Kotaku: How BioWare's Anthem Went Wrong

[Purist 134]

https://kotaku.com/how-biowares-anthem-went-wrong-1833731964

 

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This account of Anthem’s development, based on interviews with 19 people who either worked on the game or adjacent to it (all of whom were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about Anthem’s development), is a story of indecision and mismanagement. It’s a story of technical failings, as EA’s Frostbite engine continued to make life miserable for many of BioWare’s developers, and understaffed departments struggled to serve their team’s needs. It’s a story of two studios, one in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and another in Austin, Texas, that grew resentful toward one another thanks to a tense, lopsided relationship. It’s a story of a video game that was in development for nearly seven years but didn’t enter production until the final 18 months, thanks to big narrative reboots, major design overhauls, and a leadership team said to be unable to provide a consistent vision and unwilling to listen to feedback.

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Perhaps most alarming, it’s a story about a studio in crisis. Dozens of developers, many of them decade-long veterans, have left BioWare over the past two years. Some who have worked at BioWare’s longest-running office in Edmonton talk about depression and anxiety. Many say they or their co-workers had to take “stress leave”—a doctor-mandated period of weeks or even months worth of vacation for their mental health. One former BioWare developer told me they would frequently find a private room in the office, shut the door, and just cry. “People were so angry and sad all the time,” they said. Said another: “Depression and anxiety are an epidemic within Bioware.”

“I actually cannot count the amount of ‘stress casualties’ we had on Mass Effect: Andromeda or Anthem,” said a third former BioWare developer in an email. “A ‘stress casualty’ at BioWare means someone had such a mental breakdown from the stress they’re just gone for one to three months. Some come back, some don’t.”

 

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Among those who work or have worked at BioWare, there’s a belief that something drastic needs to change. Many at the company now grumble that the success of 2014’s Dragon Age: Inquisition was one of the worst things that could have happened to them. The third Dragon Age, which won Game of the Year at the 2014 Game Awards, was the result of a brutal production process plagued by indecision and technical challenges. It was mostly built over the course of its final year, which led to lengthy crunch hours and lots of exhaustion. “Some of the people in Edmonton were so burnt out,” said one former BioWare developer. “They were like, ‘We needed [Dragon Age: Inquisition] to fail in order for people to realize that this isn’t the right way to make games.’”

Within the studio, there’s a term called “BioWare magic.” It’s a belief that no matter how rough a game’s production might be, things will always come together in the final months. The game will always coalesce. It happened on the Mass Effect trilogy, on Dragon Age: Origins, and on Inquisition. Veteran BioWare developers like to refer to production as a hockey stick—it’s flat for a while, and then it suddenly jolts upward. Even when a project feels like a complete disaster, there’s a belief that with enough hard work—and enough difficult crunch—it’ll all come together.

 

Really interesting insights on Bioware. This is depressing to read. Now I really feel bad for buying Anthem and supporting this shit.

Also WTF @ Bioware magic. LOL.

 

Edited April 2, 2019 by Pureis

[Purist 134]

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Sure enough, the game did continue to get better—one BioWare developer emphasized that the improvements were exponential during those last few months—but the stress of production had serious consequences. “I’d never heard of ‘stress leave’ until the end of Andromeda,” said one former BioWare developer, referring to a practice in which BioWare employees would take weeks or even months off for their mental health. On Anthem, the developer added, this practice just got worse. “I’ve never heard of people needing to take time off because they were so stressed out. But then that kind of spread like wildfire throughout the team.”

 

[Teh_Diplomat 2,054]

Good read, thanks. 

[Twinblade★ 3,986]

So this has been happening since the original Mass Effect Trilogy, It sounds like there are deep rooted problems at Bioware that definitely need to be addressed. Things must be especially bad if they were able to persevere through the problems before but are now putting out Anthem quality games.

[-GD-X★ 7,814]

this is sad, especially since the mass effect trilogy was one of my favorite gaming experiences. 

[madmaltese★ 2,617]

Excellent read. 

Frostbite yet again playing a big role among many other issues. Pretty crazy what they managed to put together in the 12-18 months it really had. Shame it had to be out by march due to fiscal year. 

[MalaXmaS 651]

Just like I thought, the problem was Frostbite.

Great engine for fps and destructability, shit for everything else.

Explains why EA is going under.

Frostbite was meant as an experiment with destructible environment like Back to Karkand.

Instead, it was used to develop EVERY damn game.

 

[Remij 4,717]

 

[James Skywalker 528]

This is the worst worsted thread yet.

[Teh_Diplomat 2,054]

18 minutes ago, Alien Jim said:

This is the worst worsted thread yet.

You been back to the Wasteland to see what you used to create? 

[James Skywalker 528]

8 minutes ago, Teh_Diplomat said:

You been back to the Wasteland to see what you used to create? 

Is this hate? Although I know what I created and I enJoe'd it.

[madmaltese★ 2,617]

Frostbite is definitely a gigantic issue but it seems it was much much more than that. They didn't enter full production till nearly 12-18 months prior to launch. Spent 4 years in pre production and had numerous leadership issues. Bioware seems a shell of it's former self not only in quality games but more importantly in personnel. Many have left, including leadership roles. 

Also I know everyone loves to hate on EA but it really seems like they had a shitload of freedom on this. Most publishers would've been up their arse big time if a game was in preproduction with no vision for 4 years. 

[Twinblade★ 3,986]

3 hours ago, Remij_ said:

 

Yeah, Mass Effect ran on unreal and the team ran into the same problems according to this piece. Its not really fair to blame it for all of Anthem's problems.

 

But I think there needs to be entire teams dedicated to just building the systems for each genre that frostbite is adapted for. I.e. you have one for the FPS systems, another for open world sandboxes/shooters, another for racing games, etc. Its not really reasonable for studios unfamiliar with the engine to simultaneously build a game and adapt it to work with technology and tools that they're not experienced with

Edited April 4, 2019 by Twinblade