The Canadian video game developer David Gaider is the narrative mind behind some of the best role-playing games of all time. He worked for 17 years at BioWare on modern classics such as Baldur’s Gate 2, Neverwinter Nights, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. His most notable work is probably the development of the “Dragon Age” universe. Now he is speaking out clearly about the gaming industry in 2024.
How good are the games Gaider has made? Gaider is the author of some of the best role-playing games of all time:
- It started with Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn – which reached 95 percent on Metacritic in 2000
- The Star Wars epic “Knights of the Old Republic” (2003) stands at 94 percent on Metacritic
- Dragon’s Age Origins (2009) received at least 91 percent
He was also responsible for the story of Anthem, but left BioWare in January 2016. Afterwards, the story of the “Everyone is Iron Man” online game was rebooted.
Perhaps not Gaider’s favorite game, but still an important game for many readers of MeinMMO – Anthem:
Overtime, 1,000 hours of gameplay, and photorealistic graphics
What he says: In an interview, he spoke with PC Gamer about the difficult state of the gaming industry for developers. Many nominally successful companies reported in recent months that they had to lay off hundreds, sometimes even thousands of employees. Some smaller studios even closed their doors completely.
Gaider believes that the current way of doing things does not have to go on forever. However, the current path leads to disaster:
“There is a fear circulating: If we do not push for all this overtime and do not make any AAA games with 200 million dollar budgets and photorealistic graphics and 1,000 hours of gameplay, then we have to start doing that now and make everyone work themselves to death, and that’s how you make video games.
And if that’s really true, then maybe the industry deserves to die. But I don’t think it has to be that way.”
How can it be better? Gaider says that at his new studio Summerfall, they have a 4-day work week and a schedule that is realistic and does not require one to lie to their superiors.
In such an environment, you have people who love their work, and who do not feel like they are just resources to be tapped.
Is he succeeding with that? Gaider’s game “Stray Gods” has a 94 percent positive review rate on Steam, but it was released in August 2023 and, like so many games, was overwhelmed by the “1,000 hours of gameplay” behemoth Baldur’s Gate 3. Currently, it only has about 30 players on Steam.
But Gaider seems to be enjoying his new work.
BioWare has an Anthem trauma
What’s behind this: Gaider has experienced the fate of many developers at BioWare:
- He was an extremely successful single-player game developer for more than a decade and had built a reputation as an expert.
- But then the team had to develop an elaborate “service game” because games like GTA Online or Destiny are the dream of every publisher, as they bring in steady money.
- As we know today, the chaotic work on Anthem made many BioWare employees sick and depressed, and the game simply was not finished.
One can understand why Gaider longs for other working models.
YouTuber Maurice Weber criticizes exactly this type of “service games”:
What is seen as the reason for the crisis in gaming? Experts see various causes for the crisis:
- A changed economic climate – due to rising interest rates, money has become more expensive. As a result, it has become extremely difficult to finance new games.
- Gaming studios grew too rapidly during the pandemic and now need to downsize.
- Huge games like Baldur’s Gate 3 have captivated players for months, causing everything that was released during that time to flop.
- The continuously rising demands for games and consequently ever more expensive production – yet the revenues do not grow with it.
More about the terrible work on Anthem back then: An insider report on Anthem casts a dark light on BioWare
