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Steam needs a serious competitor in a pretty bad way. They've actually been quite good to the community for a near-monopoly but some real competition should result in quite a bit better. Given how many game companies EA has bought then driven into the ground, the idea of seeing the same happen to them is a bit tempting. But they DO make good games sometimes. I don't know if I really want to lose them completely.
Steam needs a serious competitor in a pretty bad way. They've actually been quite good to the community for a near-monopoly but some real competition should result in quite a bit better.

Given how many game companies EA has bought then driven into the ground, the idea of seeing the same happen to them is a bit tempting. But they DO make good games sometimes. I don't know if I really want to lose them completely.

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#16
Posted 02/02/2018 02:05 AM   
EA doesn't make any games. They just buy and publish the companies that do. If you look at examples of Hellblade and Divinity original sin 2, not convinced these corporate behemoths with bean counters making all the decisions are whats right or needed anymore for our hobby. Although I can't actually think of much worse than Microsoft buying them out either. A company that has clearly shown time and time again they have not the faintest idea of why gaming is poplar on their platform.
EA doesn't make any games. They just buy and publish the companies that do. If you look at examples of Hellblade and Divinity original sin 2, not convinced these corporate behemoths with bean counters making all the decisions are whats right or needed anymore for our hobby.

Although I can't actually think of much worse than Microsoft buying them out either. A company that has clearly shown time and time again they have not the faintest idea of why gaming is poplar on their platform.

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#17
Posted 02/02/2018 06:49 AM   
EA was dead to me anyway. I still have to play Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition, and Crysis 2 and 3. Other than that, I'm not interested in any of their exclusive games. My favorite platform is GOG. It's a pity that they don't get all games :(.
EA was dead to me anyway. I still have to play Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition, and Crysis 2 and 3. Other than that, I'm not interested in any of their exclusive games.

My favorite platform is GOG. It's a pity that they don't get all games :(.

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#18
Posted 02/02/2018 07:37 AM   
GOG is enough competition for Steam, I buy games there also. I have Origin installed, for a couple of Need for Speed games, but I'm sure those games, or something similar, would find their way to Steam or GOG. To me, the whole point of the PC platform is freedom. Freedom to play a game how you want, with the controllers you want and so on. MS seems to be working against this and EA seems so caught up in the notion of profit it no longer cares about games as games.
GOG is enough competition for Steam, I buy games there also. I have Origin installed, for a couple of Need for Speed games, but I'm sure those games, or something similar, would find their way to Steam or GOG.

To me, the whole point of the PC platform is freedom. Freedom to play a game how you want, with the controllers you want and so on. MS seems to be working against this and EA seems so caught up in the notion of profit it no longer cares about games as games.

#19
Posted 02/02/2018 08:36 AM   
[quote="ummester"] To me, the whole point of the PC platform is freedom. Freedom to play a game how you want, with the controllers you want and so on. MS seems to be working against this and EA seems so caught up in the notion of profit it no longer cares about games as games.[/quote] Amen to that!
ummester said:
To me, the whole point of the PC platform is freedom. Freedom to play a game how you want, with the controllers you want and so on. MS seems to be working against this and EA seems so caught up in the notion of profit it no longer cares about games as games.


Amen to that!

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#20
Posted 02/02/2018 09:25 PM   
[quote="Necropants"]EA is a publisher that considers SW:BF II a failure when it sells 9 million copies.... Let that sink in for a moment. It's very likely if Bioware does not meet their overblown expectations in Anthem, it will be going the way of the dodo bird along with all the other studios they have chewed up and spit out taking only what they want, the intellectual property of these studios they destroy. They have great talented studios who clearly love games, but.... I have to agree with Bo3b and eqzitara. EA Ruin Everything. Only two things I can think of in the gaming sphere that are worse. Activision and Universal Windows Platform titles or as I like to call it Games for windows live 2[/quote] New Bioware blog addressing Anthem http://blog.bioware.com/2018/05/10/creating-worlds-the-future-of-bioware/ Fellow humans. Welcome to Part 2 of a 1200-part monthly blog series, where I’ll cover BioWare’s evolution from videogame studio to post-human AI hivemind. Today I want to talk about our vision for BioWare. Videogames are a unique medium. The only thing that stays the same is that they are constantly evolving. Many of the things we love about games now were not possible a few years ago. And that’s one of the hardest things about making games—continuing to innovate and evolve, while staying true to expectations players have from previous experiences. To ensure we stay on course, we’ve updated our mission statement at BioWare to something that we believe is true of our best games, and must continue to be true of future BioWare games—even as we take on new technologies and gameplay innovations. Our mission is this: We create worlds of adventure, conflict, and companionship that inspire you to become the hero of your story. Each word of this mission is carefully chosen. For Example, we believe what we do is first and foremost about creating worlds. Beyond just individual games, we try to create entire worlds that players can really live in, which span many games and media, as well as fan-created work like art, fiction, and cosplay. Creating worlds along with our player community, and seeing them take on a life of their own, is probably the most rewarding part of what we do. Companionship means that our stories are always presented as shared experiences. You’re not a solitary character walking around by yourself—in a BioWare game you’re always adventuring with a group of friends. Sometimes those friends are other players like in Neverwinter Nights, and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Sometimes they are fictional characters, like in Mass Effect and Dragon Age. However we design it, we always want to capture the special feeling of being on a journey with memorable companions. I talked last time about Anthem being “a story you can experience with friends.” There were, understandably, some questions and concerns about story in multiplayer. Specifically, “what if I don’t want to play with randos?” “What if I don’t have friends that I play games with?” And, “I like to be the one making choices in my story—if it’s multiplayer, won’t the story get watered down?” As a player, I worry about these things too—which brings us to the last line of our mission: become the hero of your story. In a BioWare game, you should feel like the story is about you. You create your own character, you decide what happens next, and you become the hero. I think the reason people are concerned about whether these things are possible in a multiplayer game is because it just hasn’t been solved well before. With Anthem we’re taking this problem head-on and structuring the entire game design to provide a specific solution for this. We’ll be sharing details on how it works very soon. We think it creates a unique experience where you have control over your own story, but your story is set in an ever-changing multiplayer world. And yes, even though Anthem is meant to bring out the best parts of playing as part of an online community, you can choose to play through the story with only your friends, or even on your own. It’s true—we’re trying something really different here. Anthem represents one way to deliver innovation and new experiences in the spirit of our mission. We also have teams envisioning future BioWare games, and they’re designing approaches that are different from Anthem—including one that’s very Dragon Age. As we try new things, I hope that you’ll come on the journey with us, and continue asking questions that will help shape Anthem into something we’ll all love to play. In a few weeks, we will be showing Anthem live to fans at EA PLAY in Hollywood and will have lots more details to share. The team is working super hard to get ready, and I can’t wait to hear what you think! Hope to see you there, Casey
Necropants said:EA is a publisher that considers SW:BF II a failure when it sells 9 million copies.... Let that sink in for a moment.

It's very likely if Bioware does not meet their overblown expectations in Anthem, it will be going the way of the dodo bird along with all the other studios they have chewed up and spit out taking only what they want, the intellectual property of these studios they destroy.

They have great talented studios who clearly love games, but....

I have to agree with Bo3b and eqzitara.

EA
Ruin Everything.

Only two things I can think of in the gaming sphere that are worse. Activision and Universal Windows Platform titles or as I like to call it Games for windows live 2


New Bioware blog addressing Anthem


http://blog.bioware.com/2018/05/10/creating-worlds-the-future-of-bioware/


Fellow humans. Welcome to Part 2 of a 1200-part monthly blog series, where I’ll cover BioWare’s evolution from videogame studio to post-human AI hivemind. Today I want to talk about our vision for BioWare.

Videogames are a unique medium. The only thing that stays the same is that they are constantly evolving. Many of the things we love about games now were not possible a few years ago. And that’s one of the hardest things about making games—continuing to innovate and evolve, while staying true to expectations players have from previous experiences.

To ensure we stay on course, we’ve updated our mission statement at BioWare to something that we believe is true of our best games, and must continue to be true of future BioWare games—even as we take on new technologies and gameplay innovations. Our mission is this:

We create worlds
of adventure, conflict, and companionship
that inspire you to become the hero of your story.

Each word of this mission is carefully chosen. For Example, we believe what we do is first and foremost about creating worlds. Beyond just individual games, we try to create entire worlds that players can really live in, which span many games and media, as well as fan-created work like art, fiction, and cosplay. Creating worlds along with our player community, and seeing them take on a life of their own, is probably the most rewarding part of what we do.

Companionship means that our stories are always presented as shared experiences. You’re not a solitary character walking around by yourself—in a BioWare game you’re always adventuring with a group of friends. Sometimes those friends are other players like in Neverwinter Nights, and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Sometimes they are fictional characters, like in Mass Effect and Dragon Age. However we design it, we always want to capture the special feeling of being on a journey with memorable companions.

I talked last time about Anthem being “a story you can experience with friends.” There were, understandably, some questions and concerns about story in multiplayer. Specifically, “what if I don’t want to play with randos?” “What if I don’t have friends that I play games with?” And, “I like to be the one making choices in my story—if it’s multiplayer, won’t the story get watered down?”

As a player, I worry about these things too—which brings us to the last line of our mission: become the hero of your story. In a BioWare game, you should feel like the story is about you. You create your own character, you decide what happens next, and you become the hero. I think the reason people are concerned about whether these things are possible in a multiplayer game is because it just hasn’t been solved well before.

With Anthem we’re taking this problem head-on and structuring the entire game design to provide a specific solution for this. We’ll be sharing details on how it works very soon. We think it creates a unique experience where you have control over your own story, but your story is set in an ever-changing multiplayer world. And yes, even though Anthem is meant to bring out the best parts of playing as part of an online community, you can choose to play through the story with only your friends, or even on your own.

It’s true—we’re trying something really different here. Anthem represents one way to deliver innovation and new experiences in the spirit of our mission. We also have teams envisioning future BioWare games, and they’re designing approaches that are different from Anthem—including one that’s very Dragon Age. As we try new things, I hope that you’ll come on the journey with us, and continue asking questions that will help shape Anthem into something we’ll all love to play.

In a few weeks, we will be showing Anthem live to fans at EA PLAY in Hollywood and will have lots more details to share. The team is working super hard to get ready, and I can’t wait to hear what you think!

Hope to see you there,

Casey

#21
Posted 05/13/2018 01:09 AM   
Error: Sorry user, you cant be commander Shepard. He was already assigned 3 million users ago. Please consider one of our Krogan warriors from planet J152X. Made me think about this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zm3GaDPotc Is a MMO/Co-op possible where each player is the hero of the story yet keeping it unique? This should be interesting. Hope they aren't biting of more than they can chew like the team of CIG at Star Citizen.
Error:
Sorry user, you cant be commander Shepard. He was already assigned 3 million users ago. Please consider one of our Krogan warriors from planet J152X.

Made me think about this episode:



Is a MMO/Co-op possible where each player is the hero of the story yet keeping it unique? This should be interesting. Hope they aren't biting of more than they can chew like the team of CIG at Star Citizen.

#22
Posted 05/14/2018 09:29 AM   
[quote="bo3b"]@Helifax: You have a short memory. [url]http://www.businessinsider.com/ea-voted-worst-company-in-america-2013-4[/url] You can still enjoy the games, when not totally broken, and hate the company. EA is the one that broke the Steam model, and was first to make ME3 not available on Steam ever. Forced everyone to suck it up and install their absolutely heinous Origin software. Setup the awesome gamer friendly model of dual DRM, Steam+Origin. One of the first to adopt Denuvo, because two DRM is just not enough. Spore and SimCity with always on internet requirements. Battlefield with that f*ing ridiculous jump out to browser loader- and always on requirement. EA is the one that continues to buy studios- just so they can kill them. Visceral? Bye-bye DeadSpace. https://heavy.com/games/2017/10/studios-ea-has-killed-visceral-games/ Microtransactions galore? Not stop lying how they are gamer-first? Releasing the same sports game every year with new skins? Things are not as terrible with them now- but I don't forget. Please don't be an apologist for these assholes.[/quote] And let's not forget how they basically killed ME Andromeda, NFS: Payback and Titanfall 2: https://screenrant.com/2017-ea-killed-need-for-speed-mass-effect/ And I agree about Origin, it is complete garbage compared to Steam. I've had so many issues with it over the years, from the client refusing to allow me to move a game to a different drive, activation issues, etc. If EA dies / is subsumed by Micro$haft it's karma. They should have remained simply a developer and kept their games on Steam, no, they had to go and make their own client, for a handful of IP's that they invariably destroyed with loot box idiocy.
bo3b said:@Helifax: You have a short memory.

http://www.businessinsider.com/ea-voted-worst-company-in-america-2013-4

You can still enjoy the games, when not totally broken, and hate the company.


EA is the one that broke the Steam model, and was first to make ME3 not available on Steam ever. Forced everyone to suck it up and install their absolutely heinous Origin software. Setup the awesome gamer friendly model of dual DRM, Steam+Origin. One of the first to adopt Denuvo, because two DRM is just not enough.

Spore and SimCity with always on internet requirements. Battlefield with that f*ing ridiculous jump out to browser loader- and always on requirement.

EA is the one that continues to buy studios- just so they can kill them. Visceral? Bye-bye DeadSpace. https://heavy.com/games/2017/10/studios-ea-has-killed-visceral-games/


Microtransactions galore? Not stop lying how they are gamer-first? Releasing the same sports game every year with new skins?


Things are not as terrible with them now- but I don't forget. Please don't be an apologist for these assholes.


And let's not forget how they basically killed ME Andromeda, NFS: Payback and Titanfall 2:


https://screenrant.com/2017-ea-killed-need-for-speed-mass-effect/


And I agree about Origin, it is complete garbage compared to Steam. I've had so many issues with it over the years, from the client refusing to allow me to move a game to a different drive, activation issues, etc.

If EA dies / is subsumed by Micro$haft it's karma. They should have remained simply a developer and kept their games on Steam, no, they had to go and make their own client, for a handful of IP's that they invariably destroyed with loot box idiocy.

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#23
Posted 05/14/2018 07:20 PM   
^^^ Sorry, but that's an extremely hot take article regarding NFS Payback. I've sunk over 100 hours into that game, and the upgrade system isn't remotely as bad as they make it out to be, and nothing like the SW Battlefront debacle. It's probably in my top 4 best NFS games ever.
^^^ Sorry, but that's an extremely hot take article regarding NFS Payback. I've sunk over 100 hours into that game, and the upgrade system isn't remotely as bad as they make it out to be, and nothing like the SW Battlefront debacle. It's probably in my top 4 best NFS games ever.

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#24
Posted 05/15/2018 12:41 PM   
Ok, so Microsoft did not take over EA. But they have been busy with studio acquisitions, they revealed that Playground Games, Compulsion Games, Undead Labs, and Ninja Theory were now part of Microsoft Game Studios (alongside The Initiative, a studio built from scratch and led by Darrell Gallagher). https://wccftech.com/microsoft-wont-change-culture-studios/ https://wccftech.com/microsoft-the-initiative-rockstar-hires/ Ughh, EA, Disney and Microsoft have a history of doing this and dissolving these acquisitions within a few years :(
Ok, so Microsoft did not take over EA.


But they have been busy with studio acquisitions, they revealed that Playground Games, Compulsion Games, Undead Labs, and Ninja Theory were now part of Microsoft Game Studios (alongside The Initiative, a studio built from scratch and led by Darrell Gallagher).

https://wccftech.com/microsoft-wont-change-culture-studios/

https://wccftech.com/microsoft-the-initiative-rockstar-hires/

Ughh, EA, Disney and Microsoft have a history of doing this and dissolving these acquisitions within a few years :(

#25
Posted 08/28/2018 04:16 AM   
I'm especially sad to see that Ninja Theory acquired by MS, one of my top devs. I sincerely hope that they will continue to make new great games as before and won't be destroyed by MS.
I'm especially sad to see that Ninja Theory acquired by MS, one of my top devs. I sincerely hope that they will continue to make new great games as before and won't be destroyed by MS.

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#26
Posted 08/28/2018 12:49 PM   
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