Former Dragon Age developers are not happy with EA CEO's suggestion that The Veilguard should have live service features: 'I'd probably quit' - Related to plots, ceo's, not, conspiracy, age

Conspiracy was briefly afoot in the Marvel Rivals community following NetEase hero plant rumours

The Marvel Rivals community was briefly awash with rumours than publisher NetEase were playing 4D chess with their hero-loving hearts last week, , where user Keone speculated that NetEase were seeding fake information on upcoming heroes for dataminers to find.

"It has come to our attention that the devs have set up fake characters to catch leakers," wrote Keone in the Discord. "Not only the ones in the code - but potentially inside insights too". They then gave a list of previously rumoured heroes they now believed were "very likely fake", including Quicksilver, Professor X, and Paste Pot Pete, who I hadn't heard of until now and suddenly I have a renewed interested in Marvel.

The Discord, says the analysis, had previously found some success catching heroes before their official announcement, such as the Fantastic Four. The rumour gained some traction before reaching datamining group X0XLeak, who weren't so convinced. "Could they be intended troll by NetEase? I guess,” an X0XLeak spokesninja told IGN. "Would it make sense, in my opinion? No. The way I see it, they could have made it way easier if their goal was to troll us.” They also posted an X thread as evidence that the rumoured-then-unrumoured heroes existed in the game's code, thoroughly re-rumouring them once again. From IGN's analysis:

X0X’s matfacio told IGN that, if NetEase had truly tucked away bait to trick leakers in this way, it would need to know exactly how dataminers are rummaging through the Marvel Rivals backend, explaining: “I think it would require reverse engineering a reverse engineer.” The existence of new, hidden hero names in Marvel Rivals doesn’t totally poor cold water on the idea that the developers are attempting to mislead, but some believe the studio would have to go through a lot of trouble — likely more trouble than it’s worth — just to keep the more dedicated fans on their toes.

That "trouble" includes things like datamined voice line events and gameplay tags, which some community members reckoned represented far too much work to be part of an elaborate hoax. Keone did end up amending their initial stance, saying that their post spread beyond their control before they could make edits.

"The primary assumption from the main leakers (separate from me, the ones who have most info) now is that the ‘plants’ are in fact still real. And the developers did not intend for us to find them," Keone says. "That's why I edited the original post and since deleted it, and have worked to help clear up confusion surrounding it."

Please do have a read of the research in full for all the details and context. I don't play Marvel Rivals myself, but I found this one interesting since - while it's somewhat of a well-seasoned nothing burger - it's fundamentally just a group of passionate players wanting to share the excitement of getting new toys to play with. Hell, I'm excited about Paste Pot Pete and I haven't watched a Marvel film since X-Men 2, nor played a videogame in 15 years.

"A server that started small to spread information has now become a cornerstone of information across the entire community, and sometimes we can misinterpret things or make mistakes," Keone told IGN. "We're a group of people working hard to find and share information, and there's never malice behind what we post. We'll work hard to make sure things don't spread like wildfire again unless it's been verified first, and are grateful for everything we've been able to share thus far."

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Former Dragon Age developers are not happy with EA CEO's suggestion that The Veilguard should have live service features: 'I'd probably quit'

EA's CEO, Andrew Wilson, in recent times voiced some bizarre criticism of Dragon Age: The Veilguard during a quarterly financial call. He suggested that the game struggled because it didn't have any live service components.

EA did announce that The Veilguard underperformed, even if expectations were perhaps set a little too high, but blaming this on the game not being a Fortnite ripoff misses the point entirely. I'm not sure any amount of live service elements could've saved this game from the poor writing, pacing, and lackluster companions. It seems that a few former Dragon Age developers agree with this sentiment that live service is not the right move.

"Look, I'm not a fancy CEO guy," former Dragon Age creative director Mike Laidlaw says (via Eurogamer). "But if someone stated to me, 'the key to this successful single-player IP's success is to make it purely a multiplayer game. No, not a spin-off: fundamentally change the DNA of what people loved about the core game.' I'd probably, like, quit that job or something."

I do want to point out that I don't think it's fair to say that the plan was to make The Veilguard into a purely multiplayer game; instead, it would be a singleplayer game with live service attributes. And telling everyone that you'd probably "quit that job or something" a week after BioWare veterans confirm that EA has laid them off is also a bit tone-deaf. But the point about changing a game's DNA just to pander to what some suits think is the biggest possible consumer market available is not the right mentality to make a great game that is actually enjoyable.

David Gaider, another BioWare veteran, also offered up his opinions as to what EA should focus on next, and it's not live service. "My advice to EA (not that they care): you have an IP that a lot of people love," Gaider says. "Deeply. At its height, it sold well enough to make you happy, right? Look at what it did best at the point where it sold the most. Follow Larian's lead and double down on that. The audience is still there. And waiting."

Gaider also points out that the internal projections for The Veilguard may have been too high. Therefore, EA's statement that it underperformed may be more indicative of unrealistic metrics than the game itself.

"Let’s be clear: you don’t have those numbers," Gaider says. "Nobody outside of EA does, and we only know what they tell us—though the fact they’ve introduced little, in fact, says a lot. For a return of the series after 10 years, they wanted numbers they could ballyhoo. Whatever they are, they didn’t get them. Does that make Veilguard a failure? Depends on your metric." All in all, the future of Dragon Age doesn't look too bright right now, and despite calls that the idea of Dragon Age can live on through its fans' creative ventures, players shouldn't have to rely on fanmade creations to enjoy a much-loved and established series like Dragon Age.

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Creator of already-disturbing elf-hatching sim now plots to make another virtual pet game inside it

Did you have a tamagotchi as a kid? I did, and yes, I too let it die. I am thankful that the handheld LCD graphics of the era did not allow me to witness my companion blob's amiable decline into shit-caked starvation. I am also thankful that my tamagotchi did not itself have a tamagotchi, because the only life principle I ever taught my tamagotchi was neglect. This is also the reason I may never play the reportedly pretty decent virtual pet game Yoke Heroes: A Long Tamago, whose developers 14 Hours Productions are defying God and Man by developing another virtual pet sim inside it.

Before I peel back the metafictional layers I guess I should tell you briefly about Yolk Heroes itself, which featured in one of Alice0's (RPS in peace) screenshot round-ups, many moons ago. The gist: some Dark Lord is causing a nuisance. The Fairy Queen has tasked you with hatching out and nurturing an Elf hero to take the villain down. I'm not as familiar with elf reproduction as I should be but I've played Baldur's Gate 3 and I'm 75% sure elves don't come from eggs. Still, I like the looks of the game's "idle RPG" malarkey. It sounds like I'll have plenty of time to get the laundry done while my chickelf is busy grinding level-1 rats.

"Part digital pet game, part RPG adventure, and part casual idle game, Yolk Heroes is a charming blend of many different elements," the Steam page explains. "Quest and grind to protect the citizens of the realm, or simply enjoy your digital friend!" Here be tray-tray to wash that down. Game Boy Color-flavoured art direction = good.

Hearty, innocent fun, you might think. The user reviews certainly paint a rosy picture. But now for the horrifying twist: the devs are making another virtual pet game called Poke Place, rendered in simpler monochrome pixelart. It fits snugly inside Yolk Heroes, "so your Virtual Pet can have Virtual Pets".

"You know you've always wanted this!" explains a new Steam post, with an air of jovial malice so concentrated I can feel my skin exfoliating as I read. "Poke place is pronounced to rhyme with yolk. Poke being slang for little buddy and all that. It won't have any plot importance, but it will have the importance of getting to raise a little fairy thing! Also, some of the best pixel art we did for the project but ended up being cut from the main game is being re-used to give it some real pizzazz!"

While games-within-the-game aren't unusual - even Call Of Duty likes to Nolan it up now and then - the disturbing element here is that Poke Place is billed as a game for your Virtual Pet, not you. Will your chickelf treat the "little fairy thing" as they themselves were treated? Is this where our fond technological ambitions have led us, to a place where tamagotchis are smart enough to let their own tamagotchis perish in a cascade of doleful emojis and poop?

Ah, but perhaps the tamagotchis will learn different lessons from our colossal frivolity and apathy. Perhaps your chickelf will strive to be a improved custodian and mentor for their fairy sprog than you ever were for them. Honestly, this sounds worse: your virtual pet is going to make you feel bad about yourself. It's a facet of the AI utopia/dystopia debate I hadn't considered.

It's not clear when Poke Place will be added to Yolk Heroes, but 14 Hours Productions are hoping to release the revision later this year. No guarantees, though, because "the lead developer on it also has a full time job NOT working on cute games like this, so it's a bit slow going! Bills are hard!" Fair play. I will end this with the thought that while I've played many a game-within-the-game, I've yet to play a game-within-the-game-within-the-game. I suspect this idea has probably occurred to 14 Hours Productions. I hope they give that "little fairy thing" a virtual pet game too, so that my chickelf can experience the terrible vertigo I'm feeling right now.

If all this is too Inception-y for you, or you disagree profoundly with the concept of elf eggs, there's always Mushroom Musume.

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