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Brilliant firingsquad article about the state of todays game industry
gpett
Member Posts: 1,105
I was very impressed by this article over at Firingsquad.com titled "What's killing game development?"
Excellent read that states some industry bottom line facts on how much money is involved and why the development times are so long. I was really impressed by some of the stories about failed games that were very good games but never quite caught on with the public.
I think game development is changing to be so expensive that your game has to be marketed globaly to be considered a AAA title. I hope that some of the smaller developers do not sell out and switch to a digital download business model that isnt quite as expensive and they can recoup all of the revinue instead of having to split the money with publishers/distributors.
Anyways, give it a read.
Comments
It's a good article. I didn't realize development teams were so small. It makes me think of how easy it could be to make a great game, and how easy it could be to accidentally screw one up! There seems to be little oversight and input.
But it also makes me ask: Why don't more groups of game developers make some 'hardcore' games instead of the worthless mass-pleasing candy-land dribble we're seeing lately???
- Phos
Maybe some failed because they were too early for their time. Or because the teams did a bad job. Or because the idea itself was weak. Doesn't really matter why. All that matters is that it failed, and thats all most investors want to know.
People do attempt hardcore games. Eve, shadowbane, asherons call, ect. But, I thought the article made it pretty clear that the money goes to people that sell mass market games. Hardcore games are considered a nich market. Sucks but it is true.
Yeah... it sucks
Define "hardcore" pls. What IS that? Why is eye candy bad? You know, this anti-mass, and what everyone likes must be bad is as old as humanity. I just dont buy it. I dont think things are good or bad just becaue many like it, or few like it. Things are good in themselves, or not. I just dont like narrow definitions like hardcore VS stupid casual at all. I want fun, not work. If you call that too casual, fine. But Vg tried, it failed, case solved and closed.
PS: I never liked WOW. But it did some things good and right and once the steam engine is invented, horseback riding just IS old fashioned. Thats just how it is.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
@Elikiel: Exactly. Which is why hardcore games are a niche market and usually only attempted by smaller developers with a smaller budget.
If you do not understand what "hardcore" means, Eve is the perfect example of a hardcore game. Features like harsh death penalties, steep learning curve, classless system, skill based system, all players play in the same server shard, and mostly pvp content. It is essientially the opposite of the typical mmorpg formula. I am so glad there are developers with balls out there making something different.
I am glad there are developers out there that try to fill diferent niche markets instead of making the next wow or lotro. I am not saying wow or lotro are bad games. I am saying they are not the type of games I want to play. Unfortunately with games becoming so expensive to develop we maybe be getting fewer and fewer AAA quality titles as the years progress. That is sad.
I don't consider myself 'hardcore', but whenever I list what I'd like to see in an MMO, people call me 'hardcore.' Here's what I think a good MMO would have:
- FFA PVP
- FPS combat
- Corpse-Looting (100% lootable)
- Housing (decoratable)
- Boats
- Some method of flying (dragons or carpets or something like that, whatever)
- Ability to swim
- No levels
- No classes (just a list of skills, like the old UO)
- Not instanced (anyone can go anywhere and influence anything)
- Player-run economy (vendors and crafting)
- No Radar/Coords (navigate by landmarks)
- Truly rare magic items (not a dime-a-dozen)
- Graphics match goods (if an ogre looks like he's holding a sword, it's on his dead corpse after he dies)
- No spawn-camping for gear (if a dragon kills the ogre and takes the sword, you gotta kill the dragon to get it now. And the next ogre that comes along isn't a carbon copy of the last one)
- No quests (they were bad for MMOs and are still bad for MMOs)
- Ability to 'pickpocket' (like in the old UO days)
- Reputation system (also like the original UO days)
- Insta-banned for cheating, duping, exploiting, using Ebay, spamming, etc. (EULA violations)
- No need for 40-man raids to get ahead
- Not a gear-based grind-fest
Hmm... that's all I can think of right now.
- Phos
I pretty much agree with all of your ideas Phos.
But I dont know if all of these ideas are "extreme" or "hardcore". It saddens me to see so many people think that watered down gameplay and soft penalities is fun. I find a game somewhere along these lines thats intense, yet free of classes, FFA PvP with looting ( i dont necessarily agree with 100% full loot...thats a bit too much, partial loot dropping is cool), and little gear grinding the way to go. And plenty of people would probably agree with me, its the sad fact that the hadcore niche is outspoken by the softer one.
In other news.....
New EA CEO admits to "boring people to death." Film at eleven....
Most of the reason behind the high costs is the assumption that developers need to reinvent the wheel. The folks behind Fallen Earth, actually recognized this and under their sister corporation put together a middle-ware package that will pretty much make most mid-sized to small development projects (keyword: independent) very easy. I hope to do a similar task for a particular part of game development (npc AI). My primary drive is that I think most games literally are just going on the premise that their base technology should be in-house created and not based on some open standard (GPL or non). Frankly, I think it's time game developers join the rest of the major development teams and get use to sharing ideas and code (hopefully under a non-GPL or atleast not GPL v3, imho), and stop pretending they're inventing something new when most of the time it's not.
-- Brede
Yep i agree with your post here completly. As an interesting side note everything with an capital E at the end is something my MMO has or will have this year So i guess EvE is definalty hardcore.
Hmm it reckons prices of games will go up. That will help? Surely, that will just push people even more towards the popular titles and away from the lesser popular ones.
To explain:
A person has £70 to spend.
Games are £60- he buys one game. Which game does he choose? The more popular one.
Games are £35 -he buys two games. Maybe a popular and a less popular one.