EA killing single player games?

He just means EA owned the Wasteland IP rights before they eventually went to Fargo/inXile.

But that's less related to EA being oddly MP focused and more about no publisher being interested in a nice proper crpg.

edited 5th Sep '12 6:26:58 PM by ShadowScythe

Owning the rights =/= being an ex-EA project.

Also, yeah. Screw publishers. Some of them are cool, but the majority can kindly go hang.

As a gamer who prefers single player games to multiplayer, I find the idea of a Video Game company deciding to not release any SP games to be outrageous! Honestly, it's like Electronic Arts is trying to find as many ways as possible to anger gamers everywhere!

They haven't decided not to release any single player games. Don't believe the idiots that take quotes out of context.

Granted, that doesn't mean EA is a good company. I hate EA's fucking guts. But I also hate it when people say things that aren't fucking true.

edited 5th Sep '12 6:31:36 PM by unnoun

EA can suck my massive single-player...uh...can't think of a way to finish that sentence.

It's not that they aren't releasing any games with single player at all.

It's that they aren't releasing any games that don't have a multiplayer component of some sort.

Yeah, but I disagree with their apparent need to shoehorn a multiplayer/social component into everything. Oh well, they ain't the only game company out there.

Well, EA is free to do their business however they want. I probably won't be buying anything from them, but that's because they haven't released much that's interesting to me. Personally, I'm more of a single-player gamer, but multi-player has its good points that I enjoy. If EA does want this to go through, they better not make any games that are better off single-player only.

@unnoun: I wouldn't preasure JAF for the names of his sources. EA employee contracts frown on being a source to begin with. I once accidentally contributed to getting a guy from EA fired simply by him responding to me on a mailing list that a severe crashing bug I was having in Spore had a fix in an upcoming patch.

I wouldn't ask for a name. I know that. I wouldn't want anyone to lose their job for no reason.

But christ, I'm just sick of JAF saying things that either aren't backed up, or aren't true, or, more usually, saying things that aren't backed up and aren't true.

I don't know why I bother at some points to be honest.

edited 5th Sep '12 6:41:19 PM by unnoun

Well, if JAF is a journalist, then we'd expect him to conform to standards of journalistic integrity, right? I can understand someone not wanting to lose their job over it, but at the same time, we want to believe that Jonah does have actual insider info, no?

iirc, there was a program called newswipe that had a segment that at one point mentioned how anonymous sources dont have to be that careful about what they say because they arent held accountable if it turns out to not be true.

think that applies here?

With nothing personal against JAF, there have been many harsh words said over the years over the state of "games journasolism" and their presence or absence of integrity. I don't really follow any of the sites I understand he writes for so I can't speak to specifics, but here are my uninformed opinions:

• It's already well known that the standalone single player game is an endangered species.

• He may well be repeating the true opinion of an EA/Bioware staffer but without other sources concurring, it may be just that.

Oh goodness, where do I start?

EA's not killing single-player games. It doesn't say that in the original quote or the clarification. It says all upcoming games must have some sort of online component. That is not the same thing as multiplayer, and doesn't preclude a single-player experience.

Let's at least try not to get worked up over nothing.

edited 5th Sep '12 6:48:13 PM by CorrTerek

Square is going with online for single player games. For instance, Kingdom Hearts 3 D has the Street Pass and Spot Pass features for the Portals and Link Portals and Battle Portals. And there's also Flick Rush. XIII-2 and LR have Facebook support.

Nintendo is going with online. The new Zelda will have the option to receive notes and hints from other players on how to clear dungeons. Zelda is still single player, and the game can be played offline, but other players can help through the internet. With notes, and advice, and things.

And I know some people don't like Square or Nintendo, I'm just going with examples.

edited 5th Sep '12 6:52:43 PM by unnoun

What it does mean is diverting resources away from the original singleplayer component that can compromise the quality of the singleplayer part which is what many players are interested in.

No one plays Bioware games for the online social or multiplayer elements and EA forcing this kind of stuff represents a fundamental inability to understand their audience.

edited 5th Sep '12 6:53:11 PM by ShadowScythe

So what happens when the servers for these "Multiplayer" games go down?

You wouldn't be referring to Mass Effect 3, would you?

I'm referring to it broadly. I haven't played ME 3 and don't really care much about Mass Effect in general.

edited 5th Sep '12 7:01:36 PM by ShadowScythe

I pretty much entirely play ME 3 for the multiplayer these days. I wouldn't be playing the game at all right now if it wasn't for the multi. So, in that sense, they certainly do know part of their audience.

It's fine to *have* multiplayer, the problem is finding ways to shoehorn multiplayer in as the expense of other elements, and of using multiplayer to enforce an online requirement when a signifigant portion doesn't need a constant connection. I mean, Spore did a similar thing to what the upcoming Sim City will do, using other player's game content to seed your own, but they pre-seeded a bunch of content so if you didn't have an internet connection, you could still play.

It's like watching something try to kill itself without knowing how. Kind of sa- No wait, it's EA we're talking about here, it's actually pretty funny.

What about things like the upcoming Zelda, where you can receive hints and things from other players? Online isn't required, but you can try it if you want a second opinion, or get stuck or something?

Agreed.

edited 5th Sep '12 7:12:37 PM by unnoun

^Doesn't Dark Souls already do something like that?

That's fine, I think. It may be a bit Follow the Leader in terms of "everything must be social now!" but its less of a development drain than a whole different game mode and isn't forced on the player if they can turn it off.

Then again, Nintendo has always been very conservative with online features, at the expense of them not taking off in the way things like X Box Live have. And they and their designers have the clout to be able to say "this is going to be a single player game no mater what".

edited 5th Sep '12 7:22:00 PM by Elle