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The Red Duke

2023-05-04T23:55:42Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:10E:E1E6:4708:7FC7: /* Resurrection */

[[Category: Warhammer Fantasy]] [[Category: Vampire Counts]]
The Red Duke is a former [[Bretonnian]] noble turned [[Vampire Count]] of the [[Blood Dragon]] lineage whose backstory was partially based on the real-life Castillian knight El Cid. He was introduced during the 5th edition of [[Warhammer Fantasy]] via the Circle of Blood Campaign pack. He stars in his own novel written by [[C.L.Werner]], appeared in the Night’s Dark Master supplement for the RPG, had a minor role in the events of [[the End Times]] and even appeared as a vampire lord in [[Total War: Warhammer]].
[[File:Red Duke.jpg|thumb|"Good'? I spit on 'good'! I desire only power, and you watch, for I shall have it!"]]
==Noble Origins==
The Red Duke in his mortal life was once the handsome and beloved Duke of the Bretonnian Province of Aquitaine in the 1400s IC. His brother was King Louis the Righteous, both a Grail Knight and the 15th king of Bretonnia. Even back in those early days, the Red Duke (whose true name has been lost to time) was already a warrior of legend for having slain the dragon Nerluc and he was widely considered the bravest knight of the land. His skills were such that he made it a practice that any man of any station, noble or peasant, might cross swords with him at any hour. If they could but scratch him, a purse of gold would belong to the challenger. Many came to test the Duke, but the purse of gold was never claimed.

However, the Duke was not just a mighty warrior, but an honorable and selfless leader of men. He would often set out on perilous quests, coming to the aid of lands and Dukedoms that were not his own. He had campaigned alongside Duke Chararic against the Orcs that had raided his lands along the River Grismerie, and joined Duke Arnulf to hunt down the great Dragon Gundovald. He had even spent an entire month within the Lyonen court of Duke Ballomer, lending them his wisdom. Overall his reign over Aquitaine was pretty great all told and during this time he even married himself a nice noble lady.

==The Crusades==

The Duke's idyllic life in Bretonnia though was not to last however thanks to a major event that was about to shake the world courtesy of the Nation of [[Araby]]. You see Araby at that time was undergoing a bit of resurgence thanks to finally being unified for the first time since [[Arkhan the Black]] decided to wreck the place back during the Ancient Undead Wars. The reunification of 1435 IC was thanks in large part to one man, a powerful Sorcerer turned Sultan over all of Araby named Jaffar (real original there GW) who united an alliance of desert tribes into an army powerful enough to conquer all of Araby. Jaffar accomplished this goal thanks to three things: his amazing charisma, his sorcerous ability to summon and bind Djinn and [[Daemons]], and the secret aid of the [[Skaven]] rat-men who agreed to spy on and assassinate his enemies in exchange for Warpstone. That last thing however turned out to not be such a great thing as in 1448 IC the Skaven, sensing an opportunity to weaken the realms of humanity, tricked Jaffar into thinking that the neighboring nation of [[Estalia]] was planning to invade Araby. In response, Jaffar launched a pre-emptive invasion of Estalia an act that terrified and outraged kings throughout [[the Old World]]. Infuriated by this unprovoked invasion of his neighbor King Louis ordered the first Errantry war against the Arabyans with the intent to oust the Arabyans from Estalia before they could solidify their hold on their conquest or attempt to push further into the Old World. This call to arms was swiftly answered both by the Nobles of Bretonnia and by several independent orders of Knights from [[The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)|the Empire]] during an event recorded in the histories of the Empire as the Great Crusade against Araby. Sadly despite the entreaties of Louis the Empire could not send a whole army to aid the Bretonnians as the Empire at the time was in the middle of a Civil War brought on by the death of the famed Emperor Mandred Skaven Slayer some time prior.

Unsurprisingly the Red Duke was one of the nobles to answer the king's call to arms and during the campaign in Estalia he proved himself just as great a warrior as his reputation had indicated. As thanks for his heroic actions in Estalia, the King of Magritta gifted him a loyal and powerful steed called El Morzillo who would go on to carry him through many battles in Estalia and then onto Araby itself in 1449 IC.

It was there in the deserts of Araby that the future Red Duke's noble reputation would reach its peak. During the ensuing counter-invasion of Araby (which eventually lead to the Arabyans finally leaving Estalia completely after their empire collapsed in 1456 IC), the local Arabyans seeing the terrifying skill the Duke possessed in the arts of combat gave the Duke the nickname of El Syf ash-Shml or 'The Northern Sword', though it was commonly simplified to just 'El Syf'. Adding to his legend was the fact that around this time, the Duke would acquire the mystical Blade of Leaping Gold from an Emir he defeated in single combat. This weapon carried a powerful enchantment that allowed it to attack with the power of three furious strikes instead of one something which only added to the Duke's already great reputation.

Fighting alongside his King in the scorching deserts of Araby, the Duke gained further renown where at the battle of Black Lizard in 1451 IC the Duke intercepted Jaffar's underling Mehmed-bey who had set out to the aid of his lord. Without his support, Jaffar's army was overwhelmed at the battle of Al-Haikk by the combined army made up of nomadic tribes, Bretonnians, Imperials, and the traitorous inhabitants of Al-Haikk, who had repudiated the tyrannical sorcerer. This battle marked a turning point in the war as Jaffar himself was slain by an unknown Bretonnian and without his leadership, his Sultanate would fall into the hands of his underlings before collapsing in the following years. Later the Duke would also become known as the hero of the Siege of Lashiek, helping to bring down the city’s walls...only for him to vanish shortly after the city fell. Three days after the walls of the city had fallen the Duke was found in the desert barely clinging to life and delirious. Turns out that while returning to camp from his great victory, the Duke was assailed by a horde of Arabyan assassins who were aided by a traitorous knight, one of several nobles who hoped to usurp his Dukedom. In the end, the Duke had slain all his opponents but during the fight, he had been wounded with a poisoned blade and without aid, he would soon die. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on who you ask the Duke would survive this event thanks to some unexpected intervention.

==The Dark Descent==

Turns out that while the Duke had been campaigning in Araby he had unintentionally garnered the attention of a certain vampire of legendary repute named [[Abhorash]]. Impressed by the Duke's skills and seeing his impending death at the hands of an assassin as being an unworthy end for such a warrior Abhorash followed him back to Bretonnia in 1454 IC and gave him the Blood Kiss. Three days after being returned home and seemingly dying from his wounds the Red Duke would rise up from the elaborate tomb his retainers had built for him, no longer a mere mortal man but a newly fledged vampire of the Blood Dragon lineage. Whatever relief and joy the people of Bretonnia felt at this seeming miracle quickly turned to horror as the Duke revealed himself to be now transformed completely in both mind and body. The now twisted Duke immediately set about attacking and killing those he had protected, starting with those who had betrayed him and usurped his Dukedom, before drawing to him Knights from all across his realm who sought to emulate his warcraft and raising deathless legions with his newfound powers. During the reign of terror which followed and which would garner him the names of "The Scourge of Aquitaine" and “the Red Duke” the Duke was regularly seen riding into battle, not on a regular warhorse but rather on a spectral steed of bone, shadow, and witch-fire, garbed in a black caparison that leaked an aura of corruption, a horrifying mount crafted from his former horse El Morzillo who had died during the Duke’s campaign in Araby. The Duke’s armor too had changed, no longer was his garb the shining armor of his former life but in its place, he wore a black iron helm that hid all but his burning red eyes, a shield, and special suit of strong jagged armor "The Armour of Blood" which was imbued with mystical properties that allowed it to not inhibit the wearer's ability to cast spells despite its heaviness. Rounding off this fearsome image were his weapons, the fearsome Blade of Leaping Gold which he had gained in Araby and a horrifying lance, a barbed thorn of steel soaked in the blood of Bretonnian knights.

As the reputation of the fell warrior spread, King Louis, his brother, immediately raised an army to stop him. In a great battle at Ceren Field, the Red Duke encountered his younger sibling. Seeing the King fighting alone against enemies on all sides, the Vampire commanded his minions to cease their efforts against Louis, parting into a clear path between him and his prey. The Duke announced to Louis that he had betrayed him, that he could not be content as King, but had to become Duke of Aquitaine as well. With that, the final chapter of what would become known as the Battle of Ceren Field began. The Scourge of Aquitaine was one of the mightiest Blood Knights since Abhorash himself, but even he could not stand against the power the [[Lady of the Lake]] had imbued Louis with. Blinded by the holy light surrounding Louis, the Duke’s heart was pierced by a blessed lance, skewering his body and lifting him from his saddle. The Duke looked down from atop the lance towards his brother, his skin blackened and withered and blood filled his eyes as he let out a final, horrific moan.

With the Undead army destroyed and their leader defeated, Bretonnia rejoiced in its victory. However, the grief-stricken Louis refused to believe that his brother could rise again, and did not want to destroy his body out of respect for the man he had once been. Despite the pleas of the priestesses of the Lady and even his own Lords, the King’s will was law. The body of the Red Duke was not consigned to the flames, as had first been ordered, but was instead borne from the field of battle. A great tower of marble was erected upon the hill overlooking Ceren Field and into this pillar, the vampire’s body was placed. A bronze statue depicting the Duke of Aquitaine at the height of his heroic glory was set atop the pillar and rich engravings chronicled the life of the noble warrior before he had descended into darkness (the fact this warrior was also the Red Duke was covered up subsequently so his mortal relatives could live without shame). A powerful sorceress and Prophetess, Isabeau, who the Red Duke had tried and failed to recruit to his army warned against honoring a thing that had turned to evil and visited such wickedness upon the land, but her words fell upon unheeding ears. The King’s grief was great; only by paying tribute to his dead enemy could he ease the burden of his heart. It would prove to be a terrible mistake.

==Resurrection==
In the darkness of the first night, after the tomb was sealed, something stirred within the marble crypt. Something engorged by the darkest of magic and aided by a magic jewel forged out of the blood of the innocent. Something that ripped the broken lance from its heart. Something that sneered at the foolish compassion that had prevented King Louis from destroying its body. The King would suffer for his mistake... or so it thought.

Turns out that while the Prophetess had failed to convince the King to destroy the Duke's body she had managed to get the King to allow her to place enchantments upon the monument, spells that would protect the tomb and hold it inviolate against all manner of evil. Her spells would safeguard the tomb from the ravages of wind and rain, but they would also protect the land from that which lay within the tomb. When the Vampire attempted to leave the tomb an unseen power drove him back. No matter how hard he tried he found it impossible to even approach the walls of his crypt, repulsed by the enchantments that saturated the marble tomb. The Red Duke could only turn within the small interior of his prison and curse at the walls that confined him, the walls he couldn’t even touch. Alone in the eternal darkness of his own tomb, the Red Duke passed the long years, tormented by the bloodlust that consumed his corrupt body. Hour by hour, his ravenous hunger swelled, torturing him with pangs of longing he was powerless to satisfy. Vainly he cast his thoughts upon the past, trying to forget his hunger by reflecting upon his deeds, losing himself in moments heroic and infamous with equal abandon.

Almost 500 years would pass like this during which time the Duke would find himself descending further and further into madness. Then in 1932 IC an idiot necromancer named Renar and his cabal of witches and corrupt nobles made the mistake of cracking open the tomb of the Red Duke. Renar had intended to evoke the warrior-spirit of the Red Duke, hoping to channel his martial prowess into a chosen vessel for his cabal's dark purposes. Unfortunately for them instead of the bodiless spirit they thought they would encounter, the foolish tomb robbers instead found a vampire transformed from an already viciously eccentric and evil being into a completely insane and pissed-off monster courtesy of being imprisoned for so long without blood. Realizing they didn't have the ability to control such a being, Renar and company decided instead to save their own skin by agreeing to serve the infamous Duke.

With the aid of the Necromancers, the Red Duke summoned forth his undead steed and raised an undead army before commencing a bizarre campaign that recreated the war that led to his defeat at Ceren Field and the crusade in Araby. Though King Louis had long since passed away the Red Duke ignored the words of his saner associates and led his forces across the land. The mad Vampire slaughtered his enemies, even if he did not recognize them for who they were, but imagined them as opponents from ages past, both at home and abroad. Eventually, his campaign brought him to Ceren Field once more where he found a Grail chapel had been raised in honor of a Grail Knight named Galand, who had become legendary during the Duke's imprisonment. Before he could carry out his plan to defile the tomb of someone who he saw as another usurper the Red Duke found himself confronted by an army lead by the incumbent Duke of Aquitaine, Gilon.

Gilon was a veteran of a dozen grueling campaigns, a great leader of men, and a fearsome warrior armed with an ancient holy blade that was enchanted to grant its wielder the strength of a Giant. Alas, he was nearing the end of his long life, and many expected his son, Richemont to soon succeed him. Despite his age though, Gilon was still a powerful warrior both due to his blade and the fact he had achieved the perilous Grail Quest and supped from the Grail of the [[Lady of the Lake]]. Underneath his aging appearance, the Grail knight's frame still suggested a brooding strength, just waiting to be unleashed. Gilon would have left the Dukedom to his son years earlier and retired to guard one of its Grail Chapels. However, he felt that until his son had learned patience and grown in wisdom, he could not give up his position, something which proved a wise course of action as it put him in the perfect position to deal with the threat of the Red Duke.

On the day of the battle, the Bretonnians had arrived early in the morning, and Duke Gilon, fearing that the undead would encircle them and the villages they were defending, sent scouts to investigate the movements of his enemies. The squires entrusted with the mission returned quickly and brought word of the approaching undead. They warned of the great flights of bats that flew as a vanguard for the undead army and that the Red Duke himself rode at the head of his forces.

Later as the mists cleared, the Bretonnians took advantage of the slow deployment of undead and surged forward. Duke Gilon used all his experience to command his troops to the fullest effect, commanding his son, Sir Richemont to lead his Questing Knights into battle whilst Gilon plunged into the fray atop his Pegasus. Despite Gilon's best attempts though he failed to stop the Red Duke from reaching the entrance to Galand's chapel. Using its ancient magics to empower him, the Red Duke succeeded in wiping out half of Gilon's Knights of the Realm, with Richemont surviving only thanks to his magical armor of protection. At this crucial moment, the aging Duke soared from the skies and challenged the vampire to single combat. The Red Duke was angered by Gilon's arrival, for all he saw before him was an old man, aged and wizened. Smiling coldly, the Lord of the Undead instead sent forth one of his lieutenants, the Wight known as Sir Corbinian.

A fierce duel erupted, with Corbinian injuring Gilon's pegasus with his ghost blade before he was destroyed in turn by his opponent's blessed blade. Gilon then charged towards the hated Red Duke, and what followed was a struggle of epic proportions. Despite his advanced age, Gilon was still a Grail Knight and mightier beyond any mortal, swinging his holy blade into the Red Duke and wounding him greatly. The Red Duke, however, was one of the mightiest Blood Knights in existence. He responded with his own glittering blade, cutting through Gilon's armor and inflicting a mortal wound.

The Red Duke howled in triumph, but soon noticed the reality of the situation... his undead army was withering away thanks to the holy energy of the Grail Chapel and his mortal supporters including Renar were being cut down to a man. The combined bravery of Bretonnia's knights and the sacrifice of Duke Gilon had ensured his defeat. Injured but still determined to carry out his dark task the Red Duke once more entered Galand's resting place and this time he managed to reach the depths of the chapel.

To the Red Duke's surprise though upon reaching the center of the tomb, he found someone else waiting for him, a Prophetess named Iselda who mockingly told him the Grail Knight whose tomb he intended to defile was... his own son. As it turned out, unknown to the Red Duke, his wife had been pregnant when he left to crusade in Estalia and the child who was subsequently born had been named Galand by his uncle before being hidden away when his father had returned as a vampire. After the Duke's "death" at the hand of his grief-stricken brother, King Louis had decided to atone for slaying his brother by watching over Galand until he grew to adulthood and became a legendary Grail Knight. Compounding the tragedy of this revelation was the discovery that the so-called "usurper" Gilon who the Red Duke had slain earlier was a descendant of Galand and thus a descendant of the Red Duke himself!

Horrified and enraged by this realization the Red Duke killed the prophetess and tried to call out to his son's spirit only for his son's spirit to retaliate against his twisted progenitor by releasing a burst of holy energy which drove him into the Forest of Châlons. In the wake of this battle Sir Richemont inherited his father's rule as the new Duke of Aquitaine, and soon decreed that the Red Duke be hunted down throughout Bretonnia, an order that has lasted for centuries. Yet despite being pursued by many brave knights none succeeded in slaying the Vampire and it was said he continued to haunt the Forest of Châlons, awaiting his chance for revenge against the people of Aquitaine.

==The End Times==

Or so that was the case until the End Times happened. Near the closing days of the Warhammer world Duke Jerrod, leader of the Bretonnian contingent at the Council of Incarnates, was exposed to the horrific truth that the Lady of the Lake was nothing more than a facade used by the [[High Elf]] goddess [[Lileath]] to manipulate Bretonnia. Though the revelation caused him to ultimately reject the deceitful Elven goddess who had manipulated his homeland for centuries, Jerrod was determined to take his troops and march back into the ruined and devastated remains of Bretonnia to see-out the end of the world there. In response to this, the vampire count [[Vlad von Carstein]] told Jerrod that a small group of warriors, led by the Green Knight (who had been revealed to be the resurrected first king of Bretonnia Gilles le Breton) and an immortal warrior implied to be Abhorash, still fought in Bretonnia against Chaos. Vlad then summoned forth the Red Duke from his hiding place to act as a guide and escort Jerrod's knights to the abbey where the warriors were making their great last stand. Once the party arrived at the abbey everyone there proceeded to fight side by side against the forces of Chaos up till the bitter end when [[Archaon]] the Everchosen went and blew the whole damn planet up.

==On the Tabletop==

The Duke's rules are sadly out of date but here's what we know him to possess according to the few articles written about him:

He's 460 points with 6 Movement, 6 Weapon Skill, 6 Ballistic skill, 7 Strength, 6 Toughness, 4 Wound, an initiative of 9, 4 attack, 10 leadership with a save of 3+. He has the special traits of Undead, Blademaster, The Hunger, Frightening, Frenzy, and Hatred (Bretonnia) and is a level 2 necromancer that can cast from the lore of Vampires.

He also rides a nonwinged barded nightmare horse with the following tabletop stats:

8 Movement, 2 Weapon Skill, 0 Ballistic skill (obviously since it's just a fancy undead horse), 3 Strength, 3 Toughness, 1 Wound, an initiative of 2, 1 attack, 3 leadership and since it's specifically mentioned as being barded it adds a +1 armor save roll. Were it on its own it would be considered a 16 point war beast but that's not important since its point cost is already included.

For special equipment, he has his Armor of Blood which has the normal +5 heavy armor save but doesn't inhibit his casting ability. And his Blade of Leaping Gold which grants +3 attacks. There is no word about what abilities that jewel which revived him gave him, so just assume it ran out of juice reviving him the first time and forget about it.

==Total War Warhammer==

The Red Duke also makes an appearance in Total War Warhammer as a unique Vampire Counts lord unit. He leads the Mousillon faction in The Old World and Mortal Empires campaigns but is not playable unless you confederate his faction as one of the other Vampire Counts, or use a mod. He is available for multiplayer, however. He can cast from the lore of Vampires, rides either a Hell Steed, a zombie dragon, or a barded Nightmare, and comes with a Scroll of Leaching special item and a Potion of Strength. Stats wise he gains a bit of melee defense compared to other Vampire Lords, a small bump to overall damage making him a Melee expert, and a shield at the cost of not having a bonus vs. infantry meaning he's best suited to being a duelist that deals with enemy heroes. However, the biggest difference is that rather than being locked into one choice for the Black Knight or Grave Guard boosting ability lines he may instead take all abilities from both branches offering him incredible durability and army boosts. He's armored and shielded so he can block damage from any source apart from Armour-Piercing damage. He causes fear, has an ability that encourages his troops, can hide in the forest, has the Foe-seeker, Hunger, and Frenzy special abilities, and has a unique special ability "El Syf" which is a Hex with a duration of 24 Seconds, a cooldown of 90 seconds, a range of 200m, and causes a 48% Speed reduction in enemy speed, a -40 to enemy Melee Defence and a -22% to enemy Physical resistance.

EA

2023-05-04T22:06:06Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:10E:E1E6:4708:7FC7:

{{/vg/}}
{{fail}}
{{Infobox Deity
|Name = Electronic Arts Inc.
|Symbol = The letters "EA", or a sealed Card Pack labelled "Surprise Mechanic (not Gambling, We Promise)"
|Alignment = [[Stupid Evil]] and/or Neutral Evil
|Divine Rank = AAA
|Pantheon = Gaming
|Portfolio = 8.58 Billion (2018)
|Domains = Greed, Stupidity, Bad Management
|Home Plane = California
|Worshippers = Gamers, [[That Guy]]
|Favoured Weapon = Exploit worker, Union Breaker, Devour Smaller Studios, Weinsteinian culture, Treachery
}}

'''Electronic Arts''', most commonly known as: '''EA''', is an American video game company, based in Redwood City, California. One of the most, if not THE most, controversial VG companies today, due to a [[wikipedia:Criticism of Electronic Arts|slew of unethical business practices]]. Also they're rated as one of the worst companies in America (beating out "stiff" competition like JP Morgan Chase, Exxon Mobil and Lockheed Martin), so go figure. If ever it was appropriate to use an alignment system in real life, EA squarely goes into that special zone of Neutral Evil, and they were the worst [[Blizzard|until Activison Blizzard's sexual harassment workplace culture - which caused an employee to commit suicide - came to light (bad as EA is, they haven't induced actual deaths nor did their high-ups molest their employees)]]. Their company simply represents every negative aspect of capitalism with no care for longer term, sustainable gains.

However, their most infamous and unique practice that everyone absolutely hates is acquiring smaller studios with popular games like Bioware and Westwood, to assume direct control of their IPs. This is pretty common in business, if it wasn't for the fact that EA will do everything in its power to gain complete control over development of its games, in order to maximize short-term profit, by force if needed (by firing or shelving people who disagree). They will strongly encourage these studios to produce highly-monetized games in the popular flavor-of-the-month, at the expense of what fans liked about them; this is made worse by rushed, inflexible deadlines and stretching staff thin to patch up the previous games' blunders, resulting in a half-baked if not completely broken product at launch, which will end up losing all post-launch support before the game even has a chance to be properly fixed. [[Tyranids|Once the studio's series are drained of all life due to mismanagement, its dead husk is then abandoned as a grim tombstone of what was once heralded as fun, as the EA then scouts out new franchises to ensnare and devour, in its unending, ravenous need to feed its coffers]]. Woe betide any franchise absorbed by, or will be absorbed by EA.

Then, since EA holds the rights to these IPs now, its next-to-impossible for anyone else to pick-up their slack and try to revive them with new talent, [[X-COM|unlike what some other people did recently with another classic game]].

Their latest stunt has been to cancel the quite awaited Alice:Asylum, last episode of the Mcgee Alice games (which First chapter has been One of the PC cults at the start of the Millennium). No Need to Say how much the fandom was pissed.

==The Corpses of Past Studios ==

In /tg/'s vidya gaem scene, EA has been responsible for the decline and death of some of our timeless classics and their creators, such as:

===Bullfrog Productions===
Possibly the most historically notable, as Bullfrog is the first example most people go to when discussing EA's shutdowns, although it's also relevant that Peter Molyneux was also involved.

/tg/ relevance: Dungeon Keeper 1&2 are usually held to be "recommended reading" for many different kinds of DMs (in particular, ones looking to do an Evil Party Campaign) and designers of certain kinds of board games, for subtly different reasons.

===Origin Studios===
Likely the second example of EA's meddling in successful series that people will go to. For /tg/ purposes, they only made two series of note: [[Ultima]], and Wing Commander.

====[[Ultima]]====
The [[Ultima]] series was one of the original CRPG series to explore complicated morality, and could likely be said to be the grand-daddy of the morality systems that plague today's games. Later games also had incredible depth and variety of content for early sandbox RPGs. At least until EA bought the series out for games 8 & 9, widely regarded as some of the worst pieces of shit to ever hit store shelves, and proceeded to bomb the series' (already somewhat questionable) quality through the molten core of the earth. Bugs, glitches, impossible controls, and seeing as this was before the internet patches would have to be picked up in floppy disk form from the local games store, led to a remarkably unpleasant experience, and many fans either hated it, or just dropped the series entirely.

====Wing Commander====
Wing Commander is only /tg/ relevant in that it provides a good example of a space shooter series. For our purposes, it suffices to say that when the genre died out, so did the series. (It's a bit more complicated than that, but it suffices for our purposes.)

===[[Bioware]]===
There's an entire article devoted to it, but in a nutshell:

====Dragon Age====
Dragon Age: Origins was hailed as a modern classic after having been teased for several years leading up to its release. Players could choose one of three classic races (Human, Elf and Dwarf) to play as and each had several possible game starts. The character is recruited into the semi-secretive warrior organization called the Grey Wardens and is tasked with both stopping a darkspawn monster invasion but also to deal with a civil war that is breaking out in the kingdom the game takes place in by forging alliances with various factions.

Dragon Age 2, however, is widely considered to be utter tripe thanks to EA giving a very small development window forcing the developers to make only a few character and NPC models and even fewer maps that had to be reused time and time again, as well as demanding Bioware do cross-promotion material with the game for other games, notably Mass Effect 2. The player character is a refugee who goes on to become one of (if not ''the'') most influential person in the city of Kirkwall. This, however, limited the character choices to only being Human but your character was fully voiced at least.

Their third game, DA: Inquisition, was notably better if only because of how far the series had fallen with it's previous entry. It is a notable upgrade from 2 and finally gave players a chance to play the strange Qunari race and gave players the chance to, once again, design a character of their own making like in DA: Origins. The player character starts off as a prisoner after surviving a demon nuke explosion that tears a hole in the sky and due to a strange arcane mark they got there they are quickly named head of the newly reinstated Inquisition and must run around the world stopping darkspawn and dumbasses from killing everyone. [[Skub|Has either a decent ending or a completely stupid ending depending on how one views the series as a whole.]]

====Mass Effect====
Made the first game, which was touted as video gaming's answer to Star Wars (in that it was a hyped up reskinning of an older star wars game). Then made the second installment, which many remember the best in the franchise.

The third game is where things went downhill, due to EA [[meme|assuming direct control]] over Bioware's development in the game, taking away more creative control from them (in fact the writers of the last two games quit), and shifting it away from a narrative, to a more action-y standpoint, placing less attention to story and more on gunplay (and the gunplay is good, the best in the trilogy, but that can't save a game that earned respect mainly for its storytelling). This all culminated to a lackluster ending that never really satisfied fans, even with the remade ending due to pressure.

Also there was a spin-off called Andromeda, which had been given to a smaller and under-equipped studio while the main Bioware studio was busy churning out Anthem, which tanked so badly thanks to a myriad of issues, that it nearly killed the franchise altogether and destroyed nearly all trust customers had in Bioware.

====Anthem====
In which the gutted, burnt out husk of a company that made its name with character-focused RPGs and storytelling was instead pushed to make a dull-as-dishwater, generic looter-shooter. It's as bad as it sounds since the shooting was compromised by bad design, the looting was compromised by shitty monetization, the story was a bland afterthought and the entire experience was a massive waste of time, money, and worker blood, which catastrophically failed its corporate taskmasters.

Anthem was viewed as Bioware's last hope for a comeback, but sadly, it fell apart like so many other EA titles before it, working over what little trust was left after Mass Effect: Andromeda. But hey, the Javelins look cool at least.

===Westwood Studios===

To be fair, EA is not 100% to blame for Westwood's implosion. After scoring some knockout hits with the original Command & Conquer and its prequel, C&C: Red Alert, Westwood made the same mistake with its next project, C&C: Tiberian Sun, that was made with Duke Nukem forever: they put someone in charge (Erik Yeo) with way too many idea for things that he wanted to do, all of which had fuck-all to do with each other, and no idea what he wanted the finished game to be like. This led to Tiberian Sun going massively over-budget and behind schedule as manpower was wasted on all kinds of voxel bullshit and physics bullshit that ended up not even getting used. Late in the product's development cycle, this left Westwood begging for bus money from anyone who was willing to make a deal, so EA swooped in, bought Westwood, fired Yeo, and told whoever was left that they had four minutes to get their fucking shit together and get the game out the door. The good news is, this prevented Tiberian Sun from suffering the same fate as Duke Nukem Forever. It succeeded in keeping interest in the C&C franchise alive, and in generating enough profit to fund the next C&C game. The bad news is, Tiberian Sun was pushed out the door as a buggy, unbalanced, unfinished mess, allowing Starcraft to dominate the RTS scene for decades. The next game, Red Alert 2, copied a lot of code from Tiberian Sun, but fixed most of the bugs and made major interface improvements, allowing an actually pretty decent game to be released in a decent amount of time and make everyone a fuckton of money.

Still on a roll, the Tiberian Wars, made by EA was the zenith of the Tiberian timeline and not just had overwhelmingly positive reviews, but decent sales, fit for many computers and still with awesome mechanics and graphics. Now what would a decent, smart, business-savvy company do with an open-ending cliffhanger plot of the game? Make an even better game with next generation graphic card compatibility and culminate Kane's 20000 year crusade?

Fuck you no, EA failed to decide on what kind of game the fourth one would be ''even as they made it'', resulting in an abortion of some mobile strategy game with pre-set units fit for soyboy hipster faggots' tablets. NOT EVEN BOTHERING with background pictures, they took half-baked movie clips with all actors...acting in a black white room like some soap opera rejects from 90's or some cheap porn movie. Game mechanics were literally a total ripoff of Warcraft 3 unit damage types and armors, built from mobile bases with preset headcount values reminiscent of 2000's Flash games. Needless to say, the game completely ended the Tiberium franchise.

Just recently in 2018, EA decided to parade its dead corpse like a [[Bretonnia]]n Grail Reliquae by releasing a mobile spin off called "Command and Conquer: Rivals". As if killing the franchise wasn't enough, they had to taunt its fans like they acknowledge their own infamy. It's likely this is an IP protection act, if they don't do something with it a long enough time, the C&C IP goes to market and they lose it. So they didn't just kill C&C and lay it to rest, [[God-Emperor of Mankind|but instead exhumed it and are jealously guarding the corpse for what few pennies they can milk from it, before the body once again collapses due to their incompetence]]. Another hilarious note about the existence of Rivals is that EA legitimately argued that "Gamers don't know what they want", when asked about it; the Lion, the Witch, and the audacity of this bitch. We'd expand further of why this is bullshit, but their track-record speaks for itself about their knowledge in making a good RTS game, sufficient to say they dared promote this game as an e-sport with "competitive gaming", all while promoting P2W mechanics where you get stronger units the more money you shell out, yes, that's EA's logic for you. However, EA may have finally learned their lesson in June of 2020 with the release of "Command and Conquer: Remastered Collection" which is a remaster of Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert, along with their expansions, and it is [[Awesome]]!

===Maxis Software===
Back in the day, Maxis released at least a couple of interestingly weird titles every few years (SimCity, SimEarth, and SimAnt for example, as well as some licensed titles such as SimTower and SimIsle). Although SimCity was generally regarded as their flagship product, the real moneymaker was The Sims, a dollhouse life simulator game that catered directly to facebook addicted housewives. At its peak The Sims could push expansion packs with nothing but new furniture and wallpaper colors for more than what your typical steam game can get away with calling full price.

The proceeds of this were poured into Spore, a big-budgeted game that was less successful then EA anticipated. Partly this was due to an overly paranoid DRM which resulted in the game becoming one of the most pirated games ever, but mostly it had to do with the game not being very good. While Will Wright had set out with the goal of "evolving" your species over multiple epochs, in practice this turned out to be just a collection of minigames strung together that resulted in a very jarring and unsatisfying gameplay experience that just got in the way of the game's best elements of 3D design.

After Spore, Maxis attempted to return to form with SimCity 2013. However, they learned nothing from the DRM experience with Spore and went so far as to require the game to always be online. In addition, each successive iteration of SimCity had gradually gotten more complex with more features, and 2013 cut many features out and shrunk the maps. Maxis would insist the always on functionality was required but hackers would eventually reverse engineer the game and prove otherwise, leading the studio to release an offline mode update.

If you're wondering what this has to do with teegee, SimCity is a model for [https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/170243/games-simcity many different board games] and had a licensed collectible card game, and the early Maxis non-Sims Sim-games are good sources for anybody looking into game design from a Simulationist perspective. SimCity 2000 in particular was highly regarded for its underlying conway's-game-of-life logic which the later installments neglected.

===[[Warhammer Online]]===
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvqwom74xZg This sums it up pretty well.]

===EA Redwood Shoes / Visceral===

Most notable for the Dead Space series and being killed by Star Wars Battlefront II (2017), what you should know them for (back when they were Redwood) is LotR: The Third Age (a game about being a party who were ''not'' the Fellowship while still having the same adventure), and Future Cops: LAPD (Which was awesome, but was never further developed as EA didn't let their studios make anything that wasn't a movie tie in, or a licensed property from 1998 - 2008.)

==So, what's the direct relevance to /tg/?==

Not much directly, but if you're interested in the business end of tabletop gaming (i.e. why individual game lines or publishers succeed or fail), the EA graveyard is quite edifying to anybody interested in just about any badly run entertainment business (a set to which [[TSR]], [[Games Workshop]], [[FASA]], and [[Wizards of the Coast]] '''arguably''' all belong or belonged), for two simple reasons: (1) You can learn more from a failure than a success, and nobody's failed their fans in more ways than EA, and (2) EA makes a good reference bar for "Asshole" "Evil" and/or "Stupid", depending on context.

To provide an example of the latter: Games Workshop has probably only cleared the "Stupid" bar compared to EA; they've been fairly good about not sitting on the IP itself ([[Shadow War: Armageddon|though various games within said IP may vary]]), and while their product is overpriced, GW's failings have been sufficiently consistent with releases to not quite qualify as "Evil" or "Assholish". Even at their worst, they've never sunk to the lows EA so readily sinks to just to milk out a little more money from the customer in the form of randomized lootboxes and digital transactions needed to play a game properly. More to the point, <s>GW actually learned from their mistakes and went a lot more forward-facing with community interaction and a much more consistent release schedule by 2017-18.</s> <s>[[Games Workshop#Back_on_the_Old_Shit|Goddammit GW, can you not stop generating more skubstorms than the bloody Eye of Terror?]]</s> Welp!, [[Wizards of the Coast]] somehow fucked up even worse!

[[Category:Video Games]]

[[Category:RAGE]]