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Game Dev/Pubs - taking the piss


Bikerdude

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My objection to EA specifically is that they seem to really be stepping up the payola.

Fuck this shit article for instance:

 

Do you want your Mass Effect hard or soft? Why not have both? Ask IGN, allied with Lead writer on the Mass Effect series Mac Walters, in an editorial entitled "How Mass Effect Challenges Sci Fi's Greatest Achievements: Where No Game Has Gone Before".

 

...that stringent scientific outlook, which gives the Mass Effect universe its Hard SF backbone, was there from the very beginning. A lot of research was done during the development of the original Mass Effect. "The entire writing team was constantly reading and researching and reviewing anything we could," remembers Walters. "Everyone was thoroughly immersing themselves in science at the time, and where these things could really go." After all, they had an entire universe to create.

 

It's even got to the point where a procedure has evolved at Bioware to deal with those niggling situations when the science is at odds with story. "Say we want to introduce something new – be it a new type of ship or a new ability – and it doesn't quite fit into the IP: we have someone who is our IP science guy. We'll often pass off the idea to him and say, 'How would you explain this in 'our science'?' He goes away and comes back usually a day later, scratching his head, with a few ideas, and we make sure it's in there."

 

Mass Effect is science!

 

But that is just one awesome side of it. Mass Effect is also its story and characters! Obviously.

 

While this exacting scientific aspect appeals to some, from personal experience Walters knows that the series also connects with those who have no interested in the special relativity whatsoever. "I have friends and what they love about it is the characters that they meet. They might be blue and have tendrils, some of them might be reptiles – and that's definitely in keeping with the Sci-Fi genre – but what's more interesting to them is the characters and what they're experiencing. For them Sci-Fi is context, a background; they're really in it for the characters and their relationships.

 

"Essentially, Mass Effect is a Hard Sci-Fi experience at the boundaries, and what's in between is more of a lite Sci-Fi experience for people who want it to be that as well. And that's the kind of fun of the Mass Effect Universe – it can be what you want it to be."

 

Mass Effect is... a sci-fi sandwich?

 

Mass Effect blends together disparate SF traditions with consummate ease. Utopian and dystopian, hard and soft, it demonstrates that video games, at their very best, can also be about ideas.

 

Hard sci-fi and soft sci-fi: shaken, not stirred. Read on! Or don't.

 

On that note, there are only 5 days left! How are YOU preparing for the Reaper invasion?

 

I don't need the memetic pollution of braindead morons calling ME "hard science fiction" even if i will never play it.

Edited by i30817
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I don't see the problem, that's pretty much my experience of the games as well, blend of hard and soft (not really a blend I guess, just both). The hard stuff can be somewhat skipped or skimmed if people only want soft, and the soft could be glazed over if people want to focus on the hard, I like both.

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The "mass effect" as i understant would actually cause the universe to implode into a hyper black hole.

 

Also (massive spoiler)

 

 

 

You combine your energy with that of the superweapons, you melt away and your essence and the weapons energy is beamed all across the galaxy, turning all plants, animals and Sapient beings partially synthetic and synthetic beings like EDI, Geth and the Reapers partially organic.

 

 

 

 

 

IGN said: While the inter-galactic threat of The Reapers is a brilliant narrative device...

Lol

 

Not to mention the "aliens" that could just be dropped into a sitcom with some plastic surgery.

The only game i ever played that even remotely approached "hard science fiction" is RAMA, and i've played many many old style games.

Edited by i30817
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Heh, i30817. I suppose it depends on the definition of hard and soft science fiction. Obviously you have much demanding definition.

 

I personally enjoyed greatly the technical detail ME uses to explain how the stuff works in the game world. It is hard scifi on my sense because of that delightful attempt to explain all the stuff there. I also have a degree in natural science so I can clearly see the fantasy in the explanation. That makes it even more fascinating: inventing scientific ramifications for products of imagination certainly is not easy and it is perhaps a bit harsh to expect them to pull it off fully on the mark.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Look man disregarding the "hard sci-fi" baloney:

 

Biodrones already pooled $50K + to make BiowarEA change the ending lol

 

Link!

 

Wired

 

BSN

 

The money doesn't actually go to Bioware, they're donating it to Child's Play. Still hilarious, though.

 

Also:

 

BioWare considering changing Mass Effect 3 ending

 

Bioware, trolling its fans since 2002 codextrollface.png

 

(endings spoilers)

 

You think this... thing was even planned, and if it was (as a transparent money grab; obviously not as artistic vision) isn't a insult to their customers?

Edited by i30817
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Sweet! Its another reason to buy second hand. In the end, the folks who buy new and folks who buy used get left with the same product anyhow (where access to online extras eventually get disabled).

 

Also, I personally interprit the whole "less than 1% of customers not worth supporting" as flipping the consumer the bird.

Edited by lost_soul

--- War does not decide who is right, war decides who is left.

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And so it begins -

 

- EA shutting down online services for least popular games

 

 

http://www.techspot....ular-games.html

 

A good argument against buying games that run on company servers and charge fees for playing.

 

Not as good towards Steam games that run on user created servers. Eventually all games die, but if users can have their own servers they aren't bound to the companies discretion.

Dark is the sway that mows like a harvest

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The logical conclusion (and this is more at what I was hinting at above) and you know you they are going to do it (coz thats was arewipes like EA do) is to turn off activation server/service for older games which means cracked game exe's will be the only route left in that situation. Or they might do what UBi soft did and release a crack as an official patch......

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Of course that will happen, but only to 1% of the customers, so its "alright".

 

Meanwhile I still play Q3a online every once in a wile. I can play all of the maps, whether made by id or the community. Somebody remind me how games have gotten better for the consumer over the past decade?

 

I still think the mid-1990s to 2002 or so was the best the game industry will ever get. It has been all down hill from there.

--- War does not decide who is right, war decides who is left.

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The guy from the video have a serious problem of confused ideas or communication. Either way, the outrage is completely comprehensible and I share it. I understand that for a company it must be hard to know exactly what is the line that if crossed will make people displeased with your product, but they are definitely risking and going beyond what good sense tells is safe.

 

Anyway, somewhat related; For me there is a clear decrease in quality in ME 3. I noticed this in the second game already, and the trailer for the third seems to be even worse. I don't mean the gameplay! I thought the gameplay of the second better than the first, and the third might be even better. It's the story and art direction that seems to get more bland with each sequel.

 

On the first game they've managed to create a completely unique feel to it! The visuals and sound looks awesome and original. It's sci fi at its best, with the focus on the story and the environment. The second and, seemingly, the third I can see a shift to the usual 'badass in space' feeling to it... if that makes sense. It's like they went from Star Trek to Gears of War! LoL

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the me3 dlc problem is an even bigger joke than i thought. some of the dlc including the bit with the additional character actually comes packaged WITH the game, and must be unlocked. its not even fucking DLC. It's just C.... that you must pay for. out-fuckin-rageous.

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Unbeliveable...what a devious, imoral, greedy little f$$$ing c$$t!... I would like to say "only in amercia" but this kind of crap is spreading...

 

"charging you a $1 to reload your weapon" - needless to say I can't see even the most myopic frivolous players letting that slide, the phrase F*** right off will be the requsite response.

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"charging you a $1 to reload your weapon" - needless to say I can't see even the most myopic frivolous players letting that slide, the phrase F*** right off will be the requsite response.

Yeah? Oh those optimists....

 

Read this:

http://www.gamasutra..._each_month.php

 

Also lulz:

In an open letter to the Mass Effect 3 fans, our estimated Dr. Ray Muzyka, co-founder of Codex favorite premier developer, promises us to give us real closure to Mass Effect 3, while working hard on --obviously-- maintaining the [...] artistic integrity of the original story while addressing the fan feedback we’ve received. It seems that all the fan butthurt positive feedback that the game is getting will be properly addressed:

 

 

Mass Effect 3 concludes a trilogy with so much player control and ownership of the story that it was hard for us to predict the range of emotions players would feel when they finished playing through it. The journey you undertake in Mass Effect provokes an intense range of highly personal emotions in the player; even so, the passionate reaction of some of our most loyal players to the current endings in Mass Effect 3 is something that has genuinely surprised us. This is an issue we care about deeply, and we will respond to it in a fair and timely way. We’re already working hard to do that.

Building on their research, Exec Producer Casey Hudson and the team are hard at work on a number of game content initiatives that will help answer the questions, providing more clarity for those seeking further closure to their journey. You’ll hear more on this in April. We’re working hard to maintain the right balance between the artistic integrity of the original story while addressing the fan feedback we’ve received. This is in addition to our existing plan to continue providing new Mass Effect content and new full games, so rest assured that your journey in the Mass Effect universe can, and will, continue.

Mass Effect 4? Or Mass Effect Online? April Fools joke? Discuss!

 

R00fles!

 

They're going to sell another ending, like they sold a party member. Can hardly wait until this model is in movies and books. I always wanted to kill some characters and have "happily ever-after" endings in some books.

Edited by i30817
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I had to use a crack to get 'the witcher' to run, due to the game needing to login to an unlock server and that unlock server no-longer able to unlock "the witcher". As they had upgraded it to only unlock "the witcher 2" game.

 

this is about game servers disappearing, which is what EA is doing.

Edited by stumpy
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I just started playing The Witcher first time on steam 1-2 weeks ago. It unlocked just fine. But yes, EA removing multiplayer server support for older games is definitely happening, and its a total dick move. I shouldn't even say older. "Less popular" would be a better term.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Way to alienate the modding (read: intelligent, useful, motivated, talented) crowd that plays your game. <_<

 

I'm staying away from Origin and EA's terrible . Screw their public relations. I'm not interested enough in any of their products to give them my money. Not Mass Effect 3, not Battlefield series, not Star Wars Old Republic, not Syndicate.

 

There was something on the Escapist Magazine's the Jimquisition. Now, I don't always agree with Jim Sterling, but I think it's neat how he recognizes how remarkable it is that many fans of Mass Effect (just like many fans of the Star Wars trilogy) are crying entitlement and "bloody murder" over these developer fiascos.

yay seuss crease touss dome in ouss nose tair

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I bought some older games published by EA and I'm starting to worry wether I will be able to activate them in the future. Back then I didn't care who the publisher was but now I do. I'll have to think twice about buying anything from them again no matter the price.

But most people don't care about this so I fear it won't matter much.

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