BioWare Doctors Did Not Leave Due to Fan Negativity
Dr. Ray Muyzka denies rumors that he and Greg Zeschuk left due to fan's negative reaction to Mass Effect 3 and SW:TOR.
Recently, BioWare founders Drs. Ray Muyzka and Greg Zeschuk, in an unexpected announcement, declared that they were retiring from BioWare and the gaming industry. According to Muyzka, the decision was influenced by the fact that he no longer felt the same passion for videogames as he previously did: "I’ve reached an unexpected point in my life where I no longer have the passion that I once did for the company, for the games, and for the challenge of creation," Zeschuk said. "For the people I have had the privilege of working with, however, my passion burns as brightly as it did the day we started. The people I work with now, and that I have worked with in the past, have inspired me and really made all of the challenges we’ve collectively faced over the years worthwhile."
Soon after, ex-BioWare and current Beamdog president Trent Oster stirred up the rumor pot by declaring that he had advised Zeschuk to "Punch out, eject, get the hell out" had "hit closer to the mark than I had realised." Oster then speculated that the doctors may have left because of fan negativity: "the Mass Effect 3 fan reaction and the Old Republic fans negativity was just too much.” In a few hours, Oster's speculation had spread to major gaming websites.
Muyzka denied the speculation on his Twitter feed, where he criticized games journalists that blew the rumor out of proportion for "speculating on ill-founded rumors should reassess approach" while praising fans for their "deep, honest passion."
While the overwhelming negative fan response to the Mass Effect 3 ending and The Old Republic's move to free-to-play were no doubt hard on the doctors, considering their experience in the industry, it would be a petty reason to leave a company whose name and work command respect.
Look at Halo 4. Bungie clearly no longer had a passion for the Halo franchise. 343i takes over, and Halo 4 looks like a fresh rejuvenation to the franchise. Bioware games can clearly benefit from the same thing.
Now whether EA helps or hurts this, remains to be seen.......
Ea is evil. Every series and developer EA has taken over, is dead or ruined.
All they care about is money when we need love towards gaming.
Look at Halo 4. Bungie clearly no longer had a passion for the Halo franchise. 343i takes over, and Halo 4 looks like a fresh rejuvenation to the franchise. Bioware games can clearly benefit from the same thing.
Now whether EA helps or hurts this, remains to be seen.......
I agree, but the grim look I see when a company spirals downwards while under EAs control. Common examples would be Bullfrog Entertainment(theme series), Pandemic Studios(SW: Battlefront, Mercenaries, Destroy all humans), as well as dissolve a lot of companies and relocated some of the members elsewhere.
As for this fan reaction, it's quite overblown actually. The ending isn't as bad as most people claim it to be. If you take your time slowly through the game and read everything (email, codex, datapads, and all the little clues that have been provided), the ending makes perfect sense. Most people who reacted to the ending probably didn't have all the facts going in and just rushed it.
On the topic of Ray and Greg though, the average person changes careers on average around 7 times in their lifetime. If they've been working at Bioware since 1995 or so, then this may be their first or second major career change.
Ea is evil. Every series and developer EA has taken over, is dead or ruined.
All they care about is money when we need love towards gaming.
Bioware used to create quality games until EA came along, things have gone steadily downhill from there. The problem is that buying BioWare isn't the problem, it's the meddling that happens afterwards. ME3 is case-in-point, all of the games major flaws can be attributed to EA's meddling.
Poor ending - Most likely reason: Pen-holders at EA placing unrealistic/unmoving time constraints on the development team.
Buggy Multiplayer - Again, not enough play-testing & bug fixing prior to release, also due to inadequate servers, provided by EA.
Day 1 DLC - From completion of the game to release is a gap of perhaps a month, more like 3 weeks, not enough time to complete the DLC which means it's development started prior to the games completion and smacks of more money-grabbing, perhaps this is just the way things have gone in the gaming sector but it still stinks of EA.
Many have framerate issues, the game runs terrible for what it offers graphically. The game feels clunky and unresponsive. Content was to easy most felt the game relied to heavy on everything being voice-overed. End game was lacking, raid content was so bugged for most it was not doable. It felt like what devs that were left were on a schedule to fix bugs, instead of fixing them asap within days. They would draw out issues for weeks to months before touching something. Many got tired of what was offered like myself and quit a few months after launch. Some felt they were trying to create another World of Warcraft and not an individual game itself with it's own soul. Such is a game if you take shortcuts and expect the player base to stick around on your bug fix schedule on a game engine you never created.
Steam helps you here by highlighting great Indie Games that are fun and dont cost a fortune.
EA Sucks more than a Dyson!
EA personal : You have a Good idea/design there, but I think we need to change a little bit of here, a little bit of thre.. .... There, this is the great new design the fans will like it, so are our shareholders.
BioWare founders: .................., sign....ooookay.....u are the boss.
Gamer/Fans: Wtf is this game, EA ruin bioware!
EA personal: Hey BioWare founders, look what have u guys done, the fans doesnt like our game. u guys are not going ur job well, You should quit now.
BioWare founders: So it is my fault again? ok, I no longer have passion to develop a game.
They had no choice in the matter. The holding company that had them sold them to EA. And guess who was in that holding company? The current CEO of EA!
Yea, that's right. He setup Bioware and Pandemic to be bought by EA and then became CEO of EA. James Bond movie plot here.
Bioware isn't ruined by EA. There was nothing wrong with the ending to Mass Effect 3. You just don't understand it that well. Makes perfect sense if people were paying attention and not rushing through the game.
"too deep for you, bro"
3 similiar endings with different colors, get a taste in video games, please.
There's a lot more to it than just three colors. It is a deep ending which a lot of people probably didn't understand that well, because it wasn't familiar to them, hence the outrage. I've heard a lot of people wanted a traditional Hollywood ending (mindless, lots of action, etc) for this game, but Bioware tried to do something different. However, for those who looked a little further, there's a lot more to this ending than everyone realizes.
However, I can't really convince some, because they are still mad about it even 7 months later.
My main beef was that the previous choices (like , lol) don't matter.