Resident Evil Is a Child, Capcom and Fans Are Its Parents

The Wooster

King Snap
Jul 15, 2008
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Resident Evil Is a Child, Capcom and Fans Are Its Parents


"We do listen to the fans but we can't be beholden to them at every turn," says Resident Evil 6 producer.

So the first reviews of Resident Evil 6 are rolling in and they're painting a bleak picture. A few outlets have chucked out the usual sevens and eights, while Gamespot, Polygon and Destructoid have been lining up to kick the game in the teeth. [http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/resident-evil-6/critic-reviews?dist=negative] While the professional response has been mixed, the fan response seems unanimous: The game's Metacritic user score currently stands at 0.5. While Metacritic user scores are worth exactly the same amount as the paper they're printed on, the low score does reflect the fanbase's oft-voiced displeasure with the franchise's new, action-packed direction.

Resident Evil 6 producer, Eiichiro Sasaki, compared Capcom's strained relationship with the series' fans to that of two fussy parents arguing over a child.

"The way I always think of it is that if Resident Evil represents a child, then the fans and us as creators are the two parents," he told the PlayStation blog. "The resulting games are like the children that are born between both of us. And just like real parents, you're not always going to agree on what is best for raising that child."

"We want to make sure that what we do pleases them but the initial reaction might not always be positive. We do listen to the fans but we can't be beholden to them at every turn or I don't think we'll ever make progress in terms of the series' development."

The role of fans and the degree of influence they should wield over a game's direction has been a hot topic as of late. The poor response to footage of 2K Marin's 1950s XCom FPS reboot seems to have prompted the hasty release of a more traditional XCom game from Firaxis. 2K's version appears to have been put on the back burner, with a recent survey indicating that the game may become a download-only third-person shooter. Likewise, the angry response to Mass Effect 3's ending and the subsequent campaign to have it changed seem to indicate that the game industry's line between creator and audience is rapidly being redrawn.

Source: PlayStation Blog [http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2012/10/02/resident-evil-6-interview-can-capcom-inject-new-life-into-the-undead/]


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LysanderNemoinis

Noble and oppressed Kekistani
Nov 8, 2010
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I don't blame the fans so much as I blame the all the generic military shooters and their fans. I mean, Resident Evil is a big series, but RE4 is one of their highest sellers and it didn't move so much as a fifth of what the Call of Duty games sell within their first week. Capcom likes money (as do we all), and wants to make more of it. So there you go. Besides, I think the 'fans' they did listen to are the CoD fans complaining about the controls and slower pace of the older games for being 'gay' and not 'hardcore' and since they're the ones dictating things these days, that's how things have gotten to the way they are. I enjoyed the demos, and will get RE6, and though I lament the loss of horror, it's still a good game in my opinion. If you have to be mad at anyone, I'd be mad at people like my best friend who won't even so much as look at a game if it isn't a brown 'n' gray military shooter.
 

CJ1145

Elite Member
Jan 6, 2009
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Eiichiro Sasaki, if you and the fans are the parents of this child, then stop abusing your fucking wife.
 

Tony2077

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Dec 19, 2007
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CJ1145 said:
Eiichiro Sasaki, if you and the fans are the parents of this child, then stop abusing your fucking wife.
yeah the fans can get really nasty at times
 

LysanderNemoinis

Noble and oppressed Kekistani
Nov 8, 2010
468
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And could The Escapist please stop using that stupid picture? It's really getting on my nerves. The story of the Resident Evil games are no sillier than anything that comes out of Activision.
 

natster43

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Jul 10, 2009
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Holy fuck 0.5 user score? I thought it would be getting a mediocre score, but not that bad, either that or people are just zero bombing it like they did with Mass Effect and such.


I don't know Capcom, if people are that against what you are doing, that kinda means you are doing something wrong.
 

kajinking

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Aug 12, 2009
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Not that great of an analogy considering one parent can just abandon the child since the other parent seems to think they know what's best for it...oh and the other parent leaving means both die. Yeah, not that great of a comparison when you think about it. The fact of the matter is it doesn't really matter what the publish wants in this situation since they could believe they released the greatest game ever made but if people don't like it they won't buy it. Still I'm glad I'm not a fan of the series to begin with since nothing is worse than seeing a series you loved hit rock bottom HARD (Command and Conquer fan here).

RE fans have my sympathy.
 

BreakfastMan

Scandinavian Jawbreaker
Jul 22, 2010
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So... If the fans AND the creators are parents, and the series is their children... What does that make Resident Evil 6? The evil deformed thing from Basket Case?
 

Dangit2019

New member
Aug 8, 2011
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You may be right, capcom, but you do realize that if your wife gets tired of this bullshit, they're very much willing to divorce you, right?
 

Dangit2019

New member
Aug 8, 2011
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Also, it's nice to know that IGN is being biased (as usual), but glass houses Escapist.
 
Jan 22, 2011
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DVS BSTrD said:
Call me old fashioned, but if videogame developers really cared about their "children", would they want them to, you know, NOT suck?
I think half of the problem is that most of the "children" that grew up playing resident evil are now cynical 25-35 year old kids that need to grow up.

natster43 said:
Holy fuck 0.5 user score? I thought it would be getting a mediocre score, but not that bad, either that or people are just zero bombing it like they did with Mass Effect and such.


I don't know Capcom, if people are that against what you are doing, that kinda means you are doing something wrong.
Any free voting on a website like metascore or MAL is not reliable with trolls that do raids for the lulz. I could honestly care less about their score because it holds no merit.

LysanderNemoinis said:
I don't blame the fans so much as I blame the all the generic military shooters and their fans. I mean, Resident Evil is a big series, but RE4 is one of their highest sellers and it didn't move so much as a fifth of what the Call of Duty games sell within their first week. Capcom likes money (as do we all), and wants to make more of it. So there you go. Besides, I think the 'fans' they did listen to are the CoD fans complaining about the controls and slower pace of the older games for being 'gay' and not 'hardcore' and since they're the ones dictating things these days, that's how things have gotten to the way they are. I enjoyed the demos, and will get RE6, and though I lament the loss of horror, it's still a good game in my opinion. If you have to be mad at anyone, I'd be mad at people like my best friend who won't even so much as look at a game if it isn't a brown 'n' gray military shooter.
Thread over we have a winner here and pretty my resident evil turned into the mess it is now. You can probably still sell a classic resident evil game that was done on game-cube "remakes and O to hardcore fans" however how much revenue would capcom loose by making a title that no more than 100,000 people would by?
 

Steve Waltz

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May 16, 2012
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Capcom tries, but the Resident Evil fans always demand too much. In the Silent Hill Homecoming review of Zero Punctuation, Yahtzee said "Fans are clingy, complaining, dips****s, that will never, ever be grateful for any concession you make". And that is IS the truth with Resident Evil, and I feel very sorry for them about it.

Capcom did their best with Resident Evil: Revelations and I have to say, they made an outstanding survival/horror. It was an anxious atmosphere with Jill, a tense environment Chris, and very actiony with fat Carlos' backflashes. Yet "fans" hated it and didn't even give the time of day. It's almost insulting that they're missing out of one of the best Resident Evil games in history because it doesn't meet their impossible-to-meet demands.

I was on Capcom-Unity and I saw ALL of the complaints about the lack of Jill and Claire. The "fans" went so far that they called RE6 misogynistic at the lack of Jill and Claire. There are a LOT of Resident Evil fans and they are ALL demanding different things. How is Capcom supposed to please the fans, if their fans are demanding absolutely everything. If Capcom tried to cram absolutely everything into one game it would be an incomprehensible mess!

It is kind of a fad for Resident Evil "fans" to hate the series and give Capcom a hard time. So it's not a surprise to me that some "fans", who possibly hadn't even played the game yet, would run up and start criticizing it harshly.



Capcom has always done their best to keep in touch with their fans with Capcom Unity. They even have an "Ask Capcom" section on the forum where you can ask questions and (if the questions aren't ridiculously stupid) they will be answered. Personally, I asked if Resident Evil 6 had split-screen and Brent answered me over a live podcasts during the E3 (with a yes). Resident Evil fans simply demand too much for Capcom to EVER please.
 

Kopikatsu

New member
May 27, 2010
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I'm sure that people have played enough of the game on the day it was released to score it honestly/accurately and come up with a 0.5 average.

Sounds super legit.

Edit: Really, the scores are pretty meaningless. I'm just waiting for it's sales figures to be released. That'll tell the true story.

Edit 2: Score is down to 0.4 now.
 

Baresark

New member
Dec 19, 2010
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Steve Waltz said:
Capcom tries, but the Resident Evil fans always demand too much. In the Silent Hill Homecoming review of Zero Punctuation, Yahtzee said "Fans are clingy, complaining, dips****s, that will never, ever be grateful for any concession you make". And that is IS the truth with Resident Evil, and I feel very sorry for them about it.

Capcom did their best with Resident Evil: Revelations and I have to say, they made an outstanding survival/horror. It was an anxious atmosphere with Jill, a tense environment Chris, and very actiony with Carlos' backflashes. Yet "fans" hated it and didn't even give the time of day. It's almost insulting that they're missing out of one of the best Resident Evil games in history because it doesn't meet their impossible-to-meet demands.

I was on Capcom-Unity and I saw ALL of the complaints about the lack of Jill and Claire. The "fans" went so far that they called RE6 misogynistic at the lack of Jill and Claire. There are a LOT of Resident Evil fans and they are ALL demanding different things. How is Capcom supposed to please the fans, if their fans are demanding absolutely everything. If Capcom tried to cram absolutely everything into one game it would be an incomprehensible mess!

It is kind of a fad for Resident Evil "fans" to hate the series and give Capcom a hard time. So it's not a surprise to me that some "fans", who possibly hadn't even played the game yet, would run up and start criticizing it harshly.



Capcom has always done their best to keep in touch with their fans with Capcom Unity. They even have an "Ask Capcom" section on the forum where you can ask questions and (if the questions aren't ridiculously stupid) they will be answered. Personally, I asked if Resident Evil 6 had split-screen and Brent answered me over a live podcasts during the E3 (with a yes). Resident Evil fans simply demand too much for Capcom to EVER please.
I'm inclined to agree with you on all counts. They act like RE6 is the end all of bad RE games, which it definitely is not. I am personally enjoying this game and can't say that I regret buying it so far. I knew when I bought it the reviews were all over the place. I haven't gotten very far yet and I started with Leon's campaign. I have some complaints about the game, but all in all it's been a pretty positive experience. And I have died plenty of times, so it's challenging enough as I see it.
 

Omegatronacles

Guardian Of Forever
Oct 15, 2009
731
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Steve Waltz said:
Capcom did their best with Resident Evil: Revelations and I have to say, they made an outstanding survival/horror. It was an anxious atmosphere with Jill, a tense environment Chris, and very actiony with Carlos' backflashes. Yet "fans" hated it and didn't even give the time of day. It's almost insulting that they're missing out of one of the best Resident Evil games in history because it doesn't meet their impossible-to-meet demands.
I quite enjoyed Revelations, but I don't like the overall direction the games have been taking since 4 came out.

For me, Resident Evil was one of the best survival horror games released, even if the voice acting was awful and the story a little bit cheesy.

Nothing is quite as scary as knowing that you have to get to the other side of a building full of zombies while armed with a pistol, 6 rounds and a paper clip.

The series has lost all that tension, in favour of enemies that will charge wildly at me until they get within 6 feet and then stop, step slightly to one side, and then wait calmly to be hit in the face by my shotgun.

At which point they will drop enough ammo for me to reload my gun fully and have rounds to spare. That is what I am unhappy about with the recent installments. Action is all well and good in its place, but the more action you put in, the more atmosphere you lose.
 

Kopikatsu

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May 27, 2010
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Omegatronacles said:
Nothing is quite as scary as knowing that you have to get to the other side of a building full of zombies while armed with a pistol, 6 rounds and a paper clip.

The series has lost all that tension, in favour of enemies that will charge wildly at me until they get within 6 feet and then stop, step slightly to one side, and then wait calmly to be hit in the face by my shotgun.
I feel like this is relevant:

Kopikatsu said:
Well, considering that I have now beaten RE6 (Or at least part of it)...I'd say that it's pretty Resident Evil-y.

Just throwing out a random example, there's a point where in one of the stories, you're trapped inside of a ship that's about to go under. The door leading to the hanger, the only way to escape, is locked with three keycards because WHY NOT? A new enemy is introduced here that can't be killed but can be incapacitated for a moment. However, in areas with water (Mind you, this is a partially flooded ship) they can't be incapacitated at all because they use the water to revive themselves. Also, damaging them enough causes them to split into two pieces, which will eventually form two new entities. They're also more or less immune to melee attacks, as most of the higher tier enemies are. Another feature is that they'll tear off their arms and throw them at you, which will damage/blind/restrain you while they slither closer to finish you off. The disembodied arms are also autonomous and will chase you independently of the host.

Tight corridors, infinitely replicating enemies that are effectively immortal, and you've just finished fighting off wave after wave of mutated NU soldiers, so ammo was likely running a bit tight from the beginning without the ability to fall back on melee if you run completely dry. Gets pretty tense.

Edit: Also, for some asinine reason you have to swipe each keycard independently, which means that the monsters have enough time to catch up with you if you managed to shake them.
 

Zhukov

The Laughing Arsehole
Dec 29, 2009
13,769
5
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insanelich said:
Breaking news: Capcom admits to fucking its fans.
Comment of the day, ladies and gentlemen.

...

OT:

Personally, I'm not quite sure what the outrage/division is about. Were people actually expecting a horror game? It seems clear to me that, for better or worse, Resident Evil has been an action series with awkward controls since ever since RE4 (which, conversely, is often referred to as the best game in the series).

Hell, it's not like the old games were remotely scary anyway. Oh no! A zombie in a hallway!