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EA: Ruin Everything (europe.pub)
submitted 1 week ago by to c/games@lemmy.world
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[–] 16 points 1 week ago (14 children)

The founders and original lead developers - Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk - created over a dozen games before they sold the company.

Idk what else you'd want. They did their thing and then they cashed out to live their lives doing other things.

Bioware wasn't even supposed to be a video game company. It was originally founded to pioneer medical technology and only pivoted when their side project - Shattered Steel - outperformed expectations.

Sometime people need to stop being mad because one participate Treats Train has finally ended it's run. Be glad for the games you got, not sad because it's over

After all, you've still got Larian and Paradox and Owlcat and a thousand other indie studios making equivalent games.

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  • [–] 7 points 6 days ago (10 children)

    The problem is that EA will still squat on the IP for the indefinite future, so nobody gets to do anything with it later.

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  • [–] 0 points 6 days ago (9 children)

    I mean, the IP is pretty generic.

    Mass Effect isn't the first game to use space cops and robot aliens fighting over the fate of the galaxy. The Expanse did Mass Effect's storyline much better.

    That's before you consider how played out the Mass Effect IP already is. Just like Halo, they peaked at game 3. That was the apex of the story.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 days ago (8 children)

    Mass Effect is a wonderfully constructed world; I disagree on you there.

    I’d also argue ME3 is not the peak. The best gameplay, sure, but a more questionable campaign IMO.

    You are not wrong about the story trajectory though. They wrote themselves into a corner with the Reaper arc, and that is done now. But I do think “Shepard-free, smaller story spinoffs” were the correct move, rather than trying to pick up a story that should be done (like Halo did).

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  • [–] 1 point 6 days ago (7 children)

    But I do think “Shepard-free, smaller story spinoffs” were the correct move

    Sure. But then it's just a generic scifi.

    You don't need to own IP to make Mass Effect minus the title characters

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  • [–] 1 point 6 days ago* (6 children)

    No it's not. They can use the entire world they constructed, its history, and (for the players) all the nostalgia. And selectively bring back characters.

    I mean, that immediately drew me into this trailer.

    Halo is an entirely different beast. They could not let the MC/Cortana go like they are stuck to them with a chain, but side stories in that world would have been interesting too.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 days ago (5 children)

    They can use the entire world they constructed, its history, and (for the players) all the nostalgia

    Or they can write up something new, just like the Mass Effect guys did.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (3 children)

    Look. I’m all for a new world.

    But there’s nothing wrong with building on a good, existing constructed world, too. They can do both. You mentioned publishers that did that quite successfully, at the top of this thread: Owlcat, Paradox, and especially Larian.

    It’s also quite practical from a development perspective. It’s easier to pitch to get funding, they already have lore experts on the team, mechanics they don’t have to invent from scratch.

    I’m just not buying that Mass Effect is a “dead end.” It’s a great setting, there’s tons to explore, and they’ve already broken away from the main trap of being stuck with Sheperd. Halo is a bit different not because they wrote themselves into a corner (which ME aid also guilty of), but that they utterly refused to leave it, amongst other things.

    I will say that I think BioWare just deteriorated.

    …There’s no getting around that, whether they start from scratch or not.

    I have the same opinion of Halo. I vividly remember forming it upon playing Halo 4, with how cheesy it felt.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 days ago (2 children)

    But there’s nothing wrong with building on a good, existing constructed world, too.

    I don't disagree. But folks are pretending like Mass Effect is some kind of exceptionally novel or revolutionary IP. It's really not. This is some really basic tier SciFi. You could scratch the serial numbers off the side and make "Enlarged Consequences" with no real threat of liability.

    I’m just not buying that Mass Effect is a “dead end.” It’s a great setting, there’s tons to explore, and they’ve already broken away from the main trap of being stuck with Sheperd. Halo is a bit different not because they wrote themselves into a corner (which ME aid also guilty of), but that they utterly refused to leave it, amongst other things.

    I mean, I don't disagree entirely. I just think the core ideas of Mass Effect have percolated through the genre of open world space adventure game. And now we've got a plethora of alternatives that strike the same central cords. You don't need the Mass Effect IP to make a successor to the game any more than you needed the Halo IP to make Destiny.

    If I'm going to be sad about anything, it's really the Dragon Age IP, which I think was cooking with something a bit more novel than "Evil Aliens Exterminate Humanity While Humans and Demi-Humans Bicker Over Politics".

    Now "Evil Dragons Exterminate Humanity While Humans and Demi-Humans Bicker Over Politics"! There's a keeper

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  • [–] 2 points 5 days ago* (1 child)

    Now “Evil Dragons Exterminate Humanity While Humans and Demi-Humans Bicker Over Politics”! There’s a keeper

    Wherever those BioWare employees land, they should do fantasy space opera, like Shadowrun. With that premise. In space.

    Make it Bioware-y, with drama and sexy elves and armor lights and lens flare.

    Both for something fresh, but also to spite EA.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 days ago

    I think theres a large group of people that are committed to the sunken cost fallacy. Just because a lot of effort went into something, and it was enjoyed for a long time, doesnt mean it needs to continue on forever.

    Especially when we are talking about art, if we never let go of things there will not be room for new art and artists.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 days ago (2 children)

    Paradox just added a expansion for your comment. To unlock please pay $12.99...

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  • [–] 3 points 6 days ago (1 child)

    $12.99 for... another 200 hours of content? Wtf! In this economy?!

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  • [–] 1 point 6 days ago

    More like $12.99 for core functionality that should have been released with the game (cities skylines is the worst for this). I'm all for reasonable pricing to cover the costs of development, but chaining together a dozen expansions and making a $40 game cost an additional $160 is bonkers. Its deceptive pricing, and it shouldn't be excused just because you like small studios making better games. It would be better to release games when they are fully ready and have a roadmap of full cost available.

    Though it does look like they've now offered a subscription service to essentially rent the expansions for $8 a month, at least that provides choices.

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