OH GOD BIOWARE WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE

[Loyal]

Originally Posted by stefan

they're spewing the company line. The biggest fear people had about EA acquiring Bioware is that EA would get all up in their business, so of course they're going to deny it. This barely counts as lying, every large company does it to smaller subdivisions and you'd have to be blind to think that the EA bigwigs aren't going to try and "fix" Bioware to be "more successful" by implying what choices they should make at every possible opportunity.

I too am slightly curious as to whether you have an actual source on this or anything resembling evidence, at all, rather than "THIS IS WHAT THEY DO, THEY ARE LIKE UNTO CORRUPTORS, WAKE UP YOU FOOL!"

[stefan]

Its EA, the company that killed Westwood, Origin Systems, been pushing for paid DLC for years before it struck popular, and has been repeatedly shown in countless customer service incidents to not give any fucks at all about paying customers. Their every action at every turn has been to disregard the customer base and overexpose and meddle with every franchise they touch. "company Line Lies" is an industry-wide epidemic, just ask Keiji Inafune. Just because people who've left EA or Bioware have NDAs to stop that kind of fallout doesn't mean that sort of thing happens, and I've been burned by the gaming industry too many times to trust anything a PR guy says.

Look, I know you want to justify sunk costs to yourself, but if you think Bioware is immune to EA's demonstrated tactics just because people like them, then you are painfully naive.

[Aerozord]

Originally Posted by stefan

Just because people who've left EA or Bioware have NDAs to stop that kind of fallout doesn't mean that sort of thing happens.

let me see if I got this straight. You think EA basically has thousands of employees sign something that forces their silence even after they leave the company?

For one, NDAs dont do that. They prevent discussion of company secretes, namely information on their products. You can say whatever you want about the company, might get fired for saying it, but they cant stop you from doing it.

But lets assume its not a NDA but some other contract, that would send up alot of red flags to several government and non-government agencies that something is up. Dont you think every business would do this if they could?

Nor would it help because the contract wouldn't be legally binding. You cant sign away your right to free-speech to a corporation. Atleast not in this country.

Though for the sake of argument lets assume none of that is true and EA forces every employee to take a legally binding vow of silence. In this day-and-age do you really think if they were two-faced back stabbing pricks that they could keep it quiet? Keep in mind we haven't just been talking about public interviews and official sites but actually talking to these people personally and hearing no complaints.

In fact I have been told by people far more experienced than I, that in the software industry being bought-out is a mark of success not failure and its often recurring. I mean EA wasn't the first company to buy-out Bioware.

[Sifright]

Originally Posted by Aerozord

let me see if I got this straight. You think EA basically has thousands of employees sign something that forces their silence even after they leave the company?

For one, NDAs dont do that. They prevent discussion of company secretes, namely information on their products. You can say whatever you want about the company, might get fired for saying it, but they cant stop you from doing it.

But lets assume its not a NDA but some other contract, that would send up alot of red flags to several government and non-government agencies that something is up. Dont you think every business would do this if they could?

Nor would it help because the contract wouldn't be legally binding. You cant sign away your right to free-speech to a corporation. Atleast not in this country.

Though for the sake of argument lets assume none of that is true and EA forces every employee to take a legally binding vow of silence. In this day-and-age do you really think if they were two-faced back stabbing pricks that they could keep it quiet? Keep in mind we haven't just been talking about public interviews and official sites but actually talking to these people personally and hearing no complaints.

In fact I have been told by people far more experienced than I, that in the software industry being bought-out is a mark of success not failure and its often recurring. I mean EA wasn't the first company to buy-out Bioware.

Yes it's often a sign of success for who ever founded the studio, but the vast majority of the time when a studio is bought out it releases one or two more games and then shuts it's doors because the quality of it's games tanked.

See Bullfrog productions and other companies to numerous to list. A games studio being bought out is usually a pretty big indicator that the quality of games are going to drop through the floor and that it will shut down soon after. It's not like the guy who founded the company will care though because it was a success while he owned it and he can fuck off and make another software studio afterwards and repeat the cycle each time making shitloads of cash.

[Aerozord]

Originally Posted by Sifright

Yes it's often a sign of success for who ever founded the studio, but the vast majority of the time when a studio is bought out it releases one or two more games and then shuts it's doors because the quality of it's games tanked.

See Bullfrog productions and other companies to numerous to list. A games studio being bought out is usually a pretty big indicator that the quality of games are going to drop through the floor and that it will shut down soon after. It's not like the guy who founded the company will care though because it was a success while he owned it and he can fuck off and make another software studio afterwards and repeat the cycle each time making shitloads of cash.

thats why I was saying a "cash out" is what you need to worry about. My point is the ones doing the buying out aren't trying to dick the company over. Heck part of the buy out was probably contracting the higher-ups to stay on. Of course you still run the risk of exactly what you said them just not caring.

[Osterbaum]

Look, I know you want to justify sunk costs to yourself, but if you think Bioware is immune to EA's demonstrated tactics just because people like them, then you are painfully naive.

I'm gonna have to agree with this. Even forgetting that EA is, well EA and replacing it with any other major company; I don't see any way they wouldn't meddle in the affairs of a company they just bought. Even if they didn't intend to outright meddle in the development process, their shadow will definitely loom over the whole production and they sure as hell aren't going to keep quiet if the devs make a choice that to the seems like a bad one from a marketing prespective.

[Loyal]

Originally Posted by stefan

Its EA, the company that killed Westwood, Origin Systems, been pushing for paid DLC for years before it struck popular, and has been repeatedly shown in countless customer service incidents to not give any fucks at all about paying customers. Their every action at every turn has been to disregard the customer base and overexpose and meddle with every franchise they touch. "company Line Lies" is an industry-wide epidemic, just ask Keiji Inafune. Just because people who've left EA or Bioware have NDAs to stop that kind of fallout doesn't mean that sort of thing happens, and I've been burned by the gaming industry too many times to trust anything a PR guy says.

Look, I know you want to justify sunk costs to yourself, but if you think Bioware is immune to EA's demonstrated tactics just because people like them, then you are painfully naive.

So, that's a "no", then?

Also:

you'd have to be blind to think that the EA bigwigs aren't going to try and "fix" Bioware to be "more successful" by implying what choices they should make at every possible opportunity.

but if you think Bioware is immune to EA's demonstrated tactics just because people like them, then you are painfully naive.

This doesn't even serve as decent rhetoric.

[Kim]

I got the ME3 demo early. Ask questions and I'll try to give answers once I check it out.

[Nikose Tyris]

First Question:
Controls. Strongly Similar/Identical to ME2? What changed? [Also 360 demo or PC?]

Level Up/Character Advancement: ME1 or ME2 or totally different? I personally preferred ME1's wider specialization range, but I'm open to new things.

If Character creation is an option in the demo [as opposed to PreCon Shep]: What does it ask about 'previous' choices, to highlight what was important/what wasn't?

[Those are my big 3 questions]

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

Is it a video game or a movie?