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Zeschuk: EA 'gives you enough rope to hang yourself,' in a good way
BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk is done with the gaming industry, at least from a development standpoint and at least for now, he told Games Industry after receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award with fellow doctor Ray Muzyka at GDC."I really don't see myself making a brand-new game developer," Zeschuk said. "I also don't really see myself working for anyone else, at least in the traditional sense. But I can imagine myself, for example, being on a board, consulting ... In building a business and making a game company, it is a kind of been there, done that feeling. When you've checked off all the boxes, why do it again? I don't really imagine a full-time gig in the business appealing to me – I just don't see it."Zeschuk said he's proud of the creative legacy he cultivated at BioWare, and cites one specific regret of his time there: not making Jade Empire an Xbox 360 launch title. That "would have been massive," Zeschuk said.EA acquired BioWare in 2007 prior to the launch of Mass Effect, and Zeschuk said he's still happy with that move. The BioWare team never had to conform to EA's standards of microtransactions or forced multiplayer, though it did have to keep the bottom line in mind, he said."The best analogy I use, in a positive way, is EA gives you enough rope to hang yourself. It was really interesting because we really made all the choices we wanted to make ourselves; these are all things we wanted to try ... That was the biggest revelation, that rope that EA gives you; they don't second-guess you, they don't say you shouldn't do that. We had complete creative control over a lot of it; some fans didn't like some of it and some of it was experimental, quite frankly."
Dr. Greg Zeschuk talks about the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic
It's been just about a month since Star Wars: The Old Republic began its early access period, throwing open the doors for players all around the world. But the release wasn't just an interesting point for the many players anticipating the game -- after all, it had been BioWare's big project for many years. Fan site TORwars recently had a chat with Dr. Greg Zeschuk about his thoughts on the game at launch and a look back at what could have gone differently. As Zeschuk says, there were definitely some aspects of the development that he would do differently if he could go back in time, including expanding the testing schedule and roster. He also shares his stories of getting his character going once the game went live, something that wound up being unexpectedly problematic. It's not filled with world-shattering revelations about the future of the game, but for players who are starting to look back over their first month with the game, it's certainly a nice look at the other side of the fence.
BioWare's Zeschuk on Mass Effect Galaxy: 'Our guess was wrong'
Some people forked over a sawbuck for Mass Effect Galaxy because they wanted to experience the backstory of characters appearing in Mass Effect 2. Some people downloaded Galaxy for the promise of in-game goods in Mass Effect 2. No matter what folks signed up for, most seem to agree that what they got could've been better -- even BioWare's Dr. Greg Zeschuk. "Oh, I think it was very worth attempting," he told Videogamer. "Even when something's not as successful as you'd like, you can take some lessons away and apply them, right? For us, that's kind of where humility comes in, to eat the humble pie on the Mass iPhone game [laughs] and go, 'Yeeeaaah, we made a big mistake,' in the sense that we thought story could carry it." He immediately corrected himself, saying that it might not have been a mistake, but "as much as we took a guess, our guess was wrong, and we learned something in the process." The lesson? That the important part of designing for iPhone is building the game around the interface. "Unless your game is utterly designed about tactile gameplay, you shouldn't release it. That was good information for us to have." Despite Galaxy's failing, Dr. Zeschuk isn't entirely willing to write off the potential of the iPhone just yet. "We'll explore stuff," Zeschuk said. "For us, it may be things that link into other games. It's the cross-platform nature of the potential platform, like an iPhone app able to somehow access one of the other games' universes, or something. That would be really cool." %Gallery-51295%
