Kotaku mentioned the term "BioWare magic" in a lengthy report about the failure of Anthem, which means that employees within BioWare believe that no matter how difficult the development process is, they will eventually make a game that everyone loves. But former Dragon Age producers recently publicly stated that BioWare magic is.
Mark Darrah, former producer of Dragon Age, expressed his views on the "magic of BioWare" in a YouTube video. He said that the development process of the game is like a hockey bat, everything is slow at first, but then there is a sudden upward point, everything is changing, and this turning point is where the magic of BioWare happens.
But it's actually a terrible process, because we can't predict how effective this turn will be, or even when it will happen. A better and wiser approach would be to radically speed up the entire development process so that the game can be better iterated. This way developers can know what they're doing, rather than getting bogged down in crisis.
At the same time, Mark Darrah thinks that BioWare magic is, which is like naming something and telling people not to worry, because you and I both know that one day in the future, the development progress will be faster and the game will get better. But the reality is that you can't predict when the turning point will come, and you can only make up for it with game postponements and overtime. In the video, Mark Darrah admits that this sounds like picking a stab at BioWare, but the truth is that this is not unique, and many studios do it. They believe in the "magic of BioWare" and struggle to generate a sense of urgency early in development.
Mark Darrah left BioWare in 2020, after working for the company for more than two decades. At the end of the video, he hopes that those who are still working at BioWare will stop using the term "BioWare magic" because it is not magic, but a bad process.
If you want to learn more about the "magic of BioWare", you can also read the following:
Why is BioWare's Anthem so bad? (Top)
Why is BioWare's Anthem so bad? (Part 2)
Kotaku Swastika: Revealing the helplessness and confusion of the development of "Anthem"
Source: YouTube, pcgamer