BioWare
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BioWare is a game company that is currently owned by Electronic Arts (EA). It specializes in making role playing games that usually involve deep and engaging stories.
Greg Zeschuk, Ray Muzyka Are Leaving BioWare
Part of me feels like these guys kind of knew this was coming when they were bought by EA. In a sort of "we both kind of want to call it quits, for our own reasons, but if we just bail on Bioware as it is now, who knows what will happen to all these workers."
Or maybe I just want to imagine a "happy" ending and not "EA crushed their souls and devoured every desire they have to be in the gaming industry any longer!" like so many other people are want to do.
@patrickklepek Don't mean to sound rude, but it looks like you have some things backwards in the article: Zeschuk was the one who said he'd lost his passion, and lines from Muzyka's letter were likewise attributed to Zeschuk.
I know EA are the big evil monster that everyone loves to blame, but why is everyone jumping to conclusions? The Doctors have made a decision to leave, and for everyone calling the end of BioWare, that's completely unfair to the hundreds of talented people at the company who are responsible for the titles they have crafted.
Please stop with this Anti-EA Circlejerk.
I should probably care about this but my initial reaction is "meh."
Maybe it's ultimately a good thing, they might go do something cool somewhere else.
Well that's a bummer. Those 2 guys have been at least partially responsible for some of my favourite video games & if they are really gone for good then that's sad. The RPG gaming world has taken another blown unfortunately. Raise a glass to the memory of Baldur's Gate, KotOR, even Jade Empire which was terrific.
Also, I think this is more a sign that the doctors have become fabulously wealthy and would like to spend their time pursuing their passions.
And maybe EA's co-opting of the term Iinfinity Engine" was somehow related.
@patrickklepek If I read the blog post correctly, the only quote you've got there that should be attributed to Zeschuk is the beer one at the end. The rest was Muzyka.
Edit: Sorry, you've updated it already. Still mis-attributing the Entrepreneurial stuff, but otherwise good now.
It would be easy to make EA as the bad guys but I wonder if instead they were hit with "euphoria" from being brought into EA. When they were independent they made some iffy decisions but they were clearly decisions they came to where afterwards it felt less and less so. For whatever reason, they were making less decisions or fighting for things they wanted. I'm not surprised they felt changed and think it is time to leave where it is always better to get out sooner rather than later if one "doesn't feel the passion any more".
Or the "euphoria" clouded their heads and made bad decision after bad decision after bad decision and this is a "graceful" way to get them out of the way. Something about "the first thing you do when are in a deep hole is stop digging".
Whatever. There is a wide gulf of difference between people leaving of their own accord because they are tired or uninterested and people who are pushed out or fired. They wanted to leave because their hearts/mind ain't in it, so bon voyage is all you can say.
To say the company or the games are doomed is to TOTALLY disrespect the coders, writers, artist who work for them. Oh, wait...the fans of Bioware's games regularly disrespect the coders, artists and especially the writers...so what was I thinking.
I'll always have to wonder if they were just "done", if it was corporate bullshit with EA or if they were just tired of dealing with this industry and it's childish fans.
It's ok, I moved on from Bioware too, after Jade Empire. More excited for ex-Bioware games like Banner Saga
@Ravenlight said:
So how is this EA's fault? Not trying to defend EA or anything, I legitimately don't understand.
As far as I know, there isn't any definitive proof that it is EA's fault. Everybody's just looking for a reason to hate EA and riding that "Oh, I see now why they got voted the Worst Company in America" bandwagon.
Yeah, there's nothing particularly sinister going on here. They're just moving on. Now, who replaces them could be a concern, depending on who steps in and who puts them there.Guys, they left because they wished to pursue other goals in life. They're both incredibly smart and imaginative. After working for nearly 20 years in the games industry, wouldn't you want to do something else?
@ProfessorEss said:
I'll always have to wonder if it was corporate bullshit with EA or if they were just tired of dealing with this industry and it's childish fans.
After all the bullshit about the ending, I wouldn't have to work somewhere that gets that amount of childish vitriol either.
Not to suggest that's the key reason for them leaving or anything but... yeah. Gamers on the internet are fucking dicks.
That said, they spent nearly 20 years at Bioware. I can understand that they'd want to move on.
I don't blame EA. It seemed obvious the moment that the Bioware Dr.s sold the company to EA that they were just looking for a big check to retire on. You never sell a successful company you built from nothing to a big corporate entity for any other reason.
Thank god that Gabe Newell is still interested in helming Valve. The moment he's ready to cash in his chips will be dark times :(
@pbhawks45 said:
How much of an impact does this really have, though? It had seemed like their influence on the studio had greatly diminished over the years. Seems more symbolic, though I could be totally wrong.
This was my understanding as well. In any case, it looks like the industry (EA) sapped the energy they had for making games but thankfully these are 2 extremely smart dudes and have all sorts of other things to occupy their time with!
The only sad part is that they won't be involved in making games (at least for awhile). Otherwise, I'd be ecstatic to see them leave and start the new project of their dreams. I mean, hopefully that's what they *will* be doing, even if their dreams don't involve video games.
Maybe the fear of losing the whole of Bioware will force EA to ease up a little. I'd still be interested in seeing what the team(s) there could do under a different leader. I still fear the worst, but I'm often pessimistic.
What do these guys ACTUALLY DO? I have no idea, they aren only credited as Executive Producers on everything from Shattered Steel on - in other words they never actually made the games themselves. I don't want them on Obsidian games either, they already have far better team leaders in place.
Thanks for the memories, docs. It started with KOTOR on Xbox for me, then Jade Empire, the Mass Effects and then Dragon Age Origins. Between Bethesda and Bioware as we knew it, I'll always appreciate how you introduced choice-based RPGs to the masses over the last decade or so. Long live the king(s)!
@ProfessorEss said:
I'll always have to wonder if they were just "done", if it was corporate bullshit with EA or if they were just tired of dealing with this industry and it's childish fans.
Probably all 3. They were going to leave at some point anyways and the constant whining of their fans and the overbearing directives of their corporate overlords just served as additional motivation.
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