Off Topic: A Sad Note About PC Games

Saxon · #1 February 23rd, 2002, 09:15 AM

Richard,

Ok, now I am starting to get it. Basically the publishers are using developers as disposable grunt labour. Pay them by the hour and then keep the profits from the work and ideas, particularly when there is a big success. It sounds a bit like the recording industry, where the artists do the hard part and the companies only do PR and distribution of the product, but somehow manage to hold on to most of the cash. We also get lots of bad music targeted at focus Groups and demographics rather than people.

I now have a much better idea where you are coming from and see your points. Still, niche market or not, you have been involved in some great products and I hope that you can make it keep happening.

TerranC · #2 February 23rd, 2002, 09:23 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Richard:
... Wargames and sims suffered first. How many hardcore wargames or sims do you see coming out of major publishing houses today?... ...Remember SSI, Microprose, Interactive Magic, Janes, Origin, etc...

And let's face it Space based 4X games are a niche today.

Oh boy... Those were the days.
The scariest fact is SSI. they released Reach for the stars about 2 years ago and look at them now.

Yeesh.

Richard · #3 February 23rd, 2002, 04:28 PM

Actually even the RTFS remake was done by SSG, not SSI, and it was released from the remnants of SSI (most of the SSI folks had long been laid off) that was owned by Mattel Interactive at the time.

And RTFS is a PERFECT example of what I am talking about. It was a game where they tried to please everyone and pleased no one. They tried to remake a game that was a darling of the hard core 4X crowd, but dumbed it down a great deal. And they tried to make a game that the general public would like, but many of that audience didn't care for it.

Don't get me wrong the game has good qualities but there were a lot of folks that were disappointed by the overall quality of the remake. It surprised me too because I am a big SSG fan. In my mind you should always try to please you core audience with a game like this, and hopefully if you do a good enough job you will win converts from the casual gamers out there.

As far as SSI goes I was a huge SSI freak, my wife said I should buy stock in them

. If it had SSI on the box I used to buy it without thinking as I knew I was going to get a game I would love. Those were the days

.

disabled · #4 February 23rd, 2002, 06:05 PM

Personally, I don't like consoles much these days. Most of the games just suck. I play Final Fantasy and Test Drive Series on the sony, but beyond that most consoles controls seem sluggish and awkard to me plus game play is short most of the time.

Now....
Last night I spent a good 7 hours playing Space Empires I, 2 and so on. Why? It was fun.

As for Space Empires IV, I sincerly hope that it doesn't use RTG graphics like most games do. I hate the blocky and stretched texture look more RTG games have on this ships and graphics. MM shouldn't go down that industry standard...

Phoenix-D · #5 February 23rd, 2002, 09:33 PM

RTG?

Phoenix-D

capnq · #6 February 23rd, 2002, 09:48 PM

RTG = Real Time Graphics, a computer graphics (animation?) standard.

I don't understand Hadrian's comment, though, since SE IV's graphics are based on .bmp formats. Did you mean some hypothetical future sequel?

disabled · #7 February 23rd, 2002, 10:30 PM

If I recall it right, MM would be using the next few games to develop and test systems to be used in SpaceEmpires V.

[ June 14, 2003, 18:28: Message edited by: General Talashar ]