Former Bioware Dev speaks out against EA's monetisation practices

[AlienALX]

When The Division was first shown off years ago, I thought this could be perfect for me. Then I found out that it was going to be heavily MP and online, I lost a lot of interest. While it may have been too early to tell for sure, the game ended up being well received in general but was mired by the same crap that online gameplay is usually mired by: idiots and microtransactions.

I really don't want to sound like a venerable old tosser but believe me, games these days are truly crap.

When I was a kid it was all about making games better. Sure, the money came along with it *but* the envelope was constantly being pushed and graphics and gaming worlds grew bigger etc. A decent one player romp back then would last you weeks. Half Life, for example. Then they come along with games with practically no content but "Here look, you can play with your mates !". Prices soar, content shrunk and basically in the end you would end up with a £35 game that had four interactive maps in them that relied on you and your mates to make the gameplay.

Now sure, things like Left 4 Dead (and 2) were a lot of fun but pretty lazy really. If you compare it to Half Life 2 you can clearly see that L4D involves less than an afternoon of gameplay to do all of the levels. The fun was in playing with your friends.

Now? it is all about providing less for more. Companies like EA want to spend as little money and as little time as is humanly possible developing games, then sell them for as much money as they can get their fat little mitts on.

Which is why I have been like NBD for over a decade. I have legally purchased about three games from EA since 2007. One was the latest NFS because it did actually have a bugger load of content. Other than that I have mostly downloaded them illegally, installed them, went "meh" and deleted them from my system completely.

We are starting to go in reverse now though. People are bored of playing online and want to be more hermit like.

 

[Dicehunter]

I really don't want to sound like a venerable old tosser but believe me, games these days are truly crap.

When I was a kid it was all about making games better. Sure, the money came along with it *but* the envelope was constantly being pushed and graphics and gaming worlds grew bigger etc. A decent one player romp back then would last you weeks. Half Life, for example. Then they come along with games with practically no content but "Here look, you can play with your mates !". Prices soar, content shrunk and basically in the end you would end up with a £35 game that had four interactive maps in them that relied on you and your mates to make the gameplay.

Now sure, things like Left 4 Dead (and 2) were a lot of fun but pretty lazy really. If you compare it to Half Life 2 you can clearly see that L4D involves less than an afternoon of gameplay to do all of the levels. The fun was in playing with your friends.

Now? it is all about providing less for more. Companies like EA want to spend as little money and as little time as is humanly possible developing games, then sell them for as much money as they can get their fat little mitts on.

Which is why I have been like NBD for over a decade. I have legally purchased about three games from EA since 2007. One was the latest NFS because it did actually have a bugger load of content. Other than that I have mostly downloaded them illegally, installed them, went "meh" and deleted them from my system completely.

We are starting to go in reverse now though. People are bored of playing online and want to be more hermit like.

I agree with everything you said BUT I personally love a single player campaign that has the option of being able to be played cooperatively with nothing cut out, Like Aliens Colonial Marines, Yes it was over hyped but the main campaign with a friend is fun as hell.

 

[NeverBackDown]

I agree. The developer's attitude towards white people isn't going to inherently make him a bad video game developer and all his video games will suck. Harvey Weinstein produced some of the best films of all time, but he's been accused by multiple sources as being sexually manipulative and predatory. Roman Polanski's been accused of sexually assaulting a minor, yet he's not faced trial in the States and is still making excellent films.

Yep. Life's not fair and things like that happen. People with money get away with it

I'm only saying that NBD made an asshat comment, nothing more. I have no "narrative" or anything like that. Maybe he should read Dice's comment and try to understand where Linchpins comment came from in the first place.

You should read what I said. Because no where did I defend his attitude or racist profanity. You should at least follow along before butting in trying to turn it into something it isn't. Being against certain people has nothing to do with making a game as I've said. Which was my whole point. Ignore everything else as that wasn't and won't influence my views on being a Developer. There are bad people in this world. I'm used to it. I live in the worst State in the US. Trust me. I know how terrible people are

 

[smilertoo]

EA have become a pestilence on gaming but i don't blame them, i blame gamers for accepting every little knudge EA have made over the years towards treating the gamer like a cash cow to be milked at every opportunity,

 

[NeverBackDown]

EA have become a pestilence on gaming but i don't blame them, i blame gamers for accepting every little knudge EA have made over the years towards treating the gamer like a cash cow to be milked at every opportunity,

Well to be fair it did start with the companies. It's just continued because of consumers. Can't really blame them for that. What we can blame them for is the fact they are getting more greedy and until recently with Battlefront 2 most people have been indifferent but now they see them for what they are. It's going in the right direction. It's gonna take a long time though before they change anything. Very unfortunate. Free 2 play games are less greedy than EA. That should say a lot!

 

[AlienALX]

I agree with everything you said BUT I personally love a single player campaign that has the option of being able to be played cooperatively with nothing cut out, Like Aliens Colonial Marines, Yes it was over hyped but the main campaign with a friend is fun as hell.

Yeah single player co op games are amazing. Even though BLOPS III was rubbish (just a stupid story and idea) if you skipped the story and played with a pal it was awesome.

I think the best single player game with co op is Dead Island DE. It's OK in single player (bit boring in places) but when you have a mate there it just comes alive in a whole new way.

 

[AngryGoldfish]

I really don't want to sound like a venerable old tosser but believe me, games these days are truly crap.

When I was a kid it was all about making games better. Sure, the money came along with it *but* the envelope was constantly being pushed and graphics and gaming worlds grew bigger etc. A decent one player romp back then would last you weeks. Half Life, for example. Then they come along with games with practically no content but "Here look, you can play with your mates !". Prices soar, content shrunk and basically in the end you would end up with a £35 game that had four interactive maps in them that relied on you and your mates to make the gameplay.

Now sure, things like Left 4 Dead (and 2) were a lot of fun but pretty lazy really. If you compare it to Half Life 2 you can clearly see that L4D involves less than an afternoon of gameplay to do all of the levels. The fun was in playing with your friends.

Now? it is all about providing less for more. Companies like EA want to spend as little money and as little time as is humanly possible developing games, then sell them for as much money as they can get their fat little mitts on.

Which is why I have been like NBD for over a decade. I have legally purchased about three games from EA since 2007. One was the latest NFS because it did actually have a bugger load of content. Other than that I have mostly downloaded them illegally, installed them, went "meh" and deleted them from my system completely.

We are starting to go in reverse now though. People are bored of playing online and want to be more hermit like.

I actually think gaming is excellent right now. Games like Hotline Miami, Euro Truck Simulator 2, Brothers, and Child of Light are still shining examples. And we still have excellent AAA titles. Max Payne 3, Batman Arkham knight, Mad Max, Spec Ops The Line, Borderlands 2, Dishonored, Red Dead Redemption, GTA V, The Last of Us, Uncharted 4, Bioshock Infinite, L.A. Noire, Shadow of Mordor, Splinter Cell Blacklist, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Titanfall 2, The Witcher 3, Dark Souls II, XCOM 2, Grim Dawn, Alien Isolation, and more. All very good games.