Hello there,
You read it on an everyday basis, so I don't need to tell you what most threads opened in this forum are about.
There is one thing, however, that really angers me:
Wild assumptions regarding staff members, assignment of guilt over specific topics, and downright personal insults. Most of these hurled at people like of course Casey Hudson, Mac Walters, Mike Gamble and/or George Lucas. (find the mismatch)
Why am I writing this?
It's mainly about procedure, the proces of making a game and of course, the ever dreaded work relationship with a publisher -as far as I got to witness it that is, explanation below. Also because my momma taught me.
Who am I to write this?
I do voice acting for audio dramas, but (happily) mostly video game localizations, in Germany. I do however, have many work-related friends in the industry because of that, and people talk. To clear things up I was not doing any work for the Mass Effect series so far (even though, from a personal gamer point of view, working on a BW gig would be a no-brainer for me to sign), and am in no way associated with EA or BioWare. So no, I do not claim to be some kind of mysterious leak source, I just claim I may have a little more insight into general procedure during the production of a video game.
What sets me off every time is the model statement
That may sound unfair, but in my personal opinion, when you strip most statements down, this is what remains. Comments like this anger me - Because people simply have no idea if it was like that."There is no IT/other ending related theory, Hudson/Gamble/Walters messed that up because they have no idea/do not care about the game/story/fans."
Yet they call out names in the need of a graspable scapegoat, whilst insulting others of making absurd claims in the need of a satisfying explanation. Funny, that.
It is just as reasonable to assume that the people who thought of & worked on the franchise for the better part of ten years, may in fact not hate their own offspring all of sudden, when it's the most important to get things "right".
Maybe the decision came from somewhere higher up. I especially like to emphasize here that these things often happen at a point far into the production, when there's no easy going back anymore. We've seen it in ME2, there are dark energy hints all over the place, but time was obviously too short to remove them from the final product, so only the biggest misconclusions were actually removed to steer the ship in the demanded direction.
It's sometimes enough to be hired as a VA on a project. And even though you just have those lines & sentences, and read them in no particular narrative order, it sometimes happens you get to re-read a scene a week later, that might even directly contradict what you read the day before. I cannot say what it is like with EA as a client, (though I only heard the best - come on guys, I do need to eat) but even in a position isolated from the actual production of a game, you sometimes definitely feel that these are last-minute edits, some of them total game-changers. You get a feel for the story naturally - "I have no idea what my guy looks like, but he's probably my age and I know what he thinks." - something like that. It happens a lot, and I haven't even done any leads so far.
I'm honestly sick and tired of people giving a guy like Casey Hudson so much crap over how he ruined the series. You might think, in his position, and the assumingly many all-nighters he spent with the team on making the three games, that maaaaybe he even loves them more than many of us do.
All I'm saying is,
1. These things happen. And then, people like Hudson, who stand between a triangle of the publisher, his team and the fans, he will have to explain it and find a way to make it work.
2. The most important: It is save to assume that the three that are the most commonly accused staff members, are most likely the ones that spend the most time on the project. The video game industry may be a big corporate landscape in comparison to the earlier days now, but it's still no business you get into hating the things you do.
And if you worked on a game project, like I hear some of my friends spending night after night on a weekend, you will either love it, or find another job. The above things are basically what they all tell me.
Who knows what really happened, I don't.
But my momma told me not to call people on things you can't say they did.
Thanks for reading,
Bael
P.S.: I am not going to state details about any work I've done so far, neither what projects my mentioned friends are currently or have been involved in. If that ruins my credibility, so be it.
P.P.S.: Yes, I edited the title.
Modifié par Baelrahn, 30 janvier 2013 - 07:16 .
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