...I find it a little insulting that they only list Planescape: Torment as a "runner up", while Final Fantasy VII is in the top 3.
Torment is easily the best presented story in any game past or present, while Final Fantasy VII did nothing to advance storytelling in the medium in any meaningful way.
This book sounds like a great formula for selling one game well. If you want to stay in business for more than the term of a single title, you should look into making games that players will actually enjoy
The offspring is not only in line to become CEO of Butterfly Inc., but it also qualifies for subsidized loans from the National Association for the Advancement of Hybrid Butterflies.
The fundamental flaw with "intelligent" software like this is the fact that it only has a chance of working if no one else uses it. The instant a second team starts exploiting this it will throw off everything, as those teams will be playing in a way contradictory to their usual tactics, and thus all the statistics and probability it outputs are meaningless.
Risk will always be involved; that's a necessary part of gaining anything. Of course, if people in decision making positions within those companies truly had their "finger on the pulse of the gaming community", and weren't detached, suits who base their bottom line on market trends and focus groups then the risk really isn't as great as you might think.
If companies always follow the same formulaic sytem for game making then the result is a lot of commercial success and a stagnant industry devoid of innovation.
Integrity, vision, and not making games for the lowest common denominator are what push gaming (and any industry) forward.
I wouldn't be surprised at all if the developer was staring at the choice of "Make the game, but with a few changes that the publisher is convinced will lead to sales" or "Don't make the game at all".
And that is exactly where the decision between integrity and money come into play. Of course it is all shades of grey, just some greys are darker than others.;)
This is what you get when you compromise your vision and integrity for the dollar.
It is funny he mentions Deus Ex, as I loved the original game and was left extremely disapointed with it's incarnation. Not only did they lose their extremely strong original fanbase that helped to build them, but they lost the mainstream appeal they were so desperately hoping to cash in on.
This is a publicity stunt. They took more than 30 million gold out of the economy from every server? I have news for you, there's right around 170 servers worldwide. That means around 175,000 gold per server. That is a incredibly miniscule part of each server's economy, that is it laughable. Also, within one week almost all of those banned accounts will be back and max level.
Diging their own grave, or digging it deeper perhaps, but a bigger coffin? Microsoft is taking in too many calories and not working out enough, so it needs to have a larger coffin?
The type of people who are so casual that they can not understand Firefox extensions are not the same people who will be taking advantage of RSS feeds, advanced blogging tools, and the like.
A whole lotta bloat. Sad to see they've thrown the Firefox minimalist philosophy out the window. Features that less than 1% of 1% of their users will ever even look at have no place in a product.
"in-built RSS aggregator, direct blogging tool"
Give me a break.
It isn't hard to make minor improvements on several improvements of an already-established and budding industry, then claim to be the "best". Someone could just as easily copy exactly what WoW does, but with more polish in places where Blizzard dropped the ball and they would be even "better". That isn't to say, however, that they deserve much credit for innovation.
World of Warcraft uses the exact same formula that every other EQ-clone for the last decade has followed, so what makes it so special?
First off, Blizzard was a household name for gamers well before World of Warcraft thanks to the Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft franchises.
Second, this game was hyped for almost 4 years before actually being released. That is a lot of time for both marketing and word of mouth to build consumers into a buying frenzy.
Lastly, and I believe the most important single factor, was the timing of their release. After years of the aforementioned hype the game was finally released, and to what competition? Ultima Online, Asheron's Call, Asheron's Call 2, EverQuest, and the like were all games years past their prime, and rapidly dwindling as the playerbase lost interest. People wanted something new and fresh, and the EverQuest 2 launch was a massive disapointment for most.
Slashdot Mirror
Doom 2. Level 8. Tricks and Traps.
...I find it a little insulting that they only list Planescape: Torment as a "runner up", while Final Fantasy VII is in the top 3. Torment is easily the best presented story in any game past or present, while Final Fantasy VII did nothing to advance storytelling in the medium in any meaningful way.
God knows you'll need to harness the awesome power of those extra 32 bits to browse web pages at an acceptable speed.
This book sounds like a great formula for selling one game well. If you want to stay in business for more than the term of a single title, you should look into making games that players will actually enjoy
The offspring is not only in line to become CEO of Butterfly Inc., but it also qualifies for subsidized loans from the National Association for the Advancement of Hybrid Butterflies.
And may God have mercy on our souls if they decide to team up with Billy
The fundamental flaw with "intelligent" software like this is the fact that it only has a chance of working if no one else uses it. The instant a second team starts exploiting this it will throw off everything, as those teams will be playing in a way contradictory to their usual tactics, and thus all the statistics and probability it outputs are meaningless.
Risk will always be involved; that's a necessary part of gaining anything. Of course, if people in decision making positions within those companies truly had their "finger on the pulse of the gaming community", and weren't detached, suits who base their bottom line on market trends and focus groups then the risk really isn't as great as you might think.
Complacency for the win.
Practically every great game ever made was done so by people not content with the current industry.
If companies always follow the same formulaic sytem for game making then the result is a lot of commercial success and a stagnant industry devoid of innovation.
Integrity, vision, and not making games for the lowest common denominator are what push gaming (and any industry) forward.
This is what you get when you compromise your vision and integrity for the dollar.
It is funny he mentions Deus Ex, as I loved the original game and was left extremely disapointed with it's incarnation. Not only did they lose their extremely strong original fanbase that helped to build them, but they lost the mainstream appeal they were so desperately hoping to cash in on.
This is a publicity stunt. They took more than 30 million gold out of the economy from every server? I have news for you, there's right around 170 servers worldwide. That means around 175,000 gold per server. That is a incredibly miniscule part of each server's economy, that is it laughable. Also, within one week almost all of those banned accounts will be back and max level.
Creative sues Sony, stating their line of CD Walkmen infringe on Creative's patented "play, pause, stop, rwd, and fwd" button technology.
Diging their own grave, or digging it deeper perhaps, but a bigger coffin? Microsoft is taking in too many calories and not working out enough, so it needs to have a larger coffin?
I think that I am dead-on the point actually.
The type of people who are so casual that they can not understand Firefox extensions are not the same people who will be taking advantage of RSS feeds, advanced blogging tools, and the like.
A whole lotta bloat. Sad to see they've thrown the Firefox minimalist philosophy out the window. Features that less than 1% of 1% of their users will ever even look at have no place in a product. "in-built RSS aggregator, direct blogging tool" Give me a break.
It isn't hard to make minor improvements on several improvements of an already-established and budding industry, then claim to be the "best". Someone could just as easily copy exactly what WoW does, but with more polish in places where Blizzard dropped the ball and they would be even "better". That isn't to say, however, that they deserve much credit for innovation.
World of Warcraft uses the exact same formula that every other EQ-clone for the last decade has followed, so what makes it so special?
First off, Blizzard was a household name for gamers well before World of Warcraft thanks to the Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft franchises.
Second, this game was hyped for almost 4 years before actually being released. That is a lot of time for both marketing and word of mouth to build consumers into a buying frenzy.
Lastly, and I believe the most important single factor, was the timing of their release. After years of the aforementioned hype the game was finally released, and to what competition? Ultima Online, Asheron's Call, Asheron's Call 2, EverQuest, and the like were all games years past their prime, and rapidly dwindling as the playerbase lost interest. People wanted something new and fresh, and the EverQuest 2 launch was a massive disapointment for most.
Not to mention my extensive post history consisting of about three replies. /wrists
And for only $59USD you can have a warehouse full of dedicated farmers powerlevel you right to the 12th step.
Ssssss forgot which forum software I was on for a minute.
[i]...why the sequel is called Episode One.[/i] It is the first in a series of episodes.
That analogy would be apt if any OS could run all programs, just like any car can drive on all roads.