Pcpowerplay article accurately nails what's wrong with SC

Kefo

It's a short write up about Cliffy B addressing the reboot develop conference in Croatia but the writer, in my opinion, nails exactly what's wrong with SC. 

The rest of the writeup is decent as well and also can be related back to SC in a way.

https://www.pcpowerplay.com.au/feature/the-master-of-none,467505

Trionicus

I see what he's saying. I often feel the same way, my stint in Starwars: Galaxies was the very same. The game was incredibly grindy and filled with time displacement but, then again, so are most mmo's. It's also why I stick mostly to simple games like Overwatch.

someforumguy

I don't agree with the comment about SC in the article. It is a too rigid way of thinking imo. Those kind of 'truths' are too context dependant. AAA doesn't have to be mediocre because of the game's scope.

A game's scope can be as large as you want, as long as you have the resources, organisation skills and efficiency to deal with it. It is just that I doubt about those last two in the case of SC. But this doesn't mean that it isn't possible in general.

Erillion

It is wrong to aim high ?

I think not.


Have fun

Kefo

Erillion said:

It is wrong to aim high ?

I think not.


Have fun

Nothing wrong with aiming high but there comes a point when you need to reign it in a little

FlyByKnight

Aiming so high that you don't have any accountability ever... 

Babuinix

So what's actually "wrong with Star Citizen" this time?

For those of us who prefer to avoid the usual ignorant rubishate clickbait "journalism".

Erillion

Babuinix said:

So what's actually "wrong with Star Citizen" this time?

For those of us who prefer to avoid the usual ignorant rubishate clickbait "journalism".

The author praises the limited-scope indy game with fun gameplay. On the other hand he gives Star Citizen as an example for aiming too high and taking too long (...who needs functional toilets in a space game...?). It is NOT an article about SC ..... SC is just mentioned.


Have fun

SomethingUnusual

Y'know the term "aim high" is a war term?

Soldiers aim high to avoid the guilt of killing. 

Lofty goal would be a better term. Or "If you're going to dream, dream big."

I'm enjoying my 50 bucks spent. So are a lot of others. Would rather a polished game of any kind before some launched half broken game. At least they are trying in that department. 

sgel

Anyone saying anything negative about Star Citizen, do not understand game development.

sgel

SomethingUnusual said:

I'm enjoying my 50 bucks spent. So are a lot of others. Would rather a polished game of any kind before some launched half broken game. At least they are trying in that department. 

I like this argument.
Somehow Star Citizen is going to be the only game in existence that will launch 100% polished with no bugs.
Oh at least they're trying you say? Yes, they're also the only developer ever that's trying to polish their game.

I wish I also lived under a rock and got excited by the very common things in life

Vrika

SomethingUnusual said:

I'm enjoying my 50 bucks spent. So are a lot of others. Would rather a polished game of any kind before some launched half broken game. At least they are trying in that department. 

Article criticizes that AAA games are spending million and millions extra to create distractions.

You argument is that creating distractions instead of focusing to the core game results in more polish?

Elsabolts

Simple answer is the game is taking to long.

Babuinix

Taking to long compared with what? If there some other game out there doing what Star Citizen is going for I'm sure people would be playing it by now.

But since the mmorpg/space-sim genre has been lacking to say the least Star Citizen is the last hope.

Elsabolts

Babuinix said:

Taking to long compared with what? If there some other game out there doing what Star Citizen is going for I'm sure people would be playing it by now.

But since the mmorpg/space-sim genre has been lacking to say the least Star Citizen is the last hope.

promises made by Roberts along with money received.

Phry

Kefo said:

Erillion said:

It is wrong to aim high ?

I think not.


Have fun

Nothing wrong with aiming high but there comes a point when you need to reign it in a little

Its only really by aiming high that you find out just how high you can reach, i don't think anyone can accuse SC of having played it safe, and if they do achieve those goals, then everyone wins even the ones who aren't particularly interested in SC, because if they succeed, other developers are likely to take some of those ideas etc. and incorporate them into their own games.

Erillion

If aiming high is not your thing, you can follow Buzz Aldrin's motto:

"The sky is NOT the limit...." 


Have fun

Phry

Erillion said:

If aiming high is not your thing, you can follow Buzz Aldrin's motto:

"The sky is NOT the limit...." 


Have fun

i prefer the RAF motto
Per Ardua Ad Astra
  which could also be an apt one for SC, as i have no doubt there are numerous struggles ahead.

MaxBacon

What this article brings in points is for me of the most backward thinking opinion about the future of gaming I came across with recently.

I wouldn't see the future of gaming lying within that logic, and I hope it doesn't, otherwise, the future is more generic games with limited and repeated gameplay. The MMO genre is the living (decaying) proof of that. 

The whole immersion and extreme attention to details is the pitch of SC, what you call distractions is actually one of the selling points and biggest "feature", a game built with the Roleplaying factor in its highest, what gives importance to things other games do not care about.

SC aims high as we see within everything they push on, we see that they are always seeing how far can they take something they do, they don't cut to take the easy, fast or cheap path, and for me, that is not wrong, it's why I backed it.

Babuinix

Elsabolts said:

Babuinix said:

Taking to long compared with what? If there some other game out there doing what Star Citizen is going for I'm sure people would be playing it by now.

But since the mmorpg/space-sim genre has been lacking to say the least Star Citizen is the last hope.

promises made by Roberts along with money received.

Myself and thousands of other gamers take Roberts promises over any other developer or publisher.

You'll thank us later.

SEANMCAD

the term AAA is invented by, promoted by, marketed by the games that you guys call 'AAA' for the very intent to get you to think of them as 'AAA'.

If articles are being written in multiple places suggesting the term 'AAA' is an antiquated term its because the publishers of those games want to dump the term because its not working out for them.

#reality

CrazKanuk

I would love to agree with Cliffy B, but the entire MMORPG genre is based on these so-called distractions. You can find proof of that on here any given day. Whether it be talking about how Vanilla WoW was the greatest, how gameplay has been dumbed down, there is plenty of examples. Similarly, both Titanfall and Battlefront both added campaigns in their second iterations because of negative feedback on the pure multiplayer format, even though both excelled in their initial versions. 

That said, I also agree with him. For a small studio, you do need to pick your battles. There's also a matter of managing expectations, which he did quite well with this interview. He basically TOLD us that all we really need is multiplayer as long as it's done well, gave us a few examples of how that works well, and left you with that. Is it a coincidence that he's ONLY doing multiplayer? Nope! If he had a campaign to tack on, would a campaign all of a sudden be a very important aspect of establishing the environment and feel of the game world? Yup! 

I'd love to believe that MMORPGs could get by without having to try to do everything, but I just don't see evidence of that. 

EDIT: Just for the record, I should say that I don't disagree with Cliffy B because I've said for a long time that the MMORPGs that people say they want aren't ACTUALLY what they want. That being said, I think that SC is the pinnacle of everything people say they want from the genre, it's got one of the largest budgets ever dedicated to a game in the genre, and it's been given tons of leniency when it comes to time. I'd say that one way or the other, this game could become an example of why the genre works or doesn't work. 

Sovrath

SEANMCAD said:

the term AAA is invented by, promoted by, marketed by the games that you guys call 'AAA' for the very intent to get you to think of them as 'AAA'.

If articles are being written in multiple places suggesting the term 'AAA' is an antiquated term its because the publishers of those games want to dump the term because its not working out for them.

#reality

It might be marketed and promoted in these instances by game companies but certainly not invented by them. It's used by credit companies to label bonds/stocks as being good risks, able to meet financial obligations.

Essentially being in good financial health. It makes sense that it's was used for games and more specifically game companies in that they have better/deeper pockets and can release a high quality game with more resources.

SEANMCAD

Sovrath said:

SEANMCAD said:

the term AAA is invented by, promoted by, marketed by the games that you guys call 'AAA' for the very intent to get you to think of them as 'AAA'.

If articles are being written in multiple places suggesting the term 'AAA' is an antiquated term its because the publishers of those games want to dump the term because its not working out for them.

#reality

It might be marketed and promoted in these instances by game companies but certainly not invented by them. It's used by credit companies to label bonds/stocks as being good risks, able to meet financial obligations.

Essentially being in good financial health. It makes sense that it's was used for games and more specifically game companies in that they have better/deeper pockets and can release a high quality game with more resources.

thanks for that clarification unfortunately however it doesn't change the main core meaning of what I am saying

Tiamat64

Length of time to make a game isn't really directly that much of a problem.  It was totally worth it for many Blizzard titles after all.  Instead, it's the OTHER factor of running out of money that comes with length of time that potentially is the problem.  The longer you take to develop a game, the more money you'll be spending during that time, and running out of money, as many indy developers learned, is a very very very bad thing.

Even if you're making money during development somehow (via pledges or pre-sales.  Investors are a separate thing with their own separate pros and cons), there's no guarantee the money inflow will keep coming (especially since almost all MMORPGs get less revenue over time, and that likely extends to MMORPGs getting their revenue during development, too).

Of course, it's just a potential problem.  Not a guaranteed one.

If an MMORPG that tries to do everything does come to fruition, I imagine another problem would be keeping all the systems in that "everything" up to date.  Too often I have seen MMORPGs with lots of systems but most of them fall to the wayside as the MMORPG gets older and developers concentrate on only updating a few of them.

MaxBacon

CrazKanuk said:
That being said, I think that SC is the pinnacle of everything people say they want from the genre, it's got one of the largest budgets ever dedicated to a game in the genre, and it's been given tons of leniency when it comes to time. I'd say that one way or the other, this game could become an example of why the genre works or doesn't work. 

There is a clear need to people, and a lot of criticism against MMO's and the basic copy/paste gameplay mechanics and progression everywhere, and a demand is clear for a game that can extend a lot through when it comes to give freedom and depth to several different types of gameplay within the same game.

The biggest point on SC here is a merge of Space Sim with FPS, but then it lies to professions and all that where it's just up to the player to do whatever and the game to be able to give depth to what the player wants to do.

Succeeding at that will achieve something that there's a clear demand for and many failed at, have several gameplay variants without having one being the "master gameplay" and everything else is secondary to it.