Mass Effect: Andromeda Loses Senior Development Director

[StewShearerOld]

Mass Effect: Andromeda Loses Senior Development Director

[Tweet t=https://twitter.com/The1Wynn/status/679389844938883072]
Chris Wynn, the senior development director for Mass Effect: Andromeda, has left BioWare.

To say that the original <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/mass%20effect?os=mass+effect>Mass Effect trilogy left fans unsatisfied would probably one of the biggest understatements you could make. While few would dispute that the series overall was engaging and well-written, the <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/columns/experienced-points/9506-Mass-Effect-3-Ending-Controversy>third game's ending led to one of the most infamous fecal storms in the history of gaming. It's not hard to understand, in turn, why many have been watching the progression of <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/conferences/e3-2015/14096-EA-Unveils-New-Mass-Effect-Game-Reveals-Name>Mass Effect: Andromeda with bated breath. If this new game gets it right, it could be the beginnings of a second chance for the franchise. If it gets it wrong though, it could turn many gamers off from the series forever.

That being the case, Mass Effect fans might understandably be worried to learn that Chris Wynn, the senior development director for Andromeda has departed from both the game and from BioWare. Speaking in a Tweet, Wynn confirmed his exit from the company last week. "It is with a heavy heart today to say that I am moving on from BioWare and Mass Effect: Andromeda," he said. Wynn offered no other details save for his plans to return "to the USA." Likely sensing the departure of a senior member of its development team could reflect poorly on the game, BioWare released a statement yesterday commenting on the issue. "Chris was a great member of the team," it said. "We want to thank him for his contributions and we wish him the best in his new adventures. Development of Mass Effect: Andromeda continues to move full speed ahead at BioWare Montreal, Edmonton and Austin."

While it's unfortunate for a team to lose one of its directors, BioWare is smart to point out that is has three studios full of skilled and experienced people who are more than capable of making Andromeda into a good game. Just speaking personally, I don't really have many doubts that Andromeda will be, in the least, a decent. What I'll be curious to see is just what story strings BioWare pulls to get past the baggage of Mass Effect 3. Mass Effect: Andromeda is currently slated to release on PS4, Xbox One and PC sometime in 2016.

Source: <a href=http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2015/12/28/mass-effect-andromeda-39-s-senior-development-director-departs-from-bioware.aspx>Game Informer


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[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Isn't ME:A a part of EA's 2017 lineup? I read it on THE ESCAPIST!

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.886046-EA-Embarrassed-by-How-Good-Its-2017-Releases-Will-Be

We're probably supposed to believe that this will not in any way impact the quality of the game. I don't care because I don't believe in quality of EA games anyway, but if a game that's supposed to be released in 2017 loses its director, that's gonna show. This wasn't a planned departure.

 

[D3s_ToD3s]

"Mass Effect Andromeda: a.k.a Mass Effect: escape from the corner we wrote ourselves into. Nice picture-postcard landscapes, I look forward to next year's teaser when you think of something to put in them."
- Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, June 2015

 

[Chareater]

I don't know how you could make a mass effect 4 tbh, unless you make the indoctrination ending the canon ending and make it like a second part of the reaper war.


Even then I'm not really sure you could make a full game from that.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I don't know how you could make a mass effect 4 tbh, unless you make the indoctrination ending the canon ending and make it like a second part of the reaper war.


Even then I'm not really sure you could make a full game from that.

Is everyone seriously so devoid of creativity? Why is ME3 sequel considered the ONLY option?

Do you know how big the galaxy is? Theoretically it's possible to make a million Mass Effect games that take place in a span of one week prior to Reaper arrival without any of the characters from all the other 999,999 games ever coming into contact with each other.

But Bioware is fuckin' retarded. Their games are always about saving the world or in this case the galaxy. It never occurs to them to make a smaller, more personal story. Something like Grand Theft Auto in space. It could take place at any time prior to the events of Mass Effect 3, or any of the Mass Effect games. They're so stupid that their best fuckin' idea is to make a game that takes place in a different galaxy. That alone should be enough for people to realize that it's over.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Is everyone seriously so devoid of creativity? Why is ME3 sequel considered the ONLY option?

Because its the only one that matters. You know why? Because the most important thing in ME's galactic history just took place and people are understandably interested in the aftermath. We want to see what happened to the fully fleshed out and realized cast of characters we spent three entire games getting to know, not a whole new set of people whose adventure, by definition, won't be as epic, exciting, climatic, meaningful or important.

No one cares about random personal stories when Galactic wars are being fought. Who cares if Brittany and Amber don't get back together?! Their colony is destroyed by Reapers!
Want to know about a Turian Specter hunting down an Asari druglord? Too bad, they both died during the war and the entire drug cartel was destroyed.
Want to know about that dude? Dead.
How about her over there? Dead.
Those three? Surely they get into hijinks! Oh no wait. The Reapers just vaporized them.

Its the same reason none of the Horus Heresy books take place somewhere else other than the war or why DC has never done a Batman run centered on a janitor at Gotham-U who never meets Batman or has anything bad happen to him.
Its not why any of us are here.

 

[Fox12]

Is everyone seriously so devoid of creativity? Why is ME3 sequel considered the ONLY option?

Because its the only one that matters. You know why? Because the most important thing in ME's galactic history just took place and people are understandably interested in the aftermath. We want to see what happened to the fully fleshed out and realized cast of characters we spent three entire games getting to know, not a whole new set of people whose adventure, by definition, won't be as epic, exciting, climatic, meaningful or important.

No one cares about random personal stories when Galactic wars are being fought. Who cares if Brittany and Amber don't get back together?! Their colony is destroyed by Reapers!
Want to know about a Turian Specter hunting down an Asari druglord? Too bad, they both died during the war and the entire drug cartel was destroyed.
Want to know about that dude? Dead.
How about her over there? Dead.
Those three? Surely they get into hijinks! Oh no wait. The Reapers just vaporized them.

Its the same reason none of the Horus Heresy books take place somewhere else other than the war or why DC has never done a Batman run centered on a janitor at Gotham-U who never meets Batman or has anything bad happen to him.
Its not why any of us are here.

"One death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic."

Everything is trying to be epic these days, and it's frankly rather tiring. And boring. If the writers are good enough, then they can make me care way more about Brittany and Amber then they can about a million people. If they're good enough, they can make me care more about one small town then the whole entire universe. When I played The Last of Us, for instance, I was way more invested in the small, intimate relationship between Joel and Ellie then I was about the larger world, and I cared more about them then I did the rest of the survivors. I care more about the world and characters of Spirited Away, or Firefly, then I do about the world saving antics of Michael Bay's Transformer movies.

When Nintendo had to make a sequel to their epic Ocarina of Time, they knew they couldn't make the next one bigger and more epic. Instead they went in the opposite direction, and chose to make a tighter, more intimate game that focused certain themes. Now Majoras Mask is considered one of the best Zelda games of all time, and many think it's superior to its predecessor. Persona 3 was about saving the world, while Persona 4 was mostly about solving a murder mystery, and most people consider 4 to be better. Adam Jensen is right, there's so much you could do with a Mass Effect Game. You could focus on a group of morally gray mercenaries, who aren't the best best people, but who love each other like family. You could have a ragtag group of smugglers, living on the edge of poverty, like Firefly. You could focus on the inner politics of the Blue Suns, or on a detective/spectre trying to discover the truth behind a murder. All of these are interesting, and you could set them before or after the Reaper War without ever actually acknowledging it at all. Like Yahtzee said, they already focused on a story about saving all life in the entire universe forever. You can't go bigger, or more epic anymore. The best option is to tell a smaller and more intimate story that we're invested in.

 

[Fox12]

double post

 

[Mister K]

Is everyone seriously so devoid of creativity? Why is ME3 sequel considered the ONLY option?

Because its the only one that matters. You know why? Because the most important thing in ME's galactic history just took place and people are understandably interested in the aftermath.
No one cares about random personal stories when Galactic wars are being fought.

You want to know about the aftermath? Everybody lives happily ever after, except for Shepard him/herself. Oh, Cerberus remnants are also running rampant, but without Ellusives man leadership they have resorted to petty terrorist acts. Reapers are destroyed, what else can threaten the galaxy? Sons of Reapers? It is Done, the story is Finished and "aftermath" deserves only one or few cutscenes about "Liara did this, Tali did that...". There is not enough, I dunno, conflict to justify the whole game about the crew again.

However, there is so much you can do in this Universe that has nothing to do with Reaper Wars. Here is an example, from the top of my head: right now there aren't many planets suitable for a living and everyone wants to live on them. You are a people trafficer, you smuggle humans, asari, quarrians, etc., to those worlds. But things go wrong and you have to get a team of specialists for a certain task. No the most professional idea, but serves as a good example.

When people talk about personal stories they don't mean "will they or won't they". They mean stories which do not involve overdone "Save the world" scenario.

And even if such ideas sound silly, I still think that they are better than trying to squeeze story out of a completely done plot. Well, OK, smuggler can also meet Shepards crew (it's members, to be precise) and they can deliver their personal epilogues everyone seems to wish for.

OT: I wonder if Wynn tried to do something cool with what he had to work with, but then EA told him to make more day one DLC and multiplayer missions.

 

[BloodRed Pixel]

Is everyone seriously so devoid of creativity? Why is ME3 sequel considered the ONLY option?

Because its the only one that matters. You know why? Because the most important thing in ME's galactic history just took place and people are understandably interested in the aftermath. We want to see what happened to the fully fleshed out and realized cast of characters we spent three entire games getting to know, not a whole new set of people whose adventure, by definition, won't be as epic, exciting, climatic, meaningful or important.

No one cares about random personal stories when Galactic wars are being fought. Who cares if Brittany and Amber don't get back together?! Their colony is destroyed by Reapers!
Want to know about a Turian Specter hunting down an Asari druglord? Too bad, they both died during the war and the entire drug cartel was destroyed.
Want to know about that dude? Dead.
How about her over there? Dead.
Those three? Surely they get into hijinks! Oh no wait. The Reapers just vaporized them.

Its the same reason none of the Horus Heresy books take place somewhere else other than the war or why DC has never done a Batman run centered on a janitor at Gotham-U who never meets Batman or has anything bad happen to him.
Its not why any of us are here.

This, exactly this!

Additionally, I have no worries about ME4 being good TECHNICALLY,
I am very worried about the script writing.

 

[Gennadios]

I'm not sure if there's anything to get right. The Mass Effect series was a grand experiment in player tailored storytelling, and they treated treated it like any self-contained BioWare game. It kind of stings when writers get in the way of what was sold as a personal experience.

BW solved the ME problem by giving every game in new sequels a different protagonist. Not as much attachment that way.

Now that the man behind tailored experience curtain has been exposed, the only question is the BioWare experience enough to justify a purchase?

For me, no. DA:I was ok but not great, still hadn't beaten yet.

 

[Karadalis]

Does anyone even expect anything great from bioware anymore? After dragonage 2 "Return of the clone dungeons", Mass effect 3 "Vengeance of the color coded endings" and Dragon age 3 "The secret of blandness!" i am not really holding my breath here.

Especialy dragon age 3 was a huge disapointment where the multyplayer turned out more enjoyable then the single player campaign.

Perhaps now that they lost the lead designer someone with fresh ideas will step up and get back on track? Nah who am i kidding... this is EA wearing the skin of the long dead bioware like some friggin dark eldar noble.

 

[ecoho]

Does anyone even expect anything great from bioware anymore? After dragonage 2 "Return of the clone dungeons", Mass effect 3 "Vengeance of the color coded endings" and Dragon age 3 "The secret of blandness!" i am not really holding my breath here.

Especialy dragon age 3 was a huge disapointment where the multyplayer turned out more enjoyable then the single player campaign.

Perhaps now that they lost the lead designer someone with fresh ideas will step up and get back on track? Nah who am i kidding... this is EA wearing the skin of the long dead bioware like some friggin dark eldar noble.

or and I could just be spit balling here that's just you particular opinion? seriously DA:I was good and a hell of a lot more compelling to play then the witcher 3 was FOR ME mostly because I always knew what my motivation was and I actually gavea dam about at least one character at the start of the game(ty varic).

Also stop bringing up DA2s copy and pasted dungeons as theres just as many in DA:O they just seem better spaced out.

OT: sorry to hear of anyone leaving as that's never good for development as it effect moral, but still have hope itll be a good game

 

[Karadalis]

Does anyone even expect anything great from bioware anymore? After dragonage 2 "Return of the clone dungeons", Mass effect 3 "Vengeance of the color coded endings" and Dragon age 3 "The secret of blandness!" i am not really holding my breath here.

Especialy dragon age 3 was a huge disapointment where the multyplayer turned out more enjoyable then the single player campaign.

Perhaps now that they lost the lead designer someone with fresh ideas will step up and get back on track? Nah who am i kidding... this is EA wearing the skin of the long dead bioware like some friggin dark eldar noble.

or and I could just be spit balling here that's just you particular opinion? seriously DA:I was good and a hell of a lot more compelling to play then the witcher 3 was FOR ME mostly because I always knew what my motivation was and I actually gavea dam about at least one character at the start of the game(ty varic).

Also stop bringing up DA2s copy and pasted dungeons as theres just as many in DA:O they just seem better spaced out.

OT: sorry to hear of anyone leaving as that's never good for development as it effect moral, but still have hope itll be a good game

No one talks about it anymore or even references it as a good example of a western RPG, there was nothing memorable about DA:I

The whole story was boring diatripe and yet ANOTHER setupid for "something something Big... something something golden city"

Atleast dragon age origins had itselfe a somewhat self contained story with a HINT of things to come. DA 2 and 3 are just like a season finale to an ongoing TV series. Only thing missing is a "what happened last time" segment when the inevitable DA 4 comes out. Because nothing got resolved in 2 or 3 and there was no payoff in the end.

And no, Dragon age origins had NO copy pasted dungeons. They where all handcrafted. and while some shared tilesets they never had the same layout as you know in DS2 where you had THE SAME 2-3 IDENTICAL DUNGEONS over and over again just with different sections closed off or having the entrance somewhere else this time.

Also putting DA:I story over Witcher 3? Yeah... i think you wont find a majority for that one.. but hey.. more power to you i guess.

The original Bioware that brought us gems like the Baldurs gate series and knights of the old republic simply doesnt exist anymore. Its a brand now, and its games are made to secure profits, not to make sure some artistic vision or dare i say it... a good game is created. Aslong as it sells microtransactions its good enough for EA to ship out.

 

[ecoho]

Does anyone even expect anything great from bioware anymore? After dragonage 2 "Return of the clone dungeons", Mass effect 3 "Vengeance of the color coded endings" and Dragon age 3 "The secret of blandness!" i am not really holding my breath here.

Especialy dragon age 3 was a huge disapointment where the multyplayer turned out more enjoyable then the single player campaign.

Perhaps now that they lost the lead designer someone with fresh ideas will step up and get back on track? Nah who am i kidding... this is EA wearing the skin of the long dead bioware like some friggin dark eldar noble.

or and I could just be spit balling here that's just you particular opinion? seriously DA:I was good and a hell of a lot more compelling to play then the witcher 3 was FOR ME mostly because I always knew what my motivation was and I actually gavea dam about at least one character at the start of the game(ty varic).

Also stop bringing up DA2s copy and pasted dungeons as theres just as many in DA:O they just seem better spaced out.

OT: sorry to hear of anyone leaving as that's never good for development as it effect moral, but still have hope itll be a good game

No one talks about it anymore or even references it as a good example of a western RPG, there was nothing memorable about DA:I

The whole story was boring diatripe and yet ANOTHER setupid for "something something Big... something something golden city"

Atleast dragon age origins had itselfe a somewhat self contained story with a HINT of things to come. DA 2 and 3 are just like a season finale to an ongoing TV series. Only thing missing is a "what happened last time" segment when the inevitable DA 4 comes out. Because nothing got resolved in 2 or 3 and there was no payoff in the end.

And no, Dragon age origins had NO copy pasted dungeons. They where all handcrafted. and while some shared tilesets they never had the same layout as you know in DS2 where you had THE SAME 2-3 IDENTICAL DUNGEONS over and over again just with different sections closed off or having the entrance somewhere else this time.

Also putting DA:I story over Witcher 3? Yeah... i think you wont find a majority for that one.. but hey.. more power to you i guess.

The original Bioware that brought us gems like the Baldurs gate series and knights of the old republic simply doesnt exist anymore. Its a brand now, and its games are made to secure profits, not to make sure some artistic vision or dare i say it... a good game is created. Aslong as it sells microtransactions its good enough for EA to ship out.

your just butt hurt over them being owned by EA, by the sounds of it, now I may be wrong it has happened but right now that's all im getting from your post. You wanted to dislike DA:I so you went in and found what you were looking for, a reason to dislike the game.

that said lets go through your arguments

1. pretty much everyone I talk to references DA:I as a way to build a western RPG along side Witcher 3 because while ill concede the Witcher 3 has a better world(such as the quest don't feel like a grind) I just don't care about any of the characters outside ceri and tris who you don't see all that often in the beginning.

2.DA:O did in fact have a great self sustained story but wasn't as fun for me game play wise then again I play on a console as I don't particularly like playing RPGs on pc(preference not inability to do so)

3. the fade, deep roads, forests, and cities would like to have a word with you as all they've done with any of those is move parts around, or mirrored them.

4. its not the story so much as getting me to give a dam about playing all the way through. as it stands I have to force my self to play through witcher 3 for 2 hours a night just so I can get to a point were ill actually care. DA:I I can pick up play for 6 to 12 hours and not feel like ive wasted my time.

5. liked kotor and jade empire never really liked balder's gate one or two and I do play D&D 2.5-3.5 depending on whos DMing. (and yes I played balder gate on PC as with kotor as that was the only way to play them I had at the time)

then again to each their own

 

[Sniper Team 4]

There was a time when I cared about Mass Effect. When the reveal of a new game got me super excited and I couldn't wait for it.
And then Mass Effect 3's ending just...killed my love of the series. All that work, all that time getting to know everyone, customizing my Shepard, doing all those things, and then to have it end like that was just...ugh.

So now, I am simply aware of Andromeda. I know it's out there, I have watched the trailers, and I heard about this news, but the excitement is gone. It will take a LOT for me to get back to that level for this series. Hearing that this high-ranking guy left before it's release, or even completion, does not fill me with confidence to be honest.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Then what was Dragon Age II? You weren't exactly saving the world in that game.

It was a quick cash grab dumbed down for consoles. So it was not as good as Origins but it was better than Inquisition, which wasn't a quick cash grab but it was all about saving the world again.

Also Mass Effect 2 was less about saving the world than the other two titles. It was more about the characters. And IMO it's the best in the trilogy.

 

[shintakie10]

I don't know how you could make a mass effect 4 tbh, unless you make the indoctrination ending the canon ending and make it like a second part of the reaper war.


Even then I'm not really sure you could make a full game from that.

Who says Mass Effect Andromeda even needs to be set in the same region of space?

Think about it.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

I'm not going to speculate on this. There are many reasons as to why a person may leave. Could be family, could be health. Could also very well be he disagreed with the direction the game is taking. We don't have the facts yet, and I would not like to see this mired down in "click-bait" reactions.