Gatt9 wrote...
Balek-Vriege wrote...
This is a lot of cart before the horse arguments. It seems a lot of people against MP saying they will never buy another Bioware game again or a new Bioware game have already come to the conlusion that:
You're right, but you've got it backwards.
1. MP addition is crap and anything Bioware reveals about it is not true or "suspect," regardless of no contradictory information. That doesn't make a lot of sense to just ignore info in order to complain more.
You're making the assumption that Multiplayer was added to a single player narrative driven game, because it makes single-player narrative driven games better. It does not. Multiplayer in a single-player game is not only useless, but paradoxal.
Further, you're making the assumption that "Bioware" has anything to say at this point. They don't. Mainly because Bioware does not exist any longer. EA OTOH does, and EA's got quite a track record.
Even further, EA's made no secret of Online Pass and it's purpose.
So to be quite blunt, you're making alot of assumptions based on the desire for the feature ot have been implemented for good reasons, in a place it does not belong, because you want it to be good.
But if you actually read the information, and think about the game you're talking about, you'll find that the premise is pretty iffy at best.
A good place to start is "Why is the multiplayer specifically tied to a key element that decides whether or not you get the optimal ending to a 3 game series?".
Paraphrase it. "Why is Multiplayer forced to obtain the optimal ending unless you jump through hoops, that look to be unreasonably difficult to achieve based on what Casey stated?"
It's an easy answer, Online Pass.
2. MP being added has taken away loads of devleopment time from SP even though a whole other team called Bioware Montreal has done the brunt of the development on MP. At most I could see some level designers/programmers etc. working with the other team so they're both on the same page. If people are going to get on their high horses and declare Mass Effect 3 a compromised piece of trash, prove how many hours SP devs and money went to MP and what plans for SP were compromised because of it.
We don't even know how much budget ME3 has and whether or not EA uped it for MP features (which is likely because of the added team). That's something no one will know except the Devs and EA themselves. You would think people have already played ME3 with the reactions on here. Unfortunately for them they will probably never enjoy ME3 SP regardless of how good it is because of such strong feelings towards MP, Bioware and EA.
My turn.
1. EA isn't giving a 2 million unit game an AAA budget. ME sold a little over 2 million units. ME2 sold a little over 2 million units. Since this game is the ending of a 3 game series, simple logic tells us not to expect any more sales than what the first two sold. Simple logic also tells us investing 50 million dollars in a 20 million dollar return is a bad idea.
2. I really don't have to prove anything else, the paragraph right above says it all. It's simple math and logic. I don't need Deve hours, or specific money amounts, though I can give you fair estimations if you'd like, you're going to work out to around 1-2 million extra due to duplication of jobs and the added burden of a second full team.
3. As I said already, EA didn't up the budget out of the kindness of their hearts for a game that isn't going to sell any better than it's predecessors due entirely to the serial nature of the series.
But EA did up the budget because they expect to increase the revenues by forcing the number of people who bought used copies to pay them, and to guarantee return on investment, I promise you they made sure Multiplayer was very difficult to avoid.
/snip
As to the first part. I'm not making any assumptions. I read the FAQ, watched the video and forming an opinion based on those facts while knowing full well the possible drawbacks (quality of MP, the dirty details etc.). What i'm not doing is getting emotional and ahead of myself by ignoring the FAQ info and video in order to "vent" about MP fans, MP not belonging in Mass Effect, the purity of Mass Effect as a hardcore (not) RPG singleplayer game and the list goes on. I don't care about online passes personally, since they're trying to make money on used sales and I don't buy used games. Up to the individual to decide if that's fair or not (especially since it's an Xbox only thing?).
MP is stated not to be needed for SP. It's simple the way they explained it. In singleplayer there are factors which determine the outcome of the game. One of those factors is Galactic Readiness. Enough Galactic Readiness can be obtained by playing SP only (combined with other factors) to get any ending or an optimal ending. Galaxy at War provides addition Galactic Readiness points meaning is makes it easier to get enough GR, but is not necessary. Galaxy at War only fits in plot wise as a means of taking control of soldiers on the ground fighting the day to day war against the Cerb/Reapers. I think the only other link so far is that you need to play SP and gain alliances with a race in order to unlock them for MP (could be wrong on that, haven't read that so far except on forums). If you don't believe me or other info there's nothing I can say to you to convince you. You're just going to have to wait until someone beats ME3 with the best ending without MP play. Or doesn't, in which you would be correct.
To the second part of which you may know the answer to some of these questions. Do you know what type of budget EA gives a "AAA" Game? What qualifies for a "AAA" game? Do we know the exact figures for developing ME1 and ME2? Do we know the budget of ME3? How much development time is not needed because of ME1/ME2's existing programming? How do we know ME3 will sell less than ME1 or ME2? Is it the norm for sequels sell less with each release? If so why are game companies creating sequels? In the end we don't know what decisions were made behind the scenes so we can't assume to know the answers or how much resources Bioware is putting into ME3 compared to the last 2 games. We also can't assume how well ME3 will sell. We will have an idea after the first 3 weeks after release. Will definitely be dependent on the quality of the game.
For all we know the budget for ME3 could be 50-100% more than ME1 or ME2, it could be just as much or it could be less (doubt it
). What we do know is that a second development team worked on MP. That means they most likely received resources from EA to cover costs and development time from their end. If EA provided more funding for ME3 seperate from Bioware Edmonton's original budget, than minimal resources and time was compromised if any. If MP development "stole" resources than it could have a negative impact on SP.
Edit: Typo, touch up.
Modifié par Balek-Vriege, 18 octobre 2011 - 05:35 .
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