Poll: Will bioware be able to pull this year off?

[Pearwood]

You have to remember that to Bioware customers "average" is the same as "unmitigated failure", it's impossible to predict how well the games will do considering the expectations of their fanbase.

what Im wondering is will Bioware go down the same route as blizard? as in put all their energy into the MMO (if its sucessful) I guess though they are different teams....but still

Be fair, Blizzard made an absolutely phenominal RTS not too long ago and are working on two expansions for it. Bioware will probably do the same, have a department working on each game. Which is the most highly funded department depends on how well the games do.

 

[Etra488]

Bioware has been demonstrating a downward trend in quality.
[ul][li]Dragon Age 2 was a disaster.[/li]
[li]Mass Effect 2 wasn't as good - less content and more polish. A tumor's worth of cancerous polish.[/li]
[li]Mass Effect was an unrepentant orgy of cliches, but the polish was enough to distract you.[/li]
[li]Knights of the Old Republic was everything they've done before... but in Star Wars.[/li][/ul]

The games were fun and I'm glad I played them, but the further back you look, Bioware games just aren't as good now. The graphics and sound has improved, but the writers are still pushing the same flat characters and the same cliched stories. Fucking hell.

And now we know that The Old Republic isn't even going to have the polish of Mass Effect - they've intentionally made it look like a cartoon. And the gameplay is nothing new or inspired. They're going to try and create "fun" the same way WAR did. Has Bioware ever done anything innovative with gameplay? Ever?

Mass Effect 3 is going to be more of the same - Gears of War with more colors.

Bioware's in a downward trend. The company peaked but now I'm waiting for them to be replaced.

 

[Sean951]

I think TOR will be what Aion was, Rift will be, and every other "WoW-killer" has been to date. They will enjoy a moderate opening from people disillusioned from WoW who will, shortly after starting realize that its another MMO with the standard "Collect X of Y" quests and optimum builds that they will likely be able to make based off assumptions from WoW because, let's face it, every MMO has tried to be a slightly modified WoW. They might do some things better, like Rift's AoE looting or almost any other MMO PvP, but WoW has become too big and has far too much invested to let someone take their market share until they are ready to stop releasing WoW expansions and put out "Titan". People think WoW is ending, but I can see at least 2 more expansions worth of story material, and while I may be on hiatus, I will definitely flock back for at least a few months each time.

 

[Smooth Operator]

ME3 will be like ME2, so a huge payday

And that MMO will be around for a year before everyone notices even the Star Wars name can't improve upon the MMO taste, and then it will die out.

 

[Sean951]

ME3 will be like ME2, so a huge payday

And that MMO will be around for a year before everyone notices even the Star Wars name can't improve upon the MMO taste, and then it will die out.

Except WoW has 12 million (roughly) people who actively play? If any game sells that many copies, it clearly has a fairly broad market place.


EDIT: A kitten may kill itself, but how many many games have been called WoW-killers over the years, meanwhile WoW hit a new record for subscriptions as Cataclysm released this last December.

 

[katsabas]

Truthfully? I think they can pull off both projects. I don't care about TOR but I really wanna see it succeed where it must, seeing as a lot of work is being put into it.

ME3 on the other hand is something I don't wanna get my hopes up for. Anybody remember Yahtzee's fanboy diagram? If it sucks, ME2 is still in my top 10 favorite games and I will never stop playing it.

 

[Sean951]

ME3 will be like ME2, so a huge payday

And that MMO will be around for a year before everyone notices even the Star Wars name can't improve upon the MMO taste, and then it will die out.

Except WoW has 12 million (roughly) people who actively play? If any game sells that many copies, it clearly has a fairly broad market place.


EDIT: A kitten may kill itself, but how many many games have been called WoW-killers over the years, meanwhile WoW hit a new record for subscriptions as Cataclysm released this last December.

WoW has nothing to fear but WoW itself. I'll agree to that.

But that doesn't mean that TOR will fail spectacularly like the other MMOs have.

I think the only recent MMO failure that actually looked promising was Warhammer Online. And that game was PLAGUED with internal problems.

To be honest, I hope it doesn't kill WoW. Let Guild Wars 2 do that and let TOR enjoy its dedicated fanbase. I just hope it gets 500k+ subscribers to make up for the cost of development and reach a profitable state.

(Oh, speaking of. The 300 million development cost rumor was debunked. It has actually cost around 125 million. Which is still a hefty sum, but no where near 300 million.)

Oh, I'm not saying it will out right fail, I'm just saying it won't come anywhere close to what some people seem to think. That said, I don't give it a terribly long lifespan since, if I recall correctly, EA has explicitly stated that there will be no expansions for the game.

 

[Sean951]

Oh, I'm not saying it will out right fail, I'm just saying it won't come anywhere close to what some people seem to think. That said, I don't give it a terribly long lifespan since, if I recall correctly, EA has explicitly stated that there will be no expansions for the game.

I am pretty certain that's not true. But I don't have a source for that so I guess it is up in the air.

I recall EA saying that they want a 10 year lifespan for the game.

There was an article I saw months back, but I can't find it either and I can't even remember where I came across it so who knows. I hope it does well though, I like competition with good ideas since it can only make WoW, and by extension "Titan" better.

EDIT: Titan won't kill WoW until Blizzard is good and ready for WoW to be done, which will likely be in 5 1/2 years. Titan won't be released for another year or 2 either since it's only in development stage now and Blizzard isn't known for speedy release.

 

[plugav]

I don't think TOR is going to suck, but I don't know if not sucking is enough for a game to survive in the MMO market. I hope it does, because there's a slim chance that BioWare will finally be able to sit back and make a game they want to make without rushing too much.

As for Mass Effect 3, I trust them not to f*ck up. Mass Effect is their signature IP, after all. And a damn good one so far.

Am I the only one who doesn't think that the story in DA2 was terrible? I like that it bucks the standard fantasy story of YOU are the ONLY ONE who can defeat the ULTIMATE EVIL!! Which seems awfully cliched to me.

Nope, not the only one. People seem to want Tolkienesque epic all over again, while DA2 was more in the vein of the Conan or Witcher short stories, for lack of a better comparison.

It was like my experience with tabletop RPGs. My character was young, bold and desperate for money, he did increasingly complicated jobs, got recognised, got involved with the high-ups, etc. I loved that feel in DA2.

I do think, however, that the final two antagonists were pretty weak (dramatically) compared to the Arishok, whom I had time to understand and respect and hate.

Er, sorry for going off topic.

 

[StormShaun]

Mass Effect 3 YES and Star Wars MMO I dont really think it will be that good.

 

[Saviordd1]

...Enough in fact to make me nervous for ME3, which can either do as good as ME2 or better, or flop.

That's some interesting wording there. You're right ofcourse. Big dev companies can't make "okay" games anymore. They either re-invent the world and start a golden of age of Blah, Blah, Blah (as with ME2)........or they are mercilessly criticized to within an inch of their lives (as with DA2).

If it were made by anyone else, No-one would give a rat's ass about how Bland DA2 looks....... but since it's Bioware.......

Also, Isn't TOR going to go online next year? I heard they delayed it, I think? Or is it still scheduled for this year?

'

Umm, yes actually.
Bioware is normally held to a higher standard then other gaming companies, thus peopl expect more from them.

As for TOR god knows, its date changes every day

 

[higgs20]

I think ME 3 will be good I'm certainly looking forward to it, and i quite enjoyed DA 2 although the blatant copy-pasting of dungeons was horrible. i'm not really and MMO kind of guy and TOR looks like a pretty standard grind fest with a thin veneer of star wars layered on top of it, it'll be like every other MMO ever, that doesn't mean it won't do well but it probably won't dethrone WOW.