Operation SAVAGE: Success!

From: Admiral Steven Hackett
Re: Operation SAVAGE
Confidentiality Classification: XB-PRIME
Distribution: N7 Forces Only
Soldiers of the Milky Way '

It is a great feeling when a gambit succeeds, and I am pleased to announce that Operation SAVAGE was a success. At the end of Operation MASTIFF, I said that our supply chain was secure. The Reapers, of course, did their best to test that claim. They recognized this supply route through the central Terminus Systems and dispatched destroyers and troop transports to eliminate what they thought was a soft target.

They found otherwise. The Terminus worlds lacked the heavy warships of the Council militaries, so as part of Operation SAVAGE, we devoted significant space assets to reinforce them. The space assets came through, but that is to take nothing away from the ferocity and skill of the ground troops on these planets. When the Reapers landed, intent on turning those colony worlds into new sources of husk creatures, they met their match.

I cannot emphasize enough what a mess we'd be in if the Reapers had succeeded. A captured planet in our rear echelon would have meant facing shortages of critical materials or pulling additional assets from major fronts to compensate. Our strategists say we dodged a bullet'in my opinion, we stopped it cold.

Good work. That is all.

'Admiral Hackett

 

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Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut

The Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut is a downloadable content pack that will expand upon the events at the end of Mass Effect 3. Through additional cinematic sequences and epilogue scenes, the Extended Cut will include deeper insight to Commander Shepard's journey based on player choices during the war against the Reapers. The Extended Cut will be available to download at no additional charge for Mass Effect 3 game owners starting on June 26 for PC and Xbox 360 customers worldwide. Playstation 3 customers in North America will be able to download the Extended Cut DLC on June 26 and the rest of the world on July 4.

To learn more about the Extended Cut, please enjoy the Extended Cut interview podcast with Community Manager Jessica Merizan, Executive Producer Casey Hudson, and Lead Writer Mac Walters.

The complex sequence of logic for the Extended Cut.

Operation: Savage

Operation: Savage (June 22-24)

With so many planets conquered in Council space, we are relying on material support from the Terminus Systems. Eliminating risks to our supply line is a top priority.

Allied Goal: Eliminate 7,000,000 trooper-level enemies: Cerberus Assault Trooper, Husks, Cannibals, Geth Troopers
Squad Goal: Extraction on any difficulty with the squad using exclusively krogan, vorcha, or batarian classes
Special Circumstance: None

Squad Goal Success: Squad awarded a Commendation Pack
Allied Goal Success: All players awarded a Victory Pack

Operation Savage begins at 6pm PST Friday June 22 and ends at 4am PST Monday June 25.
Packs will be distributed Tuesday evening if the mission is successful.

BioWare Summer Family BBQ

One of the great perks of working at BioWare is that the company doesn't just treat the employees really well, but it also cares for the families of the people who work here. Over the course of each year there are a number of activities for staff and their families to attend, and what with it being summer, yesterday was time for the annual Summer Family BBQ.

This year our fine Administration team took us all to Fort Edmonton Park in the Edmonton river valley. Fort Edmonton is a historic recreation of the early settlement of Edmonton with parts of the park representing the original fur-trading fort from 1846 and other parts leading up to the much more 'modern' 1920's street. Our gathering took place in the 1920's Midway carnival area.

We were fortunate that the weather was perfect for a BBQ. We all arrived and descended on the food tent like a horde of locusts. As always the food was top notch with burgers and sausages (vegetarian options available for those who prefer them), salads, baked beans, pop, juice, and all the ice cream treats you could take.

After everyone was well fed, we spread out through the midway and had a great time with the rides and carnival attractions set up all staffed by the Fort Edmonton team in their historic costumes. There was a Ferris wheel and a carousel spinning people in all directions; there were horse drawn buggy rides, carnival challenges like Hoop-La, Milk Can Toss and Plate Pitch; and there were rides on the Fort Edmonton steam locomotive which was popular with the adults as much as the kids.

As the BBQ drew to a close and everyone headed out, the Administration team had one final surprise with an awesome t-shirt for each of the kids who took part. Everyone had a awesome time with good food, laughter and sharing the fun with our families as we enjoyed another great BioWare family event.

Dragon Age Legends Becomes a Downloadable Game

In Dragon Age Legends, a hero was born. Alliances were forged, sacrifices made, and monsters vanquished. The land was on the brink of disaster when you assembled the heroes and artifacts needed to destroy the Pride Demon ' at great cost and personal loss.

While the online chapter of this story has come to a close, you and your stalwart companions still live on in a downloadable game.  For you are among the truest heroes of Thedas: THE DRAGON AGE LEGENDS!

Continue your legend by playing the Dragon Age Legends downloadable game with FAQs and player support forums there for you as well.

OR the adventure can continue on with other BioWare Social titles, Age of Champions or Superhero City

As of 6/18/2012, Dragon Age Legends online social app is closed down.

We, at BioWare Social thank you all again for your passion, enthusiasm and support.

No matter where your adventure takes you, always'

BE LEGENDARY!

Dragon Age Question of the Month (Collector's Item)

Last month, we kicked off our monthly Dragon Age question with a discussion of lore and story details you are interested in learning more about. Thanks again to everyone who contributed in the weeklong conversation ' the community team combed through the forum thread and discovered some interesting specifics. Almost a quarter of respondents mentioned they would love to know more about Tevinter, with an equal amount curious about the fate of Morrigan. The fourth most discussed character was Sten, and unsurprisingly many would love to know more about Qunari culture.

We'll return to more questions about the Dragon Age Universe, story, and gameplay down the road. This month, however, we're interested in something a little more tangible. Developers routinely offer a high-end physical collectible in special editions of their games. This can range from a statue you might display on your shelf, a cloth map, or art book to name a few.

If you wanted to own a piece of Dragon Age history in a collector's edition of a future hypothetical title, what item (or kind of item) would you most treasure?

We recognize that not everyone has dragon-like inclinations to hoard pieces of treasure, so if you're not interested in collector's pieces, there's always next month's question!

Let us know what high-end physical item you would most like in a collector's edition here!

Interview with Senior Writer Jennifer Hepler

Anders and Kitty by Nigalacrima

Who are you and what is your role at BioWare?
My name is Jennifer Hepler and I'm a senior writer on the Dragon Age franchise. I wrote the Dwarf Commoner, Orzammar and the Deep Roads for Dragon Age: Origins; Anders, Sebastian, Bethany and most of the mage-Templar plots for Dragon Age II; and the Act 2 and3 Smuggler and a whole ton of Taris, Tatooine, Nar Shaadda, Balmorra, and Alderaan world quests for Star Wars: The Old Republic. I also handle a fair amount of training for our new and junior writers, and do some pinch-hitting as an editor when time gets tight.

What is the best part about your job?
The people I work with. When I try to watch something like The Big Bang Theory that is supposedly geek humor, it can never even hold a candle to spending that same half hour in the Dragon Age writers' room. Writing is generally a solitary profession and I spent most of my twenties sitting at home in front of a computer churning out scripts and not talking to anyone. It's an incredible blessing to get to spend every day with funny, intelligent people whom I respect and who care about the same kinds of things I do.

What does an average day look like for you?
It depends a lot on what stage the project is in. At the moment, we are at the end of pre-production and beginning of production, so I am bouncing between outlining new stories and starting to write dialogue for the larger plots that are already developed. But generally, I have about an 80-20 split between doing my own work and reviewing other writers' work, either in formal meetings or an informal mentoring role. I have certain stories and characters that I am responsible for writing, so I need to keep on top of any other plots that use those characters and make sure they don't conflict with any intentions for them. Also, all the writers sit in the same room because at any given time, someone is likely to be stuck or come up with something that we hadn't considered in outlining (like 'hey, what do people call the Champion before he becomes the Champion?') and we'll have an impromptu brainstorm.

Can you tell us about one of your proudest moments working in game development?
When I was told that all of the romances in Dragon Age II were going to be available to both genders, I was a little nervous because I had never written (or read) romances for gay men before. I thought a lot about how to present the male-male romance for Anders and I received some nudges that it should be made to feel less important/less emotional than the heterosexual romance. But ultimately, I decided that love and passion were human universals and I was going to write the male-male romance as romantically as the female one. When the game came out, we got a letter from a fan, a young man who was coming to terms with the realization that he was gay. He said that he had never seen a gay romance portrayed positively, and he was terrified that he was never going to be able to fall in love or have a meaningful relationship with anyone. He was considering killing himself, he said, until he played the Anders romance ' it was the first time he had seen anyone portray a gay relationship as genuinely romantic and loving, and now he was going to devote the rest of his life to finding that kind of passion (though hopefully not with a bipolar terrorist') That was an amazing moment for me, because it showed that the characters we create in these games really do have a genuine effect on people, even if it's just a few of them. Just because we're making games, it doesn't always has to be 'just a game.'

What's a geeky thing about you?
Just one? I don't know if I can narrow it down that far. Let's see' I fell in love with my husband over a Vampire game, while all the other guys were in the back room having their characters attack each other. I was under contract for a Shadowrun supplement the day I graduated from college; I came home and wrote a chapter of 'Cyberpirates' in my cap and gown. I founded a gaming convention (JohnCon in Baltimore) when I was 18, which is now in its 16th year (eek!). I once stood on line overnight for the Star Wars re-releases even though I was leaving town the next day and couldn't see the movie ' I just wanted to hang out with the people on line. My five year old confidently uses the term 'idle animation,' when discussing her Dora videogames. I brought my son home from the hospital in a 'Hero of Ferelden' onesie'

Is that enough?

Do you have any advice for those wishing to get into the video game industry?
If you don't have a pressing need to make money, do a little time working for tabletop roleplaying games. It's fairly easy to break in, because they pay peanuts, but you learn a ton about game design from working with dice systems. And since most videogame designers (certainly of RPGs) are huge tabletop game geeks, it's a great credit to have when applying for jobs. Most people in the tabletop field end up drifting into videogames eventually, since you can live on what they pay you, so you'll also make contacts who can end up being helpful down the line.

My entry into games came in college when I met my now-husband and was introduced to Vampire and Shadowrun. Having spent my high school years writing and trying to sell short stories, I immediately thought about trying to do some professional writing for RPGs, and by the time we graduated college, Chris Hepler (now a writer on Mass Effect) and I had written several books for Shadowrun, Earthdawn and Paranoia. We then took a detour in Hollywood for a few years, but it was a very natural gravitation back toward games which brought us to GDC to meet Bioware. After six years in Hollywood, when we were still calling 'extras' 'NPCs,' we figured maybe we were in the wrong field.

If you weren't working in the industry, what would you be doing?
I guess I'd still be in Hollywood, begging my agent to do whatever it took to land me gig on Game of Thrones (and hopefully working on Phineas and Ferb in the meantime).

What are you currently playing, reading, or listening to?
I have a five-year-old and a one-year-old, so I don't have much free time. I am currently playing Star Wars: The Old Republic every chance I get and trying to reach Act 2 so I can see what I wrote. I'm also in the middle of Mass Effect 3 and am backseat driving while my husband plays Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Before that, I played some Skyrim (not a fan) and Batman: Arkham City (which I really liked). And I read pretty much anything put in front of me. Right now, I'm re-reading Tad Williams's Otherland series, which has a whole different feel now that I've actually played some MMOs.

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Operation Mastiff

Operation MASTIFF (June 8th-10th)
We are dropping the new reinforcements onto occupied worlds to supplement resistance movements. Retrieving data of how the Reapers conquered those worlds is of paramount importance.

Allied Goal: Complete 100K retrieval missions.
Personal Goal: Extraction on Silver difficulty with one squad member of the Rebellion Pack classes: Vorcha, Phoenix Project Defectors, or Quarian Male.
Special Circumstance: None.

Completion of the personal goal awards that player a Commendation Pack.
Completion of the Allied goal awards all players a Victory Pack that has a guaranteed N7 weapon.

Operation Mastiff begins at 6pm PST Friday June 8th and ends at 4am PST Monday June 11th.
Packs will be distributed Tuesday evening if the mission is successful.

 

Interview with Product Manager Nick Clifford

Mass Effect 3 Poster by Firespray1138

Who are you and what is your role at BioWare?
My name is Nick Clifford, and I work in product marketing for EA and BioWare. I also moonlight as Commander Shepard at conventions and trade shows.
As a Product Manager it is my responsibility to work with the BioWare development team and help bring games to the marketplace. You might ask yourself, well what exactly does that entail? A lot actually. Product Marketing touches almost every aspect of a game.

It starts very early on in development. Working with the developer to realize the vision, and see it come to life. We are all Mass Effect fans here, so the team was eager to see what Casey and his team had in store for Mass Effect 3. Will we finally see Earth? What does the Illusive Man have planned? How will Shepard lead the galaxy against impossible odds? So many questions. But that's the greatest part! All those emotional and compelling hooks are what make product marketing so exciting. We start to conceptualize the core tenants of a game. What is Mass Effect 3 all about? It's an action-packed galactic struggle for survival against a ruthless and ancient enemy. That idea then permeates throughout our marketing campaigns. You see it in our announcement teaser that we showcased at the VGAs back in 2010, our first gameplay reveal at E3, our advertising campaigns, and everywhere else.

Really our job is all about sharing the game's vision with the world. We want people to see how amazing this experience can be. In doing this we get the opportunity to work with many talented folks across the industry. We are responsible for creating artwork, trailers, screenshots and other assets, including the game packaging and Collector's Edition. We work with our web team and community team to make sure that our core community (you guys!) stay engaged and happy (Thanks for reading). We work with our events team to put on exciting trade show experiences at E3, PAX, Comic Con, GamesCom, etc. It's also our responsibility to work with press outlets such as IGN and G4 to make sure they have everything they need to create their editorial pieces and coverage. Lastly, we are responsible for creating advertising spots, notably the Take Earth Back Cinematic Trailer and the Live Action Trailer you might have seen on TV.

And yes somewhere in there I find time to wear the coveted N7 armor!

What is the best part about your job?
The best part of working on the BioWare team is the passion for gaming. I know that's quite vague, but I love seeing ideas come together, the inception, the light bulb moment. That moment when awesome comes together. The first time I saw the omniblade in action I fell out of my chair. Same goes for when I saw Tali drunk. Emergency induction port'
It's wonderful to see these ideas come together and form an amazing game. I get the chance to work with talented and dedicated developers, but I also get to meet the fans. Hearing your stories is what makes our jobs so rewarding. Meeting everyone at trade shows is fantastic, and I love discussing each individual way that you played through Mass Effect and Dragon Age. It all comes back to passion for gaming, we all have it and we love sharing it.

What does an average day look like for you?
No two days are the same, that's for sure! Currently we are hard at work on Mass Effect post launch campaign. As you know we are working on the Extended Cut single player DLC and ongoing multiplayer updates. As I mentioned, we want to make sure the community stays engaged, that's why you seeing us playing multiplayer with you, running N7 Challenge Weekends, and talking to you on the forums.
Marketing involves a lot of communication and management. We work with a lot of teams and have to make sure that everything stays well oiled. This involves a lot of coordination and planning. Mornings are usually spent talking with everyone and making sure we are all on the same page. We are always planning for upcoming content launches and events and then coordinating with teams to execute on those plans. And personally I always make it a point to play a couple rounds of MP each day.

Can you tell us about one of your proudest moments working in the gaming industry?
I jump every time I see one of our advertisements (I usually also get a call from mom). Seeing our vision realized is the most satisfying reward. Way back on Mass Effect 2 we aired our launch trailer during the NFC football championship game during the 2 minute warning. We couldn't have asked for a better game, it was tied with two minutes left. They blew the whistle for the 2 minute warning, then cut to our trailer. It was glorious, no other advertisements were aired during that break, just ours. And it was such an emotional piece, I love that trailer. I was out with a big group of friends, and I didn't tell any of them that the spot was airing, then it started, and the whole place went silent. It was awesome.

What's a geeky thing about you?
I love Magic the Gathering. I have a MTG group that I play with. The Innistrad block is amazing, and it's great to see some of the Ravnica designers back. I play a black and red vampire pump deck. It's pretty fun!

Do you have any advice for those wishing to get into the video game industry?
I started in the industry as a QA tester. I spent about a year testing games before I made the jump to marketing (which is what I went to school for). You have to get your foot in the door, weather its testing or by making connections with people. If you have a trade such as writing, do some fan fiction, if you are an artist, draw! The way to get noticed is to show off your skills. We are always looking for talented people to join the BioWare family.

If you weren't working in the industry, what would you be doing?
That's a great question. I would probably open up my own brewery, which I may still do one day. I am an avid home brewer and love concocting beer recipes. I currently have a Tripe IPA (India Pale Ale) fermenting right now.

What are you currently playing, reading, or listening to?
o Currently playing: Fez, Mass Effect 3, League of Legends, and Witcher 2.
o Currently reading: The Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicles, Day 1)
o Listening to: For the Fallen Dreams, Lucero, and Skrillex. That's an odd mix now that I look at it.

 

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