Dragon Age: The Veilguard - A woke disaster? Yep!

[p1138]

Usually a bad sign because even if a company is not hiring, they usually leave up a few token positions for "nice to have" stuff, or even just for regular churn (you'd always see an employee or two leaving annually, and you'd usually line up their replacements in advance). Completely no listing at all usually means imminent downsizing or reshuffle.

Absolutely. There's just no way a company the size of bioware happens to have zero openings while operating normally. Even if not churn, there's always someone leaving, out on medical leave, something at a business with 250-500 employees. Plus it's not like the hiring process happens within a couple of days either. You need time to find and sort applicants, do interviews, and so on. A fairly normal position could take a month to fill if they weren't headhunting directly from other businesses. Then there's onboarding, getting that new hire up to speed on whatever projects they were actually hired for, etc.

 

[Foltest]

EA should have gone to BioWare and said “don’t put this shit into the game, what the hell is wrong with you?” But they did not.
EA gotten a lot of shit for meddling in thier studios before, but sometimes they are too hands off.

 

[Oliver Onions]

If we're being very charitable, it's possible EA is currently shuffling existing Bioware staff off to other departments, then once they see what they have left at Bioware they'll either decide to bolster the ranks or pink slip whoever's left.

Whatever the reality of the situation I can guarantee it's not good news for Bioware.

 

[porkWellington]

So I absolutely loved ME1 and ME2 when they were out, they were my fucking shit. I never actually played 3 because I heard all the choices you made through 1 and 2 didn't translate to 3 in a satisfying way and that the ending was so fucking bad that people lost their minds and started boycotting it and demanding re-writes.

My question is. Was 3 even worth playing? I always assumed the ME franchise died at 2.

For what it was I thought the choices carried over good enough into 3. They had to do some ass pulls to ensure you still got to the ending despite some of your choices but I don't think anything they did in ME3 was as egregious as something like letting you definitively kill Leliana in DA just for her to wake up later so she can be in DA:I or redeeming Flemeth.

ME3 was less edgy than 2 and maybe a bit too campy at certain points but it didn't damage the series as badly as Veilguard did to Dragon Age. Next Dragon Age is going to be Dragon Age: Infinity War where you team up with the Darkspawn in their new home in what was Ferelden and help them defend it from Dragon Slay-Queen Thanos while slaughtering those pesky Ferelden's stubbornly clinging to their old home until they join the campfire and sing kumbaya with the Darkspawn.

 

[Thiletonomics]

BioWare is likely EA's DEI facade. They shove all the troons, non-binaries, and genderspeshul in there and show their investors how diverse they are. Given how these big corporations can still dull the impact of flops with tax write-offs and various forms of creative bookkeeping, EA may think it's worth turning a blind eye to the losses sustained by BioWare every once in a while.

With Trump doing his best to abolish DEI, however, it remains to be seen whether EA will tolerate BioWare's continuous existence. If they had any sense, they would take the wire hanger and abort BioWare out of their systems before it drags them further down into some Ubisoft-ian bankruptcy spiral.

I was under the impression that The Sims Studio is EA's dedicated DIE division, since the rainbow changes with The Sims 4, i.e. gender customization, pronouns, polyamory, sexual orientation customization, and even CHESTFEEDING, have been so blatant and in-your-face. TS4 being a buggy mess during its decade of life also means that EA either released/laid off their actual capable programmers, or they left on their own, and replaced them with the said DiVeRsE hires that added those said features, but can't fix the buggy messes they create.

At least Sims is still a cashcow for EA, since it literally has no competition right now.

 

[TheHarbinger]

They have no available listings for any bioware office for any positions at all. Game dev, IT, HR/Admin, nothing. No job postings on linkedin, Indeed, etc. EA is hiring, and some of their studios like Maxis, are hiring. Bioware? No.

You think that game companies hire through their websites? They hire through DEI consultants like Sweet Baby Inc. or whatever. They never hire through normal channels because those are subject to all sorts of legal rules. They list their jobs through private channels and hire people through third party agencies. You could get a job writing on Mass Effect 5 tomorrow without going directly through Bioware. They are hiring, you just don't work in gaming obviously.

Take a look at nearly every single position filled by Sweet Baby Inc. that is publicly known. They are almost all writing positions. This is how practically every writing team in gaming or television is assembled.

 

[30+GameOvers]

Take a look at nearly every single position filled by Sweet Baby Inc. that is publicly known. They are almost all writing positions. This is how practically every writing team in gaming or television is assembled.

As if it wasn't obvious enough with how almost literally everything in western media sucks now
This is also why it's the perfect time to enter gaming, if you were ever interested in it as a career. There is almost no competition right now, all you have to do is make a decent game, on the same level as one made 10-15 years ago, and don't sell out in the process. There were never more tools or opportunities either, you could easily overthrow old-time giants, now husks or fossils, this way if you wanted to. And who do you have to thank for that? Sweet Baby Inc., who single handedly killed the western gaming AAA industry, almost by itself, lmfao. Hope the money was worth it! Something tells me the investors who were there for the Concord/Dustborn/Veilguard aftermath report don't think so!

 

[moocow]

No one actually played Andromeda so you can be forgiven somewhat for forgetting but Andromeda's companions set the tone for Veilguard's horrific cast of undesirables.

You had
...[a good summary of the main cast]...

Wasn't that faggot lisping Krogan also a part of the main group, or was "he" just a comically inept character from a boring sidequest?

 

[Mola Ram]

Wasn't that faggot lisping Krogan also a part of the main group, or was "he" just a comically inept character from a boring sidequest?

This is a timely reminder how bad Veilguard had to be to get people to say anything nice about Andromeda.

 

[p1138]

You think that game companies hire through their websites? They hire through DEI consultants like Sweet Baby Inc. or whatever. They never hire through normal channels because those are subject to all sorts of legal rules. They list their jobs through private channels and hire people through third party agencies. You could get a job writing on Mass Effect 5 tomorrow without going directly through Bioware. They are hiring, you just don't work in gaming obviously.

Take a look at nearly every single position filled by Sweet Baby Inc. that is publicly known. They are almost all writing positions. This is how practically every writing team in gaming or television is assembled.

Yes, they do hire via their websites. You'll notice I also linked the EA job pages which do have listings for studios other than Bioware.
So I've already shown that EA does.
Blizzard https://careers.blizzard.com/global/en/search-results?rk=l-irvine&sortBy=Most relevant
Ubisoft https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/company/careers
Bungie https://careers.bungie.com/jobs
Naughty Dog https://www.naughtydog.com/careers
Take-Two https://careers.take2games.com/jobs
Zenimax https://jobs.zenimax.com/jobs
Playstation(you can even look up Santa Monica Studio specifically as a department, can't link to it directly) https://www.playstation.com/en-us/corporate/playstation-careers/
WB Games Montreal https://wbgamesmontreal.com/en/careers/
Annapurna Interactive (hiring to external devs since they're a publisher) https://annapurnainteractive.com/en/jobs/external-jobs
Insomniac https://insomniac.games/careers/
Netherrealm https://careers.wbd.com/global/en/netherrealm-studios-jobs
Epic Games https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/careers/jobs?page=1

I don't think I need to keep going. There is more involved in game development than just writers. Bioware is a 200-500 employee company, not a small mom and pop operation. Even being subsidiary of EA, that is still going to require IT, HR, Facilities, Accounting, Office Management, and so on. The fact that Bioware not only has zero positions for anything video game related, but also nothing for the entire rest of the business that exists to support the game development such as operations(which SBI would have nothing to do with) is pretty damned significant. Some of the studios I've listed that all have openings, have even worked or are currently working with SBI. Even ignoring SBI, there's still plenty of wokeslop devs and publishers I just pointed out that have produced shit games. Unless you seriously want to try and imply that Blizzard, Ubisoft, Naughty Dog, and WB aren't just as woke as some of this other shit?

 

[TheHarbinger]

don't think I need to keep going.

Obviously. The point was that Bioware is hiring beyond what their public job postings are. And that Mass Effect 5 has a pre-production writing team. This has been known for a while. The writing team gets to hire directly to the staff meaning they can just find some LGBTAIDS person on social media and put them right onto the team without much oversight. This is how everyone in the media is hired now. Through stuff like nepotism and politics.

These public job postings are not for the nepotism hires or political hires.

 

[p1138]

Obviously. The point was that Bioware is hiring beyond what their public job postings are. And that Mass Effect 5 has a pre-production writing team. This has been known for a while. The writing team gets to hire directly to the staff meaning they can just find some LGBTAIDS person on social media and put them right onto the team without much oversight. This is how everyone in the media is hired now. Through stuff like nepotism and politics.

These public job postings are not for the nepotism hires or political hires.

And you're still missing the point. There are more employees at Bioware beyond just game developers. And even among the game developers, they are not all writers. A 200+ employee company does not do a public hiring freeze unless things internally are completely fucked. Yes, they would not need to be hiring texture and mocap people for pre-production, but the entire rest of the company still needs to exist while you're focused entirely on the writing. Again, please refer to the over a dozen links(some of which lead to multiple studios/subsidiaries) and you'll notice how it isn't just purely game dev positions everywhere.

You do a complete hiring freeze when the finances are so fucked up, that a massive re-organization(this is the most likely scenario) is either about to occur or is already in progress, or the place is going to just get shut down. You're telling me I "don't work in gaming obviously" yet what you've posted indicates you've never worked at a level where any understanding of a corporate structure is actually needed. Bioware isn't 5 person game studio in the 80s working out of someone's basement or garage.

 

[Disc]

And you're still missing the point. There are more employees at Bioware beyond just game developers. And even among the game developers, they are not all writers. A 200+ employee company does not do a public hiring freeze unless things internally are completely fucked. Yes, they would not need to be hiring texture and mocap people for pre-production, but the entire rest of the company still needs to exist while you're focused entirely on the writing. Again, please refer to the over a dozen links(some of which lead to multiple studios/subsidiaries) and you'll notice how it isn't just purely game dev positions everywhere.

You do a complete hiring freeze when the finances are so fucked up, that a massive re-organization(this is the most likely scenario) is either about to occur or is already in progress, or the place is going to just get shut down. You're telling me I "don't work in gaming obviously" yet what you've posted indicates you've never worked at a level where any understanding of a corporate structure is actually needed. Bioware isn't 5 person game studio in the 80s working out of someone's basement or garage.

Let me put it this way, @TheHarbinger. Regardless of whether they default to hiring people through consultancy recommendations or w/e, it's still good prudence to keep the official channels at least visibly open. After all, you never know when gold might walk through your door.

When they're very explicitly not hiring for literally any position, from the most critical in core business function to the jannies, that's a sign the end times are near.

Even the fact that the only team currently known to be working there is a pre-production writing team is a death knell. Any healthy game company has at least enough projects in the pipeline to keep it's programmers busy earning their paychecks, whether that's DLC or games in development. There is nothing in the pipeline for all those people to be doing that we know of - either they're all getting fired, or there's some other project that is completely under wraps. Or, as seems to be the case, EA's keeping them on the roster while they pick and choose who'd be good as part of other teams.

 

[regalterry]

EA's keeping them on the roster while they pick and choose who'd be good as part of other teams.

Now watch them keep around all the clowns responsible for the abysmal writing in everything BioWare has shat out in the past decade.

Dragon Age 2 was when the company needed an intervention, now the only remaining course of action is to put them out of their misery.

 

[Oliver Onions]

Speaking of pipelines, what is EA currently working on? According to their website, they have a whopping two games coming in 2025.

Sorry, I stand corrected: the Plants Vs. Zombies mobile game doesn't actually have a release date yet. Still...EA doomers sufficiently BTFO, I think you'll find.

 

[p1138]

Speaking of pipelines, what is EA currently working on? According to their website, they have a whopping two games coming in 2025.
View attachment 6909850
Sorry, I stand corrected: the Plants Vs. Zombies mobile game doesn't actually have a release date yet. Still...EA doomers sufficiently BTFO, I think you'll find.

Oh come on, they're still going to release a handful of their annual sports games. The 2026 stuff is due out what, this summer and onward?
DICE probably has another battlefield game in the pipeline that'll feature trannies fighting in the US civil war or something.
Cliffhanger Games has some black panther thing they're working on years after the hype for that has already died down.
Motive supposedly working on an Ironman game... years after the hype has already died down.
You know, games so far along that they don't even have anything to discuss about them? lol.

But Plants V Zombies without a date, and "split fiction" whatever the fuck that is and nothing else for the first half of 2025... this 30 billion dollar company is going to go places.

 

[Oliver Onions]

DICE probably has another battlefield game in the pipeline that'll feature trannies fighting in the US civil war or something.

I'd actually been wondering recently what was going on with Battlefield, after they completely fumbled 2042. I dug around for some articles and apparently there is a very tenuous October 2025 release date, but they've not even dropped a trailer yet never mind gameplay footage.

I also found this hilarious-if-true article from a week ago, citing a rumour that 98% of staff who previously worked on the series have since left DICE. Then again, given how bad 2042 launched maybe it wouldn't be the worst thing to hand the series over to new blood. Hell, why not give it to Bioware now they've got nothing else to do.

and "split fiction" whatever the fuck that is

It's the next game from the devs behind It Takes Two and/or No Way Out...I forget exactly, but for some reason they are obsessed with making these parallel co-op games.

 

[regalterry]

From a cursory web search, 13,000 people currently work at EA, and I have to ask myself, what the fuck are they all doing?

It can't take that many people to shit out art assets for lootboxes for their currently supported multiplayer games, nor can it take that many people to provide maintenance and patching for their active titles.

EA is basically Ubisoft with more money - same woke hiring practices, same competency crisis, the only difference is that they still have IPs people want to play, so that the whole rotting carcass can keep rolling along for a few more years.

 

[Balr0g]

Speaking of pipelines, what is EA currently working on? According to their website, they have a whopping two games coming in 2025.
View attachment 6909850
Sorry, I stand corrected: the Plants Vs. Zombies mobile game doesn't actually have a release date yet. Still...EA doomers sufficiently BTFO, I think you'll find.

As p1138 said the anual iterations of NHL, Fifa, Madden and F1 have to be shat out.

 

[Xev]

Regardless of how they go about hiring people, they've clearly been hiring the wrong people for quite some time. You'd think they would have learned their lesson after the first flop but here we are multiple flops later.