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#da4
felassan · 1 day
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larkoneironaut · 2 months
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POV: You’re on a date with Zevran Arainai 🍷
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dyscomancer · 8 months
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i have zero faith in dragon age 4 being worth a shit now. how do you let such phenomenal talent go to waste like this? what the fuck is happening behind closed doors at bioware?
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lichposting · 5 months
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BioWare announces that in Summer 2024 Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will finally be taken to a farm upstate where it can run and play with lots of other RPGs
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shay-does-art-things · 5 months
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anyone else battling demons about the latest scraps bioware has given us?
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zombolouge · 5 months
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another year, another DA4 trailer that's a bunch of vague dialogue snippets and stills of scenery and maps. Yass Bioware queen, give us nothing, your vacuous eyes are as empty as the seats of the veteran employees you've been firing after they finished busting their asses for your profit
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elluvians · 5 months
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Dragon Age: Dreadwolf
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mooreaux · 1 year
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They put him in a fur mantle - in BioWare terms that’s GOTTA mean he’s romanceable!!!!!!!
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theharlotofferelden · 8 months
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Gonna need to put Mary Kirby + other long time staff being fired into perspective because this isn't a recent development. Bioware has been plagued with issues for well over a decade, and it's not just because of EA.
When Gaider decided to move on from Dragon Age in 2014, everyone thought it was just because he wanted to move onto a different project. He ended up leaving the company completely in 2016 after working on Anthem for a bit, and it was later reported that staff on the project had issues with his writing. He didn't mention why he left Bioware until very recently in a long twitter thread detailing that, while Bioware is a company known for its storytelling and characters, upper management went from valuing its writers to quietly resenting them, and feeling as though the writing were "holding the company back."
When they started working with Frostbite they encountered so many technical problems with it because it was specifically designed for FPS games. They were literally designing the tools they needed to work on both Dragon Age Inquisition and Mass Effect Andromeda while they were working on those games. Darrah (or perhaps Laidlaw, I forget which) even acknowledged when he was interviewed by Jason Schreier for Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, that this is a big industry no-no. But Bioware was put in a hard spot to either work with Frostbite or use the Eclipse engine that DAO was designed on (which I'm assuming would've required developing the engine and toolkit further to bring the graphics up to industry standards). So they ended up working with Frostbite which resulted in a fuckton of issues both for Dragon Age Inquisition and Mass Effect Andromeda, because the teams behind both projects had to design their own tools.
With the added stress of the toolkit also came the toxic work environment, departments that were perpetually understaffed, directors leaving and new writers coming in with different visions for the project, time mismanagement where they spent too much time on "high concept" gameplay, not having a clear vision for the game, resentments between studios, inexperience with coordinating video calls across multiple studios, the resultant mandatory crunch, etc. All of this is mentioned in this article about Mass Effect Andromeda's production cycle and this article about Anthem's.
Casey Hudson and Gérard Lehiany left Bioware in 2014 right in the middle of production on Andromeda (Casey rejoined the company as general manager in 2017, but left again in 2020). David Gaider left in 2016 in the middle of production on Anthem, as did Aaryn Flynn who left before the game was shipped in 2019. Mike Laidlaw left in 2017 and left production of Dragon Age Dreadwolf in Mark Darrah's hands, who left in the middle of its production in 2020. Matt Goldman (creative director for Dreadwolf) left the following year. Mac Walters (production director on Dreadwolf) who's been with the company for over 19 years left in January of this year. Are you seeing the pattern here?
I don't doubt that EA has influence over Bioware considering the recent layoffs appear related to the announcement back in March that EA would lay off 6% of its workforce. But it's clear there's something deeper that's going on at Bioware, and it's really not good.
When veteran senior staff are leaving one by one along with other long time staff, and it's been reported that the studio has a toxic work environment with management issues that make crunch necessary, there is something deeply wrong with the company and how things are being run. This is a sinking ship, and in all likelihood everyone is betting on keeping the company afloat with the success of Dragon Age Dreadwolf and/or the next Mass Effects game.
I want to say something more about how broadly the mainstream AAA video games industry is abusive and how incredibly fucked up their practices of layoffs have been normalized, but this is already pretty long. What I will say is that I'm not claiming this means DA4 or the next ME game is going to tank. It sure as fuck doesn't look good for it, but despite my grievances with Dragon Age, I do want the game to be successful and for Bioware to keep doing what they're doing.
And honestly, whether those games do well or not is really besides the point. Something is wrong at Bioware, whether it's the company itself or the fact it's owned by EA, and it can't be solved with mass layoffs. This is a cultural problem within the company itself, and it's very unlikely to be addressed considering how MEA failing seems to have done little to change how things are being run right now.
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notmeowse · 5 months
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well. it’s dragon age day, everyone.
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felassan · 6 months
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[source (Senior Reporter at Kotaku), linked Kotaku article, two, 'FC 24's performance link', three, four, @/N7SeveranceDay (source of the last two images, "Account supporting BioWare employees laid off in 2023."), five, six, Polygon tweet, Polygon article]
"BioWare Continues to Refuse to Pay Severance" statement transcript:
“BioWare Continues to Refuse to Pay Severance On August 23 of this year, BioWare eliminated “approximately 50 roles at BioWare”. Following the layoffs, seven ex-BioWare employees engaged the services of R. Alex Kennedy to represent their interests, stating that the amount of severance offered was insufficient under Alberta common law. Counsel for the employees has attempted to reach a compromise that would avoid requiring lengthy court proceedings, but BioWare’s lawyers refused any offers to negotiate and settle out of court. The basis of Kennedy’s claim is that according to Alberta precedents and under Canadian law, these employees should be receiving approximately 1.7 months of severance per year of service they gave to BioWare. BioWare has now filed a Statement of Defence, which argues that the seven terminated employees are only entitled to two weeks of severance per year spent in service to BioWare, because of a contract provision that Kennedy says is not enforceable. The filing means BioWare will be taking these former employees to court rather than working towards finding an out of court resolution. The developers involved in the suit have expressed their disappointment: - “We are disappointed that BioWare prefers stalling and intimidation tactics to fair dealing with people who have given years, and in some cases decades, of dedication and hard work to the company.” - “We believe they are using intimidation and stalling tactics to try and get us to drop out. A lot of the more junior employees and those with families, who had more monetary pressure on them, could not risk waiting on a court case that may take many months more to resolve, and have already had to drop out.” - “At the time of the layoffs, BioWare offered us professional assistance in finding new employment, and an additional payment, but ONLY on the condition that we signed an agreement saying we cannot talk about any details of the settlement, and that we would completely waive any right to legal action or even to complain in any way about anyone associated with BioWare now or ever in the future. Tactics like that sure make me think that BioWare knows it is in the wrong.” - “Despite what they publicly announced when they laid us off, this process has been anything but empathetic, respectful, and communicative.” The latest BioWare layoffs were the third round so far this year, and many of the developers affected even in earlier rounds are still searching for work, though some have started to find new positions. Regardless of employment status, the members of the current lawsuit state they remain determined to pursue BioWare in court, regardless of their employment status: - “We strongly believe that if Dragon Age: Dreadwolf does not do as well as BioWare or EA wants at launch, there will be more, even larger layoffs. Therefore, regardless of our own well-being, we believe it is important to hold BioWare responsible and get a clear decision on what settlement amount is legal. We’re no longer part of the development team, so the best way we can help our former teammates now is to hold BioWare accountable and ensure that the next group who is laid off are not treated as poorly as we were.” November 7th marks “N7 Day”, which is a fan celebration of BioWare’s Mass Effect games featuring Commander Shepard and the crew of the Normandy. The developers involved in the lawsuit are hoping N7 Day this year will be a reminder to BioWare of the importance of loyalty to your crew, and hope fans can have a little fun and help express their support with memes and images using an #N7SeveranceDay hashtag. The ex-employees involved in the suit are all based in Canada and have an average of 14 years at BioWare.”
[source]
You can express your support using the hashtag #N7SeveranceDay.
Edit: [Part 2/update] [more on the Keywords topic]
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larkoneironaut · 1 year
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Magister Dorian Pavus is ready to see you now
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mrs-gauche · 5 months
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Omg guys, someone on the BSN forum noticed that there's a face in the shattered mirror on the vinyl artwork??
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(Edit not mine, credit goes to op!)
Please tell me I'm not the only one who didn't notice... lol
Anyway, that has to be Solas, right? The profile is almost identical with the way he was portrayed in the Fool tarot card?
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Now I'm starting to see all kinds of shapes in the shattered pieces... lol Any ideas how this could be interpreted? His expression looks rather hurt, saddened.. And with the little pieces below, it almost looks like tears falling?
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palipunk · 1 year
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Idk if the BioWare marketing team knows this but I am not buying Da4 for Solas content
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magbeth · 2 years
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"they should bring back the inquisitor as the protagonist it gives them a personal stake in solas as a villain" there is nothing funnier than the new pc knowing absolutely nothing about solas and every single other person around them having deeply personal beef with him. literally nothing
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I hope da4 isn't afraid to be a little bit whimsical...a little bit silly at times...I love inquisition but I want the energy of the talking old oak tree who only speaks in rhymes back. Like. Having the talking tree that speaks in rhymes doesn't offset or limit the absolute horror of the deep roads and the brood mother...in fact it makes the game feel bigger, encompassing all sorts of parts of life and the world within it...the whimsical...the silly...the terrifying...body horror...fun times...I want cursed statues like in mark of the assassin and also I want horrible seriousness that makes me feel terror....both. I need both. Both silly and whimsical and funny and horrible and angsty. Also. Bring back desire demons. Cowards.
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