David Gaider left BioWare! How about... working on BGNext, David?
JuliusBorisov
Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,754
An absolute shock.
A 17 year BioWare veteran, a BG2 designer, a Dragon Age lead writer... Leaves BioWare.
So? A wild thought! Now, when Beamdog will try to make "a new Baldur's Gate-esque game that will make us all busy for the next 15 years", maybe Beamdog is the best place for David Gaider.
After all, he started his work from Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn.
"It was indeed my decision, one not made easily since BioWare's been very good to me, and the parting is amicable," he wrote. "It's simply time to move onto a new challenge."
"As to where I'm headed next, that announcement will come in due time — today's about saying goodbye and packing up," he added.
http://www.polygon.com/2016/1/22/10814786/david-gaider-bioware-leaves-dragon-age-gay-character
A 17 year BioWare veteran, a BG2 designer, a Dragon Age lead writer... Leaves BioWare.
So? A wild thought! Now, when Beamdog will try to make "a new Baldur's Gate-esque game that will make us all busy for the next 15 years", maybe Beamdog is the best place for David Gaider.
After all, he started his work from Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn.
"It was indeed my decision, one not made easily since BioWare's been very good to me, and the parting is amicable," he wrote. "It's simply time to move onto a new challenge."
"As to where I'm headed next, that announcement will come in due time — today's about saying goodbye and packing up," he added.
http://www.polygon.com/2016/1/22/10814786/david-gaider-bioware-leaves-dragon-age-gay-character
5
Comments
I will say was because of the 3 jobs posted, that one is taken down.
And Gaider lives in Edmonton.
Gaider is exactly what beamdog needs right now. While I agree that his writing is sometimes good and sometimes not, the thing about Gaider is that he listens to the fans -- large portions of ToB and ascension were based on fan suggestions. Some of the ToB characters were based on forum members (Yakman, Gromnir)
He could actually change the thing that I dislike most about Beamdog: the 'that the way we do it, if you don't like, don't buy it' attitude. I could imagine him participating in these forums, integrating our suggestions into the next game.
And he would be the perfect person to expand ToB and to make it what it should have been in the first place.
Let's hope he is moving to Beamdog. Fingers crossed.
And why do we have to choose between them? Chris Avellone *and* Gaider would be a great team. Avellone, the best RPG writer out there teaming up with Gaider who is responds to the fans.
If that happened I would change my position on Beamdog and BG3.
(which right now is set at please, please, please don't let them make BG3 -- give it to Obsidian, Ossian or someone else who responds to fan critiques)
Gief Gaider!
Also, look at this tweet by Chris Avellone:
Maybe "Dreams this way" is actually pointing to Beamdog
So, the unemployment period will last for some time. Maybe the time needed for the SoD release before a start of the work on the next project can be announced?
According to Electronic Arts' fiscal 2015 third quarter earnings report, Dragon Age: Inquisition is the most successful launch in BioWare history based on units sold.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Age:_Inquisition
What I don't like is timed DLC exclusives for the Xbox One . Why not both of them to come to Beamdog?
Don't forget a job offer for that chat!
Good luck, David!
@killerrabbit I am not sure I am following you about responding to fan requests, weren't a lot of the UI-tweaking and so on based on fan requests? At any rate I do not think good companies should care *too* much about fan requests, trying to please everyone usually means pleasing noone in my experience.
I think it's very probable this is a step Beamdog takes towards making a new game of themselves, with getting such a heavyweight on board.
Now sign up Chris Avellone as well and Beamdog is good to go!
There's a famous quote you may or may not be familiar with:
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
-- Henry Ford
This isn't to say that no one at Beamdog cares about fan concerns or that they don't design games the way they believe games should be designed, but when you start talking about "Listening to your Fans" it becomes the question of which fans to listen to and how often.
I don't have exact statistics here, but I'm sure this board has thousands of people that could be considered "fans"; @killerrabbit have you ever disagreed with someone on this board at any point regarding something having to do with the game? I know I have.
So who's right? Obviously you are in your mind, but if you disagree with me, obviously you're the one in the wrong (as, after all, I'm the one writing the post)
If you've ever been in a corporate environment you probably have a very deep and abiding understanding of what the term "Design by Committee" really means and what kind of end product it gets you. I can assure you, no one ANYWHERE wants that for a video game we all care deeply about.
The complaint you make (This video game company cares nothing about their customer's opinions!) is a long standing and long running complaint you'll get anywhere you go. What I've never actually seen, however, is a good definition of what the solution to that problem really looks like. Generally that tends to mean "I had an idea once that I posted somewhere and damn it the company didn't implement it!!! And it was a REALLY GOOD ONE!!! They don't listen!"
Don't take offense, I'm not suggesting that's your motivation for posting what you did, however the question still arises: What does "Listening to your customers" actually look like? I assume you aren't actually asking for a seat at the design table when the story's being written, so what exactly is it you ARE looking for. And please make sure you're specific "Listen to me" doesn't translate into a solution.
What I CAN tell you is that in my VERY short time working with the Beamdog staff I've never heard a single incident of: "We could implement that really cool feature...but one of our fans suggested it, so we'd best not."
The EE's are absolutely filled with work from it's fan base, of any game on the market right now I believe I'm not in the wrong to say it's in the top 10 of produced games where the fans have contributed to the content and game play.
I'm as excited as everyone else out there about Gaider joining the Beamdog team. And if that helps usher in an even better customer experience with Beamdog there's no one *I* know of on staff or anywhere else who'd complain about that.
I just don't know what your request for better "listening to fans" looks like. Help me out here.