Posts by FrieChamp

  • There is a new Jumpgate MMO in the works!

    Quote from Taylor

    Trying to dethrone Eve is just as futile as trying to dethrone WoW.

    You think so? I've tried EVE two times, once before the trinity patch and once afterwards (last week to be precise) and even though I had access to Goonswarm's ressources (one of the largest corps in the game), I found the learning curve to be extremely steep...or maybe it's just not my cup of tea, I found flying around in Jumpgate much more fun even when I constantly crashed during docking manoveurs..

    EVE is for hardcore players, it heavily relies on PVP and struggle between alliances. It's a lot about politics and this whole meta-game about spying and treason, I think that's AWESOME, because that's one of the things I've enjoyed in Neocron and been missing in WoW. If Netdevil manages to make the game as easy to pick up and play as WoW (or at least as close to the original Jumpgate..) and at the same time create enough opportunity for PvP combat - this could become bigger than EVE!

    If you look for hints in the press release, one could say that Netdevil is trying to accomplish just that, but I guess there is little enough information on the game available, that you could read anything into it at this point...

  • They Wonder Why People Don't Make PC Games Any More

    I think you need to seperate between a police state that is suppressing its citizens to avoid free thinking to uphold its reign for its own sake AND police raids in order to protect other citizen's rights, their right to decide on their own what's meant to happen with their creative labour. Now you may think these rights/laws are outdated or not needed, which scares me even more, because that reminds me of communist regimes. Anyway, as you said, the topic is probably to extensive to discuss here in detail, but I still don't understand why you would rather not earn anything at all from your work than share the profits with a publisher. I mean I understand the motives, but this is either very idealistic or simply not well thought through.

    Moving forward here is an article on gamasutra about game personalization in order to create additional motivation for consumers to buy the game over pirating it:

    Quote

    So what would it mean to build a game *for a specific customer*? I'm not sure. But I'm not talking about binding it to the user's machine with DRM. No, people will find a way to strip it out anyway. No, the personalization has to add value in some way. DRM doesn’t add value for the customer, it adds inconvenience at best and outrage and resentment at worst (one need only to look as far as the numerous postings about the PC release of the otherwise-wonderful BioShock for an example).

    This kind of ties in with the idea that has been mentioned before about customizing your game and only buy the parts that you want to play. This idea goes even further though, in the way that the developer adds a personal value to the game for the consumer by shipping a customized version of the game to him.

    http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_i ... tory=16790

  • They Wonder Why People Don't Make PC Games Any More

    Quote from WitchKing

    http://www2.piratpartiet.se/international/english

    This party got a whole 1% of the votes in their debut participation in the national elections in Sweden, effectively forcing the issue to be included in the political agenda of the major parties. Their supporters include members of the games and music industry.

    I'm wondering what interest musicians and game developers would have in having their creative efforts used by others without any return service (as long as it's privately used or 5 years after its publication for commercial use)? This pirate part'ys agenda is hypocritical, they talk about getting rid of patents to make medicine in the 3rd world cheaper, or to strengthen the respect for privacy and protection from governmental prosecution, yet it seems their only goal is to legalize copyright infrictions.

  • go-kart model

    wow i was honestly surprised, the track looks really really good! Have you considered to make use of the ad spaces around the tracks? You could offer the game for free and get income from the ingame ads, or do you want to keep it ad free and sell it? Or both?

    Any gameplay relevant features you can talk about yet? Will there be weapons, power ups or anything of that sort? What gameplay modes?

  • Forum downtimes!

    I'd like to apologize on behalf of the moderator/admin staff for the recent forum downtimes. It's very inconvenient, as all of us like to get our daily dosis of mapcore, but when the host decides to pull the plug - we are as helpless as you are, yet it's no reason to freak! Right now we can only assume that the downtimes are caused by a server side trojan, which the provider is trying to get rid of. For more information on this please visit this thread.

    Most importantly don't panic and be sure that you are not the only one having trouble to access the board. Mikezilla (the handsome stud who pays the bills in case you don't know) has been informed about the situation and will either a) move the forums to a different host or b) at least find out more details on what's going on. I don't know yet when this is going to happen, I hope relatively soon. In the meantime please be patient, this might have very well not been the last time the forums are inaccessible, just check them on a daily basis and relax until they are back to full speed. The admin staff will inform you about new information as soon as it becomes available.

    Thanks!

  • They Wonder Why People Don't Make PC Games Any More

    Heh it's funny, I enjoy going to a store and purchase a game there. More than buying it digitally. I guess it comes down to personal preference, or habit. I like browsing the games section (maybe also check out the CD bargain shelf while I'm there) and buy a physical copy. I know you hate physical media, but I'm not so afraid of scratches to be honest, never had any problems with that (in contrast to copy protection that my dvd drive couldn't read ). I don't need to download the entire game again when it is deleted (something happens to my harddrive, or i need the space, or virus, or..) and I happen to like having a box of the game in my hands. It also comes with a manual although those admittedly lost significance over the past years. Firstly because I rely on figuring out the game mechanics in the game itself and secondly because publishers don't seem to put much effort into them anymore it seems.

    I think discussing the pros and cons of physical and digital distribution endlessly won't bring us anywhere, it's up to each consumer individually. Also the last point you mention

    Quote from zaphod

    And it's cheaper.

    is overrated the more I think about it. Of course lowering the costs is always a good thing, but is the price really what makes PC games not sell enough? PC games are generally cheaper to buy than their console counterparts! Would a 10 € difference (39 € instead of 49 € for instance) persuade a person to buy the game over pirating it (for free)?

  • They Wonder Why People Don't Make PC Games Any More

    zaphod: I agree that preaching down to the people about the moral issues of software piracy won't change anything on a global scale, but maybe it can influence a few individuals in our humble space here, to rethink their decision to download a game (illegally). Overall though I think your comparison to the music industry is valid.

    One thing I do not understand is - what makes you think buying a game nowadays is more hassle than pirating it? I'm not sure what monster connection you are on, but downloading a game demo can easily take half a day for me (demo file sizes and playtime is worth a thread on its own actually...). Downloading the entire game via torrent must take even longer, or at least it takes longer than going to the shop and pick up the hard copy (unless you live in Alaska). Or would you consider leaving your house a hassle?

  • Cloverfield

    Quote from Steppenwolf

    sissys

    haha..I'm not sure yet if I will watch it. Is there more sustance to it than a mysterious monster destroying New York? I've seen sketches of the monster by people who have been in the test screenings and wheras I love JJ Abrams' work, to me it seems to be a trick to lure people into the theaters. Might be wrong though, maybe it even has a cool story

  • BF HEROES, EA GOES TF2 STYLE

    Quote from skdr

    It's free but...

    The fact that they go for a cartoony style makes them look like a copycat (TF2 has obviously taken the cartoony team based shooter spot already), but will the masses EA is developing this new business model care? I think this approach is rather exciting, they take the original format (wich caters only to hardcore players) and create a version that appeals to as of now untouched segments of the market. A Battlefield game for casual gamers so to speak.

    Key quote in my eyes:

    Quote

    Strategically, Mr. Florin said the game was a step toward figuring out how to generate multiple revenue streams from a single intellectual property, a maneuver Hollywood has mastered.“I’ve always envied the movie industry when they put a film out in the cinema, then they go to retail with a different business model and then to pay television and then free TV,” he said. “They have the same content reaching different audiences with different models, and we could never figure out a way to do that. Now with higher broadband penetration, we can use the technology to reach a broader audience.”

    Expecting a lot of "EA is ruining gaming for me" comments from now

  • They Wonder Why People Don't Make PC Games Any More

    @KT: Try make a living from developing mods and see how that goes. You can't live from creativity and passion alone and even if you work for a studio - I think Fletch's post said everything about game dev salaries.

    I know what you mean with the games prices, I also think they are too expensive. 65 (or even 69) € for a 360 game, that's way too fucking much. 50-55 € for a new PC game, could be cheaper too, but what makes you believe it is fair to steal the games for people who don't earn much (as in students). I am a student too and when I see a 50 year old guy driving a Porsche, I don't go to the car dealer and steal one, because "hey, the car is so expensive, I can never afford it! That`s why I am allowed to take it for free!". Sorry bro, that doesn't make sense.

    I don't think the games are so expensive for no reason, development has become increasingly expensive over the past years. Maybe developers should scale down, invest less in technological features and other extras to push down the price? I think so too, but you better make sure your game comes across as fun in the first 3 seconds people see it, because otherwise their reaction will be nothing but "looks like shit".

    @ Mr Hessi: I think I better understand where you are coming from now, I sense lots of frustration about recent game releases and the industry as of today in your posts, but none of this justifies piracy in my opinion. When you say you want developers to make games that "people want to play", don't you mean games that "you want to play"? You say studios should be punished for things like "too complex, confusing menus" - that's pretty harsh to base a game or an entire studio on a menu.

    @Peris: I also wouldn't let the argument count that Crysis is just graphics and no gameplay innovation, looking at its genre competition, but that's beside the point. I agree that the target group of the game, especially considering its steep hardware requirements, is probably prone to download their games illegally, but is that Crytek's fault? Or Epic's, or IW's, for making hardware demanding games? If those games don't sell enough because people can't afford the hardware - fair enough, but if people buy a 2000 $ PC but don't spend 50 $ on the game, something's going wrong.

    Although this discussion is creating lots of heat and people might feel offended by other people's opinions, I think it's interesting to talk about it.