Anthem developer BioWare wants fans to know it's listening



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Anthem is a live-service video game, so that it started with some problems. And while many people are enjoying their time with the cooperative sci-fi shooter, its issues are dominating the conversation surrounding it. That put developer BioWare on its heels coming out of launch. But as the studio transitions Anthem from release to an ongoing platform, BioWare is revealing how it deals with attacks and community concerns.

In a post on Reddit from late Wednesday night, BioWare announced plans to update how it handles loot in Anthem. This patch is going out today or tomorrow, and the studio wants to make sure that players feel like they are making progress while grinding.

One of the more frustrating things about the game is that the players are more likely to earn money than they are. BioWare is addressing this issue of an assault rifle inscription will never feature a buff for a pistol, for example. Instead, that inscription will improve your assault or the performance of your javelin follows as a whole.

BioWare is also preventing the game from dropping common weapons for players who are higher than level 30. And it is reducing the number of materials you need to craft one of Anthem's high-level "Masterworks" firearms.

BioWare is trying to remain transparent with fans

I will not say that live-service game lives or communicates with its fans. It's not that easy, and I have no idea what it takes to keep a live-service game growing. But keeping an open dialogue with your community seems important, and BioWare is embracing this so far.

In its Reddit post, the studio did not just list its changes. Instead, it starts the post by summarizing the player-provided complaints.

"First off, thank you for the feedback about loot drops," reads the post. "This is what we have heard."

Anthem is broken. This moment feels like BioWare is taking over the fate of this game. It's not shying away from problems. It's no longer back on its heels.

Anthem probably will not get Andromeda'd

It has turned into something of the same thing as EA might do to this game what it did to Mass Effect: Andromeda. That means that people believe that they can continue to support Andromeda's expansions.

But those two games are DLC and live-service support. For Andromeda, BioWare Montreal was going to be back to work. For Anthem, EA prepped BioWare Austin to specifically work at constant updates separate from BioWare Edmonton.

And BioWare Austin is the same team that launched Star Wars: The Old Republic. That massively multiplayer online game had its share of problems at launch, and the BioWare Austin team went to work and turned it into something that many people look quite highly. That experience should help Anthem, and it's one reason for fans of this game to have some optimism.

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