The Discord Surrounding Anthem (Reaction To Kotaku's Article)

Hi,

     Kotaku published an article about the behind-the-scenes of Anthem's development. It covered stressed out developers, team members that were pulled away from the project to work on other games mid-development, team leaders that ignored or avoided specific feedback and conversations, a beautiful but problematic game engine: Frostbite, a launch time that allowed no more delays, and a twelve to sixteen month period of putting the game together.

     This article was a combined interview with nineteen developers, most of which remain anonymous. There is an insane amount of information about how and why things went wrong during the development process of Anthem that takes at least a full hour to read. As in-depth as it is, I feel that it doesn't have the full story and was mostly focused on the negative.

     I'm not here to talk about that. I'm here to talk about what infuriates me in regards to this well written and deeply informative story.

     Readers taking things out of context and using it to justify their hate. This is something that never goes away. People that don't read a full story but then start running their mouths everywhere they can with their opinion on something that they literally have no clue what they're even talking about. 

     I've done the same thing so I know what it's like to be mistaken. But most times when we run our mouths before realizing we screwed up and were wrong, we don't seemingly have the entire world backing our stupidity up. That is where things continue to go wrong with Anthem.

     I'm mostly giving up on the internet. Anthem is an excellent game. I'm very aware of its issues. I'm sure Bioware would have liked to have put in more content at launch as well as have a smoother one but there is a wonderful and full experience there. It especially blows my mind how good it ended up being after all of the trouble the people behind it went through. So many things went wrong and yet beauty and fun remains. 

     With all of the comparisons out there to other games, Anthem is special. While launching a bit broken, I have no doubt at all that we will see more games try to be like it.

     No matter how good Anthem is or becomes, it seems to me that the internet will still hate it because it's EA and not the Bioware they expected or remember. This is the perfect example of why innovation is so hard and also why we "can't have nice things." Look, I hate Activision but I still love Destiny 2.

     Bioware pre-responded to the article in a blog post of their own. They didn't say anything bad and to me it didn't come off as defensive at all but it was obviously posted too quickly and is nothing more than typical PR (as I would expect). People have discussed how fast Bioware put their blog out as if it was some kind of evil thing. Of course they did. Kotaku had reached out to let them know the article was coming before it was published. And why wouldn't they? Imagine if Bioware didn't answer. They were damned either way, response or not. But yes, it should have been handled better.

     Anthem's fans will continue to love the game but sadly at the rate of the hatefest online, I can't help but worry. The hope I have is that it somehow survives the ignorant hate and continues to improve. At the very least, I was able to enjoy the time I played very much.

     Bioware has done a truly impressive job with their continued work on the game since launch and it's noticed by the players that continue to enjoy it. But the majority of the internet has failed Bioware (again). The internet has failed Anthem. People that read Kotaku's article are running around saying "See? I told you so. It sucks" while completely missing the point of it altogether and continuing to spread misinformation and nonsensical hate. It's fine to be upset over how horrible development was. But the team that actually made Anthem happen deserve so much credit and respect for their work and effort.

     With my sincerest, deepest gratitude, my heart is with every single team member that made Anthem possible through the hell it was in. Thank you. 

P.S. I loved Mass Effect: Andromeda.