Venerok Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 In related news, yet another major player in our little mmo has left. This is the guy behind the agent story, which is commonly attributed to being unique and epic among the class stories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekas Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Stop leaving, you guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venerok Posted October 5, 2012 Author Share Posted October 5, 2012 Stop leaving, you guys! Right? So sad. I wish I could thank him for his work personally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TUXs Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 I wish him luck. I haven't finished the story yet, but it's certainly not because I don't want to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyRaven Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 It's a fantastic story arc! What a shame. But since they said they are not interested in doing any more story content (only ops and pvp) it makes sense. Bitter pill on all counts. Hope he finds a great place to work. He is talented. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamthehoyden Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 That sucks. I'm in the middle of act 3 in the IA story, and it's been the best of all the storylines I've done thus far in terms of interesting storytelling. Best of luck to him,. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lionflash Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 (edited) Swtor writers.. Where are you going?! Swtor writers.. Stahp! I could write a page about how much I liked the Agent storyline... instead I'll just say.. TL : DR: Damit! Edited October 5, 2012 by Lionflash Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drudenfusz Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Hope he has already written chaper 4 and 5, so even while he is leaving we might enjoy one day more of his work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueRahja Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Onomataphobia. You will stay at bioware. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turjake Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Blah, I guess they really have cleaned the house from all those unnecessary content developers. Those people even wanted salary so that is a big no no. Maybe the vice precidents nephew can write those quest text boxes from now on. No-one reads those anyway and voicing quests would be too expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venerok Posted October 5, 2012 Author Share Posted October 5, 2012 Hope he has already written chaper 4 and 5, so even while he is leaving we might enjoy one day more of his work. I wouldnt be surprised if they had a lot of story already done for the future. Hopefully... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dscount Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Ditto! I loved that story line. Great work BTW! Good luck Alex!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randalthorr Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 http://www.gamefront.com/bioware-beat-bioware-is-officially-bleeding-bigwigs/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TUXs Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 http://www.gamefront.com/bioware-beat-bioware-is-officially-bleeding-bigwigs/ /yawn I see it as 100% positive tbh. The "big wigs" they had are all the guys who are 100% responsible for the game as it is right now. With the unlimited resources they were given, the current game is EXACTLY what they envisioned. I'm very anxious to see what this game may become with new leadership. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZionHalcyon Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 It's a fantastic story arc! What a shame. But since they said they are not interested in doing any more story content (only ops and pvp) it makes sense. Bitter pill on all counts. Hope he finds a great place to work. He is talented. have a direct quote on that? Or are you only inferring because to date we've only gotten the generic "story is still important to us" corporate line? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orlesian Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 No! Why is everyone leaving My favorite story is definitely the Imperial Agent story, so hearing this... I wish him well, but still feels a little sad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soluss Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 /yawn I see it as 100% positive tbh. The "big wigs" they had are all the guys who are 100% responsible for the game as it is right now. With the unlimited resources they were given, the current game is EXACTLY what they envisioned. I'm very anxious to see what this game may become with new leadership. They only do what they are told by EA to do. They have far less resources now. A game never gets better after it loses its core. This game is now doing the same thing as Warhammer... also owned by EA and had the same person in charge... that is currently in charge of ToR. The writing is on the wall. Be blind and ignore it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foobert Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 have a direct quote on that? Or are you only inferring because to date we've only gotten the generic "story is still important to us" corporate line? I thought the there was quote along the lines of "we are not focusing on class storylines currently but it's still important to us." I don't remember who made it, and it might have been Alex himself back in July but it was made after the the last round of layoffs (but I think it was Gabe even though he disclaimed it since he was only intimately familiar with the pvp side of things). In any case, the budget and staffing levels wouldn't be amenable to actually produce class storyline content right now anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZionHalcyon Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 http://www.gamefront.com/bioware-beat-bioware-is-officially-bleeding-bigwigs/ Confirms for me that he was a main source of the "dont like F2P" within Bioware. Really, I'd like to see story still remain in the game, but be taken in a different direction than Erickson wanted. Remember, he was all a flitter about the "never ending MMO!" Where stories drag on forever. The problem in my view is that, like a sitcom or drama that overstays its welcome, you eventually run dry of ideas, and for anyone who wants to repeat the same story, its going to be a huge drag the longer it goes on. You can actually already see this in terms of the pacing of the story in Chapter 2 for almost all the classes - 1 and 3 tend to be very tight, while Chapter 2 just takes forever and drags. On the flip side, I don't want to see this turn into the typical MMO grindfest with story half-assed like the last world event ("No, don't talk, just listen, because its one-way encrypted and we don't want to have to pay more money to your voice actor"). I want them to find a happy medium. Figure out story for 3 more chapters and an ultimate conclusion. Rather than going on forever, give every profession a satisfying story that has a beginning, middle and end, and then focus on group side stories and operations (as well as pvp for those folks) going forward - Star Wars has no shortage of side story adventures, so putting those in and allowing us to revist planets in the storyline quests in those should save on some costs. And if things are really successful with F2P - then go back, and create all new stories for each profession, this time with a defined in mind beginning, middle and end, to give players a choice on which story they want to play as. Maybe even give them new companions too. At least then, you have an idea of fixed cost as the story is finite. Great fodder for an expansion pack, honestly. But I don't think that's going to happen either, sadly. I think the commitment to story is half-hearted at best going forward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foobert Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 I thought the there was quote along the lines of "we are not focusing on class storylines currently but it's still important to us." I don't remember who made it, and it might have been Alex himself back in July but it was made after the the last round of layoffs (but I think it was Gabe even though he disclaimed it since he was only intimately familiar with the pvp side of things). In any case, the budget and staffing levels wouldn't be amenable to actually produce class storyline content right now anyway. Also, regarding Alex, 6 years is a long time for a writer to be attached to a production company, much less a single product/property itself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord_Ravenhurst Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 meesa want jop at biowear I can write dah storys for ´em, cheap!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urael Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 In related news, yet another major player in our little mmo has left. This is the guy behind the agent story, which is commonly attributed to being unique and epic among the class stories. *sigh* I just hope the author of the craptastic inquisitor Storyline isn't the replacement for Chapt 4. The Agent story was the best of all the Character Stories IMNSHO. I wish Mr. Freed all the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foobert Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 (edited) Confirms for me that he was a main source of the "dont like F2P" within Bioware. Really, I'd like to see story still remain in the game, but be taken in a different direction than Erickson wanted. Remember, he was all a flitter about the "never ending MMO!" Where stories drag on forever. The problem in my view is that, like a sitcom or drama that overstays its welcome, you eventually run dry of ideas, and for anyone who wants to repeat the same story, its going to be a huge drag the longer it goes on. You can actually already see this in terms of the pacing of the story in Chapter 2 for almost all the classes - 1 and 3 tend to be very tight, while Chapter 2 just takes forever and drags. On the flip side, I don't want to see this turn into the typical MMO grindfest with story half-assed like the last world event ("No, don't talk, just listen, because its one-way encrypted and we don't want to have to pay more money to your voice actor"). I want them to find a happy medium. Figure out story for 3 more chapters and an ultimate conclusion. Rather than going on forever, give every profession a satisfying story that has a beginning, middle and end, and then focus on group side stories and operations (as well as pvp for those folks) going forward - Star Wars has no shortage of side story adventures, so putting those in and allowing us to revist planets in the storyline quests in those should save on some costs. And if things are really successful with F2P - then go back, and create all new stories for each profession, this time with a defined in mind beginning, middle and end, to give players a choice on which story they want to play as. Maybe even give them new companions too. At least then, you have an idea of fixed cost as the story is finite. Great fodder for an expansion pack, honestly. But I don't think that's going to happen either, sadly. I think the commitment to story is half-hearted at best going forward. One of the stated goals of making the next TOR property (after KOTOR) an MMO was to expend an initial capital investment on a robust platform so that subsequent KOTOR-like stories did not have to require their own individual game packages to be designed and implemented each time a new KOTOR story was going to be told. This was why in 08 when TOR was announced at E3, the concept was that focusing on just KOTOR3 would have been incredibly short-sighted, but building the next TOR game as an MMO it could serve as KOTOR 3, 4, and 5. Edited October 5, 2012 by Foobert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andryah Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 That sucks. I'm in the middle of act 3 in the IA story, He's not taking the story with him you know. separately.... Honestly, writing the stories is the front end of story creation and they probably have multiple years of story already written. They need their resources on moving the stories into production, not writing more stories to put on the backlog shelf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamthehoyden Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 He's not taking the story with him you know. separately.... Honestly, writing the stories is the front end of story creation and they probably have multiple years of story already written. They need their resources on moving the stories into production, not writing more stories to put on the backlog shelf. I was merely stating where I was in the IA story to provide context for my opinion of it. Story is among the first steps in the process, but story is one of those things where who the writer is really makes a difference. Each one puts their own stamp on a story. I'm sorry to see him go, he obviously has a lot of talent, and I would have liked to see his influence on other stories in the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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