Have a look at the Bioware Site for an interesting view of the gaming industry

[Sirandar888]

Have a look at the Bioware Site for an interesting view of the gaming industry

This thread relates to Witcher 3 because it shows how important this game probably is for ProjectCD

Have a look at the Bioware Site for an interesting view of the gaming industry .....

Here is a look at what happens when a larger company (EA) takes control of a smaller one (Bioware).

This is a snapshot of the available career opportunities in Bioware Montreal, Edmonton and Austin Texas.
This may not be representative but it is what it is ......

Note that Bioware was a Canadian company now controlled by EA.

Here is current job postings:

Austin Texas:

Senior Gameplay Software Engineer (31443)
Lead Combat Designer (31442)
Java Software Engineer (30383)
Network Engineer (30363)
Systems Engineer (30362)
Platform Quality Analyst (29845)
Senior Software Engineer (28584)
Temporary Environment Artist (27448)
Client Software Engineer (27484)
Sr. Tools Software Engineer (26743)


Edmonton Canada

Web Tester (Contract) (28422)
UI Artist / Designer (Contract) (29161)
Development Manager (Contract) (26782)
QA Tester (Contract) (27321)
Web Developer (Contract) (25849)


The first thing you will notice is that Bioware Montreal has no postings. This could mean anything but probably means they don't have impact any more.
The second thing you will notice is that Austin Texas has real sounding permanent jobs while every single job in Edmonton is contract. Even the Development Manager (Contract) (26782) position is contract.

Lastly you see that there are no quest designers or roleplay testers and the only job directly related to the game is a lead combat engineer and gamplay engineer. The next Bioware game will probably be just like every other shoot em up.

To the devs: This is what happens when you sell or partner with big gaming.
The the projectCD employees: It is probably in your best interest to make Witcher 3 as good as possible because a buyout will not be good for most of you.

Looking at Mass Effect 1 , 2, and 3 you can see the changes in the priorities.


Another interesting view of the gaming industry comes for Bethesda in Skyrim, specifically with regards to companions. Companions were terrible in Skyrim but that alone isn't very interesting. What was interesting was that there are many modders that do know how to make interesting, well fleshed out and context sensitive companions. Bethesda had a chance to give back to the community and "contract out" the design of companions to modders and pay them. Bethesda put almost zero effort into companions in Skyrim and I guess they expected the modding community to step up for free. Very sad and embarrassing for Bethesda and the entire gaming industry.

PS ....

The guy that did the small atmospheric personal moments that involved social interaction in Metro Past Light, did it better than I have ever seen in a game. You can probably guess I think most shooters are death porn but the devs of Metro Past Light managed to pull of a game with enough plot and atmosphere that it was playable for me. If that guy could have designed the whole game it probably would have been a masterpiece.

ProjectCD should probably hire that guy or at least take a lesson from his style. If you are actually looking you can see he could set up and tell a better story in a 5 minute set piece than most games have in their entirety.

 

[caspartine]

Some TL; DR would be useful, since A) the point of the post isn't really clear and kinda shattered into several issues B ) How does it relate to TW3, again?

As for Metro Last Light - my personal feeling is quite the opposite, actually, there could be done so much more in this area. The "romantic" line starts quite good (Anna being all annoying and bitchy) but then totally fails, emotionally, although it's pretty clear what the devs were going for. The evolution of that relationship is pretty much non existent, and suddenly, boobs in my face...again, it could be done so much better.
I may be missing your point, but one thing I'm sure CDPR will put great effort into, is Geralt's personal affairs and people closest to his heart. Besides him being all badass master of the sword, those 2 persons are his biggest, and eventually only motivation, the only thing he's got left.

As for the EA/Bioware part - CDPR are very particular in being independent, I don't think we will see a big company like EA swallowing them up any time soon, they won't succumb unless they will have to, they value the creative freedom that comes from independence and they worked hard to be where they are now.
If the point was unrelated to this dev and franchise, then I'm sorry for misunderstanding. I pretty much don't care about Bioware anymore (and they were my champions for quite some time).

Oh, and I'm not even going to start on Bethesda. They got all lazy and ignorant. Time to let some pikes into the pond. My biggest hope is TW3 will push the genre really forward and forces Bethesda and maybe other studios to start doing good games again.

 

[CostinRaz]

Oh look someone else taking the piss on EA, blaming then for Bioware's fuck ups.

The only ones to blame for Bioware's shitty games are Biwoare themselves. Even Bioware themselves admitted that. ( One of the good doctors said this ).

 

[dragonbird]

I don't really think this is about CDPR is it? Moving to Community...

 

[Pajkes]

Oh, and I'm not even going to start on Bethesda. They got all lazy and ignorant. Time to let some pikes into the pond. My biggest hope is TW3 will push the genre really forward and forces Bethesda and maybe other studios to start doing good games again.

THIS.A gazzilion times this.I couldn't possibly agree more with you on this one mate.Complete spot on and my exact feelings too.

 

[Windhelm_Guard]

bethesda's games died with morrowind. Oblivion and skyrim made it much worse. I do hope this can bring them back up again

 

[bigboss9191]

Bioware is for me in blacklist because of Mass Effect 3 and Dragon age 2

 

[Sirandar888]

Oh look someone else taking the piss on EA, blaming then for Bioware's fuck ups.

The only ones to blame for Bioware's shitty games are Biwoare themselves. Even Bioware themselves admitted that. ( One of the good doctors said this ).

Ahhh yes .... you did miss the meaning of my post.

I do agree that Bioware messed up and that is what lead to them losing everything including the autonomy. I was not blaming EA for the fall of Bioware ... I was stating what happens after when small companies make bad decisions and end up in the hands of big companies. It isn't very pretty in any industry.

 

[Blothulfur]

No thanks.

 

[Sirandar888]

Alas .... when new pikes enter the pond it takes only making 1 game before they become just like the old pikes.

Here is basically what is required for PC gaming to reach players who want to more than just kill and collect:

1) Piracy: It needs to stop .... piracy only breeds companies like Steam and EA as devs need them just to protect their intellectual property. Would you invest your life in making a great new game just to have it stolen. Many people wouldn't ... so you need to partner with somebody who can distribute and protect and they take a huge chunk of cash that could go towards making a better game. Sadly this isn't going to happen I think.

2) Gamers have too low a standard with both their money and their time. The vast majority of games aren't even 1/2 as entertaining as a mediocre book unless you want to collect and kill. Bioshock Infinite had huge potential to be interesting but completely fell apart after the baseball scene..... I just watched the endings on Youtube. Players need to stop buying poorly 1/2 done games but this leads us to 2b) How do they know if the game is worthy of time and money?

2b) The game review system is highly dodgy to trust. I only trust user reviews now who actually critique the game. It is pretty hard to tell how good a game is these days.

3) Software devs need to leverage their own assets and the community and find a way to reward talent no matter where it is. The vast amount of free work modders do for Bethesda is embarrassing. I guess they are hoping to get noticed and get work that way..... I would guess most don't as evidenced by the complete crap companions in Skyrim.

4) The whole business model of gaming need to become healthier. The current model is: small company makes interesting product but requires big company to distribute. The only way the small company ever makes cash is when they eventually sell out to a big company who then runs them into the ground. This is one root cause of the failure of North American business.

5) Software devs should be buying intellectual property. Instead they try to make new games with a completely original idea. Sadly there are very very few ideas that haven't already been done far better in books. Do you think Bioware is going to be able to dream up another mass effect? Most devs look to movies to make games but this usually doesn't work out well. But the story ideas from books often can. The Witcher 1 is a fine example of taking a concept from a book and translating it to the game.

This is why we have franchises that repeat year after year..... all the good ideas are already owned by someone. But nobody wants to license IP from books. Why .... This leads us to number 6.

6) Legal system with respect to intellectual property is completely broken. If a software dev buys a great story from a book author there is no way to tell what will happen if the game starts to make $$$$$. The lawsuits start to fly sometimes with bizarre results.

7) Voice acting: we all want it, but it is expensive and devs don'y really want to pay actors. For RPG gaming to ever reach the level where sandbox and multiple game flows are possible, voice acting will probably need to be simulated convincingly without actual voice actors. This may come sooner than you think. Who would have though that a cellphone could transcribe speech as well as a galaxy S3 does.

8) Quest Design: The construction sets for games are still in the stone age with respect to quest design. At least Bethesda's is terrible and that is probably true for all game deveolpers. Somebody needs to make a platform simple and complex enough to design convincing quests.

9) Choice: Even after all these years, no game has been made that really knows how to give the player the feeling of choice. Tomb Raider was absolutely on rails but most games are little better even "RPGs". The only game I have played where I had the illusion I had choice was New Vegas.

10) There has to be something better for gamers to do than murder and steal. Here is a list of AAA games which the prime purpose is murder: How many bodies does it take before it just gets stale. New Vegas had lots of violence but there were often other ways to deal with the situation.

Assassins Creed All of them: I would have played Black Flag if they just made is a pirate game
Dishonoured
Bioshock Infinite: After the baseball scene is was mostly carnage until the end where it got interesting again
Skyrim: Murder and collect .... thats about all there is to do.
Tomb Raider: Agonized about buying .... Looks like most of the game is platforming to get to the next kill. The advertisements didn't help much to convince me otherwise..


As you can guess it is unlikely that more a few of the above will ever happen.

IMO The only way that gaming will ever develop into something more interesting than a mediocre book is if 3d modelling, quest design and speech synthesis technology develops enough that 5 people can make a complex sandbox RPG with real quests and choice for under 100K$. The odds of it coming from a large company in very small IMO.

 

[soldiergeralt]

good post. fell apart near the end with the voice synthesis fantasy.

THIS.A gazzilion times this.I couldn't possibly agree more with you on this one mate.Complete spot on and my exact feelings too.

unlikely, w3 will succeed not because of its originality or depth, but because of advertisement and presentation. people will buy anything. you don't have to give them a diamond, just give them a squeaky toy.

and big companies noticing its success will still be completely clueless as to why it is different and interesting, instead focusing on things they perceive to be the reasons behind its succeed.

 

[Pajkes]

unlikely, w3 will succeed not because of its originality or depth, but because of advertisement and presentation. people will buy anything. you don't have to give them a diamond, just give them a squeaky toy.

and big companies noticing its success will still be completely clueless as to why it is different and interesting, instead focusing on things they perceive to be the reasons behind its succeed.

Well if they want to be douchebags let them be and let CD Projekt earn their money by quality and good marketing.But quality first and foremost.Cause it's much easier to market good product intead of shitty one although nothing is too hard for PR and marketing teams.Honestly,IMO I can't imagine having a friend whose job would be PR or something similar.No offence to anyone but most of those guys along with marketing departmants,brokers,bankers,politicians etc. are biggest scum on the earth and disgrace for human kind.Again IMO.Also I'm no hippie or comunist but I just find neo-fashistic-corporationism of today pretty disgusting and also I find this attitude many people have like it's just buisness a horrible sign that we are not that far by all means from Blade Runner's dystopian future.

And I disagree with your belief that Witcher 3's success won't make Bugthesda to rethink their strategy.It won't be the suits who will change anything cause those guys in 9/10 cases look on gaming as something stupid and irrelevant and yet make fortune on it and much more than guys who actually work on making these games.It will be devs who will be told by suits to adapt to new circumstances...after all we can only wait and see but I strongly believe that you are terribly wrong.At least I would certainly like Bughtesda to become less douchy cause I used to be their fan and no -.- Morrowind wasn't my first game but Oblivion and yes it was dumbed down but still more deep than Skyrim although Skyrim does make many improvements like leveling although it's still not perfect but at least it's not broken.

 

[Garrison72]

If Witcher 3 lives up to its potential, every RPG maker will be rethinking their approach, especially Bethesda. I feel its Bethesda who's in direct competition this time, not Bioware. I actually think DA:I will be a decent game ( if not for me) because the team has been given enough time. Bethesda has been resting on their laurels, using the same damn modified engine for ages now, and recycling the same ideas. If they don't step it up with Fallout 4 I'll be pissed.

 

[Luxorek]

Then you will be pissed @slimgrin because we all know it's gonna be good ol' Bethesda all over again with Todd Howard throwing empty promises around. I'm hoping that they abandon or at least significantly upgrade that Gamebryo engine, because it's the most bug ridden thing I have ever experienced... well, maybe behind Alpha Protocol.

Then again they've been using it for years now and so did the modding community - sometimes I think the guys at Bethesda just don't care that much and leave all the "polishing" to the fans. How else can you explain sloppy and low-res textures on PC ? The infamous blurry noses and lips.

The thing about The Elder Scrolls is... that well basically OPEN WORLD + CHARACTER CREATION/CUSTOMIZATION, with minimal story interference. The Witcher 3 is exact opposite of Bethesda model - strong storyline, fixed protagonist and the world is gonna multi-region open world. So I'm not that sure... though of course I want the Witcher to be as popular as it's possible.

 

[octavian123]

If Witcher 3 lives up to its potential, every RPG maker will be rethinking their approach, especially Bethesda. I feel its Bethesda who's in direct competition this time, not Bioware. I actually think DA:I will be a decent game ( if not for me) because the team has been given enough time. Bethesda has been resting on their laurels, using the same damn modified engine for ages now, and recycling the same ideas. If they don't step it up with Fallout 4 I'll be pissed.

That's a whole lotta if. The game could either have very good exploration but poor story/gameplay (because of focus on exploration) good story but poor exploration, with large, empty parts of the map, good story gameplay AND exploration but very buggy OR everything could turn out just fine. It would have to have the best of all worlds to beat a mammoth like Bethesda.

IF TW3 is the success we all await then I fully expect Bethesda to change, they would have to.

 

[Sirandar888]

good post. fell apart near the end with the voice synthesis fantasy..

IMO Voice synthesis is no fantasy. Even my little Samsung S3 can pull off a decent rendition of a snooty English lady. There is not a single scientific or technical hurdle that would be insurmountable in terms of delivering believable voice acting in a game. It is just a matter of will and resources and whether this is actually a desirable path.

Unfortunately, voice synthesis is the only possible chance of a studio making a true sandbox game compelling and worth playing.

I can even give you a good model of how it will be accomplished:

In early stages, a voice actor with a pleasing and compelling voice will be paid to act out several 1000 lines of text with different emotional states and inflection.
This data will be analyzed, processed and compiled into a fingerprint by which almost any verbal landscape can be simulated just by the base text and control markups. Later staged, no voice actor will be required as there will be enough data to model an interesting voice as a new creation, not a mimic.

It will be a little like that a skelleton and 2d texture can be rendered from 2d so that a object in the game can be view from any angle believably in simulated 3d.

In early stages, in a single stream game, it will be much more satisfying to have a real voice actor, and this logistically feasible if the story only follows one stream.

In a true sandbox game, convincing voice acting is not really logistically possible as there are too many outcomes to voice act. So we have sandbox games with radiant quests that try to bypass this limitation be making all quests have no real outcome at all. That is the price of voice acting in a sandbox.