on a single contiguous map; separating the map into segments would allow developers to tweak and play around with those segments without worrying that they might create bugs and glitches all across the world. �We�re also looking at breaking up the need to go back to [Fort Tarsis] after every mission,� said the person, �and what a mission technically is. That was always a weird disconnect. [We�re] trying to integrate the disparate parts of the game together.�

A second person on the project told me yesterday they were still doing �lots of testing things out and experimentation but still nothing concrete.�

With so much in the air, it�s impossible to know what will and won�t change, but it�s safe to say that Anthem won�t suddenly transform into a brand new franchise�we still expect to see Freelancer mercenaries, Shaper artifacts, Javelin exosuits, and all of the other core ideas that the game has established. BioWare�s plan is to zoom out and overhaul the gameplay systems that most players have agreed don�t work. How and when this plan will come to fruition remains to be seen.

Anthem was developed by both of BioWare�s offices, but the plan had always been for BioWare Edmonton to pass the baton to BioWare Austin once the game went live. That has been happening slowly, sources said, which is exciting to members of the Austin team who think they can improve the game. (As detailed in our piece about the development of Anthem earlier this year, there were tensions between Edmonton and Austin all throughout the game�s production, many of them the result of disagreements on how to approach a live game.) As of right now, there are people in both studios working on Anthem Next.

BioWare, meanwhile, is still invested in role-playing games. In addition to the much-anticipated Dragon Age 4, which BioWare teased last year, a new Mass Effect game is in very early development at the Edmonton office under director Mike Gamble, a longtime BioWare producer.

A representative for EA declined to comment on this story.

Anthem, which launched in February 2019, was a big change for BioWare. The studio made its name on heavy role-playing games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect, so fans were surprised when they saw BioWare trying to take on the likes of Destiny with an online shooter. Thanks to a messy development process plagued with technical issues, vision struggles, and many other stresses, the game flopped. It was buggy, tedious, and lacked the long-term appeal of its competitors.

https://kotaku.com/sources-bioware-plans-a-complete-overhaul-for-anthem-1839892415

But really I'll believe it when I see it.

# ? Nov 15, 2019 18:51

Lunethex: Feb 4, 2013; Me llamo Sarah Brandolino, the eighth Castilian of this magnificent marriage.

bullshit

# ? Nov 15, 2019 19:03

Meiteron: Apr 4, 2008; Whoa! You're gonna be a legend!

I've been waiting very patiently for another desperate game company to look at the Ground-Up, Literal-Miracle-From-God-Almighty success that FFXIV 2.0 was, and try to leverage that into fixing their own colossal fuckups. And then fail, spectacularly, because FFXIV's renewed success was as previously established in this post both proof of a benevolent deity and a confluence of factors that Bioware does not have.

Bioware does not have a juggernaut of a company desperate for their flagship series to succeed like Square Enix; nor do they have someone like Naoki Yoshida who both knew what the good game design was and had the talent to plan out every necessary change to a busted title nearly singlehandedly; nor do they have the authority of the aforementioned juggernaut standing directly behind their star producer's shoulder saying "do everything this man says or you're fired".

Instead they have a studio where all the directors are leaving and the developers are burning out from crunch and the only desperation on the part of EA is it being hard to wait to carve up any remaining tasty bits when the studio finally reaches a certain level of unprofitability and can be closed.

# ? Nov 15, 2019 19:14

Iron Crowned: May 6, 2003; by Hand Knit

Bust Rodd posted:

Yeah HALO was only a cultural touchstone because of the massive impact it had on FPS. Every game in the genre has internalized Halo�s DNA (regenerating health vs a static bar, carrying fewer than 9 guns, etc) so now there isn�t any reason to keep being impressed by Halo.

I only played like the first HALO, and Reach, so I'm not an expert, but I get the idea that HALO just got stale. Game after game of just rehashing the same aliens and weapons just gets old.

If Doom had kept making sequels we'd probably be saying the same thing, instead we get a remake once a decade and everyone loves it. I wouldn't be surprised if after a cooling off period we get a revisit of HALO, although the lack of plot really does give Doom the advantage here.

Pattonesque posted:

yeah fair. I'm also curious about how Halo's esports scene never quite caught on like, say, Counterstrike or the like. It feels like it had a brief moment where it could have become a thing but then never did

This was probably because other than the port of the first one, it was console exclusive to the xbox.

# ? Nov 15, 2019 19:22

Zaodai: May 23, 2009; Death before dishonor?
Your terms are accepted.

"Anthem's not dead, that's all just clickbait from youtubers. :smuggo:

" seems like a really weird hill for anyone to want to ~~die~~ develop Shitpost 2.0 on.

# ? Nov 15, 2019 19:44

No Mods No Masters: Oct 3, 2004

J. schreier definitely has inside info, so I'm sure that is what bioware employees actually believe. Which just makes it all the sadder really

# ? Nov 15, 2019 19:59

Disargeria: May 6, 2010; All Good Things are Wild and Free!

quote:

Most of Anthem�s biggest systems�its mission structure, its loot, its world�will change drastically, but the developers have not yet figured out exactly what that will look like.

Maybe they should make a trailer for it so they can find out!

quote:

there�s no clear timeline

quote:

still figuring out whether updates should be released all at once or over an extended period

quote:

Most of Anthem�s biggest systems�its mission structure, its loot, its world�will change drastically, but the developers have not yet figured out exactly what that will look like.

quote:

that could take a lot of forms

quote:

We spent a few months just tearing it down and figuring out what needed to change fundamentally (a lot)

quote:

we�ve been rebuilding for another few months

quote:

Those systems require a more thorough review and re-working

quote:

the game�s developers plan to overhaul the loot, the quests, the social aspects of the game, the difficulty, the progression system, and the world map

Guys this sounds exactly like the style of development that led to Anthem in the first place. It sounds like they haven't actually done any work since launch, just had daily meetings. Just these snippets show that nothing has fundamentally changed at Bioware. The higher ups are disconnected, there's no vision, everyone's been working hard but progress isn't actually being made.

# ? Nov 15, 2019 20:26

RoadCrewWorker: Nov 19, 2007; camels aren't so great

Dont worry, thats where bioware magic comes in and saves the day

namely human sacrifices and necromancy

# ? Nov 15, 2019 20:35

BexGu: Jan 9, 2004; This fucking day....

No Mods No Masters posted:

J. schreier definitely has inside info, so I'm sure that is what bioware employees actually believe. Which just makes it all the sadder really

Watch this just be the next stage in viral ads from EA to keep people playing Anthem. "Leak" the information to get it written up and mass reported that Bioware is going to save Anthem while also stating Bioware has no idea how they are going to do it. Piece by Piece? One giant patch? Who knows!

# ? Nov 15, 2019 20:35

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# ? Jun 10, 2024 01:15

No Mods No Masters: Oct 3, 2004

J. schreier wrote the 40,000 word 'take a giant poo poo on bioware's head' expose of how hosed up anthem's development was. Fun as it is to imagine the desperation I really doubt he of all people would be part of any viral payola schemes, he is probably the single most blackballed journo in existence as far as bioware is concerned

No Mods No Masters fucked around with this message at 20:46 on Nov 15, 2019

# ? Nov 15, 2019 20:40

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