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Thread: Bioware's Anthem

  1. #1
    Bad Taste novicius's Avatar
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    Bioware's Anthem







    Oh Boy, 'Anthem' Is A Destiny-Like 'Ten-Year Journey' For EA

    EA’s EVP Patrick Söderlund spoke with Microsoft’s Major Nelsen during one of E3’s overlooked livestreams, and spelled out that Anthem is a “ten-year journey” for BioWare and EA, echoing the phrasing of the Bungie/Activision deal from years past which will be entering Year Four when Destiny 2 is released this fall.

    Söderlund said that Anthem has been in development for four years already, and the ten years starts when the game is released. That's supposed to be 2018, but knowing how these projects go, may end up being 2019.

    ::

    But it’s eye-rolling in that it assumes massive success, which is far from a sure thing. Yes, what was shown at E3 looked great, and there’s a lot of talent working on Anthem.

    Yet BioWare has had their share of missteps in the past, the initial rollout of SWTOR which was far from the WoW-killer it was supposed to be, the backlash of Dragon Age 2 and development issues with Inquisition, and most recently, the poor reception of Mass Effect Andromeda, which seemed like it was going to be another beloved game in the franchise rather than a cautionary tale.

    One thing I hope Anthem learns from Destiny is that it decides what type of game it’s going to be up front.

    I think Destiny has rubbed a lot of fans the wrong way, as many assumed the game was going to be a ten-year journey like you see in an MMO like World of Warcraft, but the sequel forcing players to ditch their gear and even paid-for items has meant that it’s a much more traditional release.

    That’s not what the “ten-year plan” signaled to many at the outset, and I think EA would be wise to explain exactly how Anthem is going to work going forward. Will this be like Destiny and The Division, games with DLC and hard cuts between sequels, or an ongoing experience where your character (and gear) will live on forever like an MMO?
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    Corvette Enthusiast Kchrpm's Avatar
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    Regardless of the MMO trappings, I just want this to be a high quality Iron Man simulator.
    Get that weak shit off my track

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    What does the Bat say? Jason's Avatar
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    Anthem is by the team that's games get 80+ Metacritic scores (at least for their DA and ME games), I'm not worried about some click bait Forbes article. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    Edmonton: DA and original ME trilogy (and Anthem)
    Austin: SWTOR
    Montreal: ME: Andromeda

    The only game of the above that was actually reviewed "poorly", at least according to Wiki, is ME:A.
    Last edited by Jason; June 23rd, 2017 at 08:20 AM.

  4. #4
    Bad Taste novicius's Avatar
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    All online articles are clickbait in this day & age, what does that even mean??

    Tassi still asks a very relevant question: is this "ten-year-plan" just ten years of sequels that we're restarting our characters in, or are we building characters that will be constantly enhanced over the next ten years?

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    Member Member 21Kid's Avatar
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    8==D

    I'll reserve more ='s until it lives up to the hype.

  6. #6
    Corvette Enthusiast Kchrpm's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by novicius View Post
    Tassi still asks a very relevant question: is this "ten-year-plan" just ten years of sequels that we're restarting our characters in, or are we building characters that will be constantly enhanced over the next ten years?
    It's just a buzzword stolen from Bungie that will be used in exactly the same way. Anthem will release in 2018/9, paid DLC will release every 3-6 months afterwards, Anthem 2 will come out two years later and mostly reset things. There's no way they'll get the engine "perfect" in the first release, they'll have things to fix that the market will be ecstatic to pay another $60-$100 for, and resetting their characters just means more opportunity for loot.

    If it turns out to be anything other than the same normal cycle that every other major video game IP is on right now, I'll be pleasantly surprised, but I'm interested in the game regardless, and IMO no one should be tying their interest or excitement to anything but a 2 year cycle of resetting sequels.
    Get that weak shit off my track

  7. #7
    Bad Taste novicius's Avatar
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    Eh, that really isn't the best financial model. World-building is expensive obviously -- stretching out your world for as many years as possible is what Bungie should have done.

    Grand Theft Auto Online (incept date: 10/1/2013). Regular updates & DLC in a consistent world = a very profitable business model.

    ::

    This brings me back to my original comment from the E3 thread: I really don't have a specific desire about what the action is like, sell me on the depth & detail of the open game world. Hell, Anthem is already very Destiny-like: jetting around an open world with no load times, random enemy encounters, drop-in joins, pre-scripted events, and picking up loot. We just need to see the Inventory screens at this point, how things are broken down and what you can do with the bits.

    So I'm a flying dog-legged Iron Man? Sure. Broomsticks? Yep. Spacemagic? Ok fine whatevs. But there had better be dozens upon dozens of multiple-objective missions, as well as safe areas where we move amongst the people we're protecting. Destiny 2 is (allegedly) doing this, here's hoping that Anthem does too.

    This guy gets it -- plus some good gameplay video that I haven't seen before:


  8. #8
    Corvette Enthusiast Kchrpm's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by novicius View Post
    Eh, that really isn't the best financial model. World-building is expensive obviously -- stretching out your world for as many years as possible is what Bungie should have done.

    Grand Theft Auto Online (incept date: 10/1/2013). Regular updates & DLC in a consistent world = a very profitable business model.
    I don't think it's the best model, I think it's the one we're going to get.

    GTA Online is somewhat different, in a few ways.

    1) There *has* been a sequel, effectively with a new engine, just not a new world. It happened when they transitioned from 360/PS3 to XBone/PS4/PC. People had to re-buy the game to continue getting new content. Destiny was already on the new consoles when you got it, so there hasn't been a real "mandatory" upgrade cycle yet.

    2) All of GTA's DLC is free, but actually having access to it requires ridiculous amounts of in-game currency, which leads to lots of people spending money on microtransactions for useful in-game content. A quick search makes it seem like microtransactions are only used to purchase emotes in Destiny, not for any gameplay functionality.

    3) GTA's gameplay is built around the idea of chaos, not quality. It doesn't matter that there are flaws in the way things work, that the engine handles things in a clunky way, that it is slow to do this or that, because that's expected. The game doesn't aspire to actually be excellent at any elements of gameplay, so improving those gameplay elements isn't really important. It can get away with being kind of shitty, because it's so chaotic. Destiny doesn't have that luxury, and neither will Anthem.

    ---------

    But this just gets back to the idea of what we want from this game, and what we wanted from Destiny, and Mass Effect, and etc. I don't really care about the open world, or world building, or hunting for loot, or any of the other stuff that really excites people about this genre. So while I'm fine with it just being another action game, I can fully understand why you want more.
    Get that weak shit off my track

  9. #9
    Bad Taste novicius's Avatar
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    Understood, I'm not trying to put words into your mouth -- just saying that a large, in-depth persistent world can also be a major moneymaker.


    Quote Originally Posted by Kchrpm View Post
    1) There *has* been a sequel, effectively with a new engine, just not a new world. It happened when they transitioned from 360/PS3 to XBone/PS4/PC. People had to re-buy the game to continue getting new content. Destiny was already on the new consoles when you got it, so there hasn't been a real "mandatory" upgrade cycle yet.
    Yes technically there was a re-buy of GTA V but we were able to keep all of our characters & gear which speaks to Tassi's real point: gamers aren't grumbling that they have to buy Destiny 2, they're grumbling because all their swag from the past 3.5 years is gone instead of being built-up and/or obsoleted by raising Light Levels again.

  10. #10
    Corvette Enthusiast Kchrpm's Avatar
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    I hadn't heard anyone complain about losing their stuff in Destiny (which surprised me), but I also didn't go looking. I just saw articles about it that were mostly understanding, I guess because it's normal in the action-game space to reset your character.

    Though, I've never played Mass Effect, did you lose all your...whatever in Mass Effect? I thought the story/relationship choices you made held over, I never considered what happened to your loot and levels.

    Quote Originally Posted by novicius View Post
    just saying that a large, in-depth persistent world can also be a major moneymaker.
    Only if there's a monthly fee for continued access, or the equivalent in the form of nearly necessary microtransactions for gameplay content.
    Last edited by Kchrpm; June 23rd, 2017 at 12:37 PM.
    Get that weak shit off my track

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