According to former lead writer of the Dragon Age series, David Gaider, the newer games in BioWare’s biggest franchises, Dragon Age and Mass Effect, could already be in trouble. Despite being two of the most celebrated RPG series in the gaming industry, Mass Effect and Dragon Age have both been dormant for a fairly long time, having received their last entries in 2017 and 2014, respectively. While new games in the series, such as the Dragon Age: Dreadwolf and an untitled Mass Effect sequel, have been confirmed, news on the games, as well as any potential release date, is still scarce.
Despite BioWare’s status as one of the most prolific developers in the gaming industry, responsible for classics like Baldur’s Gate, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and, of course, Mass Effect and Dragon Age, the developer’s more recent offering have been lacking. Anthem, released in 2019, is the most obvious example, being a botched attempt at a live-service game that even had its planned revamp canceled, but even before that, Mass Effect: Andromeda was an attempted new spin on the series that left most fans disappointed. And, as BioWare looks ahead to new entries like Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, comments from a former writer suggest that the developer’s future efforts may be in trouble.
Although Mass Effect 4 and Dragon Age: Dreadwolf have shown very little of what the games might look like, comments from former BioWare writer David Gaider on Twitter could point to a troubling conclusion. Gaider, formerly a writer for games like Baldur’s Gate 2, Neverwinter Nights, and KOTOR, as well as the former lead writer on Dragon Age, recently posted a Twitter thread commenting on the undervaluation of writers – saying specifically of his time at BioWare that it “turned from a company that vocally valued its writers to one where we were… quietly resented.”
“Suddenly,” says Gaider, “all anyone in charge was asking was ‘how do we have LESS writing?'” With both Dragon Age and Mass Effect owing their success in large part to a strong focus on narrative, BioWare’s seeming undervaluation of writers could spell trouble for the series’ future entries.
Of course, with Gaider having left BioWare in 2016, and currently working as Creative Director at Summerfall Studios on the upcoming game Stray Gods – which Gaider said in an interview with Screen Rant was originally conceived as a musical DLC pitch at BioWare – there’s been plenty of time for BioWare to course-correct. Both Dragon Age: Dreadwolf and Mass Effect 4 have relatively challenging narratives to tackle, with ME4 in particular having to pick up after the controversial ending of Mass Effect 3. While the gameplay of both series is solid, the failure of Mass Effect: Andromeda shows that if the narrative and writing around the gameplay is lacking, any new games won’t be able to match the best that each series can offer.
2023-05-06 00:30:04
Link from screenrant.com