Bioware General (Mass Effect/Dragon Age/Other)

[Dragaros]

https://www.swtor.com/info/news/article/20211220

[Dragaros]

https://twitter.com/Mark_Meer/status/14 ... 4299980801

[Dragaros]

"Happy holidays, Mass Effect fans! If you've been good (and you're fast), here are some one-time use codes for Legendary Edition! Have a safe and happy holiday. Codes are one-time use only and available on a first-come, first-served basis."

[Dragaros]

https://www.masseffectlaunch.com/citadel

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mggn60457U

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nKewQDV5LA

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwn0I2qDjDU

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_mxl9a2rNU

[Vol]

The thresher maws don't just instantly pop up beneath the Mako and kill you, they burrow in a way that makes them easier to track and they send out feelers to spot you, which you can destroy to throw them off your scent. Really, the game in general gives more incentives to not just stand in one place and wait.

Oh, I remember that one. I can picture the planet too. Whenever I get around to playing the Legendary edition, I'm sure I'll recognize it on sight. I was pissed. Though the fun part of ME1 jank was building a sniper-railgun, that did more damage than the Mako's cannon, towards the end. It was a good idea, thresher maws, that could've been expanded on better.

Pretty sure their spit attack didn't have proper hit detection tho.

[Someone With Mass]

If anything, LE ME1 makes ME2 feel a tad disappointing in some ways. I'd even go so far to say that if this had been the original version of ME1, I might have joined the crowd who think that BioWare took one step too many backwards when making ME2. Hell, the inventory system in the first game is not a complete pain in the ass to deal with because of the bulk sell/melt system.

It's still annoying that you can't back out of looting something when your inventory is full and is forced to convert the new stuff to omni-gel, though.

I'm also a bit sad that ME2 didn't do away with the weapon restrictions like ME1 did. Sure, an untrained sniper rifle won't do as much damage, but at least you can hit stuff.

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxnUDQALxjM

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1hsiDTqHbM

[Dragaros]

https://wccftech.com/mass-effect-legend ... patch-1-2/

"Mass Effect Legendary Edition [fan] Community Patch 1.2 Fixes Gameplay and Visual Issues. The latest version of the Mass Effect Legendary Edition Community Patch is now available, fixing gameplay and visual issues found in ME1. A new version of the fan-made Mass Effect Legendary Edition Community Patch is now available for download, introducing a variety of gameplay and visual fixes."

[Dragaros]

https://www.reddit.com/r/masseffect/com ... _by_gross/

https://twitter.com/MassEffect_News/sta ... 9588142088

"Interesting find from the subreddit. ME:LE was the second highest 2021 release on Steam in terms of gross revenue."

[Dragaros]

https://www.reddit.com/r/masseffect/com ... r_warfare/

[[ Codex Writer's take on Reaper Warfare: Found another gem from some old thinkpieces of Chris L'Etoile who had a lot of opinions about the series he was writing on... And then left for whatever reason instead of continuing his work into Mass Effect 3. He wrote a long post on a forum about his pontifications about Reaper capabilities and warfare. This is a "what could've been" kind of take, I think.

Some user's "Caveman analogy" (for context)
"A single Reaper cycle is 50,000 years. 50,000 years ago, humans were hunter gatherers with the most primitive tools. Let's say, just for fun, that we take the full military might of just the USA through a time portal and fight a war with pre-civilization humanity. It's not even a contest. There is no way a group of heroic cavemen to get a lucky spear throw against an A1 Abrams and knock it out. Not that they are even likely to see their opponents, since they'd probably be bombed and shelled from beyond visual range. But even if they did close with their enemy, their weapons will be largely ineffective against modern tanks and body armor, and the superiority of machine guns versus spears."

L'Etoile said...
"I agree that Reapers should require quite a bit more to bring them down [than what is told in ME3's codices]. During ME2's production, I had a vision of an ME3 scene in which the quarians have to ram a Liveship into one to cripple or kill it. The only thing that would have saved the quarian fleet from destruction was the geth using a wormhole to jump in one of their great works - if not the actual Dyson Shell, then a Matrioska Brain. It throws back the Reapers by chucking black holes at them - biotic-style Singularities on a massive scale.
But if I may borrow the caveman analogy, what you're pointing out there seems to me less that our tech make equivalent units unbeatable, but that our tech allows new types of unit. The Reapers have no equivalent to armor and artillery in that analogy, and I think if you run a bunch of angry cavemen at one guy with an assault rifle and kevlar, he's going to take out a bunch before they reach him, but there's a good chance one is going to get up close and bash his head in with a rock.
Unfortunately, no ever really sat down and worked out the tech base of the Reapers. We just decided a few things they could do, and aside from that, it was "same as us, but better." Their most obvious advantage is in power generation and the size of their element zero cores. They can make crazy-powerful mass effect fields. Kinetic barriers you can't crack. High speed travel. They can cancel maneuvering stress and make high speed turns with a battleship that other races couldn't pull off with a frigate.
But there's another factor overlooked here - and they may have overlooked it in ME3. The Reapers control the mass relays. They knew when they were used, and when they wanted, they could lock them down or set them to misfire (as the Omega relay). I have to use an extended metaphor for this, so bear with me. Take World War I Europe, before the advent of air transportation. There were trucks to drive people around quickly, but most strategic troop movement and commerce was via train. Imagine someone invades Europe and somehow takes all their trains away. The tracks are still there, and the invaders can use them, but the defenders have to make do with trucks like this. There aren't as many of them as they need, and they're not efficient for long hauls, because - hey, that's what we have trains for, right?
I thought what normally happens in a Reaper sweep is they lock down the mass relay network. They can focus their forces - few but immensely powerful - at will, while hobbling the mobility of their enemies. They can jump around enemy force concentrations, hit 'em where they ain't, and take out their forces once they're weakened by lack of supplies. It's Pacific War island-hopping on a massive scale - take out the important targets and leave the rest to "wither on the vine." I imagine that in this cycle they couldn't do that because they haven't managed to get control of the Citadel. At least that's how I'd have explained it - though if I were the Reapers, I'd also have had a backup system.
Oh, and W/R/T cleansing the entire galaxy, I've explained a bit of that before. For most races, they know where they are because they use the mass relays. Every time you activate a relay, it's like saying "Voldemort" or tapping a spider's web. You just told them exactly where you are. For races that don't use the relays, they just listen for them. You don't need to check every single planet or system. Just stop every 100-200 light years and listen for the electromagnetic signals that indicate technological life. Yes, that still takes a while, but they have machine patience and probably fleets of drones to help. Any race that doesn't emit technological signals... they don't care about them. Too primitive, no threat, not of interest.
First the Reapers destabilize the defenders by using Indoctrinated agents to set the biggest powers against each other before they arrive. Then shut down most interstellar mobility when they take an active hand. They don't really need to devote time and effort to making better guns. Things went badly awry this cycle. I think the greatest plot hole here isn't that the Reapers don't have sufficiently high tech, but that they didn't seem to have any backup plans.
This doesn't mean that no one ever escaped the Reapers - fled into space far from the relays, made as little EM noise as possible, pulled the blankets over their heads and hoped the monsters went away. As cironian points out, Indoctrination would get a bunch of those. But some would make it. I had a vague idea that the gas giant with structures in it from ME1 could be such a race. And in my opinion, that might make a good opening for Mass Effect 4 - an organized search to find the First Ones and get them to rejoin galactic society." ]]


"During ME2's production, I had a vision of an ME3 scene in which the quarians have to ram a Liveship into one to cripple or kill it. The only thing that would have saved the quarian fleet from destruction was the geth using a wormhole to jump in one of their great works - if not the actual Dyson Shell, then a Matrioska Brain. It throws back the Reapers by chucking black holes at them - biotic-style Singularities on a massive scale."

Harbinger: You have become an annoyance.
Shep: Legion? Have your buddies throw a black hole at him.
Harbinger: You cannot stop the inevitable. We are the harbinger of your-WTF?!

[Vol]

If anything, LE ME1 makes ME2 feel a tad disappointing in some ways. I'd even go so far to say that if this had been the original version of ME1, I might have joined the crowd who think that BioWare took one step too many backwards when making ME2. Hell, the inventory system in the first game is not a complete pain in the ass to deal with because of the bulk sell/melt system.

It's still annoying that you can't back out of looting something when your inventory is full and is forced to convert the new stuff to omni-gel, though.

I'm also a bit sad that ME2 didn't do away with the weapon restrictions like ME1 did. Sure, an untrained sniper rifle won't do as much damage, but at least you can hit stuff.

That's what I was saying then and now. ME2 did some things far better, and that's why it's the one I played the most. But there was a notable chance in design I didn't care for, but what it did do right, it did so well I loved it. The heat sink change was an easy example. Class-locked weapons, massive compression of skill tree, Firewalker vs Mako, etc. The weapon restrictions is another good example, because there's no reason to have Shepard, an elite soldier, not be fully capable with all classes of weapons. Infiltrator Shepard will be best with a sniper rifle and pistol, but he knows how to use everything to an effective degree. So to do implement that change had to be so players wouldn't "mess up" and have the "wrong" loadout. And that speaks of the developer's changing goals.

Unfortunately, no ever really sat down and worked out the tech base of the Reapers. We just decided a few things they could do, and aside from that, it was "same as us, but better." Their most obvious advantage is in power generation and the size of their element zero cores. They can make crazy-powerful mass effect fields. Kinetic barriers you can't crack. High speed travel. They can cancel maneuvering stress and make high speed turns with a battleship that other races couldn't pull off with a frigate.

I thought about this a lot. It bugged me. Sovereign, while distracted, was effectively immune to the Citadel defense fleet. ME2, even being in a dead Reaper still turns you crazy-go-nuts. Then in ME3, our fleets kind of matter, but not really, until they do. The ground war made more sense, the reaping being very difficult once the process began, needing to indoctrinate, send out husks, collect data, and so on.

Reminds me of the old (good) Halo novels, where the only thing humans had that could pierce Covenant shields were the MAC and Super MAC guns, and the space battles were usually trying to tactically sacrifice their ships to buy time to land enough MAC shots to bring down their shields, or do that gravity well slingshot maneuver Keyes invented.

[magnuskn]

The problem with a lot of sci-fi with overwhelming enemies is that the writers don't think tech bases through more than "this gun doesn't work against super-enemy X", instead of trying to come up with ways why the weapons don't work. That is why much of modern sci-fi series just piss me off, when in something like The Tomorrow War (terrible movie, btw.) the human forces empty entire magazines of assault rifle ammo into the velociraptor like enemies and they just shrug those off without any explanation. Physics should matter somewhat, even if we are talking about science fiction.

But with Mass Effect the writers wrote themselves into a corner, anyway, because the Reapers could not be won over conventionally, due to the sheer insane number of cycles they already had gone through, hence the deus ex machina of the crucible. I much would have preferred a solution where the galaxy could have won without that, i.e. limit the number of Reapers to a sane number and then weaken them enough with your wonder weapon to be fought and won against conventionally.

[TTTX]

But with Mass Effect the writers wrote themselves into a corner, anyway, because the Reapers could not be won over conventionally, due to the sheer insane number of cycles they already had gone through, hence the deus ex machina of the crucible. I much would have preferred a solution where the galaxy could have won without that, i.e. limit the number of Reapers to a sane number and then weaken them enough with your wonder weapon to be fought and won against conventionally.

well they did pretty much waste the main plot of ME2 so it is no wonder they were in the corner in the first place.

it was a trilogy and they knew that, but they had no plan or idea where the story should go after 1 (I mean they pretty much pushed the rest button on the main story in some areas in ME" and Shepard isn't really needed to for the ME2 plot to happen, you really just need a really good commander who are really good at commanding, while in ME1 Shepard was needed because of the Prothean beacon), it is actually not that different from the Disney SW trilogy (except there are better characters and lore in ME then the Disney SW trilogy) just make stuff up and basically hope it will come together at end.

[Deano]

The Happy Ending Mod is available on Legendary Edition now, with it coming to game pass tomorrow it seems like the signs are their for another trilogy run.

[magnuskn]

Really? OMG. Gotta check that out ASAP.

*edit* Seems they'll release CEM LE later in the year, so I'll wait for that. But still, woooo! <happy dance>

Good thing I won't be be short for games to play, with the glut of stuff coming out the first few months of 2022.

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CKCpZyWyhE

[Dragaros]

https://twitter.com/GambleMike/status/1 ... 0027060227

https://twitter.com/lightbombmike/statu ... 2537422849

"BioWare currently recruiting more devs for Dragon Age 4 and the next Mass Effect."

https://www.ign.com/articles/xbox-game- ... nuary-2022

"Mass Effect Legendary Edition “will be available for console and PC users as part of EA Play, which is included alongside Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, or PC Game Pass memberships”, in January 2022."

[Dragaros]

https://blog.bioware.com/2022/01/06/state-of-bioware/

[[ State of BioWare and Looking Ahead by Author - BioWare - Posted on January 6, 2022.

Hello,

It’s been just over a year since I took over as General Manager of BioWare. As we start the new year, I wanted to take the opportunity to look back on 2021, talk about where we are as a studio right now, and share some thoughts and plans for the future.

This has been another challenging year, with both work and home life continuing to be disrupted by the uncertainty of the global pandemic. We’ve had to continue to think on our feet to adapt to changing circumstances. But despite all that, it has been an absolute joy to lead a studio with so many unbelievably talented people, a team that always pushes the envelope through innovation and an unflagging pursuit of quality. Looking back, we had a couple of exciting moments when two people at the studio reached historic milestones: They both celebrated working with BioWare for 25 years! That blows my mind! The entire studio celebrated along with them, and it was amazing hearing what the studio, the people, and the journey have meant to them.

Even with the challenges of the pandemic, we saw some earlier success with the incredible reception to the launch of Mass Effect Legendary Edition in May. From the press to our fans, the feedback has been insanely positive. We’re so proud to have released one of the highest-rated games on console, and the reception really underscores the value of striving for excellence and quality in every element of a game.

This past year certainly hasn’t been without its challenges, though. Continuing to work under the pressure of a world pandemic has not been easy. We’ve had to adopt new tools, processes, and ways to communicate. We’re all balancing personal time and work, and each person is dealing with their own unique situation. The biggest challenge continues to be the uncertainty of it all, which makes everyone’s life more difficult and makes it hard to plan for the future.

But that’s had its upsides, too. We’ve come together as a studio to help each other out, even in our personal lives. We show up for each other and pull together as a team. One example is the February “Snowpocalypse” in Austin when the storm had literally taken down the city. It was encouraging and inspiring to hear how people were going above and beyond to ensure others were safe, including finding shelter or delivering food and water.

The pandemic has also taught us a lot about how we can work together, even while working across North America from hundreds of different locations. And now, we’ll use what we’ve learned and apply it to a new work model that will ensure flexibility for everyone in the studio. Our goal is to lean into the things that everyone likes about working from home, while also giving people the opportunity to return to the office with more flexibility. Going forward, we’ll have new challenges with a hybrid approach to work and are focused on new tech that will help maximize collaboration and communication between onsite and remote people. Another subtle but important change we’ve made is in our hiring practices: Previously, we were only looking for people willing to relocate to Austin and Edmonton; now we’re looking for new talent from anywhere in North America and we’ll meet them where they live.

So as challenging as things have been, we have a lot of really exciting things to look forward to — especially our upcoming releases! First off, I’m excited to launch Legacy of the Sith, the latest expansion for Star Wars®: The Old Republic™, on February 15. We’re on the doorstep of a new expansion that will see the players with more combat style choices, a new storyline that returns you to the underwater depths of Manaan and the ruined Sith fortress on the planet Elom, and so much more! It all starts in February, and we’ll have more updates throughout the year. We are extremely proud of having created a game that has been running successfully for ten years now.

And of course, we remain hard at work on the next iterations of Dragon Age and Mass Effect. I’m seeing some incredible work from both teams. If you’re curious about Mass Effect, I’d encourage you to take a look at the poster we released on N7 Day. If you look closely, there are a handful of hidden treats; by my count, there are at least five surprises, all of which point to an amazing future in the Mass Effect universe. As for Dragon Age, we have a veteran group of talented developers working on the next iteration of the franchise. We are focused on a single-player experience that is built on choices that matter.

When I took on the GM role, I talked about rebuilding our reputation, and that remains a huge priority. We are laser-focused on building back the trust of our fans and community, and we plan to do that by delivering the types of games that we are best known for and ensuring they are of the highest quality. Our mission is to “Create worlds of adventure, conflict, and companionship that inspire you to become the hero of your story.” We want the launch of our games to be seminal moments in the industry. We want each game to earn the kind of reaction we’ve seen with Mass Effect Legendary Edition. We feel that we have the right people, the right creative focus, and the support from EA to deliver on the promise.

One of my favorite quotes from 2021 comes from GameSpot’s Games of the Year roundup, and I think it illustrates that we’re moving in the right direction: “Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is a gargantuan reminder of just how good developer BioWare is when it’s firing on all cylinders.”

We can’t wait for you to see what we’ve been working on and look forward to sharing more in the future. Until then, thank you for being part of our story.

Wishing you all the best in the New Year,
Gary ]]



1. Geth shaped crater - teasing return of the Geth
2. Dead bodies and platforms around crater kinda sorta look like Geth and Quarians - tease that we'll be revisting Rannoch?
3. Krogan in red armor - tease that Wrex is still alive(and if Wrex is still alive, then a we have a better grasp on how much time has passed)?
4. New ship - implication that the mass relays are all or mostly repaired if it can reach other planets with ease?
5. Weird goo in the crater - ???

Edit:

[Mazder]

Are we ignoring the entire BIG crater looks like a Geth head too?
Lens flare and all?

[Dragaros]

Are we ignoring the entire BIG crater looks like a Geth head too?
Lens flare and all?

I mentioned it above, and we all discussed it at large the day the poster was first released, so at this point I think it goes without saying.

[Dragaros]

https://gear.bioware.com/products/garru ... ion-statue

[Dragaros]

https://www.reddit.com/r/masseffect/com ... _for_base/



[[ "List including all missing/cut levels for Base Mass Effect 3. EDIT: I realize these aren't actually all the missing levels. In Legendary Edition a bunch of stubbed level files also shipped with it, including "OmgZae" which is a full mission with Zaeed showing up on Omega, and missing conversations with dialogue wheels (no audio, missing most text) in some of the files in Legendary Edition. It was different from the Citadel "Korlack" plot we got.
There's also a stubbed level for the Citadel Tower. Fun fact: the scene we see with the Council in ME3 is using PNG backdrops, and it's actually an empty level with a floating podium.
Goes to show you that From Ashes was indeed a main game level cut out as DLC. But it's just a bit deceptive because they didn't literally remove it and sell it as DLC. They removed it, rewrote it to lose characters and things that was to tie into the Thessia plot, and then they wrote Javik as a full henchman. He was going to be written out of the crew after Thessia, happening right after curing the Genophage, because he was the Catalyst, hence "Cat1, 2, 3, 4", as in "Catalyst". The levels that involved "The Prothean"." ]]

[Dragaros]

https://twitter.com/normandyzine

[Dragaros]

https://twitter.com/BioWareGear

[Dragaros]

"Happy 12th birthday Mass Effect 2! Who were your ride-or-die squadmates in your first playthrough?"

Garrus and Tali to hell and back.



12 years, man.

[magnuskn]

Yeah, Team Dextro forever.

[Someone With Mass]

I honestly don't remember, but I'd guess Tali and Garrus, because Energy Drain and AP Ammo slaps.

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1J5yDq2UZM

Gotta give Darth Malgus points for persistence.

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X80oR1u8k6g

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N_3o_61lpU

[Dragaros]

And here's the first look at that new Tali figure they teased last year.

[Vol]

Ay, some new merch that looks interesting. Hope the price isn't too bad, because the shipping costs from the Bioware store are.

As for teams, I rolled with Team Harem, since I played an Infiltrator primarily. Tali/Liara->Tali/Samara->Tali/Liara. When I played Biotic, think I took Garrus, but I really can't even remember his abilities. Would've taken Wrex more often, as the AI was good for little more than abilities + absorbing fire in ME1. ME2, never took Thane, Cerberus crew, Legion, Jack, alternated through the rest. Only played ME3 twice, never tried to experiment.

[Dragaros]

"Sony Wants to Buy Mass Effect Publisher EA?"

"Was Mass Effect 2 as good as I remember? - An analysis of BioWare's companion collection simulator"

"Reaping What's Sown - Mass Effect 3 Deconstructed"

"An Avoidable Disaster - The Tragedy of Mass Effect Andromeda"

"What if Mass Effect was a first-person shooter?"

[Mazder]

Ay, some new merch that looks interesting. Hope the price isn't too bad, because the shipping costs from the Bioware store are.

At least your country shares a border with the country the store is from.

Imagine proper international shipping on top of what you get, lol!

[Deano]

And here's the first look at that new Tali figure they teased last year.

Not sure how I feel about this, the paintwork doesn't look great so depends on the price. The Kotobukiya figure is really nice and already have it so will probably pass.

Ay, some new merch that looks interesting. Hope the price isn't too bad, because the shipping costs from the Bioware store are.

At least your country shares a border with the country the store is from.

Imagine proper international shipping on top of what you get, lol!

I thought they had sorted the international shipping?

[Mazder]

I thought they had sorted the international shipping?

Depends what you mean by sorted.

Last thing I bought was the Normandy SR2 ME3 version model and it added at least half the price on in shipping back then.

[Vol]

At least your country shares a border with the country the store is from.

Imagine proper international shipping on top of what you get, lol!

Off the top of my head, Bioware Store is minimum $15 to ship even a box of Christmas cards, and ordering Frey Bentos from the ole' empire or Dutch condiments from the motherland is usually around $45. "Only" being 300% more expensive isn't a great deal from Bioware, is what I'm getting at, heh.

[Deano]

New Tali statues are available for pre-order, I still maintain the painting doesn't look great, look around the head especially:



However the unpainted ver. shows all the detail very nicely, I wouldn't have got it due to the shipping prices but they're actually very good now, they're only charging $15 and that's with tax and duties paid so no nasty surprises, that almost seems too good so I'm definitely getting it.

[Dragaros]

https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-tran ... ign=271445

[[ EA recently had their latest financial conference call.

Snippets relevant to our interests:

“Our pipeline further amplifies our strength. In addition to our core franchises, we are building new experiences in some of the biggest enduring IP in entertainment. Last week we announced a new agreement with Disney and LucasFilm Games to develop new experiences in the Star Wars universe, continuing our collaboration of more than a decade. [?] is leading the development of the next game in our action-adventure Star Wars Jedi series, as well as two additional Star Wars titles. This adds to our deep pipeline of announced and unannounced projects, with our wholly-owned IP, including Need For Speed, our BioWare franchises, The Sims, Skate, Dead Space, and more.”

—

“With regards to new launches in FY23, we’ve disclosed that Need For Speed is on the slate, and we’ll announce more titles closer to the time.” [pls note these weren’t said about or in the context of BioWare specifically, it was general statements, it’s just the kind of thing I listen for if that makes sense] “There are three to four more games coming in FY23 that we haven’t announced yet. We’re trying to grow our portfolio year over year with new titles, new IP, new expansion. […] We have a Need For Speed game coming, and there are 3 or 4 things we haven’t announced yet, but you can imagine we are always trying to find new ways to grow the portfolio year over year with new titles, new IP, expansion.”

—

Question from investor: “In light of the announcement that you guys are working on those three new Star Wars games, can you talk a little bit more about your vision for that IP, and is it fair to say that going forwards you’re planning to lean more towards investing in your own IP, and if so what are some of the potential pros and cons of that as a strategy?”

A. “Yeah, the very strength of our business is our balanced portfolio. We have both a deep and a broad portfolio, and what we’ve demonstrated over the best part of four years is to really develop both our own IP over time - Need For Speed, The Sims, Battlefield, Apex Legends, our BioWare franchises, we have Skate in development now, Dead Space on the way - so an incredible portfolio of own IP that has an extraordinary following across the industry. […] And so if you think about our strategy going forwards, and the strength of our company, it really comes down to our ability to develop and build and publish industry-leading owned IP, and also […]”

—

Question from investor: “Paramount Plus dropped a pretty expensive-looking Halo trailer over the weekend, and Netflix has had some success with The Witcher and League of Legends on their streaming service. There’s absolutely ravenous demand for content right now from half a dozen or so streaming services, and you guys have some IP, particularly within BioWare, that I think would be pretty good as a basis for a show. Are we finally at a point where video game IP has some trans-media opportunities or do you think that’s still more a theory than a reality?”

A. “No, I think, based on exactly what you just said and what we’ve experienced, you know, video game IP or interactive entertainment IP is now some of the most culturally relevant IP in all of entertainment. And I think that’s going to continue to grow. When you think about hundreds of millions of fans engaging in and around the IP we create, like Apex, like The Sims, like Need For Speed, like our BioWare franchises, like Dead Space, like Skate, it’s not unnatural for that to spawn kind of a scripted entertainment element. I think traditionally, the scripted entertainment elements in our industry have not been big revenue drivers in and of themselves, but where they have been of high quality, they have lifted the overall engagement of the franchise more deeply, so there’s kind of a one-two punch that drives growth in the business. I think as we think about our future, we do believe that this thing that we do, that is interactive entertainment, is becoming more and more important on a daily basis to all fans, and that our fans are going to want to experience that in many different modalities and some of that might be scripted entertainment in nature. And you should expect that we’re looking at any and all aspects that allow us to extend and expand our brands for our fanbase. But that we’re doing it very thoughtfully, and, again, as part of our strategy, doing it profitably." ]]

[Dragaros]

https://ea.gr8people.com/jobs/171198/na ... or-bioware

[[ "Some excerpts from the Next Mass Effect team Director job postings, cut for length:

[this list is excerpts from 4 different postings tossed together and I collected them just cuz they caught my interest]

BioWare is about creating worlds of adventure, conflict, and companionship that inspire players to become the hero of their story. We are looking for someone who shares our passion for games as a creative, storytelling medium. Join us and help create the next groundbreaking, blockbuster Mass Effect game.

BioWare is about creating worlds of adventure, conflict, and companionship that inspire players to become the hero of their story. We are looking for collaborative problem solvers who share our passion for games as a creative medium and want to create groundbreaking experiences for our players. Join us for this once-in-a-career opportunity to help build the next Mass Effect, creating Sci-Fi gameplay, emotionally engaging stories, and building a vast galaxy to explore.

We are looking for a Narrative Director with experience delivering high-quality, character-driven experiences. […] overseeing an experienced team of writers and narrative designers, you will blend traditional narrative elements (plot, pacing, characters) with game mechanics (choices, consequences, exploration) to bring Mass Effect’s next, big chapter to life.

Partner with the core leadership to establish the narrative, branching gameplay, and character vision.

Guide the ideation process as the team brainstorms ideas, characters, quests and narrative structure.

Provide direction and feedback to our narrative teams, with an eye towards creating memorable, interactive, and emotionally engaging experiences.

Unify story, design and gameplay to create a seamless narrative flow.

Maintain a story bible that includes game dialogue documentation, plot variables, character information, backstory, and cinematic handoff plans.

Research to support rich characters and plot development.

8+ years of narrative design experience with lead experience on at least one AAA title.

Experience developing a Single Player narrative design vision.

Experience managing branching gameplay.

Previz key scenes for gameplay, conversations, cinematics, and in-game set pieces to maintain a consistent flow.

8+ years of cinematic or previz experience on at least one AAA title. SP experience is a plus.

Have a deep passion for interactive narrative, visual storytelling, and game design.

Advocate for the player experience set expectations around the ARPG market

8+ years of gameplay design experience with lead gameplay design experience on at least one AAA title on a Single Player, 3rd Person, or Action RPG genre.

Experience developing vision regarding gameplay; combat systems and mechanics; weapons and balance; character, camera, control, and abilities; AI enemies and followers; progression; and enemy encounters.

Have a deep passion for interactive narrative and gameplay design. An affinity for Sci-Fi.

The Level Design Director will use their creative, technical, and single-player ARPG expertise to guide the larger picture, ensuring every mission, location, set piece, hub, layout, and player choice combine into an exciting, player-directed journey.

Develop gold standard missions and levels that exemplify Mass Effect’s creative vision and core pillars.

Guide and inspire the team to create unique spaces. Spaces where gameplay flow, visual composition, and narrative context form iconic, memorable experiences.

Experience developing a Single Player level design vision.

Drive experiential and narrative flow through a level, creating evocative spaces and iconic moments.

Experience with nonlinear, self directed level design." ]]

[Dragaros]

https://gear.bioware.com/products/tali- ... yya-statue

https://gear.bioware.com/products/tali- ... ype-statue



























I do like quarian butts and I cannot lie... tempting.

[Mazder]

I don't have space for her.....
but I want a 2nd one.....
ARGH

[Vol]

It was very tempting until I saw the price. Ah, what a terrible time of year for bootyful merch to drop. Hope they keep it in stock for a while then. With my signed litho stolen, and my shirt destroyed, all I got left is the other statue that came out, the Japanese inspired one.

[Dragaros]

https://www.reddit.com/r/masseffect/com ... hyns_live/

https://twitter.com/drewkarpyshyn/statu ... 00674?s=21

[Dragaros]