Gamers Launch Harassment Campaign Against BioWare

while we're on the subject of Mass effect, I think it's cool that Jessica Chobot is voicing the news reporter but I don't think it's cool that the news reporter now looks exactly like Chobot with exaggerated breasts. I like my suspension of disbelief preserved

Sagrilarus wrote: The revenue report determines whether she's a failed writer. This is about commerce.

Normally I'd agree with this, but not in CRPGs. The quality of the story doesn't measure into their success (or lack thereof).

I for one the writing in the Old Republic is pretty good. It's the main reason a lot of people are playing the game, and one of the few areas of it where I don't hear criticism. Why blame someone for contributing to a shitty game if they're on the staff that's made the best fucking part of it? idgi, blame the PvP crew or something.

jeb wrote: ...you're talking about twitchy reactions, patient grinding, and sometimes demanding physical and mental acumen. She's a game writer. She writes the stories of games, not the physics engines that handle spray radius. She doesn't give a shit about killing all the d00dz to get into the base--she wants to see the cutscenes and story options that trigger once you get into the base so she can write her games better.

Well, again: no. She writes in the genre of video gaming (RPGs) most closely associated with narrative. Ideally, the gameplay and the story in an RPG are almost inseparable, each contributing to the other. One of the brilliances of Planescape: Torment, for instance, is that it grounds in narrative some of the inevitabilities of modern video gaming (a disoriented player thrust into a new world, commonplace PC death, etc). Throw in a little 'the medium is the message' (thank you, Mr. McLuhan) and the fact that the line between designer and writer is notoriously thin at Bioware, and you simply aren't correct about the above. It's an enormous problem that she, apparently, doesn't care for the medium in which she is working. And I would suggest it shows in the quality of her work, and the work Bioware has been putting forth recently. On the bright side, Drew Karpyshyn has apparently left Bioware, so that's a plus.

Other people may be talking about commerce; I'm talking about technical proficiency, inspiration, creativity, and doing good work, which has very little to do with the Market. The Market is a fucking moron.

I think good writing can be done in the video game industry. I don't think it happens often, for many different reasons.

SaMoKo wrote: I for one the writing in the Old Republic is pretty good.

SWTOR's an MMO, not a CRPG.

She also wrote one of the more interesting parts of DA:O.

Bullwinkle wrote:

SaMoKo wrote: I for one the writing in the Old Republic is pretty good.

SWTOR's an MMO, not a CRPG.

Heh, I was talking about the MMO, but I can see why it's mistaken for a CRPG. Story is good, raids and pvp suck :drunkpost:

Also, this wet fart of drama is being surpassed by Mass Effect 3's day one, lore-important, full mission and character DLC. I too would boycott it if I had any intention of buying it.

It's like the days of arcade machines all over again. Keep pumping in quarters if you want to beat the game.

Jeff White wrote:

Wetworks wrote: Well Bioware aren't doing themselves any favors, they're feeding the flames.

Jennifer Hepler tweeted, "I just figure they're jealous that I get to have both a vagina AND a games industry job, and they can't get either."

This is the best games industry quote I've ever seen. OMG...I laughed out loud, for real, on that one. Sad thing is that there's probably some truth to it.

Reminds me of a little ditty....Yellow Lasers
frontalot.com/media.php/80/mc_frontalot_-_yellow_lasers.mp3 (Legal to DL..FWIW)

And if you didn't quite catch what it was about....read the lyrics. Hilarious:
frontalot.com/index.php/?page=lyrics&lyricid=35

An article related to the Hepler drama that might be of some interest:
www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/23/esca...ng-skippable-combat/

But really, you can skip the article, just make sure you watch the embedded video at the end...

That is a nice bit.

That's a really awful piece of games journalism, which sadly is the norm and not the exception. And I rather like RPS.

If every game had an unlimited budget, with unlimited talent allocated to its development, and with a game model that literally allowed every player to play the game however they wanted, then yes, 'telling people how to enjoy their game' would be foolish. That's obviously not reality, and the very idea that a game should appeal to the broadest section of the populace is a blight upon the games industry.

Games have structures. These involve decisions - do we cater to this type of player? That? Do we allocate resources to this element or that one? How much of our budget, or manpower, or art resources, do we put where? Etc etc. A broad game is almost never a deep game. A game that tries to do everything almost always ends up doing nothing very well. It's very telling that we are talking about RPGs, by the way, a genre of video game that is somewhat demanding in terms of development resources and claims a rather small niche in the marketplace. We are not talking about adding dating sim elements to MW7 or lockpicking minigames into Civ 6.

And that's leaving aside the assumed fallacy that game elements and game narrative are separate bits of the video gaming experience that don't interact much. So, no, it's a shit article that manages to obfuscate a lot more than it illuminates.

We are scraping very close to the reason that popular entertainemnts have a very hard time ascending to the level of art, by the way. No one in the literary community is running around arguing for the addition of John Woo-style gun fights to 'Hamlet' because, well, the people that don't like them can just skip over them, right?

Games like all forms of entertainment are best enjoyed as holistic experiences. Disassociating the gameplay from the narrative tends to lead to a poorer, less immersive experience. Confusing and non-sensical as it was BRAID was a well implemented fusion of a narrative and gameplay mechanic and without the gameplay the narrative is actually rather crappy. Put together the game is pretty awesome. Games can be so much more than throwaway entertainment but never will be if we continue to assume that they are moving books or interactive movies.

As for the situation on hand, I can sympathize with Ms. Hepler, particularly with RPGs, because current design seems to favour endless timesinks/fetch quests/filler gameplay that doesn't tend to impact the story in a significant way. I suspect that this is due to our current obsession with "cinematic games." If it's "cinematic" there's a good chance that you've sacrificed player agency and have thus failed in making the most of video games as a medium. If my job was to wade through my competitor's products to parse out the narrative, having a skip button for the unrewarding parts would be nice somedays; however, I also recognize that coming off as an ungrateful bitch does make you a target for hate. Also, if you're playing games and realize that the gameplay and narrative aren't cohesive then that's more a reflection on how everyone else is failing at the job and should be an example of what not to do which I would be helpful in of itself. That being said, nobody deserves to be disrespected like this and it makes me ashamed of fellow video gamers. It's socially inept berks like this that makes the general public assume that everyone else on the internet is a basement dwelling neckbeard.

Edit: I'm aware that the above may make me sound like someone who thinks that all games should be artistic and deep. That is definitely not the case. Just like dimestore novels, popcorn movies, and comic book posters, shallow/consumer art is by no means bad and should be produced for both profitability and entertainment. I mean I enjoy the Uncharted series, even if they are mostly an exercise in pressing 'X' on time, repeatedly. The above only applies if you are intent on seeing the boundaries pushed in the field of video games. Bioware claims to be on the edge of this progression so it stands to reason that their employees should also be challenging themselves to do better.

If the dating sim element to MW7 includes teabagging, then it would be a natural fit



It's weird seeing Braid still getting mentionned for what it was (I loved Braid, btw). Doesn't Bastion do what Braid did, except WAY better on tons of levels? Narrative, soundtrack, etc?