Critical Miss: The Sega Guide
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If everyone in the world was Valve we'd live in a world without war or poverty and cars would run on carbon dioxide and have cupcakes for exhaust.Grey Carter said:
I'm not trying to be an 'apologist' for Sega, but I am suggesting that there is a legal reason for them to do so other than they're desire to be jerks.
As for Valve, if there was ever a legal fight over the Half-Life IP they may have a real problem on their hands. Of course, the reason they can take these risks is because Valve is in such a secure position, currently controlling the best digital distribution medium, games that Yahtzee can't criticize, and a fanbase that would gladly leap into a volcano to unlock a Portal 2 teaser trailer.
At this point, all Sega has is its old IPs. Which, again, their fault for not making better more recent games, but still, a reason to be more protective.
(As a side note, none of this should stand in your way of making funny comics like this one)
you apparently dont understand how copyright law works then. Copyright law applies only to the country where the business is founded, and so in the US, this is a simply black and white issue, in Japan, this is nowhere near as obvious of a solution, because they do not have the same laws as we do.ArmorArmadillo said:
Uhm... I could go into TRIPS and the various treaties that tell most high income nations that the copyright law of the US is respected in another country.toapat said:
Yes, there's some differences, but the law is still pretty similar in most of the G8 countries.
Adventure 2 was okay, better than one, but certainly had its own share of problems, the main thing being the horrible camera. Summed up perfectly in the fight with the Biolizard, where the camera shifts to showing what's behind you at the points where it chases you so you can see it trying to rip your spine out, neglecting the more important, what's in front of you, like that death drop (okay fast moving current, but the end result is the same). A particularly annoying example considering that it was clearl a concious design choice, whereas at other times it's just poorly done but unintentional coding rearing it's ugly head. I felt like a cartoon villian that runs into a wall as he flees from the heroes because he was too stupid to pay attention to anything but them. I've played (rented) other sonic games after that and I assure you they haven't fixed this at all.twaddle said:
Unless they want to do business internationally and are dealing with a US fan remake of a game.toapat said:
There are days like that i just dont understand the hate some corps have for fan-made content, spin-off fangames or mods or whatever. In the end it just give visibility to their own product and make people interestted in it... plus they can hire the team who made it if they are good.
To be fair, any fan who spends 8 years making a Sonic game instead of their own is doing it wrong.
Come on Sega, can't you make another Shinobi game? You know...those really awesome, super hard Ninja games you made and transitioned succesfully to 3D (Unlike ANOTHER stagnating property you continually use that has a fanbase so rabid and insane that they make the Twilight Fandom seem like perfectly stable human beings).
Ah well, good comic, describes perfectly how Sega make most of their games..
Ah well, good comic, describes perfectly how Sega make most of their games..
I'm gradually coming to truly hate nostalgia and reference comedy. So basically everything. I hate everything now.
Time for the guy with the Sega avatar to chime in.
Yes, this comic is true.
The reason for the stagnation? I would guess the Japanese game industry which itself is stagnating as a whole. Sonic Team are pretty much a "Sonic Factory" at this point. They've even expressed discontent with not being able to work on other games more often. Internally, the current Board of Directors at Sega are extremely conservative, something I would possibly attribute to Sammy, their parent company. They just have Sonic Team churn out game after game no matter the quality which itself is sad.
More times than not, it seems like Sega is hitting big with new IP's over their classic ones that aren't Phantasy Star. While the Online and Universe titles are good, there hasn't been a traditional Phantasy Star RPG in 17 years.
Fan outcry for a comeback of Streets of Rage goes unnoticed.
Shinobi had a mediocre PS2 comeback and follow-up with a different protagonist.
They bastardized Golden Axe with that Beast Rider abomination.
Alien Syndrome was stuck as an unnoticed PSP title with a lackluster Wii port.
They turned the once-awesome Tactical-RPG series, Shining Force, into a horrible Diablo knockoff.
After Burner, while still good, has been relegated to downloadable titles and still doesn't do anymore than the old arcade games did, just with updated graphics.
Sonic finally returns to 2D game play and they somehow cocked it up.
It's almost become as if anything before the Dreamcast, you're not supposed to talk about it, like some kind of unspoken rule I didn't know was in place.
What the current powers that be at Sega strive for is to be like everyone else and release what they do. They're releasing new IPs, some that are really good mind you, that are just playing the "Me too" card alongside similar games from companies like EA or Activision. Of course, if they played to their classic fan base, they'd probably find a way to fail at that too because they're not Nintendo. Or, rather, they don't have a collaboration of the right minds to pull it off like Nintendo.
It's all about making money of course, I'm just not sure at this point whose money they're going after.
Yes, this comic is true.
The reason for the stagnation? I would guess the Japanese game industry which itself is stagnating as a whole. Sonic Team are pretty much a "Sonic Factory" at this point. They've even expressed discontent with not being able to work on other games more often. Internally, the current Board of Directors at Sega are extremely conservative, something I would possibly attribute to Sammy, their parent company. They just have Sonic Team churn out game after game no matter the quality which itself is sad.
More times than not, it seems like Sega is hitting big with new IP's over their classic ones that aren't Phantasy Star. While the Online and Universe titles are good, there hasn't been a traditional Phantasy Star RPG in 17 years.
Fan outcry for a comeback of Streets of Rage goes unnoticed.
Shinobi had a mediocre PS2 comeback and follow-up with a different protagonist.
They bastardized Golden Axe with that Beast Rider abomination.
Alien Syndrome was stuck as an unnoticed PSP title with a lackluster Wii port.
They turned the once-awesome Tactical-RPG series, Shining Force, into a horrible Diablo knockoff.
After Burner, while still good, has been relegated to downloadable titles and still doesn't do anymore than the old arcade games did, just with updated graphics.
Sonic finally returns to 2D game play and they somehow cocked it up.
It's almost become as if anything before the Dreamcast, you're not supposed to talk about it, like some kind of unspoken rule I didn't know was in place.
What the current powers that be at Sega strive for is to be like everyone else and release what they do. They're releasing new IPs, some that are really good mind you, that are just playing the "Me too" card alongside similar games from companies like EA or Activision. Of course, if they played to their classic fan base, they'd probably find a way to fail at that too because they're not Nintendo. Or, rather, they don't have a collaboration of the right minds to pull it off like Nintendo.
It's all about making money of course, I'm just not sure at this point whose money they're going after.
I want to fix SEGA, If I held some influence as I worked there, I would definitly bring the problems up, Sega has made so many games that I do like, and they arent even Sonic, it sucks that I cant do anything to get them to change.
But a single camera issue doesn't make sonic adventure 2 a bad game. Call me wet behind the ears, but Sonic adventure 2 was the first game I played that featured anything resembling a moral choice system and actually gave you something for finishing both stories and not only were both the light and dark side stories radically different, you actually were rewarded for essentially beating the game twice! Plus the story was decent (as decent as an E rated game can get, don't give me this shadow the hedgehog (game) crap where he says damnit every 10 seconds.) and maybe it was just me, but the multiplayer had a lot of value.archvile93 said:
Moral choice systems that we have today tend to be crap anyways. Yahtzee said it best. "Drink some lead-based paint and retard themselves out of existence."
Many people disregard it (god forbid you like something that isn't 2-D and played on a massive humming brick... I take that brick part back) because it was new and didn't have 16 bit graphics, but Sonic adventure 2 is without a doubt a game that shows you how to do a linear story model RIGHT. Sonic team wasted nothing when making this game. It has three (five if you count kart racing and the chao stuff) different gameplay modes which all fit seamlessly into the story without spreading itself too thin. (which is more than most games can say) and still manages to be intuitive and unique without an open world system (I believe Sonic adventure 1 tried that and it was bloody tedious!)
Frankly I don't understand why no one likes this game.