Dang Loke beat me to it, yeah Christopher Lee kinda took me by surprise there, wasn't expecting his voice.
EQ2 did have VO yes, but not to the extent AoC did and even less so then i'm sure ToR will. Hence why i said fully VO, other then may Lucien and a few npcs most of it was text and simple greetings. So while i agree that VO are not new, fully VO in my opinion are new. Or let me better explain VO in the entire game is something new.
Eh, in terms of voice over content in the original game, there were far more voice overs in EQ2 than in AoC. Only when they started producing expansion packs and adventure packs did they begin to skimp out on the voice overs. I think this was primarily because the game simply wasn't in great financial standing at that point and still isn't today.
I was always disappointed how EQ2 kind of dropped the ball on VO’s in expansion packs. I can only guess it was one of the first things to get cut out of future expansions budgets once they realized they didn’t have the sub numbers SOE had hoped for. Hopefully Bioware can avoid the same issues.
As for the blog I don’t really know how to read that. It could be a fake for sure, or if it’s real reads like a really pissed off employee rantings at the bar (Including the random thoughts that are just thrown together without any tie in’s). Regardless specifically towards the Bioware thing he obviously has only a outside look in at the product and is speaking more from rumors then fact plus he may be resentful that they are stealing Mythic employees from his project to go work on that other MMO.
It’s been easy the last few years to look at any MMO and say “it’s going to fail” and be right. Everything that has been released has quickly slide down after release while older games like WOW and EVE have slowly grown over time. So being a all knowing prophet in this environment is pretty easy as long as all you do is spout doom and gloom. The two games I see upcoming that might be able to break that trend are GW2 and SW:TOR. GW2’s no sub model almost guarantees it will be a stealer success and the only way to really judge it long term will be how well its first expansion sells. SW:TOR will either raise the bar on what it means to be a AAA title or it will show that you can’t buy a success with more money. I don’t know yet which one it will be.
Can i please have whatever this guys having? cause thats some killer stuff right there.
Seriously though, fully VO is something new to the genre, so of course it's something they are boosting (closest we got to that was AOC and that was only the starting area) they are also boosting the storyline, i wouldn't worry Bw as a game companies has made many of great games, I trust that far more then one guy on a blog that may or may not be telling the truth.
I agree that trusting BioWare is a safe-enough bet...And no question the author of that Blog has an ax to grind...And he deserves to grind that ax no question...But he's obviously not on the inside of the TOR Game and even though I'm not a huge fan of everything I've seen on SWTOR, I can say there is no way it's going to be the epic failure he predicts...But it can still fail based on expectations and over-hype alone...Is SWTOR going to be considered a failure if it can only keep 500K Subs active after 12 Months? Well, IF they really spent 300 million then sure...It would be a major disappointment...That number seems a bit hard to believe though...We'll see...
The thing about this Blog and SWTOR that DID immediately get my attention, and the part I worry about most, is the Voice Over...I think the concentration on VO and the resources it's taking to do this massive VO Project were a HUGE miscalculation on BioWare's part...I think a great number of Folks who end up playing the Game are going to be wearing out the Space Bar to skip through, or turning off the VO's all together...Massive time spent listening to VO's is simply not a good fit for MMO's...And of us who play these Games with a Guild know exactly what I'm talking about...Seriously Folks, can you imagine the constant pain-in-the-rear it's going to be trying to listen to theses VO's while you have 8 Guildies in a Vent channel talking? So are you going to have to hang out in a channel by yourself every time you want to listen to a VO? Plus the time it takes to listen to them? It's just not a fit...People are busy...They're gonna skip right trough most of it as fast as they can so, assuming that, it was a tremendous waste of resources that would have been better spent elsewhere if you ask me...And I've said that from Day #1 of this massive VO hype...
This Blog could be the truth,partial truth or complete BS since there is notihng in it that is actually confirmable about SW:TOR at all or even Mythic in general that couldn't of been found out with a little googling of War dissections by th eemdia and others.So being as it is insubstantial in verifiable facts this blog will not influence me or anyone else who is undecided about SW:TOR who has a clear head and critical thinking.The onyl proof of wht was siad about SW:TOR will come when we can actually experience it ourselves or read unrestricted reviews of it.
But it is amusing to see people who have already made up theri minds about SW:TOR one way or another also have made up their mind to the truth of this blog accordingly.
Evidence is needed to prove anything. Since this employee gave no evidence about how they actually know the development cost, the installation size and what they are most proud of without even working on the game, it can't be true. Either this employee is BS'ing big time or they are getting laid off and are so pissed that they want any future games that involve Mythic at all to fail and fail bad.
$300m Budget is hard enough to believe. They wouldn't put that much into the project unless they was 100% confident this game will be the new dawn of MMO's. Especially in this economy state.
This Blog could be the truth,partial truth or complete BS since there is notihng in it that is actually confirmable about SW:TOR at all or even Mythic in general that couldn't of been found out with a little googling of War dissections by th eemdia and others.So being as it is insubstantial in verifiable facts this blog will not influence me or anyone else who is undecided about SW:TOR who has a clear head and critical thinking.The onyl proof of wht was siad about SW:TOR will come when we can actually experience it ourselves or read unrestricted reviews of it.
But it is amusing to see people who have already made up theri minds about SW:TOR one way or another also have made up their mind to the truth of this blog accordingly.
Wow, a common sense approach to things, how refreshing.
This Blog could be the truth,partial truth or complete BS since there is notihng in it that is actually confirmable about SW:TOR at all or even Mythic in general that couldn't of been found out with a little googling of War dissections by th eemdia and others.So being as it is insubstantial in verifiable facts this blog will not influence me or anyone else who is undecided about SW:TOR who has a clear head and critical thinking.The onyl proof of wht was siad about SW:TOR will come when we can actually experience it ourselves or read unrestricted reviews of it.
But it is amusing to see people who have already made up theri minds about SW:TOR one way or another also have made up their mind to the truth of this blog accordingly.
It is impossible to know for sure. That much is true. And while being fired IS a reason for revenge, I don't call someone liar until his lie is proven; regarding someone as "innocent" unless proven guilty is a principle I try to follow and turn it around and make someone guilty by suspicion. I don't think that line of thinking is healthy.
For a simple hoax it looks a bit too detailled. I mean he can't prove it without totally ruining his life. So there is all reason for anonymity. Still, it add to all my suspicious about WAR (how I HATED this arrgoent Paul... whatever his name was! I just saw is infamous podcasts and knew outright that man was a dork. I know these types of people, so I knew what was coming... )
At least my intuition says much he claims is true. The way too great investment into VO, the panick in at least many in Bioware and EA... it looks right to me.
And come on, if $300 million are true: you can't tell me you are NOT letdown! 300 million bucks and THIS? I mean, yes maybe there is the miracle revelation which makes all good. Who can say. I just don't see for the love of the Maker see that justified in what I see, no matter into what part of the game you go.
And look at EA's track record, how many companies EA swallowed and destroyed. Almost every single game produced under EA after the studio was swallowed became a flop. Anyone remembers how Ultima went right after EA bought it? Every Ultima was a roaring success. But as soon as EA was in the boat, there was Ultima VIII Pagan, the total disaster, and then Ultima IX, the finale and dishonorable ending. So it went with many EA things. EA ALWAYS went for cheap mass market, simplified gameplay and FOTM design. See how Ultima 8 added jump and run elements to mimic Mario and then in Ultima 9 Lara Croftish 3D action. Or the endless spawn of Sims expansions or the endless spawn of FIFA games... no... EA is a company which wants to make streamlined and simplified games. Always. EA has that design philosophy written all over. So it is at least very plausible to me that the guy is right.
I think voice overs are expensive especially in the scale SWTOR is doing. Go check how much of Starcraft II was voiced over and they did it like a few hours the actors from what I saw at the Blizzard event when they interviewed them. But that was justa little. Imagine a whole game. I think that 300 million might not be so totally crazy.
Sanya has already said that what he said about her is wrong.
She said that she wasn't fired for that fight (but does not deny the fight happened at all). She also seems to believe this guy really works at Mythic.
That said, the Open Beta should tell us how the game is.
This Blog could be the truth,partial truth or complete BS since there is notihng in it that is actually confirmable about SW:TOR at all or even Mythic in general that couldn't of been found out with a little googling of War dissections by th eemdia and others.So being as it is insubstantial in verifiable facts this blog will not influence me or anyone else who is undecided about SW:TOR who has a clear head and critical thinking.The onyl proof of wht was siad about SW:TOR will come when we can actually experience it ourselves or read unrestricted reviews of it.
But it is amusing to see people who have already made up theri minds about SW:TOR one way or another also have made up their mind to the truth of this blog accordingly.
It is impossible to know for sure. That much is true. And while being fired IS a reason for revenge, I don't call someone liar until his lie is proven; regarding someone as "innocent" unless proven guilty is a principle I try to follow and turn it around and make someone guilty by suspicion. I don't think that line of thinking is healthy.
For a simple hoax it looks a bit too detailled. I mean he can't prove it without totally ruining his life. So there is all reason for anonymity. Still, it add to all my suspicious about WAR (how I HATED this arrgoent Paul... whatever his name was! I just saw is infamous podcasts and knew outright that man was a dork. I know these types of people, so I knew what was coming... )
At least my intuition says much he claims is true. The way too great investment into VO, the panick in at least many in Bioware and EA... it looks right to me.
And come on, if $300 million are true: you can't tell me you are NOT letdown! 300 million bucks and THIS? I mean, yes maybe there is the miracle revelation which makes all good. Who can say. I just don't see for the love of the Maker see that justified in what I see, no matter into what part of the game you go.
And look at EA's track record, how many companies EA swallowed and destroyed. Almost every single game produced under EA after the studio was swallowed became a flop. Anyone remembers how Ultima went right after EA bought it? Every Ultima was a roaring success. But as soon as EA was in the boat, there was Ultima VIII Pagan, the total disaster, and then Ultima IX, the finale and dishonorable ending. So it went with many EA things. EA ALWAYS went for cheap mass market, simplified gameplay and FOTM design. See how Ultima 8 added jump and run elements to mimic Mario and then in Ultima 9 Lara Croftish 3D action. Or the endless spawn of Sims expansions or the endless spawn of FIFA games... no... EA is a company which wants to make streamlined and simplified games. Always. EA has that design philosophy written all over. So it is at least very plausible to me that the guy is right.
I remember a time when EA was the small indie studio that made really fun games and studios like Activision and Atria where the big evil corporate game companies.
Not saying that EA today is that same company just that it’s all a matter of perspective and sometime it’s a little too easy to blame the big bad multinational for all the worlds problems.
EA has seemed to leave Bioware mostly alone. I would imagine as long as they continue to make high quality games that sell well there is little incentive on EA’s part to mess with a working formula. One of my big fears is that if SW:TOR doesn’t do well it could very well mean the end of the Bioware studio many of us have come to love.
This Blog could be the truth,partial truth or complete BS since there is notihng in it that is actually confirmable about SW:TOR at all or even Mythic in general that couldn't of been found out with a little googling of War dissections by th eemdia and others.So being as it is insubstantial in verifiable facts this blog will not influence me or anyone else who is undecided about SW:TOR who has a clear head and critical thinking.The onyl proof of wht was siad about SW:TOR will come when we can actually experience it ourselves or read unrestricted reviews of it.
But it is amusing to see people who have already made up theri minds about SW:TOR one way or another also have made up their mind to the truth of this blog accordingly.
It is impossible to know for sure. That much is true. And while being fired IS a reason for revenge, I don't call someone liar until his lie is proven; regarding someone as "innocent" unless proven guilty is a principle I try to follow and turn it around and make someone guilty by suspicion. I don't think that line of thinking is healthy.
For a simple hoax it looks a bit too detailled. I mean he can't prove it without totally ruining his life. So there is all reason for anonymity. Still, it add to all my suspicious about WAR (how I HATED this arrgoent Paul... whatever his name was! I just saw is infamous podcasts and knew outright that man was a dork. I know these types of people, so I knew what was coming... )
At least my intuition says much he claims is true. The way too great investment into VO, the panick in at least many in Bioware and EA... it looks right to me.
And come on, if $300 million are true: you can't tell me you are NOT letdown! 300 million bucks and THIS? I mean, yes maybe there is the miracle revelation which makes all good. Who can say. I just don't see for the love of the Maker see that justified in what I see, no matter into what part of the game you go.
And look at EA's track record, how many companies EA swallowed and destroyed. Almost every single game produced under EA after the studio was swallowed became a flop. Anyone remembers how Ultima went right after EA bought it? Every Ultima was a roaring success. But as soon as EA was in the boat, there was Ultima VIII Pagan, the total disaster, and then Ultima IX, the finale and dishonorable ending. So it went with many EA things. EA ALWAYS went for cheap mass market, simplified gameplay and FOTM design. See how Ultima 8 added jump and run elements to mimic Mario and then in Ultima 9 Lara Croftish 3D action. Or the endless spawn of Sims expansions or the endless spawn of FIFA games... no... EA is a company which wants to make streamlined and simplified games. Always. EA has that design philosophy written all over. So it is at least very plausible to me that the guy is right.
You do realise that without EA, Mythic would have gone bankrupt. When Mythic took on warhammer MMO devolopment under estimated the cost and timeline at mid 2006. Mythic was burning through cash and was on verge of bankruptcy if it didn't get more investment. I know its fun to hate on EA but no amount of time could have saved WAR the game was already delayed by a year and people were becoming impatient. If they released it in mid 2009 it would have not even sold 1 million units. The game had many flaws including poor management and the game design itself was fundamentally flawed in every way.
As for EA's acquisitions they do not proper due diligence before buying other companies no one in the right mind would have bought Mythic (easiar to buy up leftovers with they go bankrupt), they blindly acquire a company to get access to the IPs and often times the key devolopers take the cash and bail leaving the acquired company worthless...
You know, I said about Vanguard it would fail. VG fans flamed me. All the VG fans told me, VG was for hardcore, only for some, it was not *my* sort of game. How often I hear THAT specific excuse.
I said Warhammer would fall way behind it's aspirations. WAR fans flamed me (and BOY a lot!). I vividly recall how everyone and everyones mom called me names because I had no idea what Warhammer is blah blah.
I said AoC would falter with that game system. AoC gamers grilled me.
I even said it once about FFXIV... but again I was stomped and shred to pieces, ppl said FF is great, it isn't for me, I was called many names. Now the truth is out.
I said it about *every single fail*, and I was flamed *every single time*, and I was always right. Right as in *every time*.
Now who said, they invested way too much into VO? Who said they are panicking and their devs give obscure answers and often aggressive brush offs?
I am not saying SWTOR is a guaranteed fail. But I say: SWTOR has major flaws. PERIOD. My prediction (as well as advise to Bioware): push it back to late 2011 or early 2012 and rethink your life... err game. They MUST add stuff people seek in MMOs, freedom, variety, not heroic things like crafting and other stuff. None here can really want them to fail, for the consequences would be a catastrophe. Who would invest again huge into AAA MMOs after such a failure?
Even tho... I must admit after EA destroyed a dozen great creative studios, I didn't expect anything different from the evil that is EA. Origin (Ultima, Wing Commander), Bullfrog (Dungeon Keeper), Westwood (Lands of Lore, C&C)... there is a LONG list of creative studios EA bought and RUINED. Now Mythic and next Bioware? They must leave their lofty "we know better", they must STOP listening to those who are just blind to the weak spots of the game and praise it! They must realize that the critique is their best chance to make the game better, and for that, the need to push it back and rethink some of their approaches. It is the only hope this game has now.
You try every guess and eventually you will be correct.
we knew you would be back and that you couldn't follow through with your quiting. You just need to hate this game. G.A.L.
This Blog could be the truth,partial truth or complete BS since there is notihng in it that is actually confirmable about SW:TOR at all or even Mythic in general that couldn't of been found out with a little googling of War dissections by th eemdia and others.So being as it is insubstantial in verifiable facts this blog will not influence me or anyone else who is undecided about SW:TOR who has a clear head and critical thinking.The onyl proof of wht was siad about SW:TOR will come when we can actually experience it ourselves or read unrestricted reviews of it.
But it is amusing to see people who have already made up theri minds about SW:TOR one way or another also have made up their mind to the truth of this blog accordingly.
It is impossible to know for sure. That much is true. And while being fired IS a reason for revenge, I don't call someone liar until his lie is proven; regarding someone as "innocent" unless proven guilty is a principle I try to follow and turn it around and make someone guilty by suspicion. I don't think that line of thinking is healthy.
For a simple hoax it looks a bit too detailled. I mean he can't prove it without totally ruining his life. So there is all reason for anonymity. Still, it add to all my suspicious about WAR (how I HATED this arrgoent Paul... whatever his name was! I just saw is infamous podcasts and knew outright that man was a dork. I know these types of people, so I knew what was coming... )
At least my intuition says much he claims is true. The way too great investment into VO, the panick in at least many in Bioware and EA... it looks right to me.
And come on, if $300 million are true: you can't tell me you are NOT letdown! 300 million bucks and THIS? I mean, yes maybe there is the miracle revelation which makes all good. Who can say. I just don't see for the love of the Maker see that justified in what I see, no matter into what part of the game you go.
And look at EA's track record, how many companies EA swallowed and destroyed. Almost every single game produced under EA after the studio was swallowed became a flop. Anyone remembers how Ultima went right after EA bought it? Every Ultima was a roaring success. But as soon as EA was in the boat, there was Ultima VIII Pagan, the total disaster, and then Ultima IX, the finale and dishonorable ending. So it went with many EA things. EA ALWAYS went for cheap mass market, simplified gameplay and FOTM design. See how Ultima 8 added jump and run elements to mimic Mario and then in Ultima 9 Lara Croftish 3D action. Or the endless spawn of Sims expansions or the endless spawn of FIFA games... no... EA is a company which wants to make streamlined and simplified games. Always. EA has that design philosophy written all over. So it is at least very plausible to me that the guy is right.
You do realise that without EA, Mythic would have gone bankrupt. When Mythic took on warhammer MMO devolopment under estimated the cost and timeline at mid 2006. Mythic was burning through cash and was on verge of bankruptcy if it didn't get more investment. I know its fun to hate on EA but no amount of time could have saved WAR the game was already delayed by a year and people were becoming impatient. If they released it in mid 2009 it would have not even sold 1 million units. The game had many flaws including poor management and the game design itself was fundamentally flawed in every way.
As for EA's acquisitions they do not proper due diligence before buying other companies no one in the right mind would have bought Mythic (easiar to buy up leftovers with they go bankrupt), they blindly acquire a company to get access to the IPs and often times the key devolopers take the cash and bail leaving the acquired company worthless...
Hmm should I believe an anonymous blog or people who have played the game...
And why would Lucas care? Its not like Lucast Arts are making the game. Bioware is making it and EA is publishing it. I am sure Lucas is getting money for license of the IP. But I am not sure what he would have to lose from the game if it fails.
Lucas Arts is the publisher. Lucas Arts is the publisher of all Star Wars games. EA is making the game. BioWare is just a name EA is using for marketing purposes.
no mater what anyone says, in the end people will judge the final product. If it sucks people won't play it. If it's fun people will. All we can do is wait and see.
How does another guy who alledgedly worked for Mythic back in the day, who tells his own story about internal affairs, confirm what the original poster claimed?
That's a fallacy, there is no connection between the two.
Claiming a fallacy when there isn't one... is a fallacy. The corporate culture of EA speaks for itself with regards to how one can have to do with the other. EA has a reputation to overwork, underpay, and generally just mismanage projects. Sure, some of their games turn out to be gems, but they also have a long line of terrible games as well.
The fallacy here is a fallacy of false cause. Which means you assume one thing causes another, this is not the case.
You assumed that another (allegedly) Mythic employee posting that he had similar experiences with Warhammer proved that the original poster was genuine. It does not.
As you say, EA overworking people is well known, therefore anyone can come up with a story as such. The mismanagement of Mythic and WAR is also rather well documented.
Furthermore, think about what he says: he knows it all and everyone else is bad, BioWare is making a 300 million dollar game with most of it spend on voice acting and George Lucas is panicking...
1) This guy claims to work for Mythic on Warhammer. That team is located in Fairfax, Virginia...
How does he know what goes on in Austin, Texas at the TOR team?
It's easy for word to get around within a company. Especially when a few members of a team are unhappy, they will tend to vent more to others in the compan when socializing. And yes, it's not uncommon for people of different teams to be communicating even if they don't directly work together. Sometimes employees get shifted around teams, but still talk or otherwise collaborate on some level.
So what he says is based on gossip? Ok, I guess that could happen, but just like there are a thousand forum posts for this game alone which spell doom and destruction for it and which are based on gossip, that is not very useful.
Also, we must assume he is actually genuine at first, then we must assume that there was gossip at the work floor for which we must assume there is some core of truth...
Lots of assuming there.
2) George Lucas is panicking about this game... really? George Lucas... That's just ridiculous, I wonder if Lucas even knows about this game, he has never been involved with much of what went on with his IP beyond the films, that's handled by LucasArts.
LucasArts is also closely involved with TOR (they do the voice overs and sound he talks about for example), but they are obviously not in contact with the Warhammer team, so how would that guy know what is going on with LucasArts, let alone that he can look into George Lucas's mind...
George Lucas has a lot invested in SWTOR. It's an immensely big project, in the least from a financial perspective. It's very like being made with the intent of becoming the 'next WoW' so to speak, which would be a massive profit center if they could pull that off.
Furthermore, GL has plans to rerelease the entire Star Wars series, starting with episode one in 2012, and each consecutive movie each year after. SWTOR is very likely tied up in their marketing strategy to drum up more attention to the Star Wars franchise, in hopes of being able to get the next generation hooked onto it even more. If SWTOR doesn't meet expectations, it could derail their whole marketing plan.
As per knowing with GL is thinking... that's simple. Again, all it takes is one employee to gossip about their work to collegues. A client manager who interacts with George, or someone who is in a meeting with him, or is hearing the direct spill over from the person who does. It's actually not uncommon for things like that to get around a company.
Even on big projects, George Lucas has never really shown much interest. He only talked about TOR once, and that was a casual mention, he didn't even seem to know what it was about.
Lucas has always been unconcerned with whatever went on in the expanded universe of his IP, that is why there are so many levels of canon in SW with the highest being his own.
Even if he has personally invested in this, we must once again assume that the few people of LucasArts who get into contact with him let slip something, which turns into gossip which is told to the few people who work together with BioWare, who give off to the Mythic team.... etc...
The whole blog just screams bullshit.
I'm not saying the blog is truth, but there's nothing in it that deviates from EA's reputation, nor anything that is improbable. Even if the blogger is lying, the best lies are based on shreds of truth, so there are very likely some problems that he stated which actually do exist if he is.
I'd say the best lies are based upon thinking you speak the truth, but lies remain lies and that's just that.And lets not forget that his sole mention of TOR was in a sweeping generalisation a couple of sentences long.
The whole premise for him giving off on TOR is just simply unlikely.
300 million could support an army of people working for years, the voice overs and sound are handled by Lucasarts and that's definitely not the main project, so really, I wonder how anyone could flush that much money down the toilet based on the premises that he talks about.
Secondly, the testing has been going on for 5 months or more now, there have been leaks, if the game was really that horrible so far, I'd say chances are we'd have seen blogs like this pop up earlier and not by disgruntled employees.
Originally posted by TUX426 Originally posted by sungodra shocking news? Somebody that has enough knowledge for a game and a vendetta could make a blog about any game out here and it doesn't make it true. Cannot believe that people are being this gullable. This guy may have done his research, or maybe he is an employee about to get laid off, either way he has a personal grudge against this company, so I don't buy any of this BS he is shoveling. If TOR sucks, than so be it, I'll find some other game to play. Probably gw2 since I was buying that game, but what if it sucks too? Hmm tough one, maybe a trip back to SWG , AOC, or just start a new AIOn account, since I actually liked that game. THis is a fucking game , man. If it winds up failing why do I or most of the other people on here care????? It is not like I own EA BW LA or even work for them. SO , it means absolutley nothing to me.
No kidding. Well said sungodra. The part that TOTALLY gave it away was "George Lucas is panicking..." Geezus...George created Jar-Jar Binks and didn't give a **edit**, hell, he even threw him back in our face for 2 more **edit**ing movies, this sure as hell doesn't bother him. Not only do I not think he commutes from California to Austin to oversee SW:ToR, he's busy working on SW 3D.
No, but I bet all the people at LA when they want Bioware or EA to do or change something says: 'George wants this...' or 'George wouldn't like that...'.
For the people who do not belive that a game can cost of upto 300 million dollars I would like you to see these here budgets of games that have already been released:
So we have Shenmue which was made over 10 years ago and had a $70 million budget.
And recently GTA IV with it's $100 million budget.
Mind you these are not MMO's just regular games. What's so hard to belive that 3 times as much could go into a game that is supposed to be as large and massive as TOR? Whether you believe this guy or not you have to keep an open mind, after all he might be telling the truth. I will just view this as what it is....just entertainment because in no shape or form does it affect me whether it's real or not. The people trying to say that he is fake have just as much proof as he does btw......
And what is it with this one guy here trying to find out the identity of this blogger? Is your normal life so dull and empty that this is what you need to do? Will you get praised by somebody if you do find out who he is? Jeez get a life!!
For the people who do not belive that a game can cost of upto 300 million dollars I would like you to see these here budgets of games that have already been released:
So we have Shenmue which was made over 10 years ago and had a $70 million budget.
And recently GTA IV with it's $100 million budget.
Mind you these are not MMO's just regular games. What's so hard to belive that 3 times as much could go into a game that is supposed to be as large and massive as TOR? Whether you believe this guy or not you have to keep an open mind, after all he might be telling the truth. I will just view this as what it is....just entertainment because in no shape or form does it affect me whether it's real or not. The people trying to say that he is fake have just as much proof as he does btw......
And what is it with this one guy here trying to find out the identity of this blogger? Is your normal life so dull and empty that this is what you need to do? Will you get praised by somebody if you do find out who he is? Jeez get a life!!
Theres no doubt in my mind a game CAN reach that amount. I would wait and see what information EA releases about their financials though.
Overall, cost means very little to me when I'm playing the game (as long as boxes don't increase in price)
I hear through the grapevine that the shit is hitting the fan over this, hope things turn out well enough for you. I know many people who want to shake your hand, after dealing with this.
While I do not know about the more recent events described, sounds like what was going on when I was there.
You didn’t even get into the Tool Support for devs, or the lack there of!
The items team had to manually make the items before the release (spread sheet, cell by cell) until it was clear they were not going to be done by the 3rd (or was it the 4th?) attempt at release. The guy they had to make a tool to help had 1 month to make it, and after that month, it was crashing, and making broken items.
I, on my own time off the clock, wrote a replacement tool in less than 12 hours (over 3 days after work) The day I finished the tool, I was fired for ‘not being early’ because of the same management BS you described.
They were still using MY tool a year later."
Confirmed his credibility.
He really worked in mythic
How does another guy who alledgedly worked for Mythic back in the day, who tells his own story about internal affairs, confirm what the original poster claimed?
That's a fallacy, there is no connection between the two.
Furthermore, think about what he says: he knows it all and everyone else is bad, BioWare is making a 300 million dollar game with most of it spend on voice acting and George Lucas is panicking...
1) This guy claims to work for Mythic on Warhammer. That team is located in Fairfax, Virginia...
How does he know what goes on in Austin, Texas at the TOR team?
2) George Lucas is panicking about this game... really? George Lucas... That's just ridiculous, I wonder if Lucas even knows about this game, he has never been involved with much of what went on with his IP beyond the films, that's handled by LucasArts.
LucasArts is also closely involved with TOR (they do the voice overs and sound he talks about for example), but they are obviously not in contact with the Warhammer team, so how would that guy know what is going on with LucasArts, let alone that he can look into George Lucas's mind...
shocking news? Somebody that has enough knowledge for a game and a vendetta could make a blog about any game out here and it doesn't make it true.
Cannot believe that people are being this gullable. This guy may have done his research, or maybe he is an employee about to get laid off, either way he has a personal grudge against this company, so I don't buy any of this BS he is shoveling.
If TOR sucks, than so be it, I'll find some other game to play. Probably gw2 since I was buying that game, but what if it sucks too? Hmm tough one, maybe a trip back to SWG , AOC, or just start a new AIOn account, since I actually liked that game.
THis is a fucking game , man. If it winds up failing why do I or most of the other people on here care????? It is not like I own EA BW LA or even work for them. SO , it means absolutley nothing to me.
No kidding. Well said sungodra.
The part that TOTALLY gave it away was "George Lucas is panicking..." Geezus...George created Jar-Jar Binks and didn't give a **edit**, hell, he even threw him back in our face for 2 more **edit**ing movies, this sure as hell doesn't bother him. Not only do I not think he commutes from California to Austin to oversee SW:ToR, he's busy working on SW 3D.
No, but I bet all the people at LA when they want Bioware or EA to do or change something says: 'George wants this...' or 'George wouldn't like that...'.
I highly doubt it's as random as "George wouldn't like this or that"...Lucas Arts has been making SW games for ages mate. My guess is they have strict industry standards established that they follow, not vague assumptions on what George likes or dislikes.
6. The failure of that product, created a loss of stability in this persons job.
7. The person obviously has it out for EA and anyone associated with them.
8. We do not know the means in which this guy has been given information.
9. What he said about TOR was vague.
10. Any game or company can fail.
None of these facts can establish whether or not this blog is telling the truth. There are facts that make it hard to believe, mainly the distance between this employee, and the development team in Austin. Considering he's possibly bent out of shape about losing his job, it's hard to believe the information in his blog is 100% accurate. If he has an axe to grind it would make perfect sense to fabricate a few things, to both strengthen his point, as well as hit them where it hurts.
While I will not say with certainty that this whole blog is a fabrication, the very fact that it was done as it was done. As well as contained the language that it did. Says to me, I should take any information contained within with a grain of salt.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
take any information contained within with a grain of salt.
Good post Malickie.
I've been reading the replies for far too long now - they're comical at best. It IS rather shocking how many people are so anxious to believe some random dudes forum post though.
Here's one that already calls out some inaccuracies.
Imma bet that there's a greater chance that he's some Warhammer fanatic who is furious they didn't do what HE thought they should from his forum posts, than there is a chance he actually works/worked for EA.
Also, and please correct me if I'm mistaken, since when did working for a game company entitle you to tenure? Is developing a game that goes live essentially like a Supreme Court appointment? Isn't it fairly common for a development staff to be downsized after release, and eventually terminated if the product is poorly received? I can understand anyone's frustration at being layed off, but holy sh!t...1 in 10 Americans is unemployed right now...it's not unique to freaking EA. Sucks, but in an industry where it's kinda the norm, get use to it or find a government job.
Guy sound believable, but u cant be 100% sure - he didnt said anything what wasn't more or less known about mythic and war, I just hope he is wrong about SWTOR, but i have mine concerns. SWTOR is still work in progress, but still havent seen anything to get me realy thrilled about the game and i'm SW fan, i dont know, something is missing.
Their effort put into voice acting will probably mostly be appreciated by english native speakers, for myself (and many others without perfect knowledge of english) I couldn't care less - I have no doubt i will need to read dialogs to fully understand what npcs are saying .
Okay you hit on a point i didn't even think about, i really hope they got multiple languages for you guys. Cause otherwise that leaves a good portion of the people who want to play out. Maybe you'll get lucky, but i'm not sure, i've yet to hear anything regarding that.
They are doing full VO in other languages too .. like German etc ....
Comments
I was always disappointed how EQ2 kind of dropped the ball on VO’s in expansion packs. I can only guess it was one of the first things to get cut out of future expansions budgets once they realized they didn’t have the sub numbers SOE had hoped for. Hopefully Bioware can avoid the same issues.
As for the blog I don’t really know how to read that. It could be a fake for sure, or if it’s real reads like a really pissed off employee rantings at the bar (Including the random thoughts that are just thrown together without any tie in’s). Regardless specifically towards the Bioware thing he obviously has only a outside look in at the product and is speaking more from rumors then fact plus he may be resentful that they are stealing Mythic employees from his project to go work on that other MMO.
It’s been easy the last few years to look at any MMO and say “it’s going to fail” and be right. Everything that has been released has quickly slide down after release while older games like WOW and EVE have slowly grown over time. So being a all knowing prophet in this environment is pretty easy as long as all you do is spout doom and gloom. The two games I see upcoming that might be able to break that trend are GW2 and SW:TOR. GW2’s no sub model almost guarantees it will be a stealer success and the only way to really judge it long term will be how well its first expansion sells. SW:TOR will either raise the bar on what it means to be a AAA title or it will show that you can’t buy a success with more money. I don’t know yet which one it will be.
I agree that trusting BioWare is a safe-enough bet...And no question the author of that Blog has an ax to grind...And he deserves to grind that ax no question...But he's obviously not on the inside of the TOR Game and even though I'm not a huge fan of everything I've seen on SWTOR, I can say there is no way it's going to be the epic failure he predicts...But it can still fail based on expectations and over-hype alone...Is SWTOR going to be considered a failure if it can only keep 500K Subs active after 12 Months? Well, IF they really spent 300 million then sure...It would be a major disappointment...That number seems a bit hard to believe though...We'll see...
The thing about this Blog and SWTOR that DID immediately get my attention, and the part I worry about most, is the Voice Over...I think the concentration on VO and the resources it's taking to do this massive VO Project were a HUGE miscalculation on BioWare's part...I think a great number of Folks who end up playing the Game are going to be wearing out the Space Bar to skip through, or turning off the VO's all together...Massive time spent listening to VO's is simply not a good fit for MMO's...And of us who play these Games with a Guild know exactly what I'm talking about...Seriously Folks, can you imagine the constant pain-in-the-rear it's going to be trying to listen to theses VO's while you have 8 Guildies in a Vent channel talking? So are you going to have to hang out in a channel by yourself every time you want to listen to a VO? Plus the time it takes to listen to them? It's just not a fit...People are busy...They're gonna skip right trough most of it as fast as they can so, assuming that, it was a tremendous waste of resources that would have been better spent elsewhere if you ask me...And I've said that from Day #1 of this massive VO hype...
This Blog could be the truth,partial truth or complete BS since there is notihng in it that is actually confirmable about SW:TOR at all or even Mythic in general that couldn't of been found out with a little googling of War dissections by th eemdia and others.So being as it is insubstantial in verifiable facts this blog will not influence me or anyone else who is undecided about SW:TOR who has a clear head and critical thinking.The onyl proof of wht was siad about SW:TOR will come when we can actually experience it ourselves or read unrestricted reviews of it.
But it is amusing to see people who have already made up theri minds about SW:TOR one way or another also have made up their mind to the truth of this blog accordingly.
Evidence is needed to prove anything. Since this employee gave no evidence about how they actually know the development cost, the installation size and what they are most proud of without even working on the game, it can't be true. Either this employee is BS'ing big time or they are getting laid off and are so pissed that they want any future games that involve Mythic at all to fail and fail bad.
$300m Budget is hard enough to believe. They wouldn't put that much into the project unless they was 100% confident this game will be the new dawn of MMO's. Especially in this economy state.
Nice try though.
Wow, a common sense approach to things, how refreshing.
In Bioware we trust!
It is impossible to know for sure. That much is true. And while being fired IS a reason for revenge, I don't call someone liar until his lie is proven; regarding someone as "innocent" unless proven guilty is a principle I try to follow and turn it around and make someone guilty by suspicion. I don't think that line of thinking is healthy.
For a simple hoax it looks a bit too detailled. I mean he can't prove it without totally ruining his life. So there is all reason for anonymity. Still, it add to all my suspicious about WAR (how I HATED this arrgoent Paul... whatever his name was! I just saw is infamous podcasts and knew outright that man was a dork. I know these types of people, so I knew what was coming... )
At least my intuition says much he claims is true. The way too great investment into VO, the panick in at least many in Bioware and EA... it looks right to me.
And come on, if $300 million are true: you can't tell me you are NOT letdown! 300 million bucks and THIS? I mean, yes maybe there is the miracle revelation which makes all good. Who can say. I just don't see for the love of the Maker see that justified in what I see, no matter into what part of the game you go.
And look at EA's track record, how many companies EA swallowed and destroyed. Almost every single game produced under EA after the studio was swallowed became a flop. Anyone remembers how Ultima went right after EA bought it? Every Ultima was a roaring success. But as soon as EA was in the boat, there was Ultima VIII Pagan, the total disaster, and then Ultima IX, the finale and dishonorable ending. So it went with many EA things. EA ALWAYS went for cheap mass market, simplified gameplay and FOTM design. See how Ultima 8 added jump and run elements to mimic Mario and then in Ultima 9 Lara Croftish 3D action. Or the endless spawn of Sims expansions or the endless spawn of FIFA games... no... EA is a company which wants to make streamlined and simplified games. Always. EA has that design philosophy written all over. So it is at least very plausible to me that the guy is right.
I think voice overs are expensive especially in the scale SWTOR is doing. Go check how much of Starcraft II was voiced over and they did it like a few hours the actors from what I saw at the Blizzard event when they interviewed them. But that was justa little. Imagine a whole game. I think that 300 million might not be so totally crazy.
She said that she wasn't fired for that fight (but does not deny the fight happened at all). She also seems to believe this guy really works at Mythic.
That said, the Open Beta should tell us how the game is.
I remember a time when EA was the small indie studio that made really fun games and studios like Activision and Atria where the big evil corporate game companies.
Not saying that EA today is that same company just that it’s all a matter of perspective and sometime it’s a little too easy to blame the big bad multinational for all the worlds problems.
EA has seemed to leave Bioware mostly alone. I would imagine as long as they continue to make high quality games that sell well there is little incentive on EA’s part to mess with a working formula. One of my big fears is that if SW:TOR doesn’t do well it could very well mean the end of the Bioware studio many of us have come to love.
You do realise that without EA, Mythic would have gone bankrupt. When Mythic took on warhammer MMO devolopment under estimated the cost and timeline at mid 2006. Mythic was burning through cash and was on verge of bankruptcy if it didn't get more investment. I know its fun to hate on EA but no amount of time could have saved WAR the game was already delayed by a year and people were becoming impatient. If they released it in mid 2009 it would have not even sold 1 million units. The game had many flaws including poor management and the game design itself was fundamentally flawed in every way.
As for EA's acquisitions they do not proper due diligence before buying other companies no one in the right mind would have bought Mythic (easiar to buy up leftovers with they go bankrupt), they blindly acquire a company to get access to the IPs and often times the key devolopers take the cash and bail leaving the acquired company worthless...
You try every guess and eventually you will be correct.
we knew you would be back and that you couldn't follow through with your quiting. You just need to hate this game. G.A.L.
Ok point taken.
Still, the history of EA is quite... suspicious.
SWTOR will be the bigest flop in MMO history...$300 million spent on sound and voice overs. Are you kidding me!!
This reads a lot like the tell all tale by RTW employees on APB.
Lucas Arts is the publisher. Lucas Arts is the publisher of all Star Wars games. EA is making the game. BioWare is just a name EA is using for marketing purposes.
no mater what anyone says, in the end people will judge the final product. If it sucks people won't play it. If it's fun people will. All we can do is wait and see.
The whole premise for him giving off on TOR is just simply unlikely.
300 million could support an army of people working for years, the voice overs and sound are handled by Lucasarts and that's definitely not the main project, so really, I wonder how anyone could flush that much money down the toilet based on the premises that he talks about.
Secondly, the testing has been going on for 5 months or more now, there have been leaks, if the game was really that horrible so far, I'd say chances are we'd have seen blogs like this pop up earlier and not by disgruntled employees.
You might also want to read the following:
http://eatingbees.brokentoys.org/2010/10/13/yes-i-saw-the-louse-blog/
Sanya Weathers herself says he's wrong on her part.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
The part that TOTALLY gave it away was "George Lucas is panicking..." Geezus...George created Jar-Jar Binks and didn't give a **edit**, hell, he even threw him back in our face for 2 more **edit**ing movies, this sure as hell doesn't bother him. Not only do I not think he commutes from California to Austin to oversee SW:ToR, he's busy working on SW 3D.
No, but I bet all the people at LA when they want Bioware or EA to do or change something says: 'George wants this...' or 'George wouldn't like that...'.
For the people who do not belive that a game can cost of upto 300 million dollars I would like you to see these here budgets of games that have already been released:
http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/181688/gta-iv-overtakes-shenmue-as-most-expensive-game/
So we have Shenmue which was made over 10 years ago and had a $70 million budget.
And recently GTA IV with it's $100 million budget.
Mind you these are not MMO's just regular games. What's so hard to belive that 3 times as much could go into a game that is supposed to be as large and massive as TOR? Whether you believe this guy or not you have to keep an open mind, after all he might be telling the truth. I will just view this as what it is....just entertainment because in no shape or form does it affect me whether it's real or not. The people trying to say that he is fake have just as much proof as he does btw......
And what is it with this one guy here trying to find out the identity of this blogger? Is your normal life so dull and empty that this is what you need to do? Will you get praised by somebody if you do find out who he is? Jeez get a life!!
Theres no doubt in my mind a game CAN reach that amount. I would wait and see what information EA releases about their financials though.
Overall, cost means very little to me when I'm playing the game (as long as boxes don't increase in price)
I agree with you 100%.
I highly doubt it's as random as "George wouldn't like this or that"...Lucas Arts has been making SW games for ages mate. My guess is they have strict industry standards established that they follow, not vague assumptions on what George likes or dislikes.
I'll just look at the facts as we know them.
1. Mythic, based in Fairfax, VA.
2. Bioware Austin- Austin, Texas
3. Mythic has been all but dismantled
4. This guy may be a Mythic employee
5. Mythic failed to release a decent product.
6. The failure of that product, created a loss of stability in this persons job.
7. The person obviously has it out for EA and anyone associated with them.
8. We do not know the means in which this guy has been given information.
9. What he said about TOR was vague.
10. Any game or company can fail.
None of these facts can establish whether or not this blog is telling the truth. There are facts that make it hard to believe, mainly the distance between this employee, and the development team in Austin. Considering he's possibly bent out of shape about losing his job, it's hard to believe the information in his blog is 100% accurate. If he has an axe to grind it would make perfect sense to fabricate a few things, to both strengthen his point, as well as hit them where it hurts.
While I will not say with certainty that this whole blog is a fabrication, the very fact that it was done as it was done. As well as contained the language that it did. Says to me, I should take any information contained within with a grain of salt.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Good post Malickie.
I've been reading the replies for far too long now - they're comical at best. It IS rather shocking how many people are so anxious to believe some random dudes forum post though.
Here's one that already calls out some inaccuracies.
Imma bet that there's a greater chance that he's some Warhammer fanatic who is furious they didn't do what HE thought they should from his forum posts, than there is a chance he actually works/worked for EA.
Also, and please correct me if I'm mistaken, since when did working for a game company entitle you to tenure? Is developing a game that goes live essentially like a Supreme Court appointment? Isn't it fairly common for a development staff to be downsized after release, and eventually terminated if the product is poorly received? I can understand anyone's frustration at being layed off, but holy sh!t...1 in 10 Americans is unemployed right now...it's not unique to freaking EA. Sucks, but in an industry where it's kinda the norm, get use to it or find a government job.
and here is David jaffe weighing in...in his usual style
http://criminalcrackdown.blogspot.com/2010/10/my-response-to-ea-louse.html
They are doing full VO in other languages too .. like German etc ....