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Quake IV No-Show To Distress Hardcore At QuakeCon
Thanks to CNN Money for its discussion of the games industry's drive to woo the most committed videogame players, as the article explains: "Hardcore gamers only make up between 20-25 percent of the industry's annual software sales, but the buzz enthusiasts create can turn a moderate hit into a monster." The piece discusses "mecca for the hardcore" QuakeCon, but reveals that "This year, most fans were hoping to get their first glimpse of 'Quake 4,' which is being developed (under id's supervision) by Raven Software. Unfortunately, they're going to have to keep waiting. id CEO Todd Hollenshead said there are no plans to show the game at this year's QuakeCon." According to Hollenshead: "We've been happy with what [Raven has] done, but it's too early to show... When we show the game, we want it to be something that's really impressive for the people who have been waiting for it."
... I have some seriously high expectations of Q4.
I never played Quake, in any of its incarnations... I have played a few games built on the Q3A game engine though (RtCW, ET, and CoD) and like them all. I certainly expect the next Quake engine to be an improvement and look forward to Quake4.
Am I disappointed it won't make appearance at QuakeCon? No.. I wasn't going, so why would I care? Sure, I'd like to see some screenshots of the actual game.. but.. I can't say that I am on the edge of my seat waiting for it..
After all, with all the hoopla over the yet-to-appear Halflife2 and Doom3, why should I get all excited about a yet-to-appear Quake4? The bar has been set pretty low on delivery dates for the next generation of FPS's..
jr
Where do they go from Quake 3? Quake 3 brought the mainly online FPS game to the forefront of gaming, but Unreal "X" has been outpacing them for a few years now. What is going to get me excited about Quake 4 with HL2 and D3 coming out?
-Dizzle
"I most likely AM so interested in myself."
So the "hardcore" get to determine development schedules now? This is quickly spiraling into the absurd.
We make fun of DNF, and fairly, because it was shown, screenshots released, etc. long ago. This is fair. The people involved did this to themselves. Doom III and HL2 are now catching some of this heat, and this is fair as well since they were both at their third E3 this year. HL2 is even worse for already being bundled with a video card that will be a generation old when the game is finally released.
But here we have a group of people trying to play it low. The game has technically been announced and thats it. Who is clamoring to see this game so bad that they are disappointed its not be shown yet? Who is being harmed so much that the press is reporting on a game that doesn't yet exist and claiming the disappointment could harm the title? That is absurd. Absurd that people feel this way, absurd that the press is reporting it.
#1 Chill out.
#2 You are not that important.
Don't be a dick just because your arbitrary notion of what a publisher or developer should deliver when is not met. Don't trash the game because you downloaded the leaked "alpha" and it doesn't run well on your system. Being "hardcore" and waiting around for the next big thing should not be something that makes you proud. If you identify yourself as hardcore, you are already about as lame as anything I can imagine. Absurd.
"Hardcore gamers only make up between 20-25 percent of the industry's annual software sales"
But spend about 3.5 Billion dollars a year on gaming hardware. Perhaps that's why there is a buzz.
For every annoying gentoo user, are three even more annoying anti-gentoo crybabies. Take Yosh from #Gimp for example.
Why not talk about all the great games that are available right here right now? All the rest is just fluff.
A Multiplayer Strategy Game for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux
despite the fact that I recall hearing it'll be much more focused on single-player action.
That's what mods are for. CTF and TeamFortress all started as free third party mods.
I'm always wary of developers who give their hardcore fans too much of a say in the development of their games. From what I can see, there are a number of reasons not to do this. First of all, hardcore gamers tend to be pretty far removed from the gaming mainstream in a whole host of ways. My own experiences of them (I used to be the head admin of a major UK-based online gaming league) have demonstrated that the real hardcore tend to be ultra-conservative change-phobics, whose only real hopes for any sequel are that it will look better and not force them to learn any new skills or, god forbid, make them go through any kind of introductory period in which the great unwashed might a chance to frag them. As a result of this, sequels developed in this way tend to be dry, devoid of any gameplay innovations and off-putting to the casual gamer, with Quake 3 being perhaps the arch example of this. The other thing I've noticed is that even if a developer goes all-out to take on board the feedback of the hardcore players, they'll never be happy. Most hardcore gamers will live, sleep, eat and breathe their game. For them, the prospect of the next installment in the series is viewed much how an evangelical Christian would view the Second Coming. When the sequel in question finally arrives, it inevitably disappoints. The hardcore community immediately rants about the developers "selling out" and decides to demonstrate how "l33t" it is by staying with the previous installment for at least a year. Finally, one of the striking things I've observed about hardcore gamers is that they don't actually buy many games. For them, their game of choice, be it Quake 3, Counter-Strike or Everquest, will be the only game they play. Moreover, as a large proportion of hardcore gamers are kids, students or the unemployed (as the only groups with the time required to hone their skills to the levels needed), their natural state is broke, and if they can pirate a game, they often will. It's interesting to note that what's almost certainly the most successful and enduring online fps ever (Half-Life, and its mods) was developed as a mass-market, singleplayer focussed game. I suspect that the best way to get a hit like this is to ignore a lot of what the focus groups and message boards are telling you that the hardcore want and just make the game on the basis of its original vision.
I can look at my pile of Pentium2-era titles and SNES games and see plenty to keep me busy to this day. I get lots of crap for that from the younger generations ("omg, lol I'd shoot myself if I could only play 16-bit, etc. etc.") but no one really realizes how brainwashed they are by the media into the continual "newer is better" way of thinking.
This industry is most likely going to take a dive because of that sooner or later. It'll be back, or at least stick around for a while in smaller, indie forms, but until people realize that it's okay to have a non-ground-breaking, simply "well made" game, we're all walking on thin ice.