Posts by Fletch

  • Gearbox Ingame ad's

    Quote from zaphod

    I wonder how much phillips pays for something like that? It doesn't seem like it would do a lot of good for phillips, like someone would be shopping for tv's and think hey, I remember having a shootout in that old bombed out 1940's phillips factory, I should see what they have for sale! It also seems like a lot of work for the developers to work that in so I would imagine the situation is much more like "we are going to put this in anyway, lets see if the company will pay us to put their signage up there instead of making up some fake company", Instead of an actual form of revenue where companies can push what they really want to advertise.

    It's not so much about getting paid as just being able to use the asset we wanted. The Philips factory in Eindhoven was one of the biggest buildings in the city during the war, and a major landmark in the industrial area. We wanted it in the game purely because it looks cool and was really there. There was Philips sign on the building at the time (we fudged it a wee bit to make gameplay fit and to make it a little more aesthetically cool looking).

    I think as most people recognize, companies get a bit skittish when you start using their logo or their building for things, even out of historical accuracy. Like Randy mentioned in the article, we can't use the Opel logo because of just that reason. Philips was luckily cool enough to take pride in their company's history, and let us put it in there.

    If anything, when this came out, a legion of people was Kotaku or Shack were ready to string us up and call us sellouts, and then they went to wikipedia, found out they were wrong, and got a little history in the process. Not bad for putting a sign on a building.

  • the dollar

    The price of gas is probably the biggest pain (I know we're still a lot less than Europe, but we're jackasses who love our big cars). If anything, if our game sells well in Europe, we're going to get a great exchange rate from Euros to American dollars. So go buy BiA:HH if you're in Europe. Papa needs a new Vespa.

  • Hey photographers.

    Olympus just has less of a lens market, which is where most of your versatility comes from. Once you have a good base unit, it's all about the lens from there on out, and olympus just doesn't have as many good lenses on the market as Nikon and Cannon do. Better optics. Better prices. Better selection (they also have good 3rd party options). Go with those two. It's worth the money.

  • game devs you really hate!

    1999: OMG! Worldcraft crashes all the time. Valve has shitty tool support!

    2000: OMG! Compile tools suck. I'm using Zoners instead. Fuck valve!

    2003: OMG! Hammer is such a memory wasting hog! Valve hates modders!

    2004: OMG! These are the texture import tools! Does valve hate us?!

    etc etc etc

  • Mapcore Trojan

    Okay, first of all, chill the fuck out people. Nobody could have foresaw the host would have their entire network compromised and fail so utterly at getting rid of it on their side. Yes, Mikey and Pat are working on getting things moved over, but real life has a way of getting in the way of things. We're pretty much in crunch right now, and Mikey is pretty sick on top of that, so it's not like there's a huge pot of spare time that either of them is working from.

    As far as people bitching about Mikey having the domain, just shut up. He's kept this site going out of his own pocket and never bitched about it. He's certainly got other things he could spend that money on, but he chooses to keep it up.

  • Hey photographers.

    As a Nikon supporter, I feel like I should stick up against the Cannon crowd.

    I'd go with the D40 or the D60. I had a D50 (which is now discontinued), and now have a D200. The D40 is pretty much the replacement for the D50. If you're just doing stuff for the web, it's the way to go. You can even print up to 8x10 fairly well if you do need to do print work. It shoots RAW really well for color correction, and the 18-55mm lens that comes with the kit is a great bargain. It's not near zero distortion, and shoots in a variety of environments very well. You can also get the D40 starter kit with both the 18-55 lens and the 55-200 zoom lens for under $650. For web-only work and shooting shots in the weekend, that's going to cover you 95% of the time.

    0.

    The D60 is coming out soon (mid-march I think) and has some more professional style options and shoots at a higher megapixel. If you want some more bells and whistles at a higher price, you could go with that as well.

  • Who's your #1 in games?

    I reinforce Nintendo because of the new NPD 2007 data (US only):

    Console Sales:

    1. Wii - 6.29 million units

    2. 360 - 4.62

    3. PS2 - 3.97

    4. PS3 - 2.56

    Handheld

    1. DS - 8.50 million units

    2. PSP - 3.82

    Software:

    1 HALO - 3 4.82 million

    2 WII PLAY - 4.12 million

    3 CALL OF DUTY 4 - 3.04 million

    4 GUITAR HERO III - 2.72 million

    5 SUPER MARIO GALAXY - 2.52 million

    6 POKEMON DIAMOND - 2.48 million

    7 MADDEN NFL 08 - 1.90 million

    8 GUITAR HERO 2 - 1.89 million

    9 ASSASSIN'S CREED - 1.87 million

    10 MARIO PARTY 8 - 1.82 million

    Valve ain't got shit on Nintendo.

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

    A little bit of analysis:

    -Making games to run on crappier PCs - It's a mixed bag. There are a lot of developers out there who do this, but they're not the big ones. There just isn't a lot of money in it, unless you find a very particular niche (Sims and WoW being good examples). For a hundred entrances into the lower-end market, only 1 or 2 survives to profitability, so it makes publishers balk at throwing big money at it. Also, a lot of companies and developers work hand in hand with hardware manufacturers. New games are released, which push sales of higher end video cards and processors, which then create a market for more games to enter at that tech level. That relationship is bottoming out, though. The problem comes down to standardization. Pick 50 people on this forum, and I'll doubt that there are even 2 PCs that have the same tech specs. That's hard to test for. There are a lot of new PCs coming out with huge processing power, but no graphics card, and 3 year old computers with huge graphics cards and no processing power. The market is just ridiculously fractioned. That has to be solved first, before you see more entries to the low/mid-level PC market.

    Having no copy-protection - Hahahahaha. Yeah, and it would be great if I shit donuts. Not going to happen. You're asking a huge publisher to take a product they put millions into and not have copy-protection? What are you smoking, and can I have some? I know it's annoying, but let's face it, the PC gamer community has done zilch to develop any sort of trust with the publishers. The piracy rate is huge, and people in this very thread and just completely un-repentant about it. Explain why we should have any motivation to help you out. You think putting in a CD-Key is annoying? Try getting shorted on a paycheck because of low sales. That's really fucking annoying.

    Demo's suck/Reviews suck - As I've said before, the internet is pretty big, and you're all smart people. Surely you can find some sort of reviewer you trust. Go to Game Rankings or Metacritic. Get a sampling of voices. Find some blogs you trust. Read forums. Complaining that you can't find any good review information is just lazy. It's going to take you a few hours to pirate a game. Use that time to read some stuff first.

    Developers should be more creative, then they'll make more money - Again, that's a shitting donuts argument. In ary project you work on, you've got a variable amount of control over the creativity of your work. Sometimes you can go crazy with ideas/art/graphics/etc. Other times you can't. I know plenty of artists working for EA, who come in on Monday, and have 3 days to make a trash can model. Then they get 3 days to make a parking meter. Sometimes you're in the trenches and you just have to complete a solid task. It's part of the job. Other times you've got to cut some really cool features because you just don't have the time/manpower/ability to properly implement them. If it comes down to cutting a feature, or missing a release window, you're going to cut the feature. I don't mean to make the industry sound boring (it's not) or devoid of creativity (it's not), but you're balancing creativity with running a business all the time. Creativity doesn't pay the rent.

    My final prediction: The PC market in 5 years will only be games that require secure login (WoW, BF2/2142, Steam, etc), probably coupled with digital distribution. It's the only way it will work from here on out. You've got to be connected, validated, and tied to an account with an e-mail, address, and probably credit card. It's the only way to stop piracy in a significant way. In the mean time, consoles are going to continue to rule the market. The profit margins are higher. The piracy rate is lower, the standardization of hardware provides a bigger market. It's just superior on all front when it comes to the business side of the industry

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

    I started by trying to quote lots of people and making rational counter-arguments to their points, but it simply got too long, so I decided to just jump in and shoot from the hip. So let me start of with this:

    If you pirate games, you're a fucking dipshit. Period. No arguing. Man up, save some cash, and buy your games. If you're short on funds, trade games with friends so you don't have to buy everything. If you're not short on money, and you're just being cheap, then you can go screw yourself. If you don't like that opinion, that's fine. You're still a fucking idiot, so I'm not going to lose sleep over it.

    If you pirate games for the PC, you're just shooting yourself in the foot. Barely anybody wants to make PC games anymore, despite the fact that we develop on them. You ever wonder about that? It's already a small market, because you rely on people having good hardware, but then it shrinks even more because piracy is such a huge problem on PC. You know for every one copy you're selling, another 2 or 3 people are getting it through piracy. PC game sales (except subscription based games) are tanking, and piracy just keeps pushing that bar lower. That leaves us, the devs, with 2 options: ditch PC development or sign on with Windows Live/EA Line/Ubi.net/etc to have some sort of secure log on/player tracking to make sure that players have a legit copy. You think it's annoying signing into that to get in to MP, it's going to get to the point that you'll have to do it for SP as well if things don't turn around. There is just zero trust left in the PC market from developers. So go ahead, keep pirating. Fuck yourself over. Have a good ride.

    And trust me, I get that you don't want to spend a huge chunk of change on a bad game, but come on, you're not dumb people. You some how managed to build a state of the art gaming computer and have access to the internet. Surely you can read reviews, watch gameplay footage, or find a message board (hey, like this one), IRC room, or blog where you can ask people what they think of whatever game you're interested in. You can throw out all the "game reviews are paid for" arguments you want. Same thing goes for movie, tv, and music critics. Cry me a river. Turns out the internet is a big place. Surely you can find somebody out there who can give you advice you trust, even if it's just some dude with a livejournal.

    And my last comment is this: A lot of us do get paid based on sales royalties. I know that GBX is lucky in that respect, but I know from a lot of other people on this board that they get additional bonuses, raises, etc based on sales as well. So in a lot of cases, you're taking money out of our pockets. I don't say that to be greedy. I say that because I live in the real world and I have real bills to pay like everybody else. Yes, I can afford to buy nice things like a good TV and a comfy couch, but I live in a modest 2 room apartment, and turn my A/C and heat off during the day to keep my bills low. I know people on this forum with wives, and kids, and mortgages, and college debts, and all kinds of things they have to take care of. When our games don't sell, we make less. When our games don't sell, retailers buy less of our next game. When our games don't sell, our companies cut back. So yeah, when I read shit about people proudly pirating games, and acting like it doesn't hurt anybody here. I get mad.

    My 2 cents.

  • The Duke is still alive, teaser incoming

    I don't think you people understand the genius of George Broussard. Over a decade of development into the game has been painstakingly crafted in order to lower expectations to unheard of levels. Admit it, we all thought he'd try to put out the trailer today ad end up deleting 3DR's website instead. That's how low the bar has been set. Thus, by putting out a teaser trailer that actually runs on computers, he has vastly exceeded the level of expectations. Genius!

    Oh, and the "game" looks like utter shit, but that's besides the point. Another 3 or 4 years of polish, and it will be ready. Then we'll all be able to sit in our living rooms and engage in mildly homoerotic virtual muscle building workouts.