381 réponses à ce sujet

[Stanley Woo]

Hellbound555 wrote...

oh hey, what happens when a bioware user becomes an employee? does his or her old account get converted/deleted? and how does forum-behaviour play into employment?

When a BioWar user becomes an employee, we suggest that, if their user name is not some variation of their first/last name, they create a new account while they're employed. There was even a case of someone having an official forum tag, but when they moved to BioWare proper, they needed a slight variation of their user name so as not to cause confusion with their tags.

Their old account remains unmolested, so when the end their employment with BioWare, they have a non-BioWare account to go back to.

i didnt mean to say u guys were goin undercover to cause trouble, ive just kinda wondered if any of the devs or whatever signed up unannounced so they can goof off with the rest of the fans.

Unlikely. While BioWare employees do have lives of their own and can participate in any online community they like, there have always been guidelines on how to act/behave. EA policy on social media behaviour is even more explicit, but no more or less restrictive, which is why you can see us chatting it up here in the BioWare Social Network, why you see so many Mass Effect 3 developers talking about their work on Twitter, and why you sometimes see people mentioniing their work on their personal blogs.

But if you're hoping to see super secret information, you won't see us talking about it, as usual. New game announcement, DLC release dates, romance revelations, and new characters will be announced on the website first, same as always.

[Elhanan]

Thanks Lukas! If any other Bio-OT wish to respond, would be glad to hear their celeb stories, too.

FWIW - Last year I was assisting a gentleman with various tasks, trying to complete one request at a time for him. At some point, he handed me a card to give to my supervisor so that future requests could be met in advance. I simply placed it to the side, as it was not meant for me, and continued my labors. He returned a bit later with some other minor requests, and to help speed the process along, I grabbed the card to assist with the needed questions. The name on the card: Gayle Sayers!

At this point, I smiled and and spoke with him a while on his career, and acknowledged his accomplishments. At no point did he complain, demand special recognition or service, and he remains one of my my fave clients due to his humble attitude of life.

How cool it was to meet him; someone that was portrayed in film by Billy Dee Williams that was not from Star Wars! The only downside was that my co-workers received autographed pics, and I was the one that had to inform these female youngin's who he was in the first place!

http://en.wikipedia....iki/Gale_Sayers

Modifié par Elhanan, 07 juillet 2011 - 05:18 .

[asindre]

Who wrote HK-47?

[Lukas Kristjanson]

--Sticking with BG: I don’t think license hassles were the biggest contributor, so much as where we wanted to go as a company and the games we wanted to make. We'd learned a busload, closed our story the way we thought best, and had the opportunity to break ground with Neverwinter and take on Star Wars (and had some fun with MDK2 along the way). After that (and during) we figured we could do just as well working with our own IPs as we did on external IPs, and publishers agreed. But we didn't shut the door on similar opportunities, as you can see by SWTOR.

--Open Palm/Closed Fist: It was a collective design choice that there be some kind of behaviour gauge in Jade. I named the paths, came up with the basics, and wrote Smiling Mountain to be the initial authority.

--Mike wrote Bladed Thesis, founder of the Closed Fist.

--The language created for Jade: It was an interesting and mixed experience. I’ve commented on that elsewhere.

--Dave wrote HK-47. I wrote Tatooine so I did the initial meeting and Sand People stuff.

Modifié par Lukas Kristjanson, 08 juillet 2011 - 04:25 .

[Homebound]

uugh, the last 2 dev replies r depressing...licenses and policies? where is that youthful jubilance and whim i picture oh so foundly when i think of bioware headquarters?

heres a question, which "My little pony friendship is magic" character do you relate to the most?

[Stanley Woo]

Hellbound555 wrote...
uugh, the last 2 dev replies r depressing...licenses and policies? where is that youthful jubilance and whim i picture oh so foundly when i think of bioware headquarters?

You can put all the artsy people in a room to develop a game as you like, but without the money and business side of things, it's just a hobby. it's only with the business plans and the schedules and budget projections that you can make a living doing what you love.

heres a question, which "My little pony friendship is magic" character do you relate to the most?

i'd say Rainbow Dash, but I'm sure everyone who knows me would say Pinky Pie.

[MinotaurWarrior]

Have you ever played a game by another developer (or BioWare from before you worked there) and thought, "boy, I wish I had worked on this part of this game, that would have been fun" / had your head filled with spin off, mod, and sequel ideas? Any examples come to mind?

[upsettingshorts]

What characters, locations, or things changed notably or memorably from earlier in development before release of the game?

Such as "Veteran Alistair" for example.

Apologies if this question is clumsily worded but I haven't yet had my coffee.

[Dhiro]

If I'm not mistaken (I probably am) Sky was the first male bisexual character, no? Did you guys thought of doing a bisexual character in JE or the idea came up while doing older games?

I'm not considering Juhani because her romance was... not very romance-y.

[Seagloom]

Sky and Silk Fox were the first bisexual characters by default. Juhani was BioWare's one and only lesbian love interest to date.

There need to be more unconventional romances, I think. My problem with Juhani's romance was less to do with its lack of flirtation and flowery declarations than how lopsided it was. It bordered on creepy, clingy hero worship. Still, I preferred her to Carth in most of my later playthroughs. I actually wish more BioWare romances had subtler ques and fewer moments of brazen flirting.

Neverwinter Nights question:

Were there any monsters the team never got around to implementing but really wanted to?

Modifié par Seagloom, 09 juillet 2011 - 02:25 .

[Dhiro]

I just don't feel Juhani's romance was a, pardon the way I put it, a "proper" romance. She declared her love for my Revan out of blue, right before the last dungeon.

I like how you can annoy your LI and push them to the limit of their patience in KotOR. For some reason. I know that this usually don't make for a healthy relationship.

[upsettingshorts]

The KOTOR romances - at least Bastila when I replayed - kind of struck me like that as well Dhiro. I mean, you can annoy Bastila into revealing she likes you but after that happens the plot moves forward and you get maybe two lines referring to the "romance" such as it is.

Not that I'm complaining per se, that's just how it played out to me.

Modifié par Upsettingshorts, 12 juillet 2011 - 06:09 .

[Homebound]

in an all-out ufc-sactioned brawl, who would win in a fight? Chris priestly or stanley woo? Note, both have access to furniture in a typical office setting. the match is made up of 3, 5min rounds and a winner can only be determined via tko or submission.

[Stanley Woo]

MinotaurWarrior wrote...

Have you ever played a game by another developer (or BioWare from before you worked there) and thought, "boy, I wish I had worked on this part of this game, that would have been fun" / had your head filled with spin off, mod, and sequel ideas? Any examples come to mind?

I always wished I had worked on the World of Xeen / Might and Magic games. Getting involved with story and plot testing on those games would have been a hoot. I loved playing those games and Isles of Terra was one of the first CRPGs I'd ever completed, which is quite the accomplishment for me.

[Stanley Woo]

Upsettingshorts wrote...

What characters, locations, or things changed notably or memorably from earlier in development before release of the game?

Many things change during development, as we try and find what works and what doesn't work. What works one month may not work the next month after all the associated content is built. You might find that a section of story is not paced well compared to other sections, or that what you thought was a terrible plot and abandoned would work extremely well if it were brought back. Some notable parts of games that changed significantly before ship include:

• the water planet Manaan in KotOR. The construction of he level changed significantly as we were getting nearer to the ship date, as we tried to juggle the needs of the story vs. our memory budget. not only di the size of certain areas need to be changed, but hte number of areas, period, needed to be looked at. While the final version of the planet still seemed pretty large, at one point during development it was larger still.
• Human Noble origin in DAO. Between prototyping and full production, this origin underwent significant changes in both layout and content. Iona was a very different character, the player had many different dialogue options, and the castle changed quite a lot as the engine was developed.
• the Official Campaign of Neverwinter Nights. There was a drastic change to how the OC of NWN played, such that a few months before ship, the entire first half of the game was essentially rewritten from the ground up. that was not a pleasant time, but I think we got a much better game out of it.

[Il Divo]

GodWood wrote...

Upsettingshorts wrote...
I was checking the credits for Jade Empire - which, despite what my memory had told me, I'm enjoying more than KOTOR

Jade Empire is such an underappreciated gem.

Truly one of my all time favourite games.


[*]

Agreed. It might possibly be my favorite storyline based on the setting, characters, art style, and main story.

This thread is also making me nostalgic. I might have to start reinstalling some old favorites.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

Youthful jubilance? Games are srs bizness. I know because of the plastic firepower flanking my monitor. On the right is Optimus Prime wielding a gunblade, with Love Boat’s Captain Stubing on his shoulder. On the left is a Sentinel with a stratocaster, and on his shoulder is HK-47 in a top hat. Srs. Bizness.

Inspiration/modding: I think several people here got their start modding. We’re inspired by other games all the time. When we’re not making, we’re playing. Especially all those other RPGs that people seem to think we’re supposed to be cage fighting. There are loads of times I’ve been deep in a game and been inspired to adapt how I do something, or thought “hmm, I would have done X.” S’all good. This industry needs quality, competition, and exchanges of ideas. A setting I would like to explore? I have a real soft spot for the post-apocalyptic melancholy of Fallout and the high conspiracy of Deus Ex.

Areas/Characters that change: Well, you can look at Matt Rhodes’ DA2 line-up for startlingly different concepts of Bethany and Merrill, as well as two pages of iterations on Jack, although all of these were part of finding looks to match direction, not changing direction. Once a character has been approved by the higher-ups they are usually iterated within a range, but don’t radically change unless something drastic happens, like a technical limitation or external conflict. For example, Qunari in DA:O were originally intended to have horns, but it raised special-case GUI and equipment concerns. We supported the change with lore, using it as an opportunity to deepen the setting. Game design is full of opportunities to do more work.

Monsters in Neverwinter: Ones we didn’t get to? I’m sure there were, there always are. I don’t remember off hand, but you could probably just flip to any page of the AD&D Monster Manual and be sure that someone here made a pitch for it at some point.

Romances in KotOR: I’m gonna go out on a limb and suggest that part of the difference in how the romances in KotOR compare has something to do with roughly 8 years less experience. Because it was 8 years ago. Just sayin'.

On Jade and Sky, we asked ourselves “is this a big deal?” and decided that relative to the mountain of other things that Jade had to explain about itself, no, it wasn’t a big deal. But like any feature, it’s not always a clear-cut question. There have been no end of threads on that, though, and I defer to those.

[Nerdage]

Sorry to bring back a thread that's on the way out but I have one last question, one that was probably asked at the time too, but I only just noticed it replaying BG recently.

In Throne of Bhaal there's a conversation between Imoen and Sarevok if you let her ressurect him about his 'reading' her soul, for want of a better way of put it. The bit I'm curious about is:

Sarevok- How about the agony you felt as your soul was ripped from you? The dispair at being left only with cold voices of your tained heart, discovering what was inside you all along?

Sarevok- How about the hurt you keep deep down within, wondering if you weren't good enough for Gorion? Wondering why you're a bhaalspawn? How about the lonliness... The unrequited longing you --

Imoen- Stop! Enough... I won't bother you, Sarevok, just --

Was it ever established what this "unrequited longing" was for? The more I think about it the more I think it's referring to her feelings for the PC, be they from before their shared heritage came to light or not. The rest of the stuff he mentions we already knew, or could assume, because she'd said as much herself. But the way she interrupts him at that moment, as though that one issue was something she particularly didn't want the party to hear, makes me think it's more personal than the rest and that it involves the PC (being the only one who has to be in the party, and possibly the only other one in the party).

Basically, was there an intentional meaning when that line was written or was it left vague for the player to fill in the gap? And if it did refer to her feelings toward the PC, was that ever something that was considered for further exploration, if not with a full-blown romance then some other way?

Modifié par nerdage, 16 juillet 2011 - 07:36 .

[AtreiyaN7]

Lukas Kristjanson wrote...


[*]David Warner: He had a great voice and he was available. On BG2 we had the cred to spend the money. Not that we didn’t get quality actors for BG1, but we couldn’t afford “names.” Fun fact, we originally looked into Clancy Brown for Sarevok. No complaints with Kevin Michael Richardson, but, you know, Kurgan. Or Rawhide if you’re double-old school.

Ah - thanks! Hehe - I've often thought it would be cool to hear Clancy Brown voicing a character in a game, but I would probably keeping thinking "KURGAN!!!!" I have to admit that his role in Highlander usually comes to mind first instead of the one in Buckaroo Banzai - lol.

[Lukas Kristjanson]

nerdage wrote...
Basically, was there an intentional meaning when that line was written or was it left vague for the player to fill in the gap?

We leave things open to interpretation all the time. It deepens characters if they have aspects that are not wholly defined by the immediate events, and lets the player construct personal motivations and fill out the minutia of relationships that simply can’t be represented in a game that is not expressly about that. But if you’re asking if we intended to leave room for discussing a romance between the player and his half-sister… short answer, no. Long answer, .

Random trivia: I found an old notebook of mine that covers the end of Jade through ME2. There are notes from the ME1 naming meetings, and before suggesting Wrex I apparently penciled in the alt “Morg.” How metal.

[Chromie]

What do the people making a game eat? I just had an image of everyone eating cup noodles and drinking 5 hour energy.

[Stanley Woo]

Ringo12 wrote...

What do the people making a game eat? I just had an image of everyone eating cup noodles and drinking 5 hour energy.

We eat the same things as everyone else. Some of us watch what they eat, some of us eat very unhealthily. Many are hooked on coffee or energy drinks or cola, some are tea fans, some drink only water throughout the day.

For lunch, some folks bring food from home, some go out to eat.

Seriously, we're not that different from everyone else.

[Nerdage]

Lukas Kristjanson wrote...

nerdage wrote...
Basically, was there an intentional meaning when that line was written or was it left vague for the player to fill in the gap?

We leave things open to interpretation all the time. It deepens characters if they have aspects that are not wholly defined by the immediate events, and lets the player construct personal motivations and fill out the minutia of relationships that simply can’t be represented in a game that is not expressly about that. But if you’re asking if we intended to leave room for discussing a romance between the player and his half-sister… short answer, no. Long answer, .

I ask because you don't know she's your half sister by the end of BG1, so I could imagine people hearing she was to come back in BG2, and hearing that romances were an actual game mechanic in BG2, and jumping to the obvious conclusion. I know I would've.

It kind of feels to me like -if romances were a mechanic in BG1- there would've been no reason to not have an Imoen romance possible, it would've felt really arbitrary to just never allow the subject to come up. I refuse to believe the PC is supposed to develop feelings for Jaheira during the five minutes you know her in BG2 (or vice versa for that matter), from an RP perspective that relationship must've started back in BG1, so why couldn't the PC have feelings for Imoen in the same way (from before the big reveal, I mean)?

I can understand the reason it turned out like it did, I imagine that the average player would just accept that she's your half sister therefore subject closed, so I doubt many people would care to even have the option to discuss it. But from an RP standpoint it just seems to me like the subject should come up.

Modifié par nerdage, 18 juillet 2011 - 06:03 .

[Seagloom]

Lukas Kristjanson wrote...

But if you’re asking if we intended to leave room for discussing a romance between the player and his half-sister… short answer, no. Long answer, .

I got the same impression nerdage did from that conversation. Mind, I doubt any of my characters would go for Imoen even if she spoke up. I do not believe she counts as the PC's biological half-sister in the way modern science interprets it given Bhaal's reliance on magical means to reproduce. But that my character grew up having a sibling dynamic with Imoen means it still would have felt strange to pursue a romance.

That said, I did get the same impression as nerdage given Imoen's long standing admiration of the PC and the vehemence with which she silences Sarevok. Putting everything that came before "Throne of Bhaal", and the tone of her voice when she says goodbye, and it is clear Imoen has deep affection for the PC. Perhaps not *romantic* affection, but I can certainly see why someone can make that leap with the material presented.

Good question nerdage. I never thought to ask about it; as I was satisfied with my own interpretation.

---

I have a "Dragon Age: Origins question. I once read there was a planned lyrium addiction mechanic. How would it have worked? Was lyrium ever intended to be scarcer than it became in the final game?

Modifié par Seagloom, 18 juillet 2011 - 06:01 .