How BioWare's Anthem Went Wrong (?)

BioWare admits workplace, production issues

Yesterday, Kotaku published an extensive report on the development of BioWare's recently released shooter Anthem, painting an unflattering picture of a project with shaky leadership, declining morale, burned out developers, and haphazard direction.

BioWare declined to comment on the report for Kotaku, instead releasing a blog post before the article went up explaining it did not respond to Kotaku's inquiries because it believed the site was unfairly singling out certain team members.

"People in this industry put so much passion and energy into making something fun," the blog post said. "We don't see the value in tearing down one another, or one another's work. We don't believe articles that do that are making our industry and craft better."

However, Kotaku reported today that after the article's publication, BioWare studio general manager Casey Hudson sent out a staff memo addressing the subject and pledging to make things better.

"The article mentions many of the problems in the development of Anthem and some of our previous projects," Hudson said. "And it draws a link between those issues and the quality of our workplace and the well-being of our staff. These problems are real and it's our top priority to continue working to solve them.

"What we found out-of-bounds was the naming of specific developers as targets for public criticism. It's unfair and extremely trau..

https://mybroadband.co.za/forum/threads/how-biowares-anthem-went-wrong.1017128/
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Lupus said:
Did you play Andromeda or are you relying on word of mouth? I picked it up in December for next to nothing and was pleasantly surprised, it was probably closer to ME1 then the later 2 but it wasn't that bad. I don't get the whole SJW arguments people had.
There were some annoying things, you fought the same things over and over, even in higher levels you were still fighting the same foot soldiers and such. The story wasn't that bad, Ryder felt more like a guy who had to try figure out his way in a new galaxy and wasn't sure, compared to Shepard who was always a bit cocksure.
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Yes I did. It wasn't a bad game, but it wasn't exactly Mass Effect. It didn't capture the feel, didn't make you care that much about the characters and there was hardly any variety in species - and because of that the lore suffered.

You should read up on how that game was put together in the space of a few months in order to meet a deadline because it was stuck in development hell for so long...
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
Yes I did. It wasn't a bad game, but it wasn't exactly Mass Effect. It didn't capture the feel, didn't make you care that much about the characters and there was hardly any variety in species - and because of that the lore suffered.

You should read up on how that game was put together in the space of a few months in order to meet a deadline because it was stuck in development hell for so long...
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After 3, Andromeda wasn't so bad. It did feel a lot like 1 did but that's probably because it was a new galaxy. The species was one of my complaints, you're in a whole new universe and you encounter 3 new species, then you go to new worlds where some looked fantastic to encounter the same fauna?
 
I would recommend recommend Raycevick's Mass Effect and Andromeda analysis videos since the problems that sunk Anthem was present from the Mass Effect 3 days.

Raycevick Youtube Channel
 
Andromeda had the potential to be something marvelous and opened a completely new galaxy to explore, but no they had to cock it up and destroy one of the best scifi game universes created. It wasn't a bad game, but compared to ME2 it was mediocre at best.
 
VooDooC said:
Andromeda had the potential to be something marvelous and opened a completely new galaxy to explore, but no they had to cock it up and destroy one of the best scifi game universes created. It wasn't a bad game, but compared to ME2 it was mediocre at best.
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Yeah but that's compared to 2, to 1 and 3 it is on par. Remember 3 actually for quite sometime didn't allow you to get the best possible ending in an SP game without MP and some other means.
You're Galactic readiness wouldn't reach the desired levels.
 
All I know is cataclysm better be worth my while. Not trying this game again until that patch drops and IF it is still boring I'm done with this game.

I checked a stream since their last update, lol, they made it rain Legendaries to keep the game attractive.
 
Fulcrum29 said:
All I know is cataclysm better be worth my while. Not trying this game again until that patch drops and IF it is still boring I'm done with this game.

I checked a stream since their last update, lol, they made it rain Legendaries to keep the game attractive.
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Sadly it could have been awesome and some of that, the little parts I did enjoy. However there is no point in hanging around unless they do a turnaround and fix the turd which at this stage I doubt will happen.
 
ekske1 said:
Sadly it could have been awesome and some of that, the little parts I did enjoy. However there is no point in hanging around unless they do a turnaround and fix the turd which at this stage I doubt will happen.
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I have no reason to play the game at all now. I don't need 'more' Legendaries or better specs. When the cataclysm content drop comes along I will go and get my Legendaries while playing the new content.

I don't know how people is still playing this game. There is nothing to do, no progression to achieve. It is a sandbox.
 
Fulcrum29 said:
I have no reason to play the game at all now. I don't need 'more' Legendaries or better specs. When the cataclysm content drop comes along I will go and get my Legendaries while playing the new content.

I don't know how people is still playing this game. There is nothing to do, no progression to achieve. It is a sandbox.
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Pretty much this. Luckily I just subbed for 1x month to tryout / play with. At least there was other titles to be played which made it more worth it, but I am beginning to wonder how much of a return you really get with EA when you use them for gaming as a service. BF5 was shyte, which left us playing more star wars battlefront II. The only other thing on my list was darksiders III and andromeda.
 
My problem with I have with anthem and most other AAA titles is: They all feel uninspired. Both in story (or world it exists in) and in game play mechanics. It was quite a galling feeling for me to be excited because my new game is installing and getting tired of it at the same time just by watching a stream.
 
Star Citizen's Chris Roberts Opines on 'Saving Anthem'
https://www.mmorpg.com/anthem/news/star-citizens-chris-roberts-opines-on-saving-anthem-1000052241

Speaking on no-man
The problem was players' expectations were so far beyond that. They imagined all this extra stuff.
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They took a huge amount of abuse, they were written off and they just put their heads down and they kept updating, delivering and making it better and better.
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And then Anthem
I would say the same for Anthem. I've played it, so I know there's plenty of nice stuff in there, stuff that works, and then there's some stuff that doesn't work. It's like what we're doing on Star Citizen. It's just iteration.
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omg... talk about being delusional. No wonder start citizen isn't out yet as you guy should please stop imagining all that extra stuff.
 
ekske1 said:
Star Citizen's Chris Roberts Opines on 'Saving Anthem'
https://www.mmorpg.com/anthem/news/star-citizens-chris-roberts-opines-on-saving-anthem-1000052241

Speaking on no-man



And then Anthem


omg... talk about being delusional. No wonder start citizen isn't out yet as you guy should please stop imagining all that extra stuff.
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Star Citizen started as a indie game, raked in more money than most big productions, and that is only money made known to the public, and still have no actual game unless you want to play and champion a 'demo'.

I still believe they made a mistake to move to Lumberyard, and though still the same engine, strictly speaking, they have less room to innovate. AWS on the other hand gives them much more room to sell.
 
Bioware is the new Hodor:
Buyer beware, buyer beware, buyer beware, buyer beware, buyeware, buyeware, buyeware, Bioware, Bioware
 
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