BioWare Mines Data From Mass Effect 2

Logan Westbrook

Transform, Roll Out, Etc
Feb 21, 2008
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BioWare Mines Data From Mass Effect 2



BioWare is watching you play Mass Effect 2, and it's learning a heck of lot from it.

BioWare is collecting player feedback from Mass Effect 2 [http://www.amazon.com/Mass-Effect-2-Xbox-360/dp/B001TORSII/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1283888383&sr=8-1] in order to make Mass Effect 3 better. You don't need to do anything to contribute though, apart from play the game while connected to the internet.

BioWare seeded Mass Effect 2 with dozens of tiny events that would let it collect information on things like the classes that people picked or how many of the game's conversations they skipped. Casey Hudson, the series' Executive Producer, said that the information gave BioWare a window into how people were playing the game and how the company might tweak things for the sequel. For example, the soldier is by far the most popular class, and Hudson said that knowing that allowed it to start asking the right questions about the design process for ME3.

"More people played the soldier class than all of the other classes combined," he said. "If you know that, then you can start thinking about future games. Is that good? Is that a problem? Should we look at the other classes and start thinking about ways to make them selected as often as soldier? As part of asking these questions, we can design games in the future a lot better."

In some cases the data allowed BioWare to confirm it was on the right track, as with the very low rate of skipped conversations - just 15 percent - but sometimes the information, which Hudson stressed was entirely anonymous, yielded some unexpected results. Hudson said he had been surprised to learn that more than half of all players had imported a save from the first Mass Effect, and that PC players did fewer loyalty missions than Xbox 360 players. Hudson noted that there was also a difference in which of the games loyalty missions PC gamers did, versus those done by 360 gamers. PC gamers were apparently much more likely to try and secure Miranda's loyalty, whereas 360 players favored Grunt.

BioWare isn't the only developer pulling in data from its games, Rockstar did something similar with Red Dead Redemption [http://www.amazon.com/Red-Dead-Redemption-Xbox-360/dp/B001SH7YMG/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1283888505&sr=1-1], and published the results as part of an infographic [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/101863-Red-Dead-Redemption-Players-Murder-132-Million-People-in-Two-Weeks] back in July. While the method of collection has a faintly "Big Brother" vibe to it, it must be supremely useful developers to be able to get information on how people are playing a particular game with such a high degree of accuracy. Interpreting and acting on this kind of information takes time however, so don't expect to see it used to tweak the PS3 version of Mass Effect 2 that comes out next year.

Source: IGN [http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/111/1118657p2.html]



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Jared

The British Paladin
Jul 14, 2009
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Well, its certainly a good thing I think - Its allowing them to craft a richer, more tailored experience for gamers.

As long as it stays behind the curtain whilst it does it. An excellent idea.
 

tlozoot

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Feb 8, 2010
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That's cool. Really, really cool. Should lead to a better experience for everyone.
 

CriMs0nC0bra

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Feb 22, 2008
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I don't like them getting information such as 80% of players using a male Shepard. I play a female Shepard, and they already shun her as much as possible now.. With that data, they'll have even more reason to.
 

oranger

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May 27, 2008
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surprise? they are watching you, recording your habits and watching for emergent gameplay to put into a sequel/expansion/DLC...and if you didn't know that you're a moron.
Look at SC2: the entire multiplayer has to be the laziest thing I've ever seen. The gamers are basically making it for actiblizz, and I bet you your hat you'll see some of those "published"
custom games implemented in some form in the "sequels".
Without any form of compensation or credit given to the original "publisher" because after all, actiblizz owns whatever you put onto its network...or what it detects when it is watching your comp to make sure you aren't cheating.
 

Mr.Pandah

Pandah Extremist
Jul 20, 2008
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Personally, I don't mind the "Big Brother" feel of it all. If they want to do it to try and make an even more immersive game out of 3, go right ahead. Its interesting how many booty chasers there are on the PC though. You know they didn't do that Miranda loyalty mission for nothing ;)
 

tlozoot

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Feb 8, 2010
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CriMs0nC0bra said:
I don't like them getting information such as 80% of players using a male Shepard. I play a female Shepard, and they already shun her as much as possible now.. With that data, they'll have even more reason to.
Those stats would tell Bioware to make a female playthrough more compelling though, not less so. They want to try to balance out the choices as much as possible by offering incentive, not pandering to the popular opinion, as you can see when the developer talks about more people playing Solider.
 

jamesworkshop

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Sep 3, 2008
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just read about this on rockpapershotgun

Looks like i?m a somewhat typical player

male default face
Infiltrator
completion time with all DLC 45 hours
2 playthroughs
No import save from ME 1
All loyalty mission complete
all side quests complete
 

Mr Companion

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Jul 27, 2009
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I like the idea of behind the curtains feedback, but I hope they don't take things the wrong way. They should remember that the freedom of choice is centural to the games fun, even if not so many people choose an option they shouldn't remove underused parts of the game to keep it streamlined. That was apparently the initial problem with the design team of Deus Ex 3.
 

Dogstile

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Jan 17, 2009
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Big brother? Heh, Bioware doesn't know who i am, just how i play.

And yes, I slept with Jack people. And I am proud.
 

WanderingFool

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Apr 9, 2009
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Logan Westbrook said:
"More people played the soldier class than all of the other classes combined," he said. "If you know that, then you can start thinking about future games. Is that good? Is that a problem? Should we look at the other classes and start thinking about ways to make them selected as often as soldier? As part of asking these questions, we can design games in the future a lot better."

I can answer that right now, Assault Rifle. In fact, that was for ME1, ME2, Reverent machine gun.

Also, I played the Vangaurd and Infiltrator as I enjoy their special abilities, the soldier in ME2 doesnt have that good of speacial ability. And Bioware, if you are reading this, BRING BACK THE LEVELING AND SKILL ELEMENTS FROM ME1, AND DROP THE AMMO POWERS!!!! Seriously.

*Edit*

Kalezian said:
CriMs0nC0bra said:
I don't like them getting information such as 80% of players using a male Shepard. I play a female Shepard, and they already shun her as much as possible now.. With that data, they'll have even more reason to.
not really, they could go back and look at why people choose John more than Jane and try to fix it.

OT: I also have a female shepard [have to get a 100% game completion somehow], and I will be VERY dissapointed if a Krogan, Grunt, Wrex, or any new addition for ME3, isnt a romantic choice.
I usually play a female shepard, because I dont like the male shepards voice actor... and for Garrus. WHAT!? He's badass.
 

More Fun To Compute

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Nov 18, 2008
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Zynga do this and people think that it's sinister but EA do it and they are disappointed that Bioware haven't them hooked up to a cat scanner to work out how they can be manipulated into paying more for less.
 

hyperdrachen

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Jan 1, 2008
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tlozoot said:
CriMs0nC0bra said:
I don't like them getting information such as 80% of players using a male Shepard. I play a female Shepard, and they already shun her as much as possible now.. With that data, they'll have even more reason to.
Those stats would tell Bioware to make a female playthrough more compelling though, not less so. They want to try to balance out the choices as much as possible by offering incentive, not pandering to the popular opinion, as you can see when the developer talks about more people playing Solider.
I dunno dude, me and both my Mass Effect playing friends rolled female shepard. Firstly because male sheppards voice acting grates my nerves so hard. I can't even put my finger on it but something is unnatural about his inflection. Since i played a female sheppard in 1 in my mass effect canon sheppard is a lady, and will stay that way. I think this data will be used more for "why didn't people give a crap to listen to this dialogue, can we make our narrative more engaging here?" Or "How come people skip this mission, is it more frustration than the fun/reward deems tolerable?"

I'd like to see them do a broader stroke game after ME3, but rather than go Dragon Age style and let me pick several races but still have primarily the same story, just make a game centered around the Krogan rebellions, or the rachni wars. Center a game around a Krogan, or Salarian. Just call me up when they release the Blasto game. This one has forgotten if it's heatsink is over capacity. It wonders if the criminal scum considers itself fortunate.
 

Galaxy613

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Apr 6, 2008
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thefreeman0001 said:
i cringed when i saw that pc players tried to secure mirandas "loyalty" more then 360 players.
True that, I'm a PC player and Miranda is the ONLY loyalty I didn't have going into the final battle.

hyperdrachen said:
Just call me up when they release the Blasto game. This one has forgotten if it's heatsink is over capacity. It wonders if the criminal scum considers itself fortunate.
Ecstatic, that would be amazing.
 

Sronpop

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Mar 26, 2009
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While I have absolutely no problem with them collecting this information to help make future games better or to have awesome stats to show, I am very disappointed in the players. This is one of the best games ever. Almost everyone should be importing a game, and the class system should be a lot more balanced. Why so many soldiers, they all kick ass people, try them for once.