68 réponses à ce sujet

[Stanley Woo]

Dr_Hello wrote...

Hey Stanley, I have a general question.

Out of curiosity,
Does BioWare, before releasing a game, do game testing and surveys? such as, getting a private group of testers to play the entire prefinal game version and get their feedback, so then BW proceeds to finalizing the game?

Focus testing. yes we do, but probably not to the extent you're thinking.

[Stanley Woo]

And as there's a bit of a lull (finally!), I get to go home. Later, gators!

[John Epler]

Mr.BlazenGlazen wrote...

Well, their goes Woo. Thanks for talking with us man. Is john Epler still here?

You have me until this glass of scotch runs out. Then, bed time.

[John Epler]

Isichar wrote...

John Epler wrote...

Mr.BlazenGlazen wrote...

Well, their goes Woo. Thanks for talking with us man. Is john Epler still here?

You have me until this glass of scotch runs out. Then, bed time.

Question!
Scotch on the rocks?

Neat, until I acquire a set of those wonderful whiskey ice cubes (the ones that you freeze and which don't actually melt in your drink).

[John Epler]

granyte wrote...
a mods meh not important enough
but as the only guys who post on the forum and interact with the comunauty getting to have an idea of how the comunauty see it should be part of it other wise they can do C&C4 all over again

you know the whole hiring a director and a lead writer who don't like C&C and RTS at all to beggin with to work on the grand-pa of all RTS

You know, remarking that the people who are interacting with you are 'not important enough' is really not the right approach to take. Beyond that, of course, neither of us have 'moderator' as a job title. We're both developers who do the moderation thing on the side, generally in our spare time. I'm a Cinematic Designer and Stan's Quality Assurance.

[John Epler]

Singu wrote...

John Epler wrote...

T-Zero wrote...

That stinks.  The Normandy convo's are really what carried the game for me.  But I can understand; if you have hamburger every day for a week, you really don't want anything but fried chicken after...

Well, the bright side of all that was that I got the opportunity to cut my teeth by doing the cinematic design work for all the non-critical Joker conversations. So it was certainly a positive step in that regard. And the Normandy conversations were great - I was a particular fan of the Garrus work. In the end, I was able to go back and enjoy them properly, but it did take a while. And my perspective was, in the end, still different than someone who didn't work on the game.

I view Joker as a representative for the player, it was such a breath of relief to hear what remarks he had on what's happening in the galaxy. Did you do the scene where he's talking about the Citadel from the bench in the Presidium? You could cut a diamond with that sarcasm, brilliant!!

To clarify, I only did the scenes in ME2. I'm not sure who did them in ME3, but I'll certainly let them know that their work is appreciated.

[John Epler]

Mr.BlazenGlazen wrote...

Oh crap. Was watching Psych and might of missed Epler leaving the thread.

I know you've probably already answered few dozen posts regarding the endings, so I'm going to ask something that doesn't have anything to do from the endings, for now.

You guys planning on creating more hub worlds? I thought someone from bioware said last year that there would be larger hub worlds like Illium and whatnot.

I pour rather large glasses of scotch, so you have me for a little while yet.

Not something I can really comment on, sorry. Not only am I not on the ME team (and thus can't answer your question even if I wanted to), we have rather specific schedules when it comes to announcements and discussing future content.

[John Epler]

Byrdman wrote...

John Epler wrote...

Mr.BlazenGlazen wrote...

Oh crap. Was watching Psych and might of missed Epler leaving the thread.

I know you've probably already answered few dozen posts regarding the endings, so I'm going to ask something that doesn't have anything to do from the endings, for now.

You guys planning on creating more hub worlds? I thought someone from bioware said last year that there would be larger hub worlds like Illium and whatnot.

I pour rather large glasses of scotch, so you have me for a little while yet.

Not something I can really comment on, sorry. Not only am I not on the ME team (and thus can't answer your question even if I wanted to), we have rather specific schedules when it comes to announcements and discussing future content.

What kind of scotch? I'm a single malt, highlands region man myself

Bruichladdich 15 year. I have a bottle of Tallisker 12 at work, and a Glenlivet kicking around.. somewhere, either at a friend's house or in a closet somewhere.

[John Epler]

Maria Caliban wrote...

Reptilian Rob wrote...

It's the NUMBER ONE facet in the literary world to have a coherent universe and canon from the get go, and have it end in a satisfying and clear manner.

No, it's not.

There are authors like Brandon Sanderson who'll write out 100k world bibles for his works and creates detailed chapter outlines prior to starting a rough draft. There are people like GRRM and Stephen King who both write from the seat of their pants.

A tangent, but reading Stephen King's On Writing cured me of what, for me, was an unfortunate habit - trying to plan out each and every bit of my writing. That's not to say that it's for everyone, though - it's a lot easier to write yourself into a corner when you don't have any kind of outline. But for me, the way my mind works makes it almost detrimental to plan things out too much in advance. I do best when it's off-the-cuff - the story I want to tell exists almost in its entirety in my head, after all, and putting it down on paper as an 'outline' seems to ruin something in the translation.

This is not meant as a comment on anything ME related, by the way - I just find it fascinating how different people have completely different writing styles.

[John Epler]

Bourne Endeavor wrote...

I, for one, may or may not have seen the Miranda romance enough I can recite some of the dialogue from memory, and yes, have romanced everyone multiple times. Suppose that does not say much on my priorities but I stand by it being time well spent. Had I not taken to writing more in recent years, I likely would have completed the games more.

With all this in mind, John. I must ask, which have been your favorite romances in both ME and DA?

I really enjoyed the Garrus romance in ME2 - it was tender and believable in all the right ways, and his awkwardness just made it better. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the others - but that was probably my favourite.

As for DA? I liked Isabela. She was fun, and I liked that it was obvious that the 'devil may care' attitude was, to a large degree, a way to keep herself from ever being hurt. Though I do still have a soft spot for Leliana - she was my Warden's love.

[John Epler]

Isichar wrote...





Still waiting on that DA exclusive news John

Come over to the DA forums and I'll gladly discuss whatever I can about DA with you, or even game design in general. Or, heck, shoot me a PM and I'll do the same.

These parts, though, I'm something of a guest. So I try to keep to either ME, or somewhat off-topic rambling.

[John Epler]

HenchxNarf wrote...

Oh! Epler, if you're still here.

ME or DA, which do you like to play the most?

Tough call. I enjoy them both for different reasons - DA for the scope, ME for the feel. It seems vague, and that's because it's hard to articulate what I enjoy about both franchises.

[John Epler]

Fapmaster5000 wrote...

FabricatedWookie wrote...

Banelash wrote...

HenchxNarf wrote...

I miss all the fun But I'm glad they came around. I read through what they were saying and it's sad that people were being rude to them at the beginning.

@Bathaius They didn't alienate anyone. From what we know, they're only explaining and clarifying the endings. They're not changing anything.

Man have you seen CoD fans? Look what CoD fans did to Robert Bowling Tweet feeds. So much cursing and death threats.

Bioware fans are considered angels. Heck they even sent cupcakes to them.

But the cupcakes did have less than secret troll faces on them

You know, Bioware could have utterly flipped that troll around by declaring, "While we like the taste of red, blue, and green, the taste of your tiny, tiny tears were the best part."  I'd have been pissed, but I'd also have had to bow to them for that.

In my time in the games industry, I can think of maybe three people for whom I'd be sorely tempted to respond in a fashion similar to this. Only one of them comes from this forum, though, and two of them aren't even a result of anything BioWare related.

[John Epler]

goodventure wrote...

@John Epler

Quick question before I miss you.

Kaidan or Ashley?

Ashley. We had some good times in ME1 - despite the popular 'space ****' appellation, I always found her distrust of aliens to be, while not entirely reasonable, not without some amount of justification. I liked Kaidan, too - don't get me wrong. He did his job quietly and without complaint, and would only ever open up if you actively sought out his opinion. But he still ate a nuke, two out of three times.

[John Epler]

Lochias WH wrote...

John Epler wrote...

goodventure wrote...

@John Epler

Quick question before I miss you.

Kaidan or Ashley?

Ashley. We had some good times in ME1 - despite the popular 'space ****' appellation, I always found her distrust of aliens to be, while not entirely reasonable, not without some amount of justification. I liked Kaidan, too - don't get me wrong. He did his job quietly and without complaint, and would only ever open up if you actively sought out his opinion. But he still ate a nuke, two out of three times.

John, I just have to say that your signature is amazing.

You are the epitome of bro, in every brossible way, and that's the Bro's honest truth, bro. I may have a bropensity for broverstatement, but this no mere hyperbrole: You are 100 brocent, absbrolutely the broest. Brotally.

I changed it no more than half an hour ago, actually. Until then, it was 'I'm afraid we'll have to use.. math., from one of my favourite of the new Futurama episodes.

But the various ridiculous names that come out of bro culture amuse me far too much to pass up.

[John Epler]

EvilChani wrote...

John Epler wrote...

A tangent, but reading Stephen King's On Writing cured me of what, for me, was an unfortunate habit - trying to plan out each and every bit of my writing. That's not to say that it's for everyone, though - it's a lot easier to write yourself into a corner when you don't have any kind of outline. But for me, the way my mind works makes it almost detrimental to plan things out too much in advance. I do best when it's off-the-cuff - the story I want to tell exists almost in its entirety in my head, after all, and putting it down on paper as an 'outline' seems to ruin something in the translation.

This is not meant as a comment on anything ME related, by the way - I just find it fascinating how different people have completely different writing styles.

The problem with outlining too much of a story is that, at some point, the characters refuse to cooperate with you and force the story elsewhere. Unless, of course, you say the hell with it and write them (or those around them) in a way that doesn't mesh with their characterization and call it a day, in which case you end up with plot-driven drivel. Stupid uncooperative characters...

One of the most interesting introductions I've ever read to a book was the introduction to Salem's Lot. King had originally planned for the protagonist (you'll have to forgive me, I can't recall his name as it's been a good year and a half since I last read it) to end up a victim of the vampires, but found that his writing steadfastly refused to cooperate on that front, and the protagonist ended up a hero. Which I thought was rather fascinating. I've always considered one of my greatest misjudgments to be Stephen King's work - for the longest time, I thought of it as 'oh, that horror stuff, not my thing'. Really made an impression on me, though.

[John Epler]

HenchxNarf wrote...

John Epler wrote...

A tangent, but reading Stephen King's On Writing cured me of what, for me, was an unfortunate habit - trying to plan out each and every bit of my writing. That's not to say that it's for everyone, though - it's a lot easier to write yourself into a corner when you don't have any kind of outline. But for me, the way my mind works makes it almost detrimental to plan things out too much in advance. I do best when it's off-the-cuff - the story I want to tell exists almost in its entirety in my head, after all, and putting it down on paper as an 'outline' seems to ruin something in the translation.

This is not meant as a comment on anything ME related, by the way - I just find it fascinating how different people have completely different writing styles.

Being as hard core King fan, you would think I would have read that book (and being that I'm a writer as well), but I haven't. I've never even heard of it :/

Is it any good?

Quite good. As a reader, it's interesting to see how he approaches writing and characterization, and the story of his life is an interesting read in and of itself. As a writer, he provides a lot of good advice in a very straightforward fashion. It's definitely among the top biographies I've ever read, and if you're a King fan I strongly recommend it.

[John Epler]

Isichar wrote...

jarrettwold wrote...

John Epler wrote...

One of the most interesting introductions I've ever read to a book was the introduction to Salem's Lot. King had originally planned for the protagonist (you'll have to forgive me, I can't recall his name as it's been a good year and a half since I last read it) to end up a victim of the vampires, but found that his writing steadfastly refused to cooperate on that front, and the protagonist ended up a hero. Which I thought was rather fascinating. I've always considered one of my greatest misjudgments to be Stephen King's work - for the longest time, I thought of it as 'oh, that horror stuff, not my thing'. Really made an impression on me, though.

I think what King misses sometimes, is that his stories are framed in horror with his characters as studies.  Stu Redman, you could place that character next to a living, breathing human and he would pass.

Hope also tends to have a strong thread in his novels.  They may be dark or apocalyptic, but there's always hope in a Stephen King story.

Ever read or seen "the mist"???

Oh, the Mist. It always gave me a Half-Life vibe, but much creepier. My favourite of his novellas, and close to my favourite of his stories, period. The movie was.. interesting, and had a lot of good parts to it, although the whole was less than the sum of the parts.

But I think we're getting a little too far off-topic here! Much as I love these sidebars, we really ought to be at least tangentially ME related.

[Stanley Woo]

I think we have exhausted discussion on the original purpose of this thread. thank you for all the cool discussion, everyone.

End of line.