Lead BioWare Writer Departs

[exar333]

I was on the fence in if I should post this to the PC or console section, but the fact that Drew DID write for the BG series tipped the scales in the PC forum's favor.

The story can be found here: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/BioWare-Mass-Effect-Drew-Karpyshyn-Star-Wars-The-Old-Republic,14735.html

For those interested, he also has a pretty cool website that lists his bio and other information here: http://drewkarpyshyn.com/c/?page_id=17

Here is a quick run-down of what he has worked on at BioWare on as a writer:

Games
-Baldur's Gate 1/2
-Neverwinter Nights 1/2
-KOTOR
-Jade Empire
-Mass Effect 1/2/3
-SW: TOR

Books
-Forgotten Realms (Temple Hill and ToB)
-Mass Effect (Retribution/Ascention/Revelation)
-SW: Darth Bane series and TOR Novel

Not sure about you guys, but this guy will definitely be missed. Some of my best gaming memories are from the great stories and detail in the different BioWare franchises, and I wish him well.

 

[xSkyDrAx]

really sad that he's gone but wish him well.

 

[Dankk]

He's the one leaving, and not Hamburger Helper? Agh. And people wonder why the writing in Bioware games has taken a nosedive.

 

[videogames101]

He's the one leaving, and not Hamburger Helper? Agh. And people wonder why the writing in Bioware games has taken a nosedive.

This...

 

[VulgarDisplay]

Hopefully he's departing to write a mass effect movie script. Would be amazing.

 

[exar333]

Hopefully he's departing to write a mass effect movie script. Would be amazing.

Could be very cool.

 

[exar333]

This...

I could not agree more.

 

[surfsatwerk]

Give me jade empire 2!@#!@!

 

[exar333]

Not sure if he directly wrote any of these quotes or not, but these are classic!

http://www.minscandboo.com/quotes.php

 

[BoberFett]

Bioware has writers?

 

[The Boston Dangler]

so is that the guy responsible for the schlock in swtor? and before you say "8 stories, all of them fantastic!", no. any child could have written that crap. the more grandiose the story became, the more disconnected it was from my experience. my story culminated with my ascension to the dark council, answering only to the emperor! then i quit. with such hyperbole, you'd think someone would have spoken my name at some point.

 

[NoSoup4You]

So long and thanks for all the fish.

 

[Anubis]

He's the one leaving, and not Hamburger Helper? Agh. And people wonder why the writing in Bioware games has taken a nosedive.

who?

 

[Anteaus]

I love how the guy takes another job and some people assume there is some sort of rift in the company. There any number of reasons, personal and profession, why a person would leave a job. In fact he specifically states he's retiring from the industry altogether and that it's all good with Bioware. Good for him.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Bioware has writers?

I think they killed them all before making the sequels to every game they've ever made.

 

[busydude]

EA effect?

 

[cronos]

I love how the guy takes another job and some people assume there is some sort of rift in the company.

I don't see anything like this here or even in the linked article.

 

[Zenoth]

Drew is a great writer.

As a side note there's something interesting I think some people should know concerning ME2's story (saying this because lots of people do know that many things in ME2 are just not clear or well explained in the game, in relation to ME1). There's a good number of posts over at the BioWare Social forums where you can hear so called "unused" dialog by the developers, but recorded nonetheless and at some point in time was considered to be implemented in the game, but was for some reason(s) cut out eventually.

A lot of that unused dialog ends up often explaining in greater details (and by different characters when compared to what we have in the final game) many aspects of the ME2 "links" to ME1 such as in relation to the Reapers, the Collectors and why they do what they do (getting samples from various races, making a "Terminator" Human-Reaper hybrid, etc). I've heard a lot of such unused dialog myself and I must say that whatever anyone may think regarding the actual writer(s) of ME2 (be it Drew, Walters or anyone else whom might have been providing assistance) that if they do listen to that dialog then they'll soon realize that the responsible people for mixing up the story are the ones editing the game and making the final decisions over at BioWare, as to what stays in and what gets cut out of it, or what gets replaced or changed. The actual writers, I'm sure, knew what they were writing and they surely had a clear, detailed picture of the whole ME franchise in their mind from the start.

At some point as far as ME2's story-telling is concerned (and most likely to follow suit with ME3, unfortunately), the actual existing useful and detailed explanations were cut, shrunk, and/or modified in preference for... let's say a more "subtle" approach, one that in the end only left many of us scratching our heads and slowing stepping backwards away from the game's credits thinking "ok, what the hell did just happened?". Those responsible for that were not the writers (which I do honestly believe), contrarily to what many may still think to this day. But that's normal, because out of the hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of fans of the ME franchise I doubt that even a tenth of them actually known about any of that unused dialog, and what it implies for story-telling (and the quality of it) for the games (in general) that are being affected by cut out/replaced/diminished dialog later on.

It's a bit of a story-telling tragedy, in my opinion. If I was a writer myself I'd make sure not to work for a company that knowingly cuts away the stuff that I would have written for the readers and players alike, with enough details for them to actually be able to understand what the hell I was trying to explain in the story in the first place.

 

[magomago]

Drew is a great writer.
understand what the hell I was trying to explain in the story in the first place.

Uhh WHAT?

I read both of the first two ME novels...and I was thoroughly unimpressed. It read like a book designed for 6th graders, all the way down to the EXTREMELY slow ramp up and completely predictable story. i went through both books in less than 24 hours each without even trying.

Hey maybe he was told to write the those books in that fashion, and other stories are far more developed...but the first ME2 books were just too simplistic with none of the depth of the games

 

[Zenoth]

Uhh WHAT?

I read both of the first two ME novels...and I was thoroughly unimpressed. It read like a book designed for 6th graders, all the way down to the EXTREMELY slow ramp up and completely predictable story. i went through both books in less than 24 hours each without even trying.

Hey maybe he was told to write the those books in that fashion, and other stories are far more developed...but the first ME2 books were just too simplistic with none of the depth of the games

Well, to each their own that's for sure. But anyway, as far as video games are concerned, we ended up having a "better than otherwise generic" story, for a game, especially when compared to the usual crap that we have to deal with. As far as writing actual novels go then sure there's better writers out there, although they wouldn't necessarily all have thought of the ME franchise in the first place, Drew happened to create it (at least mostly from what we know).

I never really considered ME1 and especially not ME2's story-telling to be perfect or anywhere near that extent of quality, but again to repeat myself, as far as video gaming story-telling goes (especially when you have to compress story events within a couple of hours worth of events that in the end has to explain the important parts of a universe that would otherwise only be fitting in dozens of novels) it's certainly of better quality than the majority of the stories that I at least myself can think of from a great bunch of games out there, even if it means that ME1's or ME2's (or ME3's) story isn't abnormally spectacular.

In the end, most ME1 (and ME2) players haven't read the actual novels, I'd bet on it, so they rely on the games themselves and the dialog in them (and their respective codex, along with the ME franchise's Wiki pages) to understand what is to be understood from within the events shown in-game. Which is why I believe that cutting/shrinking/diminishing/changing dialog for the final version of a game is asking for trouble when it comes to what you can ultimately figure out from what was told in-game, to create a bigger picture of what's actually going on with proper information and details, rather than being left in the dark with more questions after the end credits roll than you initially had when the game started.

 

[Dankk]

who?

Jennifer Hepler - nicknamed "Hamburger Helper" by much of the gaming community - is one of the main writers for Bioware. She's gotten a lot of hate for the bad writing in Dragon Age 2 and ToR, and she's notorious for being a bad writer in general. She's openly admitted that she doesn't like video games and she sucks at them.

 

[Elcs]

Jennifer Hepler - nicknamed "Hamburger Helper" by much of the gaming community - is one of the main writers for Bioware. She's gotten a lot of hate for the bad writing in Dragon Age 2 and ToR, and she's notorious for being a bad writer in general. She's openly admitted that she doesn't like video games and she sucks at them.

Ah so she's like C.S. Goto? Gotcha!

 

[Doppel]

They were probably roping him into Dragon Age III and he was like I don't want that sh*t associated with me, I'm gone.

 

[Pocatello]

Before Bioware joined EA, I was excited for every Bioware game before release. Not lately, though. Now the games seemed incomplete, and watered down.

 

[exar333]

I don't see anything like this here or even in the linked article.

Thanks for responding there, I didn't get back to this thread until now. I never suggested any rift was present, and I don't believe either the article or othere comments here were to that effect.