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EA Plans To Use Mass Effect Chat In Other Games
Via 1up, BusinessWeek has up an article examining Electronic Arts' recent purchase of BioWare. In amongst the discussion of money and diversifying the company, there's a note that we may see BioWare technologies show up in other EA games. "In what would arguably be a more interesting development, BioWare could become an incubator of innovative ideas and technologies that could eventually filter into EA's other properties. Gibeau envisions individual EA teams developing technical and gameplay expertise that could be shared across all of the company's titles. He cites, for instance, a dialogue system developed by BioWare for the upcoming Mass Effect game, which allows players to engage in hyperrealistic conversation with computer-generated characters. 'The dialogue engine is something we will almost immediately look at as an asset for other teams,' says Gibeau." For folks who just can't get enough Mass Effect, Sci-Fi is showing a special on the game right around its launch date later this month.
I can't wait to hear the new slogan at the start of every EA game!
"Bioware's Code..It's in the Game!"
-FataL187
When you can't think of a single original thought, buy someone who can.
I can't wait to see how they incorporate this into Madden 2009.
"Hyperrealistic"? In my view, "realistic" is the goal in many games and has yet to be seriously approached. I've been seeing the "hyper-" prefix showing up more and more frequently in game news and it's getting annoying. I can only hope that it gets relegated to the scrapheap of game journalism words, joining the scourge of 90's game hyperbole: "photorealistic".
That said, Mass Effect looks intriguing. Not hyperintriguing, but intriguing nonetheless!
P.P.S. I'm doing Science and I'm still alive.
Steam. Actually, that's something I like about steam. I can see when my brother is in a game, what game he's playing, and an easy link to join him. Plus, the chat can be easily accessed from any (steam-powered) game or from a stand-alone window.
TODO - Insert Creative/Witty Signature
He cites, for instance, a dialogue system developed by BioWare for the upcoming Mass Effect game, which allows players to engage in hyperrealistic conversation with computer-generated characters. 'The dialogue engine is something we will almost immediately look at as an asset for other teams,' says Gibeau.
One of the most incredibly irritating things about computer game evolution is how over the past 2 decades game dialogue has gotten dumbed down. It used to be that you had to actually look at what NPCs were saying, and think up things to say back. Now it's just inane point and click.
EA used to be a great game publisher; they put out a lot of really great games (Ultima 5, Wasteland, Simcity, Seven Cities of Gold, etc.). Maybe they'll be great again.
I'm excited about this game and all, especially the dialog system. Let's not describe it as "hyper realistic", however. When I talk to people in real life, I don't get 3 choices and they usually don't range from good to evil.
Again, EA seems to miss the point. What's so cool about the chat system in Mass Effect isn't really the quick selection of a general approach. It's the fact that the characters actually have believable reactions. Watching the videos, I'm amazed at the fact that the characters show actual emotion. And I'm not talking about the standard sneer in Halo, the generic fear, but the fact that eyes shift, bodies hunch, flinch, eyelids move and twitch.... it's the whole package.
Yeah, we're gonna see the Mass Effect system reused in... uh... the Sims? skate? But it's not gonna work unless people put the effort into making the rest of the interaction believable.
Another sign that EA just doesn't get it anymore. They should just give up and become a bigger version of Pop Cap. They're almost there anyway.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
Likewise call me when an Xbox game lets me talk to a NPC with the microphone on the controller and he responds to what I say to him. Until then I don't want to hear about how "realistic" your NPC chat system is.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I know it's fasionable to bag on EA, I'm boycotting their games myself due to their work practices (yea, like they'll notice). This however, though not particularly newsworthy, is something that should be encouraged in software development in general and particularly in game development. The more components they modularize properly and reuse, the less waste there is in the production process (I'm not going to claim that it will trickle down to the consumer, this IS EA after all, but it's a good thing nevertheless).
Hard to tell who copies who anymore, but it IS a nice feature on both systems. (Of course, on XBL, you'd have to find that game disc...)
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
Good. Now go make the damn game for PC, too. *disgruntled*
Yeah, heh. Man, I hate the extremist spin language people use just to make their opinion seem more important and worthy of attention. Nobody has any patience any more for reasoning or facts to back up an idea, they just heap on the marketing speak to get their message out.
For example, the other day Nancy Pelosi was on NPR talking about how they had "overwhelming bipartisan support" for some insurance bill or other. But it turns out that "overwhelming bipartisan support" wasn't overwhelming enough to even get the damned bill passed! They were 10 votes short of a simple majority... that's "overwhelming support"?! And the journalists let them get away with that kind of trash all the time.
When presenting something for public consumption, people just don't give a damned any more about the truth of what is coming out of their mouths. So many words, so little actual meaning.
Pretty soon everyone in Washington will be either a "Hyperliberal" or a "Hyperconservative". Since everyone is already "extreme right/left wing somethingorother", they're gonna start needing a word that sounds a lot more unreasonable than that. Hyper is a good choice.
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I'm fairly sure, all EA games, but for which will it make sense? I can't really see the fun in talking my enemies in the next Battlefield incarnation into stopping firing at me (or rather, if I can it really sucks), nor does it make much sense for any of the sports franchise to get into a lengthy conversation with your opponent during a game.
But I guess when there's no real progress possible anymore, we resort to calling little changes some big breakthroughs. What we'd really need would be something new and exciting, something that pushes the edges of gameplay. Not just some silly sound effects more or "hyperrealistic" graphic (does the game come bundled with some LSD?).
But I doubt we'll see any kind of leap forwards from EA. I guess we should turn to some indie developers. Or maybe we'll wait for Lionhead to come up with a great concept, botch it and then wait for some other studio to pick up the idea and create a game out of it.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.