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Re: A new era in game development?
[Re: Wicht]
#218585
07/29/08 12:01
07/29/08 12:01
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Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 6,904
HeelX
Senior Expert
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Senior Expert
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 6,904
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I don't think it is a "new era". Most people were just blinded by the lights and realize that they have just incapable people in leather chairs, making decisions and megalomaniacs which are called game designers which try to make the ultimate game experience. Not to forget the recurring thoughts about gameplay vs. graphics, AAA vs. casual vs. niche, and bladeblabla.
I don't really like the efforts in the industry and the indie scene to claim new "eras", "movements" and so on.. like "nextgen", "casual games", "social gaming" and all these buzzwords. All these evolutions (was there a revolution somehow? I cannot remember one.) were predictable. I dare to say that maybe only one third of those AAA "hits" were real "hits".. the others were maybe only "hits" thorugh marketing and dumb buyers.
Where is the meaning of the article? There is none. Small studios, single developers and amateurs can really take profit of those outsourcing companies, but this is maybe the smallest denominator in this. Whatelese is there? All of us need money to make better games - quality wise ... for manpower, graphics (tzzz), professional music and sounds, voice acting and so on.
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Re: A new era in game development?
[Re: HeelX]
#218590
07/29/08 12:35
07/29/08 12:35
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Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 7,121 Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany
Machinery_Frank
Senior Expert
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Senior Expert
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 7,121
Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany
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This is an encouraging post for indie and hobby developers. So why not? It might work well for GarageGames. They base some part of their business on indie and hobby developers.
Besides that it provides some interesting facts and numbers.
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Re: A new era in game development?
[Re: Machinery_Frank]
#224739
08/31/08 23:47
08/31/08 23:47
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Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 1
neorat
Guest
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Guest
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 1
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I think allot of those 'failures' were due to target system requirements. When you increase system requirements, you decrease your customer base. The average computer owner has a system that is 5 years old. The small percentage of owners who can actually update their systems/build on their own (hard core gamers) will be able to keep up with games. Thus, companies hurt themselves by feeding upon a very small portion of the market.
WoW has an established 'old-timers' game title, though, the game world (in fine MMO details) is rather new. But when combined with low system requirements, they were able to access a very ... very large potion of the market.
Games with high system requirements are providing hard core systems and their owners with very nice graphical rich games, but at a cost ... profit. Like CoD4 ... allot of us had to reinstall CoD2 just for the online killing fix, less we can recruit enough players to hope over to CoD4, now thats sad.
Allot of the games that were mentioned in the article have high system requirements ... there is no way they can feed on the market where customers own old systems. If you own a system that is old ... forget EQ2, but you will be able to play WoW AND WarHammer Online (soon).
Then, of course, there is corporate stupidity that will brand any game as 'failure' before it even starts development.
In any event, there will be a next BIG MMO or single/MP title, as long as they provide to all computer owners and not just the elite. If anything, learn from WoW and their tactical marketing model ... WarHammer did and they'll make a nice profit.
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Re: A new era in game development?
[Re: neorat]
#224745
09/01/08 00:10
09/01/08 00:10
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 121
ortucis
Member
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Member
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 121
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"So how can small little indies like Josh at Prairie Games put out a working MMO platform in less than 2 years with barely 2-3 people and yet these massive development companies cant get the job done right with literally five thousand percent more manpower and budget?" That Indie MMO will win praise cause (cause if the MMO is one which I have seen myself): a) It's indie. b) Made by 2-3 people, which will be compared to big companies. That's it. In the end, no one knows about that MMO in mainstream communities, else it would be ripped apart as another mediocre MMO in the market with terrible visuals. HellGate had it's flaws, but the company patched it to become better, their fault was rushing the game because they were small (yes, it wasn't a big company.. only famous people working which made it sound big and recieved more press than an Indie MMO) because they wanted to keep the deadline because of rising costs. That was the worst move ever cause reviews killed any chance of the game getting any audience after that. Also, Hellgate was mainly funded by the developers out of their life savings in the end. Publishers fucked them over in the end as well. So anyways, as for the part where big budgets don't make better games, that's stupid. I can say that small budgets don't make better games either but it doesn't matter to the player in the end. You can market HALO as a genre bending experience in the world of FPS and people will accept it, you can say the same thing about Chrome but people will disagree. You need marketing to make a big game these days. Make the right pockets (people) happy in the gaming media and you have a instant hit (or close enough to make a profit off of). Also, I didn't know Lineage 2 was a hit, esp. among fans..
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Re: A new era in game development?
[Re: ortucis]
#224783
09/01/08 07:20
09/01/08 07:20
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Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 7,121 Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany
Machinery_Frank
Senior Expert
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Senior Expert
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 7,121
Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany
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This counts only for big game productions. The really big games have a common problem today: rising costs but the a constant retail price. Because of this it gets harder and harder to successfully launch a title. Because of this they exploit every employee and they try to cut wherever they can. But still there are smaller successful independent productions. Companies like Liquid Entertainment (Ed Castillo) are still there. They save enough money for harder times and they make enough money with smaller productions to survive. I also know some stories from German independent companies like TML. They started just with a few Add-Ons for the MS Flight-simulator. But later they launched an adventure game: http://www.sunrisethegame.de/And now they are just in the process of finishing another professional made game: http://www.world-of-subways.com/You can't compete with big budget productions like Crysis (150 employees) nor Assassins Creed (300 employees). You have to find a baby that sees day of light with only 5-10 employees.
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