This!KnightofPhoenix said:CDPR, please consider a Montreal HQ
Welcome to the new members and I hope they'll acclimate asap!
Vive le Québec!
Vive le Québec!
slimgrin said:Holy hell, they're nabbing my fellow Merricans. No one is safe!
...wait a minute. He worked for Bioware? Heh, finding greener pastures. Good for him.
Edit- And Gene worked for the now defunct 38 studios.
Hmm...I can't say that I am pleased that someone from Bioware got Lead Character Artist on Cyberpunk, Lead Audio for someone from 38 Studios? That's OK I guess since Amalur wasn't bad in any way, it wasn't great but it was good.
But for Bioware...well after everything Bioware has done to KOTOR, Dragon Age and Mass Effect especially in cool cinematics and art design taking precedence over good story then let me say that I am not happy to hear this piece of news.
Is it unfair to criticize someone who is new at their job before the first game they are working on even comes out? Perhaps, but after the BS Bioware has done with something like Dragon Age 2 where my favorite race and culture got destroyed ( The Qunari ) by a cool artistic vision which was praised by fans before it came out ( you know who you are ) then I do not believe doubt is a bad thing to have in a company as a fan. Blind fans, even for CDPR, is a bad thing as I see it.
We shall what comes out of Cyberpunk.
CostinMoroianu said:
Yes, it b***dy well is. It's unfair, foolish, and mean. How would you like somebody badmouthing you for work you aren't even responsible for, just because they think your boss was no good.
Congratulations to Bill and Gene on taking a leap of faith that I could never have done. And best wishes for your creative fulfillment and the success of your games.
GuyN said:
SWTOR, ME3, DA2 are all shit in many eyes, and it's not something that relates to the decisions made by the people at the top ( besides the ME3 ending but even that was decided by Hudson and Walters, not the company CEOs or EA ). The Qunari look was something pushed by the art team, the forced harvester fight by the gameplay team who wanted to add another boss, the bad writing in all those games ( like most of ME3 ) by all those writers ( Mary Kirby calling sparing Loghain somewhat insane for instance ) and don't even get me started on the many isuses of SWTOR, but I'll say one thing: Emperor.
So yes, I am very hesitant about anyone who worked for Bioware and considering what that company has done I have every bloody reason to be.
GuyN said:
I'm going to come off like a colossal dick here, but I was rather hoping Bartek Gawel would be involved in the project. Who knows, maybe in some capacity he is. To be brutally honest, while the art in Bill's blog is very good, it's not in Gawel's league. Very few concept artists are though. I would dare say none.
I don't agree with Costin's assertion though. This guy was in the art dept, not a bean counter at EA or in management. He has nothing to do with what has befallen Bioware.
CostinMoroianu said:
How sad it must be to go through life thinking nobody who works for a company that does not reward talent has any talent worth taking to a place where it will be developed and valued. How did Bioware wrong you so deeply that you must belittle anybody who ever worked there or anybody who hired them, knowing nothing about what they contributed or what their talents are.
Well he is probably lead concept artist for Witcher 3 Slimgrim.
I won't get into my views of what I despise about Bioware, but my point was that I am hesitant about someone from Bioware getting such a high position as a lead character designer.
If they want to prove they have talent then they should prove it, in Cyberpunk. Until then I will remain hesitant, as I remain hesitant about Nilfgaard in TW3 and their portrayal after CDPR once said in a dev diary that it's kinda like the Third Reich.
If they do make good stuff then I will be the first to praise it. But I am not giving anyone from Bioware the benefit of doubt, I did that too many times.
I won't get into my views of what I despise about Bioware, but my point was that I am hesitant about someone from Bioware getting such a high position as a lead character designer.
If they want to prove they have talent then they should prove it, in Cyberpunk. Until then I will remain hesitant, as I remain hesitant about Nilfgaard in TW3 and their portrayal after CDPR once said in a dev diary that it's kinda like the Third Reich.
If they do make good stuff then I will be the first to praise it. But I am not giving anyone from Bioware the benefit of doubt, I did that too many times.
He worked on SW:KOTOR, isn't that the one everyone loved? (His CV details all of the games he worked on) He's a character artist, not a writer, and it's evident from the portfolio his work is on par with what we've seen in TW2. Now, if they got shitty writers I'd be worried, but an artist? Who worked for Bioware pre-Dragon Age at that? It doesn't make much sense.CostinMoroianu said:
Agreed with Guy and Dona, I do not see the problem. I can see his own work and that he had nothing to do with Bioware games after KOTOR. And even if he did, I can only judge him for his own work and not that of the company as a whole.
Oop back @ me, then, I got confused by the year.CostinMoroianu said:
He is a character designer, what else is he supposed to do? My point is, I don't see how his job alone can affect CDPR's projects and send them on the way of new!Bioware. You can't always get that 'dream' project right away, you know
Dona said:Oop back @ me, then, I got confused by the year.
He is a character designer, what else is he supposed to do? My point is, I don't see how his job alone can affect CDPR's projects. You can't always get that 'dream' project right away, you know
The problem I have with Bioware games, including SWTOR in regards to artists is that they have influenced the quality of story, granted this applies a bit more to cinematic designers then character artists but both have their influence. ( The Qunari thing was done purely by character artists who wanted their way for instance ).
It's certainly easy to blame the writers of Bioware for everything that's bad story wise, but they aren't the only ones responsible.
Even going back to the much loved Dragon Age: Origins, that game has moments like the Battle of Ostagar which is an epic dramatic moment but has some of the worst battle tactics in history being employed all for the sake of cinematic drama. Then there's Denerim ( Riordan's cinematic, the charging cinematic ).
In cases like that ( and DA:O had the least of them compared to SWTOR, DA2, ME2 and ME3 ) what I see is story being affected in a negative way by artists trying to make it look cool.
Even CDPR games have this problem to a small degree, you look at the epic intro cinematic of TW2 and you think: What the hell is that bomb? Still in that case you can rationalize it by saying Sile made it and that's acceptable. Stuff like that however worries me. So what I hope is that CDPR will continue to reign in such desires to make cool stuff that comes at the expense of story.
What relevance does that have on his ability to do his job, though? They all vote on things together, so one person's impact is negligible. It's not like he'd be coming in and automatically be given a huge amount of power to change things, regardless of how things may or may not have worked at Bioware.CostinMoroianu said:
And all of that is assuming that the negative aspects of the whole group of artists are even relevant to a single individual.
From that blog post I linked to:CostinMoroianu said:
"At one point we thought about Geralt dual-wielding his swords. Geralt would fight with both his steel and silver sword. The idea seemed spectacular, especially in the visual aspect. Then we drew the consequence graph. The starting point was called: 'dual wielding combat'. Then we started thinking about the direct consequences e.g. 'looks great'. Then we went deeper.. and we realized that dual-wielding interferes with one of our main gameplay rules – our swords serve two different purposes. The silver one works against magical monsters and the iron one works best against humans. The idea was finally abandoned and Geralt’s image remained coherent."
They seem to have mechanisms in place to avoid that whole "looking cool over credibility" mentality, so I wouldn't worry about it.
If a person is a lead designer of any sort then yes that person does have an impact on a game.
In regards to that blog post, keep in mind that's purely related to gameplay mechanics. There's no mention of story or cinematics or art or audio in there...besides the impact some gameplay choices have on story. I certainly would hope they don't have such a voting system for the story. Can you imagine if there was a vote in the company between giving the player the choice to
I do worry about it. I think I've gone past the point where I can trust any game developer considering how many game franchises that I loved have been ruined by the very people who built them ( not talking just Bioware here ). At the moment the best I can do is hope that you're right.
I'm glad they didn't introduce dual wielding for Geralt ultimately. Would have been nice for two of the other characters we play a bit on in the game though. You know who I mean.
In regards to that blog post, keep in mind that's purely related to gameplay mechanics. There's no mention of story or cinematics or art or audio in there...besides the impact some gameplay choices have on story. I certainly would hope they don't have such a voting system for the story. Can you imagine if there was a vote in the company between giving the player the choice to
Spare Letho, or not? And people voted for there not to be a choice?
I do worry about it. I think I've gone past the point where I can trust any game developer considering how many game franchises that I loved have been ruined by the very people who built them ( not talking just Bioware here ). At the moment the best I can do is hope that you're right.
I'm glad they didn't introduce dual wielding for Geralt ultimately. Would have been nice for two of the other characters we play a bit on in the game though. You know who I mean.
Costin, I understand where you're coming from and I'm definitely up there with you not trysting developers anymore. But right now there isn't much information about Cyberpunk and its team to go by. Just because one company started buying into their own hype doesn't mean everyone else is doomed. Besides, all design leads have to listen to the art director, and I don't think we know who that is rn.
I don't see anything wrong with small details being prettied up, like that bomb. The purpose of that cinematic was to promote the game and imo it did it well without impacting the story in any way (if anything, it added some explanation to it). Unlike CGI trailers of those other games that completely mangle the story and present the game differently than it really is.
(Mourning the lack of dual wielding in those two instances, too. Sniff.)
I don't see anything wrong with small details being prettied up, like that bomb. The purpose of that cinematic was to promote the game and imo it did it well without impacting the story in any way (if anything, it added some explanation to it). Unlike CGI trailers of those other games that completely mangle the story and present the game differently than it really is.
(Mourning the lack of dual wielding in those two instances, too. Sniff.)
I really don't understand how can somebody hate the city. If you hate Warsaw it is your problem. Why you join this page you are fan bcz you hate ?
Sorry, my post was really unclear. I was actually referencing the forced harvester fight that you said was the result of the gameplay team, and pointing out that something like that wouldn't happen because of the system they use. Meant it as an indication of how they find ways to avoid things like that in general, not an implication that they vote on everything in exactly the same way. It would strike me as strange if they didn't put other elements of the game—especially the story, given that their games are so story-heavy—under that same kind of microscope.CostinMoroianu said:
JackintheGreen said:
Just an FYI, NOTHING is free. Healthcare and education are both INSANELY expensive when ran by the government, especially because it is ran by organization that extracts its wealth by threat of violence via taxes. And taxes are high. I live next to Poland in Czechland, country with state run healthcare/education and I give around 65-70% of my monthly earnings to the government. And yes, the quality of both is HORRIBLE, precisely because there is no incentive, no motivation to increase the quality, because it is ran by state monopoloy and is free from competition.
Free ? I don't think so.
Sorry for the OT. Congrats to both Bill and Gene - CDP Red is my number 1 favourite company in the industry.