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Topic: WHAT are they THINKING?!
Kait
has made another completely pointless and off-topic post that nobody cares about
posted 05-03-2005 10:23:09 PM
I was just looking through the massive list of release dates for 2005, searching to see when Soul Calibur III is coming out, and I saw some titles in there that made me shudder down to the marrow of my bones.

At least a half-dozen more golf games.

A 3Dized version of the board game, Scrabble.

Gumby?!?

What are these people thinking? Is there really so much money to throw around that, rather than come up with something new and possibly even sellable, they have to rehash on things that are better off dead, in pathetic twists on concepts that have nothing to do with the original media, all to make it "interactive" and hopefully con a few extremely bored kids with too much money into buying their product?

The world of video game design can't be -so- hard to get into, if every shmuck with a studio can crank out something like "Sneakers," a badly-drawn 'spy game' revolving around mice attempting to steal household items reminiscent of Stuar tLittle hard up for money, or, *shudder* "Gumby's Deep Dive," which I'm too afraid of to research any further that the initial ad.

I mean, I know the movie business is the same way, but still....who funds this stuff?

"A black cat dropped soundlessly from a high wall, like a spoonful of dark treacle and melted under the gate."
-Elizabeth Lemarchand
Liam
Swims in Erotic Circles
posted 05-03-2005 10:24:13 PM
3D scrabble sounds cool
Snoota
Now I am become Death, shatterer of worlds
posted 05-03-2005 10:24:35 PM
Gumby owns.
Kait
has made another completely pointless and off-topic post that nobody cares about
posted 05-03-2005 10:24:47 PM
quote:
Liam stopped beating up furries long enough to write:
3D scrabble sounds cool

Wow...

"A black cat dropped soundlessly from a high wall, like a spoonful of dark treacle and melted under the gate."
-Elizabeth Lemarchand
Mr. Gainsborough
posted 05-03-2005 10:25:41 PM
I'd buy a Gumby game.

For the same reason I would buy Smurfs Racing and why I did buy KISS Pinball.

Snoota
Now I am become Death, shatterer of worlds
posted 05-03-2005 10:26:12 PM
And the reason they do it is because people buy them up. When you think "video games" people around here tend to think of Final Fantasy and EverQuest and Knights of the Old Republic and Doom 3 and Half Life and whatever.

But the best selling video games are 3D Scrabble, Gumby, and sport titles.

Liam
Swims in Erotic Circles
posted 05-03-2005 10:26:57 PM
quote:
Kait got a whole lot of nerve:
Wow...

I bet you get really angry at Tetris sequels, even though they kick ass.

Mr. Gainsborough
posted 05-03-2005 10:27:36 PM
quote:
Snoota spewed forth this undeniable truth:
But the best selling video games are 3D Scrabble, Gumby, and sport titles.

And Barbie's Funhouse Adventure.

Kait
has made another completely pointless and off-topic post that nobody cares about
posted 05-03-2005 10:27:46 PM
quote:
Liam obviously shouldn't have said:
I bet you get really angry at Tetris sequels, even though they kick ass.

I have nothing against Tetris o.o?

"A black cat dropped soundlessly from a high wall, like a spoonful of dark treacle and melted under the gate."
-Elizabeth Lemarchand
Snoota
Now I am become Death, shatterer of worlds
posted 05-03-2005 10:32:21 PM
quote:
Kait had this to say about John Romero:
I have nothing against Tetris o.o?

But your entire post was about companies that just make the same lame game over and over.

Tetris 2 was Tetris with four new block shapes.

Kait
has made another completely pointless and off-topic post that nobody cares about
posted 05-03-2005 10:36:01 PM
quote:
This one time, at Snoota camp:
But your entire post was about companies that just make the same lame game over and over.

Tetris 2 was Tetris with four new block shapes.


No, it was more about just random shitty games by random shitty companies about random shitty concepts. Or sports games. But I just hate sports games in general, so I'm probably pretty biased in that respect -_+ I've only played the tetris online version, so I can't judge any of those. I'm mostly just puzzled at why companies try so hard not to be original. Maybe they'd get their head in the spotlight if they did attempt something bold and daring. Or maybe they''ve resigned themselves to ambiguity, and that's why they never bother innovating new stuff. Who knows? Just kind of depresses me, as a budding game developer.

"A black cat dropped soundlessly from a high wall, like a spoonful of dark treacle and melted under the gate."
-Elizabeth Lemarchand
Gunslinger Moogle
No longer a gimmick
posted 05-03-2005 10:40:38 PM
quote:
Why do ya build me up, Liam-cup baby just to let me down, and mess me around?
3D scrabble sounds cool

It would be awesome done right.




moogle is the 3241727861th binary digit of pi

Disclaimer: I'm just kidding, I love all living things.
The fastest draw in the Crest.
"The Internet is MY critical thinking course." -Maradon
"Gambling for the husband, an abortion for the wife and fireworks for the kids they chose to keep? Fuck you, Disneyland. The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is the happiest place on Earth." -JooJooFlop

Cobalt Katze
Pancake
posted 05-03-2005 10:45:49 PM
quote:
Gunslinger Moogle spewed forth this undeniable truth:
It would be awesome done right.

3d Scrabble = Get the fucking real-life 3d game and manipulate the pieces with your hands.

That's what makes the whole concept so ludicrous.

Snoota
Now I am become Death, shatterer of worlds
posted 05-03-2005 10:47:02 PM
quote:
Kait painfully thought these words up:
Just kind of depresses me, as a budding game developer.

I hope this was some kind of joke, because you obviously have no idea how the industry works. I am by no means an expert, but those games you so hate are what keeps the industry going. Sports, simulations, and children's games outsell any RPG/Action/FPS/whatever game you enjoy. It's just not always as visible because it makes no sense for Gamespy or IGN or whatever to list Gumby's Deep Dive and Barbie's Funhouse Adventure next to Halo 2 and GTA on their best sellers list.

There's a reason EA Sports can make and support 9 different sport titles in less than a year while Interplay goes out of business after making and supporting one game every three years.

And your hatres of sports games really does shine through in including them with 3D Scrabble and whatever else; your average EA Sports title has more innovation and new tricks than any RPG since Baldur's Gate.

Demos
Pancake
posted 05-03-2005 10:47:04 PM
Unless they mean 3d in the respect that you can make words to the sides AND up and down.
"Jesus saves, Buddha enlightens, Cthulhu thinks you'll make a nice sandwich."
Gunslinger Moogle
No longer a gimmick
posted 05-03-2005 10:48:54 PM
quote:
Demos sent this coded message via a team of nanites:
Unless they mean 3d in the respect that you can make words to the sides AND up and down.

That's what I thought. Like that 3d chess they're always playin in ST:TNG.




moogle is the 3241727861th binary digit of pi

Disclaimer: I'm just kidding, I love all living things.
The fastest draw in the Crest.
"The Internet is MY critical thinking course." -Maradon
"Gambling for the husband, an abortion for the wife and fireworks for the kids they chose to keep? Fuck you, Disneyland. The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is the happiest place on Earth." -JooJooFlop

Kait
has made another completely pointless and off-topic post that nobody cares about
posted 05-03-2005 10:51:30 PM
quote:
Snoota wrote, obviously thinking too hard:
Stuff

I'm not saying it doesn't necessarily WORK, I'm just saying WHY do they do it? WHY do droves of people apparently buy this crap? WHY is stupidity supported, while innovation is left to rot? Is that just the capitalist American way or is there something wrong with this system?

Why?

And: Thank you, Cobalt.

"A black cat dropped soundlessly from a high wall, like a spoonful of dark treacle and melted under the gate."
-Elizabeth Lemarchand
Cobalt Katze
Pancake
posted 05-03-2005 10:54:43 PM
quote:
ACES! Another post by Kait:
Is that just the capitalist American way

I'd say it's more the way of popular culture.

Maradon!
posted 05-03-2005 11:00:05 PM
quote:
Kaiting:
I'm not saying it doesn't necessarily WORK, I'm just saying WHY do they do it? WHY do droves of people apparently buy this crap? WHY is stupidity supported, while innovation is left to rot? Is that just the capitalist American way or is there something wrong with this system?

Oh jesus christ not again.

The degree to which you like to talk about shit that you have no understanding of whatsoever is amazing. The fact that you admit you know nothing, don't discuss your asinine opinions, but persist in reiterating them makes you a regular troll.

I'd attempt to educate you as to why the fact that 3d scrabble sells better than Halo 2 ISN'T A BAD THING, but you'd just hide behind the same old "I didn't come here to argue" bullshit.

Maradon! fucked around with this message on 05-03-2005 at 11:01 PM.

Azymyth
Not gay; just weird
posted 05-03-2005 11:03:56 PM
quote:
Kait said this about your mom:
I'm not saying it doesn't necessarily WORK, I'm just saying WHY do they do it? WHY do droves of people apparently buy this crap? WHY is stupidity supported, while innovation is left to rot? Is that just the capitalist American way or is there something wrong with this system?

Why?

And: Thank you, Cobalt.



Welcome to the gaming industry. They're here to make money. Innovation is nice but unless it makes lazy slobs buy thier products, it gets second priority over things like 3-D Scrabble and Gumby.


On a side note, if they ever made a new Felix the Cat game, I'd so buy it.

I suffer from CRS: Can't Remember Shit.

Sig pic done by the very talented SJen!

Goma
Pancake
posted 05-04-2005 12:03:17 AM
I'd buy 3D scrabble, whether it was like a SUPER SCRABBLE CUBE or just the basic scrabble game.
Liam
Swims in Erotic Circles
posted 05-04-2005 12:08:10 AM
quote:
Goma got a whole lot of nerve:
I'd buy 3D scrabble, whether it was like a SUPER SCRABBLE CUBE or just the basic scrabble game.

you'd lose to me so fast because I rock the thesaurus.

Goma
Pancake
posted 05-04-2005 12:12:20 AM
quote:
Liam's unholy Backstreet Boys obsession manifested in:
you'd lose to me so fast because I rock the thesaurus.

We'll see, we'll see.

Steven Steve
posted 05-04-2005 12:59:32 AM
They already made 3D Scrabble, it was called Upwords.
"Absolutely NOTHING [will stop me from buying Diablo III]. I will buy it regardless of what they do."
- Grawbad, Battle.net forums

"Don't want to sound like a fanboy, but I am with you. I'll buy it for sure, it's just a matter of for how long I will be playing it..."
- Silvast, Battle.net forums

Fox
Loser
posted 05-04-2005 01:33:20 AM
quote:
How.... Maradon!.... uughhhhhh:
Oh jesus christ not again.

Down boy, I'm guessing she is just astounded by it. I too myself have previously wondered why copies of Deer Hunter 1 2 3 etc keep appearing.

"It takes an idiot to do cool things, thats why its cool."
"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than to be loved for what I'm not."
Densetsu
NOT DRYSART
posted 05-04-2005 01:35:36 AM
quote:
A sleep deprived Maradon! stammered:
troll

I think your definition of that word differs from my definition.

I was in the Virgin Islands once. I met a girl, we ate lobster, drank piña coladas. At sunset, we made love like sea otters. That was a pretty good day. Why couldn't I get that day over, and over?
Tarquinn
Personally responsible for the decline of the American Dollar
posted 05-04-2005 02:28:52 AM
Bah, I would be really happy if games like Baldur's Gate or Homeworld would sell just as well as "Deer Hunter Part VII: Deep down the Deer's butt". It just won't happen.
~Never underestimate the power of a Dark Clown.
Matilda Jane
ph33r my MIRVs
posted 05-04-2005 03:09:00 AM
If I were younger, then I might have given that Gumby game a try. Just because the games don't appeal to you, doesn't make them bad. There are casual gamers too.

Also, I bought the original deer hunter years ago. I thought it'd be like the hunting in Oregon Trail. The only really cool part aside from working everyone to an early grave. I don't think I ever got it to run though.

There was a signature here... it's gone now.
Mod
Pancake
posted 05-04-2005 07:12:46 AM
quote:
Snoota had this to say about pies:
There's a reason EA Sports can make and support 9 different sport titles in less than a year while Interplay goes out of business after making and supporting one game every three years.

And your hatres of sports games really does shine through in including them with 3D Scrabble and whatever else; your average EA Sports title has more innovation and new tricks than any RPG since Baldur's Gate.


As someone who has enjoyed various types of sports games since I first got a Sega, this isn't true. If any company tried to put out a regular game with the amount of innovation that went on between most yearly releases of sports games they would be roasted at the stake by critcs.

Case in point: Pro Evolution Soccer 4 and 5. 5 has, over 4: Updated roster, referee visible on the field, extremely basic tcp/ip play, both are full-price releases. I can't say that those are bad since people buy them, but the value added between full-price sequels in the sports genere is vastly inferior to most others.

Life... is like a box of chocolates. A cheap, thoughtless, perfunctory gift that nobody ever asks for. Unreturnable, because all you get back is another box of chocolates. You're stuck with this undefinable whipped-mint crap that you mindlessly wolf down when there's nothing else left to eat. Sure, once in a while, there's a peanut butter cup, or an English toffee. But they're gone too fast, the taste is fleeting. So you end up with nothing but broken bits, filled with hardened jelly and teeth-crunching nuts, and if you're desperate enough to eat those, all you've got left is a... is an empty box... filled with useless, brown paper wrappers.
Jackman
Racist Hermaphroditic Midget
posted 05-04-2005 07:21:40 AM
Gumby could be cool. I remember Maniac Mansion was a dumb sounding game but cool as hell to play.
Peter: I'm not afraid of anything, I laugh in the face of Death. See HAHAHAHA.
Death: Oh great! Thanks a lot. As if it wasnt already hard enough to fit in.

Some people are like Slinkys... Not really good for anything, But they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs.

Mod
Pancake
posted 05-04-2005 07:39:27 AM
quote:
How.... Kait.... uughhhhhh:
I'm not saying it doesn't necessarily WORK, I'm just saying WHY do they do it? WHY do droves of people apparently buy this crap? WHY is stupidity supported, while innovation is left to rot? Is that just the capitalist American way or is there something wrong with this system?

Why?

And: Thank you, Cobalt.


1) Accessibility. Most people don't have the manual dexterity in using a keyboard or gamepad of someone who has played games all their life. It would take forever for someone who never used a controller to learn how to do a 623+PPP move or a final atomic buster in street fighter or god forbid how to GI well or buffer up a summon suffering in Soul Calibur (I've used controllers since I was 8 and I can't pull it off in a match with any degree of reliability) and most people don't want to have to do weeks of unfun finger training for their entertainment before they can actually enjoy it, this is why very few people suddenly take up playing piano for fun in their 40s. With scrabble they know how the game works and the controls are not hard to figure out since there is no timing or manual dexterity involved.

2) Price. All those games simple games that sell so well cost 30$ or less, this makes a big difference since a 30$ difference in entertainment spending means a lot to many people's monthly budgets. Also gaming computers are an expensive luxury item and not as common as one would think, scrabble will run on a spyware-infested HP you bought in '99 while Doom 3 will not.

3) Entry barriers. Sit someone who has never played a game in their life in front of the Final Fantasy Tactics character status screen and you'll see what I mean.

There are tons of conventions gamers take for granted but which are objectively speaking completely anti-intuitive. WASD movement, combos, THAC0, amor reducing chance to be hit instead of damage, turns in RPGS, temples lowering unrest, med packs taking effect without you using them, AI guards always pathing along certain routes, being able to talk to some people but not others, using bowmen to counter footmen, ... those are all things that anyone with gaming experience will not only accept but even assume as a given if not told otherwise but which would, in sum, completely confuse and frustrate anyone who tried to just pick up a game the guy at the store told him was good and play.

Mod fucked around with this message on 05-04-2005 at 07:42 AM.

Life... is like a box of chocolates. A cheap, thoughtless, perfunctory gift that nobody ever asks for. Unreturnable, because all you get back is another box of chocolates. You're stuck with this undefinable whipped-mint crap that you mindlessly wolf down when there's nothing else left to eat. Sure, once in a while, there's a peanut butter cup, or an English toffee. But they're gone too fast, the taste is fleeting. So you end up with nothing but broken bits, filled with hardened jelly and teeth-crunching nuts, and if you're desperate enough to eat those, all you've got left is a... is an empty box... filled with useless, brown paper wrappers.
Snoota
Now I am become Death, shatterer of worlds
posted 05-04-2005 04:02:32 PM
quote:
When the babel fish was in place, it was apparent Mod said:
As someone who has enjoyed various types of sports games since I first got a Sega, this isn't true. If any company tried to put out a regular game with the amount of innovation that went on between most yearly releases of sports games they would be roasted at the stake by critcs.

Case in point: Pro Evolution Soccer 4 and 5. 5 has, over 4: Updated roster, referee visible on the field, extremely basic tcp/ip play, both are full-price releases. I can't say that those are bad since people buy them, but the value added between full-price sequels in the sports genere is vastly inferior to most others.


I beg to differ; many, many, many sequels come out as WORSE than the originals and with stuff taken out. Look at Deus Ex or Knights of the Old Republic for two newish examples.

When was the last time a sports title was released that was universally declared worse than the last year's installment?

Sean
posted 05-04-2005 04:18:25 PM
quote:
Yes, Snoota deserved to die, and I hope they burn in hell!
When was the last time a sports title was released that was universally declared worse than the last year's installment?

Hasn't that happened with 989 Sports for the past few years?

But, then again, we're talking about 989 Sports.

A Kansas City Shuffle is when everybody looks right, you go left.

It's not something people hear about.

Snoota
Now I am become Death, shatterer of worlds
posted 05-04-2005 04:24:49 PM
quote:
Check out the big brain on Sean!
Hasn't that happened with 989 Sports for the past few years?

But, then again, we're talking about 989 Sports.


I wasn't even aware they were still alive.

Sean
posted 05-04-2005 04:27:40 PM
quote:
Snoota don't surf!
I wasn't even aware they were still alive.

They're releasing a 2005 NHL game.

A Kansas City Shuffle is when everybody looks right, you go left.

It's not something people hear about.

Mod
Pancake
posted 05-04-2005 04:29:05 PM
quote:
Snoota had this to say about Reading Rainbow:
I beg to differ; many, many, many sequels come out as WORSE than the originals and with stuff taken out. Look at Deus Ex or Knights of the Old Republic for two newish examples.

When was the last time a sports title was released that was universally declared worse than the last year's installment?


Deus Ex is a bad example of a sequel because they paralell-developed it for the X-Box and thus had many more limitations imposed on them in making it than they did with the first.

Sports games hold a special position here because there really isn't any content in the traditional sense in them, you play Soccer on a field, that's it, not much you can do on that front, you can only improve upon controls, interface and the implementation of the actual ruleset. You can look at a game as consisting of two parts, content and presentation. Sports games, by their very nature, can only make extremely minor alterations to the core gameplay of the game and thus most of the innovation there takes place on the presentation level, i.e. interface, graphics, sound, etc.

A game like KotoR 2 delivers, in addition to about the same level of presentation improvement as an average sports game sequel (slight interface tweaks, slightly better graphics, etc..), a whole new set of gameplay content, new story, new enemy models, new voice acting, etc, in short there is a new game being presented, design time went into creating all that stuff and thus the game being priced the same as a game that only slightly improves on technical details and control schemes seems somewhat off.

I'm not saying that sports games aren't going anywhere, all the small improvements and occasional engine changes add up, but in all fairness many of the yearly editions could as well have been a patch or at the most expansion for the previous game.

For a good analogy take Civilization 2 and 3, they are similar to sports games in a way since they both work with a tweaked version of the same basic game on the content layer and improve mostly on the presentation layer. There are certainly enough changes in Civ 3 to justify it being sold as it's own game, but imagine if between Civ 2 and 3 we had gotten three more civilizations, one that adds resources and a tweaked diplomacy AI, one that revamps the world map graphics and adds a few new units and one that adds leader portraits and a general interface revamp. Would each of those have been worth 50$?

Mod fucked around with this message on 05-04-2005 at 04:36 PM.

Life... is like a box of chocolates. A cheap, thoughtless, perfunctory gift that nobody ever asks for. Unreturnable, because all you get back is another box of chocolates. You're stuck with this undefinable whipped-mint crap that you mindlessly wolf down when there's nothing else left to eat. Sure, once in a while, there's a peanut butter cup, or an English toffee. But they're gone too fast, the taste is fleeting. So you end up with nothing but broken bits, filled with hardened jelly and teeth-crunching nuts, and if you're desperate enough to eat those, all you've got left is a... is an empty box... filled with useless, brown paper wrappers.
Snoota
Now I am become Death, shatterer of worlds
posted 05-04-2005 04:30:21 PM
I think NHL is the last major sport that isn't controlled by one company. EA has exclusive rights to NFL games and Take Two Interactive has the rights to MLB games now.

But hey, maybe this just means someone will buy the MUTANT LEAGUE name from Sega! Fuck yeah!

Fizodeth
an unflattering title
posted 05-04-2005 04:33:03 PM
quote:
Snoota impressed everyone with:
But hey, maybe this just means someone will buy the MUTANT LEAGUE name from Sega! Fuck yeah!

I'm not a afn of sports games, but I'd pick that up.

Faelynn LeAndris
Lusty busty redheaded wood elf with sharp claws
posted 05-04-2005 04:34:44 PM
quote:
Snoota had this to say about Duck Tales:
I beg to differ; many, many, many sequels come out as WORSE than the originals and with stuff taken out. Look at Deus Ex or Knights of the Old Republic for two newish examples.

When was the last time a sports title was released that was universally declared worse than the last year's installment?


Of course you do have to aknoledge the fact that there is nearly no innovation or change involved in one sports title to the next. Fundamentally thats because there is nothing you need to change, it just has to be a sports title. There's not really much you can change to make a Football game better, except to make it flashier really. They don't get knocked because they never really change, and they feed the sports niche. I mean honestly, if you are playing a sports game, you are 'typically' playing it for the sport its based on. You can't really make it 'worse' (Yes, some really end up sucking, but meh.) as long as you stick with the model its based on.

Fighting games are the same way, to a degree. I mean if you really think about it. Say you pick up a brand new fighting game, and all you know is it has fancy characters and they have fancy moves, anime inspired and all that good stuff, and say you rented it so there is no Manual. One of the first things you do is pick a character and try and do a Fireball to see what it does, and then go through all the staple 'special move' actions to see if you get a result, and a good portion of the time you do. Until fighting games were really changed to be more combo action oriented like Soul Calibur, and the like, it was always like that.

Note, I'm not disagreeing with anything really. Except for you cant really count sports titles into the eqaution because there is nothing ever innovative about them, and as long as you only add features onto whatever the last incarnation of the game was, you can't really do worse.


My LAUNCHCast Station
"Respect the Forest, Fear the Ranger"
I got lost for an hour and became god.
Snoota
Now I am become Death, shatterer of worlds
posted 05-04-2005 04:40:16 PM
quote:
Faelynn LeAndris had this to say about Duck Tales:
Except for you cant really count sports titles into the eqaution because there is nothing ever innovative about them, and as long as you only add features onto whatever the last incarnation of the game was, you can't really do worse.

Manager Mode. Dynasty Mode. Owner Mode.

All innovative changes to sports titles in the last few years.

All times are US/Eastern
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