With Casey Hudson and Mark Darrah leaving at the same time, that leaves a massive gap in leadership in an organization sorely in need of it. The Golden Age of BioWare is long behind, but there’s always that sliver of hope that something will save it.

My limited understanding of both these individuals over the years is nothing but positive. Hudson is the reason we have Mass Effect at all, and Darrah is why we have Dragon Age. Darrah was also appointed the saving grace for Anthem’s final months of development. Jason Schrier‘s write-up on that drama is one of the better game journalism pieces out there. From the outside at least, it would appear that these two were “the” leaders. And now they are not.

From what we know outside, there were 4 main streams of work underway. SWTOR is still chugging along, which is great. There’s a remaster of the 3 Mass Effect games, which logically would precede a reboot. Dragon Age 4 is in the works. And Anthem 2.0 was an idea, who’s leader is now taking over Darrah’s spot on DA4.

If I was a betting man, I’d put dollars that they find a way to link Anthem and Mass Effect. Andromeda wasn’t all that far off mechanically. There’s nothing on Dragon Age 4 aside from some art. Whatever does come out next, it would seem fair to assume that it’s a make/break deal for BioWare to be able to do anything but SWTOR.

I’ve seen my fair share of large re-orgs. When one leader leaves, that is a tough slog to adjust to the new one. When 2 links in that chain leave, stuff goes sideways for a long time. If ever you see 3… well then expect that chain to just be dumped in the back of the building.

There are a pile of reasons for an executive to call it quits. Family/health is a big one. Finishing a large deliverable is another (the message will reflect the accomplishment). Finding a better job is the last one that would be considered “ok”, at least in the sense of employee empathy. Pretty much every other exit is due to a change in direction or conflict. It’s unlikely we’ll ever see what triggered this event, and in the vacuum of a lack of information, rumours will certainly fill that space. I’m just crossing my fingers that this isn’t the first part of a larger sad story just before the holidays. I wish all of them the best of luck.

I really liked Wildstar. The setting, the mechanics, the storyline, the humour. Sure, it was in “in your face” but it was consistent. And had the best Hallowe’en event in any MMO, hands down.

Yet it had the wrong audience, or rather, it focused on an audience that didn’t exist. It was meant for the hardest of the hardcore. In the MMO space, those people are already playing 1 or 2 games – likely WoW and FF14. They are seriously invested there, as it’s days/months of effort to be considered top tier. Any new MMO means people drop what they are doing, and do it all over for this new game. That front-line investment is a huge barrier. And Wildstar tripled down on every barrier possible, creating an effective quit-wall.

Raids were insanely complex, punishing, and founded on a flawed combat model of one-hit-kills. Either you were perfect or you were dead. Skill drops were essential for effective raids, yet limited to RNG on acquiring them. Gear increases were gated behind timed dungeons, where a single wipe meant the entire team just vanished – again, perfect or dead.

Which is an entirely acceptable game mode for those that choose it. The problem with Wildstar is that this was the only game mode. Guild/social tools didn’t exist for nearly a year (which was amazing, considering SWTOR made that lesson super clear). Group content had a skill floor that absolutely punished anyone trying to learn the system. There was no difficulty ramp – it was leveling then this giant wall of pain.

And this to me is the larger lesson in the MMO space, you need group content to get people together than allows for mistakes. Housing runs in private dungeons was a great example of this in Wildstar, but so, so late. Tying your progress system entirely to success/fail mechanics in a group setting is not going to work, people become selfish.

LFG in WoW came about in WoTLK, to my recollection, because of the the issues from the Violet Hold. Way back then, you made groups organically. You ran to the dungeon, did the content, and flew away. Violet Hold was different, the dungeon was right in the main city. And the bosses were randomly selected. People needing a specific drop (again, before tokens) would get into the dungeon, see what boss popped, then quit if it wasn’t what they wanted. It was beyond painful replacing someone for that dungeon, since people joining wanted a clean run. LFG automated all that pain (and tokens to a very large extent).

One of the key tenets of gaming is that people are like water, they will take the path of least resistance to their goal. If it means grinding the Maw 1,000 times for AP, they will do that. If it’s 100% token based drops, people will find the most efficient route and just do that, making some dungeons never run. If there are world drops, then people don’t run dungeons (BfA much!). If you need 1 specific drop, say a legendary recipe, then you’re going to farm that thing til your eyes bleed, other people be darned. And it’s a better use of time to eat 10m deserter buff than finish a dungeon. And where expansions come with a stat reset, all of a sudden the 10+ years of go-go-go runs have to slow down.

I still think FF14 has this on lock. Drops + tokens, making practically all group content relevant. With a couple exceptions, people will run any dungeons/raid cause seeing it to the end is still a boon. I’m still amazed that the group award system here hasn’t been put elsewhere.

Wildstar paid a high price for their design choices – it tried to attract a group that didn’t want to play, and pushed aside those that did. WoW has been paying a smaller price for their design choices, and I am exceedingly curious as to how they manage to apply lessons learned from their failures and others moving forward. We’re in the “good expansion” cycle, so hopefully that bears fruit.

The last post was more of a negative light on AC: Valhalla, which I realize may be too large a brush to pain on the game. Taking a small step back, Ubisoft games (or any icon-map-palooza game) are effectively gaming buffets.

I am not enamoured with buffets. The health issues are reasons #1 through #5, with “other people” in that mix too. The next time you do go to a buffet, take some time just look at how people behave. It’s atrocious.

And yet, buffets do has some perks. Clients pay a base fee, with the promise that there’s something available to suit their needs. Maybe they family like Asian and Italian cuisine. A buffet offers both would likely please both, rather than compromises. The top quality of a bufferTwill never be at the same level as a dedicated restaurant. Buffet sushi is a WHOLE lot different than an authentic restaurant.

If I look at AC as a whole, there’s a very wide slot of activities. Most of the items are found a dozen times or more in game, hence the “too much game” from before.

• Main story – This starts well for the first couple zones (as long as Ivarr and Sigurd are involved), then just goes nowhere for quite a few hours, before quickly tying loose ends that you’ve completely forgotten about.
• Side quests – By and large, these are less than 2 minutes to complete, and add some neat backstory. This isn’t killing 5 boars, which is great!
• Settlement – all the important bits are resolved within the first couple zones. Valka is cool, and opens up some interesting storylines.
• Asgard/Jotunheim – These are cool zones if you completely avoid treasure hunting. The Jotunheim arc in particular is very enjoyable.
• Vinland – This place looks amazing and the native population is
• Cursed Idols – useless
• Roman Artefact – useless
• Stone stacking – this is a neat mini game that’s quite calming. Stack stones to a specific level. Very zen.
• Standing stones – move around until stones are lined up to present a design. There aren’t a lot, so it’s not too bad. The voice overs while doing it are cool
• Layla – These platforming puzzles are quite poorly built, where the poor controls are more limiting than the actual puzzles. You know what to do, the game won’t let you. It does provide some alternate storyline though, and there’s only 10 of them.
• Tattoos – sort of like chasing shanties in AC4, but requires you to not show any armor to actually see the tattoos. I miss shanties.
• Boat / settlement cosmetics – You spend less than 1% of your gameplay using these, even less actually LOOKING at them.
• Flyting – Rhyme combat. They say something, you retort with a rhyme that’s insulting. It’s a neat idea, and the execution isn’t too shabby. Higher levels increases dialogue options.
• Drinking games – pure mini-game, and I find it hilarious. Good way to make some money too.
• Dice games – this is a cool game with some minor strategy elements. Not much depth, but it’s a solid bit of fun.
• Fishing – The concept here is cool, but the act of reeling in is not fun. Used in a couple quests, and should be ignored otherwise.
• Hunting – Please, avoid this completely. It’s a mind boggling grind with no purpose.
• Elite hunts – if you want the challenge, then that’s neat. There are no real rewards, except settlement cosmetics that you can barely see.
• Treasure hunts – You only need a few ingots for the totality of the game. Armor…some of it is worth it, if you find a perk you like. The armor looks like you would imagine a Viking to look. Helmets are horrible (few games have nice helmets).
• Treasure caves – I’d like to say these are neat puzzles, and there is one. Otherwise, just consider it a chest that’s 5 minutes into a cave. A chest with no use.
• Ragnar’s rangers – 6 tough opponents that drop some unique weapons. These were really a lot of fun.
• Raids – Since then rewards are all tied to the settlement, and they are pretty much the same thing as entering any other large scale combat, it gets old quick.
• Assaults – every zone has at least one. Long battles with a bunch of mini-objectives. I think this does a great job of reflecting the concept of viking battles. Really well done.
• Zealots – Unless you’re overpowered, these are walking murder machines.
• Order of Ancients – You wouldn’t notice if this system didn’t exist. It serves as much purpose as your appendix.

I mean, just look at the size of that list. How in the world can all of it be good, let alone great? And that’s the kicker, half of it I would consider “good”, and the rest I would just consider padding. Cut half of that stuff out and the game would both be more focused, and the devs would be able to spend more quality on less, and most likely deliver a better end product. Like take out animal hunts completely… and have them instead put more resources into combat being responsive.

So like a real buffet, it’s important to be selective. If you do play AC, I would recommend sticking entirely to the main quests, and the side quests that are on your route between the main quest steps. If you focus solely on the immediate proximity of tasks, you’re going to have an amazing time.

I’ve played Monster Hunter World and Dauntless. Both are based on the same model of killing big monsters and upgrading your gear to take on tougher monsters. Dauntless is more akin to arena combat, it’s always in a 4 player group, and most battles are over in less than 10 minutes. MHW is much larger, where you enter a biome to hunt a target. Biomes that have multiple monsters, quests, traps and of course – fishing. You can play alone or in a group. Larger fights can take 50 minutes, and short ones really require you to be OP, or in a supremely efficient group.

Both games have tremendous longevity, based on the repeatable tasks and increased difficulty spikes. There’s always a larger challenge across the horizon, and nearly every activity you take provides some measure of progress.

MMOs have this model, where there’s plenty of repeatable activities that increase your power – though they are confined to seasons/expansions. There is purpose, and often a larger goal. A goal that is both defined by the player, and offered as a choice by the developer. You can have the best gear score, or the most pets collected, or the highest PvP rank. Where games focus on the storyline rather than the player… well there’s a point where that story ends.

Which brings me to single player games. Those that focus on stories often put in some tough end-game challenges/grinds for show. Spider-Man and God of War have these, to varying levels of success. Maybe they add a new game+. Yet, there’s a level of balance between these side activities and the core game goal. It’s rare to find a “good game” that has more side activities than main ones.

One notable exception is Assassin‘s Creed. Or more specifically, the latter games. Ubisoft has a problem with maps and icons, and putting in absolutely meaningless content. Valhalla has this in spades. The settlement, aside from 3 buildings (blacksmith, assassin’s quarters, Valka) has no impact. You have some minor decoration options, but it would be hard to tell another player’s settlement from yours. The map has hundreds of icons (dots in this game) for things that provide minimal value to the game’s goals. Roman masks give you 1 settlement decoration per ~10 that you find. Cursed idols do nothing. Altars have you give items for 1 skill point (which only matter for about 50% of the entire tree of points). Hunting rare/tough beasts gives you settlement decorations. I won’t go into normal animal hunts. Chests give you things with which to upgrade your gear, but only your weapons matter. I’ve never been in a situation where I didn’t have the materials on hand.

There are some good, if not great bits though! The side quests here are mostly amazing. Flyting increases your charisma, allowing for more dialogue options. The main quest is well done as well, though it’s about 30% too long. The limited items mean that you’re never really looking for drops…a bearded axe is is a bearded axe. That one increases damage by 1% after a dodge, or another increases critical damage by 1 – that doesn’t matter.

The skill points are a way of putting stats outside of gear drops and a reward for completing game activities. There’s about 350 total points to get. By the time you have 200, you’ll have received every thing that provides a key benefit – increased damage or increased health. I mean ALL of it. You’re essentially a walking god for the rest of the game.

I do want to state that Valhalla is objectively a better game than Odyssey, and that was miles better than Origins. Ubisoft seems hell bent on stuffing as much as humanly possible into their games. By trying to do more rather than less and doing it extremely well, the AC series is losing a lot of focus. Had they simply cut the overall game size by 30%, heck maybe even 50%, it would be a much more focused and enjoyable experience. As it is now, if you only play the main quest and nothing else, it’s quite good. Weird to actively ignore the other 75% of the game.

Side note: this is the 3rd open-world game from Ubisoft in 2 months. Legion, AC: Valhalla, and now Fenyx Rising. ALL of them have this issue.