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Graveblade
Member UncommonPosts: 547
It annoys me how pathetic so many developers have become... so many focus on graphics over gameplay mechanics and features. You would have thought that with the advancement in technology that perhaps we would get more full featured games, even games with MORE features than in the past, and a much better understanding of making fun games as the industry progresses. Also why are there so so many games out there that are loved by so many but are never remade for the modern era (not necessarily a pure remake but a game with similar mechanics and features).
Jedi Knight
An example of this could be Jedi Knight. Why on earth would you not make another, but modern, Jedi Knight. It's a game so many people loved! The entire premise of it is what people want and enjoyed. FFA, team based battles, arena, 1v1 duals etc, proper saber battles and also included guns with fps. Those games actually had really great combat systems with multiple saber moves, special moves, different combat stances that you could switch on the fly, single, dual and double sided lightsabers, light and dark force powers, multiple game modes...
Alien vs Predator 2
Lets take another example. Aliens vs predator 2. (and the perfect example of a fail with the newer avp games).
AvP2 has multiple game modes. Hunt, survival, tdm, dm, overrun and evac. Multiple different aliens to pick with different stats, different types of predators with different weapon sets. It even included two types of humans, marines and corps, so you could actually have proper human vs human fps battles. You even had stuff like evolution where you evolve as you kill as an alien to become a queen... I mean... it blows current games features out of the water by a long shot.
Planetside 1
Look at planetside 1 compared to planetside 2. There were sooooo many more features in that game compared to the second on release, I don't even need to go any further with that, it just doesn't compare in the slightest.
City of Heroes
The character customization of this game destroyed nearly all other games.
Dark age of Camelot
The amount of classes you could be in this game was huge, and 3 different factions to boot. If this was a modern game, there would be half the classes per faction.
Honestly though I could go on and on... I am a big salty butthurt oldschool gamer who misses having full featured rich games with multiple game modes, multiple classes, great combat systems... I don't give a shit about the shadows and lighting. It's lovely, but it's not really the point of a "Game". A game requires good "game play" and strong features.
Give me games with tons of features! 
Started playing mmorpg's in 1996 and have been hooked ever since. It began with Kingdom of Drakkar, Ultima Online, Everquest, DAoC, WoW...
Comments
The people who finance the creation of games aren't convinced resurrecting old school ideas and designs will very profitable, nothing more than this really.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I want Funcom to re-release Anarchy Online, exactly as is (minus a few balance issues), onto a new engine with modern graphics. That's it.
Do I need modern graphics for AO? No. But, I know it would bring in a ton of players.
Can you imagine how much money they could make from cash shop customizing characters and vehicles, alone?
I think that's why people still play it after 17 years. I have made countless characters, leveled them up. Geared them up. Then delete them to make a new one and do it all over again. I like the thought that goes into twinking. Oh the twinking. Hours and hours of getting ql 150 gear on a lvl 25 character.
I'm sitting in ICC right now deciding if I should roll an Opi Shade or Atrox or both.
I feel the sentiment, though. And Kyleran explains the biggest reason, in my view. I'd also add that cranking up the graphics on a game is one of the least expensive and more predictable results based things you can do to a game, and that's also why they do it. That's why companies are going back and doing graphic revamps of their previous hit games instead of making new ones. Seeing as how they aren't even charging people who originally bought the game, it should be pretty clear how cheap the process is.
Anyhoo... compare a nicer look to something like settlement building in Fallout 4, where it was almost universally panned. Sure, it seems like Bthsda is doubling down on that in Fallout 76, but they did end up dumping a bunch of development time in FO4 for a feature that most people couldn't really care less about in that game.
So often, I've seen a "feature" actually bog down a game that would be far better without it. At the risk of aging myself, "Asteroids Deluxe" was ANYTHING but deluxe compared to the original.
Yes I know we all have a Love, Hate relationship with WoW, weather it's we Love to Hate it, Hate that was Love it, in any case.
If you look at WoW's affect, you will see that previously, and also during it's early time, MMO's were really breaking apart in directions. I mean there was a kinds of MMO's all kinds of styles, choices, and features were great. WoW simplified the process, took off like a rocket. Every Publisher from there On, got Stars in theirs Eyes for those WoW bucks.
But as opposed to making something new to combat WoW, they just copied it, because nothing makes you more money and keeps you competitive then copying someone else's successful idea, with no understanding why their idea worked, and nothing makes big bucks like saturating a market with these cheap knock-offs.
Anyway.. so.. Well.. much like MOBA Craze, and The Fortnight Craze, and everything else that has been bandwagoned to death.. don't expect anything really great.. till great sells again.
Sorry.
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Visually as well, CO's cosmetic system has way more options and freedom CoH had, and in STO you can use that system on your officers as well.
True though, that with Neverwinter they took a step back in both aspects, visually it is more strict (pre-built faces, a handful of options on most areas), and build-wise you don't have too much variety within the selected class. Still a fun game, but not as good for theory-crafters as CO and STO.
After what happened with TSW, I rather want them to stay away from AO and leave it on the safe and sound maintenance mode.
Re-releasing the old game on the current market wouldn't bring too much to the table, and they are too cheap to spend even a dime for such a low income. If you check the latest reports, they are usually talking only about the IP of AO, not the game itself.
I guess if they will do anything with AO, that will be a lame action-game, maybe standalone, maybe with some minimal online part.
The gaming industry in particular relies too much on Market research, which kills developers creativity.
Having said that, most investors need to rely on Market research to minimize the risks on their investments, that's how business works.
Do I like it?
Absolutely not, but isn't anything new.
The best games (classics) have been made by indie developers (which became big after the success of their game).
It's been always like that and always will be.
Don't expect AAA publishers to finance niche segments or innovative games.
Indies are the way to go.
Kain_Dale
But this more about the change to big business for MMOs and indeed gaming as a whole. I don't doubt developers have big ideas that get crushed for the sake of budget and marketing principles. As the old CEO of EA said, "I want my developers to be thinking of budget even before they come up with an idea". Well that was the gist of what he said anyway, and EA shows this in its board of directors as well:
http://investor.ea.com/directors.cfm
I think only one maybe two of them has either a gaming background or computing background. This creates a company that is churning out new games like Hovis churns out bread; originality, experiments, anything too new need not apply.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
sudden attack 2 trailer - this game shut down within 3 weeks of release nexon oversexualized the girl characters then ended up having to remove the two characters for inappropriate exposures.
if anyone want to see the female characters, people would actually suicide near each other to take videos lol the sad part about this game is that they didn't improve graphic wise besides character model and claims to have spent 27 million dollars on it.
This is how every big corporation works (unfortunately).
Big corporations are NEVER innovators, unless their founder is still in it (Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Richard Branson).
When is the last time Microsoft created a ground breaking product?
Since Windows and Office, 20 or something years ago, there is the desert.
What about Blizzard?
They created/mainstreamed RTS (Warcraft), Arpgs (Diablo), Themepark MMORPGs (WoW).
After WoW, their creativity flew out of the window.
They started making games for new trends (created by others) and marketed it, and yes they are doing ok.
But that's understandable.
When you have investors with no gaming background, you have to present them solid numbers when you invest in a new game, numbers which only marketing can supply.
'Gut feelings' do not go down very well in shareholders meetings.
For innovation we have to rely on the Elon Musks of this world and less on the Microsoft/Blizzard type corporations.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Better than all the 'beancounters' CEOs who snort cocaine 24/7 in secret, while banging 5 prostitues at a time, while their wives and kids are home alone.
But anyway Elon doesn't smoke weed, if you watch the whole podcast, he clearly said he never smokes stuff.
He did it because "why not?".
Yes, we need this kind of people who do not give a fuck about what the other people think of him and are willing to lose $3 Billion stock value in a day just to prove his point.
That's the basics of creativity, you don't go with the herd.
It's the other way round, you create, they follow.
A Business man who manufacture and sell Flamethrowers for the Lulz?
Yes we need this kind of people.
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Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
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EA does that too, they use their Frostbyte engine from FPS to Sports games.
In general big developers/publishers do that.
They develop an Engine that can be used for a wide variety of games so they can minimize costs and cut developing time.
Problem with small developers is that an Engine has a sell by date, and since they have only a small team that can develop one game at a time, by the time their game is out, their Engine is already out of date.
So they have to start from scratch for the new game.
That's why third party Engines are getting increasingly more popular.
Problem is that building games with third party engines, it's not as easy as it might look.
It's of course a compromise, of course. Ideally you always want to build your own engine which is tailored to your game, but it is not always time/cost efficient.