ktchong

Out of intellectual curiousity, I wonder how many more attacks will have to happen until the Brits are finally willing to talk about mass importing Muslims could be the problem.

Google "Netflix" and "Witcher".

Is anyone else here old enough to remember Origin Systems? Origin made Ultima and Wing Commander. It was the "crowning jewel" of EA in the 1990s. This is very reminiscence of what happened to Origin after Ultima IX. Soon afterward, projects got delayed... and then quietly cancelled a few months later. Then, over the next couple years, EA shut down Origin, part by part. I recognize the pattern here. It seems that another EA-acquired studio is gonna bite the dust soon. Well, good riddance.

Jordan Peterson vs Biology Denier aka Bioware fanboi/gurl/non-binary/non-he/non-she/xe/xi/ze/zi/it/whatever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18ZmPwuuj88

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVm9Vbcmaso

I've been hearing alot about this guy lately. He just came out of nowhere, proposed a series of very interesting and interconnected ideas, and suddenly became a celebrity in various intellectual circles and forums. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-LK8F5iZjQ

Here is an irony: Another sister lives in Sweden. That sister had also complained the Muslims in her country. Before Donald Trump won the election last year, my sister in Sweden had told me, "I wish we have someone here like Donald Trump to deal with all the Muslims running amok here." Then, a few minutes after saying that, she added, "but don't tell [my other sister in France] I said that. I don't want her to think I'm pro-fascist or something." So, when my sister in France told me not to tell my other sisters that she would vote for Le Pen, I broke out in laughter. She asked, "what?!?" And I said, "nothing". I laughed because of the irony: the sister in France told me not to tell the other sister in Sweden that she would vote for Le Pen, but the other sister in Sweden had earlier told me not to tell the sister in France that she would also vote for someone like Donald Trump in Sweden. I thought it was funny. Seems to me that Muslims, immigrants, migrants and refugees have been driving a lot of voting decisions in America and Europe. I dislike Muslims and illegal immigrants, but I would not let them determine how I vote. P.S. Yes, all three of my sisters are married to white guys. You know what they say about Asian women and white men. Many Asian women even prefer very specific types of white men. Those two sisters went to Europe with the very specific intention of finding white European husbands, and they got what they wanted.

My sisters are Chinese Americans. One of them married a French man and has lived in France for about fifteen years. A couple days ago, after the Paris shooting, I called her on the phone. During our phone conversation, she mentioned that she would be voting for Le Pen "if she made it to the second round" - because of the "Muslim problem". In the past she had told me that Muslims had harassed her on the streets a few times, and she had complained that (and I am paraphrasing her) "those Muslims come here and act like they own the country." Here is the shocker: she told me not to tell my other sisters that she would be voting for Le Pen. My other sisters would not be please and would try to dissuade her. All of my sisters - actually, my entire family - are fairly "liberal" or "progressive" people. This particular sister in France actually has been a harsh critic of Donald Trump, yet she said she planned to vote for Le Pen ("if she made it to the second round;" so that was her qualifier for Le Pen.) That was when I also went, "oh ****, Le Pen is going to win," because here in the US, we also had a lot of voters who were too embarrassed to admit to other people (and to pollsters) that they would vote for Donald Trump. Then they actually voted for Donald Trump, like how my sister in France who would vote for Le Pen but was too embarassed to admit it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Rc0T_e4Xuo

I do not think Bioware or EA will satisfactorily fix or save Mass Effect: Andromeda. Both Bioware and EA have a history: they abandoned their products in broken states and moved onto other projects. Bioware is actually worse than EA in that regard, and it has gotten worse over the years. So Bioware has become worse than Black Isle, Troika, or Obsidian (in the pre-Dungeon Siege III days): they would release a buggy game, would not commit to fully patch the broken product, and would then abandon the game in a broken state and move on to other projects. (But thank goodness Obsidian has cleaned up their act after Dungeon Siege III.) To make the situation worse, Bioware does not allow fans to mod their later games, (since Mass Effect.) If Bioware had allowed fans to mod their broken games, at least fans could create mods to patch the products abandoned by Bioware. Bethesda also makes buggy games and never completely fixes its broken products, but at least Bethesda games are very open to modding, so other people can patch the games. Fans can't even do that for Bioware games, which would remain forever broken after being abandoned.

Its Metacritic scores have dropped to 73 (for PS4) and 76 (PC and Xbox One.)

I prefer cinematic dialogues with rendered facial expressions and body languages, and the over-the-shoulder third-person perspective.

Part 3 of 3: The canal into Meridian:

Part 2 of 3: Meridian got its own soundtrack. Well, two soundtracks, one for day and one for night: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGNQd7P6heU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KYGN4-npiU

Meridian in Horizon: Zero Dawn - Part 1 of 3 Time lapse, notice the people moving below:

That's what Richard Garriott said. EA became successful by making sport franchise titles like NBA and NFL. EA's business model is to keep to a tight schedule to chunk out a new NBA or NFL title every year, and EA absolutely cannot miss a release date for those sport titles. Then, after a certain year's NBA or NFL video game is released, EA never looks back and completely fixes the problems in a NBA or NFL game. EA moves on to next year's NBA or NFL. That is the same business model EA enforces on all its studios. Which works for sport titles but destroys everything else.

It tried to create a few IP like Crusader and Jane's, but none of them had been as commercially and critically successful as Ultima or Wing Commanders (whose qualities were being diminished by buggy sequels.) It was one of the reasons why Richard Garriot was forced out: he took the fall for the failure of those failed and cancelled titles. (I suspect Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk were the fall guys for Star Wars: The Old Republic and Mass Effect 3.) My conjecture: Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk have a ten-year non-disclosure agreement with EA. (Richard Garriott had a one-year non-compete and five-year non-disclosure, if I remember correctly; and he came out and talked and swung at EA soon after the five years.) I can't wait to hear from Muzyka and Zeschuk in ten years.

It is a good business model - from a business standpoint and for short-term, quaterly-profit-maximizing purpose. However, I have seen the final outcomes of that business model of EA, (because EA has used it on other development studios it acquired - studios that no longer exist.) What is good for business is not necessarily good for gaming. Here may be the silver lining for Obsidian: Bioware actually filled in the void created by Origins Systems. Bioware started at around the same time when Origin Systems (the leading RPG developer of its time) were in decline under EA's control. Which means, in about five to ten years, Obsidian will have the opportunity to fill in the void created by the demise of Bioware.

Mass Effect: Andromeda was made by a different studio, not the actual Bioware. EA took the Mass Effect franchise away from Bioware, (i.e., Bioware Edmonton,) and gave it to a cheaper and less-capable studio. EA created the other studio after acquiring the Bioware brand and called it "Bioware Montreal". Bioware "Montreal" has nothing to do with Bioware "Edmonton": it has different company cultures, different management, different people, etc. After taking Mass Effect from Bioware Edmonton, EA ordered the real Bioware to spend its energy, resources and time into creating a new franchise. So that is EA's business model for the "Bioware" brand: have Bioware Edmonton create one new franchise after another. If a franchise becomes successful and builds a fanbase, then take the franchise away from Edmonton and give it to a cheaper, less-capable studio to continue to make sequels. Then, repeat and rinse: order Bioware to create another new franchise for EA to squeeze dry. Bioware has become EA's "money tree" to create new franchises and mass produce sequels. I recognize that EA's business model because it was what EA did to Origin Systems, the once-venerable developer of the Ultima and Wing Commander series. EA bought the already successful but underfunded Origin in the 1990s and proceeded to squeeze it dry, until Origin's crediblity and reputation was completely destroyed. Then EA shut down Origin studios and moved on to the next acquisition. Of course, nowadays few people remember Origin as a pioneer game developer and only knows it as the name for the hated DRM platform of EA. The founder-CEO of Origin Systems, Richard Garriott, left some years after his company was acquired by EA. Many years after his departure, I read in an interview and found out that Richard Garriott was forced out of his company by EA - under a circumstance very similar to how Bioware's founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk suddenly left their company. For years Garriott could not disclose the reason for his exit from Origin due to his contract with EA, and he only revealed the truth after the contract and its non-disclosure clause had expired. When I read about Muzyka and Zeschuk's departure just a few year after their company was acquired by EA, I immediately went, "Whoa, whoa, whoa.... this all seems all very familiar." So I already know where Bioware is heading. It was nice knowing ya, Bioware.

I have never played any Assassin's Creed game, (because I have so many other games on my backlog that have higher priorities.) I knew about Assassin's Creed since before the first game was released, back when fanboi were harassing the producer of the first game because she was hot. The first Assassin's Creed game came out at the end of 2007, at about the same time with the first Bioshock game and the first Mass Effect game. Both Bioshock and Mass Effect got 90+ at Metacritics, and Assassin's Creed got only 80+. So Assassin's Creed lost out to Bioshock and Mass Effect for my time and money, (i.e., I could only devote so much time into gaming, so some games would have to go. That is how Metacritic works: it screened out games for me.) Many years later, in 2011 or 2012, I was still hearing about Assassin's Creed. I knew it had turned into a series, but I still had not played any game from the series. I finally wanted to try out one. So I looked into Assassin's Creed games during a Steam Summer Sale. That was when I found out, whoa, the series had crapped out a ****load of games. A few installments from the series got good review scores, but most of them had mediocre or low scores. Which ultimately dissuaded me from touching anything from the series completely. That was what happened when a game publisher (Ubisoft in this case) mass-produced games from a series: the low-rated installments diminished the overall appeal and value of the franchise. That is the same reason why I have never bothered with the Dragon Age series. At one point, I wanted to try a new sword-and-sorcery RPG series. I was looking at Dragon Age and The Witcher, (yes, they are direct competition, and I only had time to commit to one series.) The second Dragon Age game was the one that turned me away as a customer. Getting into series is a long-term time-consuming commitment. I have no interest in wasting my time on a less-than-stellar franchise. Dragon Age 2 is the taint on the series that deter potential customers from giving the franchse a chance. (I ended up playing The Witcher, which has turned out to be a better investment.) Now, Andromeda has become the taint on the Mass Effect franchise.

The best thing about Mass Defect: Androgynous is all the memes and satirical videos that are coming out... P.S. Mass Defect is currently mediocre 75%-78% at Metacritic.... a BioWare game being hammered by the critics.