665 réponses à ce sujet

[Chron0id]

I am really disconcerted by the fact that Bioware hasn't posted in this thread yet.  Silence is never a good sign.   It's pretty much all but confirmed mutliplayer in DA: I. 

[Gamemako]

I am really disconcerted by the fact that Bioware hasn't posted in this thread yet.  Silence is never a good sign.   It's pretty much all but confirmed mutliplayer in DA: I.

See, this is why companies don't comment on rumors and speculation. If they do, then silence is taken as confirmation.

[Chron0id]

See, this is why companies don't comment on rumors and speculation. If they do, then silence is taken as confirmation.

What?  The exact opposite would be true if they commented on rumors.  Just tell us if there is mutliplayer.  No sense in keeping it a secret.  It's not like it's going to spoil anything either.

[SofaJockey]

See, this is why companies don't comment on rumors and speculation. If they do, then silence is taken as confirmation.

 

Allan said as much yesterday, if he posts on a rumour thread, his presence is seen to confirm it.

If he doesn't post his absence is seen as confirmation as well 

 

Any reveal would be in line with the marketing plan (which is strictly speaking delayed by 42 days). I would not be upset if multiplayer did not exist but in my opinion it would be an exciting step forward for the immersiveness of the story if it were added to the Dragon Age franchise.

[RustyW]

I hate repeating myself, Bioware come on sort yourselves out, multi player or not, just say yes or no, can not be hard, it is doing my head in.

[ElitePinecone]

What?  The exact opposite would be true if they commented on rumors.  Just tell us if there is mutliplayer.  No sense in keeping it a secret.  It's not like it's going to spoil anything either.

 

They have other concerns than one thread on the BSN, though. I know people are excited or anxious here, but they have to think of a potential audience of millions when doing big announcements. 

 

Marketing probably has a careful plan for revealing it - maybe the idea was to do it at Gamescom, which is still weeks away. Confirming it now would spoil that. The developers themselves have to prepare some sort of highlight reel, or maybe a sizzle trailer.

 

Their PR team might have organised interviews with games journalists and an embargoed press date so that at a certain time, most gaming websites will carry the news that DA:I has MP.

 

Their retail partners probably have to create advertising based around the multiplayer mode, and things like bonus MP packs for preordering (or whatever). 

 

It's not as easy as "well one Bioware dev can post here and clear up everything". They plan these reveals weeks or months in advance.

[SofaJockey]

Marketing probably has a careful plan for revealing it - maybe the idea was to do it at Gamescom, which is still weeks away. Confirming it now would spoil that. The developers themselves have to prepare some sort of highlight reel, or maybe a sizzle trailer.

 

Their PR team might have organised interviews with games journalists and an embargoed press date so that at a certain time, most gaming websites will carry the news that DA:I has MP.

 

Their retail partners probably have to create advertising based around the multiplayer mode, and things like bonus MP packs for preordering (or whatever). 

 

It's not as easy as "well one Bioware dev can post here and clear up everything". They plan these reveals weeks or months in advance.

 

Exactly this.

 

Releasing something this important would require a great deal of effort, they're not going to do a big reveal on the BioWare forum , they would want to capture the potential additional excitement for the game via news media and gamer sources *

 

(*if it's true of course.)

 

EDIT - and actually on any given day there are enough crackpot theories doing the rounds on the BioWare forum 

[DragonRacer]

They have other concerns than one thread on the BSN, though. I know people are excited or anxious here, but they have to think of a potential audience of millions when doing big announcements. 

 

Marketing probably has a careful plan for revealing it - maybe the idea was to do it at Gamescom, which is still weeks away. Confirming it now would spoil that. The developers themselves have to prepare some sort of highlight reel, or maybe a sizzle trailer.

 

Their PR team might have organised interviews with games journalists and an embargoed press date so that at a certain time, most gaming websites will carry the news that DA:I has MP.

 

Their retail partners probably have to create advertising based around the multiplayer mode, and things like bonus MP packs for preordering (or whatever). 

 

It's not as easy as "well one Bioware dev can post here and clear up everything". They plan these reveals weeks or months in advance.

 

It is refreshing to see someone else who appears to have first-hand/background knowledge on how marketing generally works and unfolds.

 

A bit off-topic and anecdotal, but I feel it serves as a similar example (if, indeed, this was an "oops" that accidentally showed MP in DA:I):

 

I work at a newspaper and we have an annual reader contest where folks go online to our website and cast their votes in 100+ categories on who they think are the "best" businesses within each category (for example, who they think makes the Best Pizza or is the Best Plumbing Service). This contest is a HUGE deal every year and people lose their minds over it.

 

I'm also largely involved in the organization of the entire thing, which is why I've occasionally referred to July as my "game dev crunch" because I imagine it's similar to theirs - a lot of late nights agonizing that everything goes off perfectly without a hitch.

 

After the contest ends and votes are tallied, we have a Big Reveal of that year's winners. The reveal happens as a printed section of the paper and as a list on our website, coordinated to launch on the exact same day together. This is something that takes a while to put together, sell advertising around it to support it, and coordinate between both the print teams and the digital teams.

 

Well, unfortunately, we had a new fellow working some of the back-end website stuff last year and the winners section of the site went live on Friday, when it should not have gone live until Saturday morning - when the print section would appear in the morning newspaper. It was not live for very long. The first phone call to us about it alerted us and we immediately shut the access to it down. But the damage was done. A few more people called who had seen it, and all we could do was try to wriggle around it since - unlike a forum - you can't just hang up the phone on someone when they corner you with a very clear and embarrassing "oops". But I would imagine if we had a forum and someone screenshot the winners list and posted it, not a one of us would have breathed a word. Better to not confirm or deny in that case.

 

We were fortunate that this happened only a day before release. Had it occurred months in advance, it... would have been very unpleasant to the marketing plan already rolling along schedule. 

[AppealToReason]

They have other concerns than one thread on the BSN, though. I know people are excited or anxious here, but they have to think of a potential audience of millions when doing big announcements. 

 

Marketing probably has a careful plan for revealing it - maybe the idea was to do it at Gamescom, which is still weeks away. Confirming it now would spoil that. The developers themselves have to prepare some sort of highlight reel, or maybe a sizzle trailer.

 

Their PR team might have organised interviews with games journalists and an embargoed press date so that at a certain time, most gaming websites will carry the news that DA:I has MP.

 

Their retail partners probably have to create advertising based around the multiplayer mode, and things like bonus MP packs for preordering (or whatever). 

 

It's not as easy as "well one Bioware dev can post here and clear up everything". They plan these reveals weeks or months in advance.

 

For all the supposed marketing experts on this site, its nice to see someone who actually knows how it works.

[Jawzzus]

I'm sorry but this is not the place for logic, truth, and sense dammit

[Iakus]

1. So Morrigan, but have it patched later so that no one dies even without OGB.(seems unnecessary especially considering no one actually asked for that to be the case in ME3 MP)

2. Kind of random, don't think people would care.

3. Not sure what you're talking about here. ME3 MP doesn't affect combat balance or items in the SP.

4. So what I'm hearing you say, is you want microtransactions in your romances so that they can fund "free" dlcs for them. Not that I'm opposed to free dlc, but doubt people would like to choose between grinding a romance and paying extra to have a romance.

1) OGB wasn't part of her romance arc.  You can do it, or get Alistair to, without romancing her (or him)

2)  I'd care.  I don't like having the galactic preparedness map on the main menu.  I don't like it, I don't care about it, I don't want to be reminded of it.

3) You seriously don't think the maps, enemies, powers, etc, weren't done with MP in mind?

4) I have no idea what you're talking about here, so I'm just not going to respond.  Well, I will point out the timed exclusive to SP DLC the XBone has.  That's great customer service for SP fans...

[Iakus]

They have other concerns than one thread on the BSN, though. I know people are excited or anxious here, but they have to think of a potential audience of millions when doing big announcements. 

 

Marketing probably has a careful plan for revealing it - maybe the idea was to do it at Gamescom, which is still weeks away. Confirming it now would spoil that. The developers themselves have to prepare some sort of highlight reel, or maybe a sizzle trailer.

 

Their PR team might have organised interviews with games journalists and an embargoed press date so that at a certain time, most gaming websites will carry the news that DA:I has MP.

 

Their retail partners probably have to create advertising based around the multiplayer mode, and things like bonus MP packs for preordering (or whatever). 

 

It's not as easy as "well one Bioware dev can post here and clear up everything". They plan these reveals weeks or months in advance.

MP is a hot-button issue.  Waiting until the last minute to annouce it will only infuriate those who don't want it.  Especially after the backlash of ME3, where the exact same thing happened

 

In fact, the parallels to 2011-2012  here are kinda eerie. 

[Iakus]

Really don't understand the logic of those that demand multiplayer to be utterly separate and the option not to install it with SP.  MP isn't some plague rat that will infect your SP experience simply by being part of the package.  Point to ME3 all you want, it was a design the very same devs removed after the fact.  You can simply ignore the option to play MP without forcing Bioware to go to all the unneeded effort to separate experiences that likely use many of the same assets and animations.

 

Yes, after the fact, which was bad enough.  Worse was that it was changed months after the fact.  And after Bioware repeatedly claimed (innacurately) both before and after release that it would not affect SP.

 

So, yeah, I don't have any faith that this will be any different.

[Lazarillo]

So maybe this is too much to ask, but as someone who has yet to play the ME games, what exactly was the big fiasco there?

Did they gate single player stuff behind multi-player content?  Or is it just that that they allocated resources that "could" have been allocated somewhere else (whether that argument is valid or not aside...I'd just like to know, as an out-of-touch geezer who's only sorta recently returned to gaming, what the beef is, and whether I should be wary of it affecting my preferences for DAI).

[AppealToReason]

MP is a hot-button issue.  Waiting until the last minute to annouce it will only infuriate those who don't want it.  Especially after the backlash of ME3, where the exact same thing happened

 

In fact, the parallels to 2011-2012  here are kinda eerie. 

 

The last minute is not a convention 3 months out.

 

Nor was announcing ME3MP a last minute thing at E3 when the game dropped in March.

[dekkerd]

So maybe this is too much to ask, but as someone who has yet to play the ME games, what exactly was the big fiasco there?
Did they gate single player stuff behind multi-player content?  Or is it just that that they allocated resources that "could" have been allocated somewhere else (whether that argument is valid or not aside...I'd just like to know, as an out-of-touch geezer who's only sorta recently returned to gaming, what the beef is, and whether I should be wary of it affecting my preferences for DAI).

Yes, they gated a pretty big add on to the ending.

[AppealToReason]

So maybe this is too much to ask, but as someone who has yet to play the ME games, what exactly was the big fiasco there?

Did they gate single player stuff behind multi-player content?  Or is it just that that they allocated resources that "could" have been allocated somewhere else (whether that argument is valid or not aside...I'd just like to know, as an out-of-touch geezer who's only sorta recently returned to gaming, what the beef is, and whether I should be wary of it affecting my preferences for DAI).

 

You had to play MP to reach an Effective Military Strength score of over 4000 points. Playing MP gave you galactic readiness which increased the usefulness of your EMS assets as you played, starting at 50% and increasing to 100%.

 

This got you a like 6 second scene after the credits if you picked the destroy ending.

 

People think that Bioware would risk another huge shitstorm just for giggles this time around. 

[Oswin]

I would have thought MP would have been mentioned already so I had completely put it out of mind.
But if there is any chance of it then a good heads up would be nice. I'll need to sub to PlayStation Plus for it.
I feel like grumbling whenever talk of MP comes up. My friends aren't gamers and I don't dedicate a lot of time to online, but I did enjoy the time I spent on ME3's. So if it's co op then maybe it will be fine. I only stand to benefit from the people who play all the time. But if it's some kind of mage vs templar business then I will get owned by those who live for online and give up after a week.

My biggest issue with MP is when it feels like the SP is just an add on to a MP game. But from the looks of inquisition and talks of 100 hour gameplay, I may never have time to go near to MP anyway. So really, the only thing I can moan at is if I have to play MP for achievements. Not really the end of the world though is it? I've grinded through worse.

[aaarcher86]

I'll be interested to see how it's implemented if this is true.

Maybe this is the uber big super cool stuff they're showing at Gamescom?

[Wirbelwind]

So maybe this is too much to ask, but as someone who has yet to play the ME games, what exactly was the big fiasco there?

Did they gate single player stuff behind multi-player content?  Or is it just that that they allocated resources that "could" have been allocated somewhere else (whether that argument is valid or not aside...I'd just like to know, as an out-of-touch geezer who's only sorta recently returned to gaming, what the beef is, and whether I should be wary of it affecting my preferences for DAI).

 

Many people believed that resources which were used for ME3 multiplayer could have been used for the single player part, and particularly the endings which left many players ... hmm... wanting more ; while BioWare said multiple times that the two budgets were absolutely two independent things and that single player did in no way suffer from multiplayer.

 

Another thing is that playing multiplayer helped build up a resource which was used in the singleplayer part and that was also raised simply by playing in single player (notably through exploration of the galaxy) in order to ... do what exactly I don't know since I always made sure to max it and did not try to see what happens if you don't, honestly. But the thing is people who did not want to play multi argued that the others who did had an easier time getting the resource to max (or at least a certain threshold).

 

 

Personaly I enjoyed ME3 multiplayer very much (I always liked cooperative multi better than competitive, mind you) so I wouldn't mind a Dragon Age multi at all if it's still coop.

[Iakus]

 

My biggest issue with MP is when it feels like the SP is just an add on to a MP game. But from the looks of inquisition and talks of 100 hour gameplay, I may never have time to go near to MP anyway. So really, the only thing I can moan at is if I have to play MP for achievements. Not really the end of the world though is it? I've grinded through worse.

That's pretty much the only reason I haven't walked away by now.

 

But I still have serious concerns about how this will impact SP.  And it's going to take more than claims of "This time will be different" to put them at ease.

[Dermain]

MP is a hot-button issue.  Waiting until the last minute to annouce it will only infuriate those who don't want it.  Especially after the backlash of ME3, where the exact same thing happened

 

In fact, the parallels to 2011-2012  here are kinda eerie. 

 

You (and others) are already infuriated about it, and I don't think that's going to change if they say "Hey! We have multiplayer".

[Iakus]

The last minute is not a convention 3 months out.

 

Nor was announcing ME3MP a last minute thing at E3 when the game dropped in March.

 

MP was leaked in October 2011.  Four months before release.

 

Leaked, mind you.  And we're closer to release now than they were to ME3's release then.

 

Edit:  well, we were before the six week delay.  Now we're about even.

[Chron0id]

You (and others) are already infuriated about it, and I don't think that's going to change if they say "Hey! We have multiplayer".

It'll change if they say "There is no multiplayer.  Period."

[Iakus]

So maybe this is too much to ask, but as someone who has yet to play the ME games, what exactly was the big fiasco there?

Did they gate single player stuff behind multi-player content?  Or is it just that that they allocated resources that "could" have been allocated somewhere else (whether that argument is valid or not aside...I'd just like to know, as an out-of-touch geezer who's only sorta recently returned to gaming, what the beef is, and whether I should be wary of it affecting my preferences for DAI).

 

ME3 spoiler:

 

Spoiler

The only ending in which Shepard was even hinted to survive in ME3 required, among other things, a minimum EMS score of 4000.  It was impossible to achieve that score through single player assets alone.  The necessary score was later patched to be achieveable in SP alone, but three months later.  As I said, after repeated assurances that SP alone could do it.  And after many threads where players actually documented the possible numbers were locked or removed