-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Former Gears of War Franchise Narrative Director, Bonnie Jean Mah, Joins God of War Developer Sony Santa Monica
- Thread starter Thick Thighs Save Lives
- Start date
- Game Dev
Killjoy-NL
Member
Last edited:
xBlueStonex
Member
Good riddance. Gears 4 and 5 were just atrocious.
kingwingin
Member
Gears 5 was the worst. Get her away from god of war
enjoy guys. she will ensure that Kratos gets sidelined in his own title by a Strong Womanx (TM) (C) (R).
Not talking having a strong female character. Like Freya . But literally replacing whole sections of the gameplay as her.
all of the "narratives" she drove for Gears were garbage tier.
And this is coming from someone whose Canadian wife's brother works for the Coalition.
Not talking having a strong female character. Like Freya . But literally replacing whole sections of the gameplay as her.
all of the "narratives" she drove for Gears were garbage tier.
And this is coming from someone whose Canadian wife's brother works for the Coalition.
Last edited:
The narrative of gears was....not its strong point so honestly not sure this will enhance the studio but maybe the cheesy narrative was what the the game director wanted for the geow series. Just checked her stance and past statements, oh lord they're going to neuter gow aren't they.
Last edited:
Kupfer
Member
Same happened to God of War without her ... so blame modern AAA gaming maybe and the attempt to indoctrinate players with a political agenda just because it aligns with the current zeitgeist.
Corporations just hope for greater sales and more money as a result.
It's not about considering players or minorities, empowering them, or taking care of them. It's just the current strategy to make more money.
Last edited:
StealthGoblin
Banned
Can't say I think the narrative of Gears was any good. Hopefully they do well and show stronger chops.
Thirty7ven
Banned
This doesn’t mean she’s working on God of War.
she is the studio's NARRATIVE DIRECTOR.
That means she is in charge of the teams working on the studio's projects.
ALL projects.
ChorizoPicozo
Member
Imagine a AAA from sony flopping as hard as the marvels.
Go_Ly_Dow
Member
R.I.P God of War
Goddess of War: Electric boogaloo, coming right up.
Freya IS a goddess of war in Norse mythology. And SSM is working on a GoW "half game", at least that is what the rumor mill said.
I could easily see a Freya led spin-off like the Miles Morales game was to Spider-Man.
Kikorin
Member
I still can't believe how Gears of War passed from beeing a badass action game with memorable powerful characters and strong emotional moments that everyone remember from the original trilogy (especially 1 & 2, but the third one was still good), to the colorful, boring and edulcorated new version, filled with weak and forgettable characters and awful design. The first part of Gears 5 made me hope for a comeback, but then the "open world" sadly happened.
I'll play the new God of War version too very soon, but I don't know why I've the impression something similar could be happened to Kratos too.
I'll play the new God of War version too very soon, but I don't know why I've the impression something similar could be happened to Kratos too.
Last edited:
Thirty7ven
Banned
Ok so tell me what does a narrative director do? And dont say some stupid shit like directs the narrative.
She’s the narrative director of a studio if it’s a one game studio.
overseas the narrative development of all titles and any extended universe product (games, books, comics, etc) and ensures that all such products are consistent with established canon, thematic qualities, and upcoming/in development games.
leizzra
Member
First of all - she's a Narrative Director for the project not the whole studio. She can be in the long run, but here she says something different. Moreover she's in charge of narrative, but she still have people above her (like Cory or someone else in charge of the project) that have more to say about the direction of the story or characters.
Thirty7ven
Banned
No.
midnightAI
Member
Ding Ding Ding we have a winner
There are more than one Narrative Directors at SSM, Matt Sophos for example is/was the Narrative Director of God of War: Ragnarok
You can have one or more narrative directors on a single project and they just oversea the narrative not write it themselves (although they can suggest improvements to the writing team) and as mentioned they are below the game director so they arent fully in charge of the narrative written by the game writers/story leads, but 'usually' they are trusted by the higher ups to make the right choices of course, just like any job.
Last edited:
Dazraell
Gold Member
Unfortunately so. I was just playing Spider-Man 2 and dayum, these jokes about overly excessive pandering were so true
midnightAI
Member
What about Age of Empires IV, Gears of War 4 and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine?
Shtof
Member
It's GoW and Gears. Self explanatory.
Mister Wolf
Member
Was she there for 1-3? If her work was 4 & 5 then the Gears franchise is losing much with her departure.
midnightAI
Member
She didn't write any of the Gears games, she was Narrative Director on Gears 4, 5, Tactics and Hivebusters
She was lead writer on Age of Empires IV and Warhammer 40000: Space Marine and Dark Millennium Online
(She's been involved with a lot of sci-fi, so wouldn't surprise me if she's working on Corey's new game if rumours of it being space sci-fi are correct)
Last edited:
Fart Knight
Al Pachinko, Konami President
Sweet baby Jesus. Gears is saved.
FingerBang
Member
Your players don't care who your characters like to fuck. The diverse group of gamers wants GOOD WRITING, not ticking boxes to make a bunch of unlikeable cunts (I'm in the UK, I can say this word)This was a mistake.
Luckily it seems companies are slowly pulling out of ESG and most ideologically driven stuff is failing miserably (coff, Disney, coff). I'm hopeful for the future. We won't go back to a gaming market with mostly white bald man as protagonists, but they'll start focusing on good writing again and get rid of the incompetents who rose to power in these weird times.
Killjoy-NL
Member
Didn't even expect people to take that post seriously...
Thirty7ven
Banned
Yup it sounds like the sci fi game.
Dazraell
Gold Member
Gears were never big about narrative, but to be fair earlier God of War games prior to Norse ones weren't either
That being said, I personally think the team who did Hivebusters expansion really nailed it. My favourite Gears campaign since Gears of War 3
DenchDeckard
Moderated wildly
Playing god of war ragnarok and spiderman...even horizon zero dawn I don't see what the problem is.
She seems a perfect fit for Sony.
She seems a perfect fit for Sony.
Krieger
Member
I will never understand this pandering bullshit. The managers and CEOs are pandering to minorities, but why do they think these minorities will spend more money than the majority? What's their logic here? How do they think "minority = more money, majority = less money"? Do they think a group of black/asian/muslim/gay/etc. people are suddenly gonna buy a console + game + subscription service, even though they never even heard of the game series before, just because there is someone who looks/acts like them in the game? They alienate their existing fanbase, for a potential fanbase that doesn't exist yet. Why?
VAVA Mk2
Member
Phil sent her to kamikaze GOW after GoW 4 and 5 sucked.
Similar threads
- Locked