Mass Effect 3 delayed

[SpellAndShield]

@Stardusk;

 

Interesting... and agrees with my conversations with BioWare staff reagarding other projects. Decisions about major projects are complex, include activities and priorities well outside the specific team or effort, and are frequently driven by things of which the customers aren't even aware. (Which doesn't stop the rumours and "bias confirmation" rants! :tongue: )

 

Thing is Thandal, people thought the delay was for 'quality control' to ensure quality and prevent another DA2; not likely.

[Thandal]

Yup. :tongue: Not likely at all!

 

While one can certainly see some unpolished spots and rough edges in DA2 that indicate a rush to meet the release date, most of the rants have been about things that were decided EARLY in the project schedule.

 

"Map re-use" is probably the biggest such target. Yet this was one of the first changes to be settled, long before any deadline crunch started to loom. In fact, it was probably a decision made during the initial "what will it take?" discussions before they settled on a project budget or a schedule at all.

 

Having one set of "caverns", "warehouses", "mansions", etc., was one way to speed production/reduce budget and was always part of the plan. Whether or not one agrees, Mike Laidlaw & Team were basically pointing out and incorporating the fact that for most players the game isn't about drawing/exploring a new map, it's about "What's around the corner?" While they may have misjudged the importance of that exploration stage to immersion and replayability, it wasn't a last-minute call.

 

And there's other evidence of similar thinking: the Companions' armour, for example. Sure, there are people who like to spend hours deciding which helm/robe/boots to give everyone and their brothers (or sisters, as the case may be.) But in DA2 there was a conscious effort to streamline that aspect of Party manangement and make the focus more on the Companions as seperate, independent individuals, instead of just puppets of the PC.

 

Did it work? Maybe. But even if it did, was it a Good Thing? Hard to say. Lots of decisions about the mechanics of this game seem to be ones that make people mad "at the game".

How many were pissed that the both siblings can't make it out of the Prologue? How many more were even more pissed when they had to lose the remaining one at the end of Act I?

 

But I sort of see that stuff the way I see GRR Martin's "Song of Fire & Ice" series. Ruthless storytelling! "Favorite character? Too bad! Dead by halfway through. Evil Villian? Try Sympathetic Hero by the third novel. Indomitable, likable underdog Survivor? Last seen heading into the frozen wastes and unmentioned for two more novels and over five years now." You know you love it, he's that good. (Now if BioWare could/can just pull the STORY together as successfully...)

 

Oh well... "Hateahs gonna hate, but playahs gonna play!" :whistling:

[brokenergy]

What irks me isn't the product but the assumption that people make about it. It's really important for people to understand that you can't make up numbers in your head and say that your right. Reports and accusations can only get you thus far and that's what irks me. We are all speculating that they pushed it forward because of what happened to DA2 but what if it's something else? What if they don't want to be swamped by Skyrim, which was going to be released a few weeks before ME3. Besides what major title is going to be released early next year? Nothing. There are other factors besides time you know.

[Thandal]

Hey, BKE!

 

Yeah, I guess a lot of people are still venting about DA2 because they expected "The Continuing Adventures of My Warden", and instead they got, "OMGWTH Just Happened to Me?!?" ;D

 

I don't think any of the last three of us posting to this thread fall into that camp, however. Or into the one "making up numbers" for that matter. :tongue: We're more of the, "Here's what I've heard from people I have reason to think know what they're talking about" school. (In fact, I think all three of us communicate with different BioWare staff members pretty frequently! :thumbsup: )