Actually, statements like this:AzrealMaximillion said:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/124957-CliffyB-Thinks-Used-Games-Are-Bad-Sony-is-Playing-Us
are why people hate him. He is a PR disaster waiting to happen whenever he speaks publicly.
Curt Schilling Calls Amalur a "Billion Dollar Franchise," CliffyB Disagrees
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/124957-CliffyB-Thinks-Used-Games-Are-Bad-Sony-is-Playing-Us
are why people hate him. He is a PR disaster waiting to happen whenever he speaks publicly.
But it seems to have been a while since the last "Cliffy B says a thing" story. I missed them.MCerberus said:
Of course young Clifford said that, he's not insane.
The idea that practically any new fantasy MMO could do well in the current market is ridiculous.
The idea that practically any new fantasy MMO could do well in the current market is ridiculous.
The gameplay was good, there was nothing else interesting about it. I played the demo over and over, and it was really cool to have an "action" combat system, but I never read nor cared for any of the story since it was that "you're the most important guy/anomaly ever".
I agree that it might've been a "billion-dollar franchise", in debt though.
I agree that it might've been a "billion-dollar franchise", in debt though.
Pretty much. The man may not be a complete moron all of the time, such as in this case, but he is generally a dick, and fairly anti-consumer based on some of his past comments. He may be a reasonably successful game designer, but the man has the business sense of a brick.RedEyesBlackGamer said:
and yet I would play it over anything Cliffy has ever designed. It was definitely an interesting title with a lot of potential.
I played KoA only to dislike how generic it looked.
In fact I haven't played a game that felt that generic since the first Saints Row.
....
Wait.... a KoA game that somehow came from Volition if Deep Silver bought it.... And played like Saints Row 4....
....
Yes! Take all my money please! (Assuming if it ever happened.)
In fact I haven't played a game that felt that generic since the first Saints Row.
....
Wait.... a KoA game that somehow came from Volition if Deep Silver bought it.... And played like Saints Row 4....
....
Yes! Take all my money please! (Assuming if it ever happened.)
Having R.A. Salvatore at the creative back end, Amalur had a lot and I mean a lot of promise. But having Schilling running a company into the ground, its a far cry from being a billion dollar franchise.
Being a fan of Salvatore's fiction, both in D&D's Forgotten Realms and his own Demon Wars universes and having spoken to Bob on many occasions, I honestly believe Amalur could have been more. As it happened though, KOA: Reckoning wasn't directly written by him, rather he was working on the overall universe. KOA: Reckoning was supposed to be a prequel set-up to the Copernicus MMO. Now, beyond the writing part, it would have taken a good dev team to truly bring the universe to life and sadly it was Mr. Schilling's ego that tanked 38 Studios... Sure Reckoning wasn't the greatest RPG, but it was fairly well put together and played well which made me believe with a little more time the folks at 38 Studios could have made something better.
They probably should have ditched the MMO idea until they had a few games under their belt though. I feel bad for Bob the most, because he honestly loved the universe he was helping create and watching it crash and burn before it was even fully revealed had to hurt.
Being a fan of Salvatore's fiction, both in D&D's Forgotten Realms and his own Demon Wars universes and having spoken to Bob on many occasions, I honestly believe Amalur could have been more. As it happened though, KOA: Reckoning wasn't directly written by him, rather he was working on the overall universe. KOA: Reckoning was supposed to be a prequel set-up to the Copernicus MMO. Now, beyond the writing part, it would have taken a good dev team to truly bring the universe to life and sadly it was Mr. Schilling's ego that tanked 38 Studios... Sure Reckoning wasn't the greatest RPG, but it was fairly well put together and played well which made me believe with a little more time the folks at 38 Studios could have made something better.
They probably should have ditched the MMO idea until they had a few games under their belt though. I feel bad for Bob the most, because he honestly loved the universe he was helping create and watching it crash and burn before it was even fully revealed had to hurt.
While it does have the name R.A. Salvatore connected to it, Amalur isn't worth billions.
Millions perhaps, but a generic fantasy in this saturated fantasy market...
Millions perhaps, but a generic fantasy in this saturated fantasy market...
i havent played the game myself but i had a game who was fanatical about it and made me watch couple hours of streaming he was doing of the game. The game looked... okay i guess. he really really enjoyed it though.
The thing about this news is that one company that went under claism to have a billion dollar worth of assets, and another guy that wasnt made anything worthwile in decades now claims they dont. Neither side really has the backing to be believed.
CapchA: grand slam
No, nothing grand here
The thing about this news is that one company that went under claism to have a billion dollar worth of assets, and another guy that wasnt made anything worthwile in decades now claims they dont. Neither side really has the backing to be believed.
CapchA: grand slam
No, nothing grand here
That was a pretty disrespectful way of stating the obvious, actually.Andy Chalk said:
--Morology!
It could have been a contender, but alas it was not to be. As much as it twists in my scrotum to do it, I gotta side with Cliffy B on this one; too many mistakes made early and not enough interesting story to overcome the setting.
Which is a shame because it was more pleasurable to play than Skyrim was.
Which is a shame because it was more pleasurable to play than Skyrim was.
"Curt Schilling won a few World Series rings last decade and then decided that qualified him to make videogames"... I have a problem with this portion of the article. Its incorrect, and absolutely not true. His world series rings had NOTHING to do with making him feel qualified to make videogames, it was playing EverQuest hardcore in his off hours away from home, that even led him down that path. If you play games, then believe it or not, that just might be enough to qualify you to make a videogame. I most certainly assure you that if I had the finances he did, that is exactly what I would be doing now. Not only that, but I have absolute confidence that I could make a game that people would enjoy. However, again, I dont have the finances he does (or did) and my life went down another path, and it is what it is. But I most certainly assure you that most of your successful devs out there today all started as gamers playing games, which is exactly what Curt Schilling was. As we speak, there is someone out there simply playing a videogame, that will one day create the next big thing. Mark my words. So that quote right there is waaaaaay offbase.
Aside from that, yes he did bite off more than he could chew, and it resulted in very bad things for the game and his company, which to me personally, is a shame. I liked Amalur, but it needed alot of tweaking and work. But he was onto something with it, had it not all come off the rails like it did.
Aside from that, yes he did bite off more than he could chew, and it resulted in very bad things for the game and his company, which to me personally, is a shame. I liked Amalur, but it needed alot of tweaking and work. But he was onto something with it, had it not all come off the rails like it did.
This is just what he wishes would happen, he doesn't realize how bad a world he got dumped with. He thought he could rush through all the hard parts that really matter in creating a game franchise and get into the good, meaty stuff because he thought he'd seen how it's been done before, because he had enough money that he felt he could gloss over those hard parts and because he was a baseball star.
In short, Amalur is a vanity project.
Been reading the tea leaves on his work during his time posting on Fires of Heaven's old message board.
His time playing Everquest saw him internalize the assumption that is Verant could make up a fantasy game with a descent back story and mythology and start the franchise off with what you read in the manual and have a hit, then anybody could do it.
He tried, but he failed in numerous areas, namely by being pretentious and expecting things to happen how he wanted them to, like Amalur taking off strong like EQ did. Verant never had any assumptions and were stunned by how popular EQ became, the very basic design and leveling of EQ shows that fact - it's terribly planned out for an MMO and it's why it turned to shit after only a few expansions in.
The main issue story wise was no one really cared about EQs backstory as an integral part of the game, it was interesting, but it set the games tone while everyone was busy doing what EQ excelled at - Leaving you to explore the world on your own terms and find neat things as you tried to get exp and loot, not railroaded around with quests. You made your own fun.
Amalur had either a shitty backstory that was generic or WoWy or neat elements that weren't explored well enough to get you pulled in.
The Fey repeating history over and over, doomed to actual fate only to find their bound way of life falling apart of many of them hating being stuck in the loop without the freedom to be what they what is an interesting idea - it's too bad the way it was presented only laid everything out for you to comprehend near the tail end of the side quests as you being Sagrel. It should have been presented as much of the backstory was, as passing facts that everyone assumes everyone knows and allows you to get accustomed to the idea before you're faced with it.
The same goes for the first DLC where the story has almost no brooding and foreshadowing, you're told everything right near the end and only then and then the DLC is done and isn't explored anymore.
This "billion dollar franchise" attitude is exactly why KOA failed. It was cart before the horse from start to finish. They were pouring assets into building the lore, the setting, the MMO, etc. - laying the groundwork for a whole franchise of games - instead of doing what every developer should be doing at any given moment: trying to make one great game. You don't let Salvatore dick around with big picture nonsense when your dialogue, quests, and characters sucks balls. You don't have people drawing up concepts for future projects when your very first game lacks QA, proper balance, and anything that might be mistaken for a heart.
And it's too bad because KOA wasn't too terribly far off the mark. Maybe if they'd focused all of their time and energy on making a great first impression with their first game, we'd be looking at previews for the inevitable sequel instead of reading ridiculous quotes from a baseball player and the guy who ruined video games.
Yes, I'm kidding.
And it's too bad because KOA wasn't too terribly far off the mark. Maybe if they'd focused all of their time and energy on making a great first impression with their first game, we'd be looking at previews for the inevitable sequel instead of reading ridiculous quotes from a baseball player and the guy who ruined video games.
Yes, I'm kidding.
I actually don't think his points on used games are entirely invalid if you look at it from outside the perspective of the gaming consumer. But this isn't the kind of thread for that topic. Most of the time, on this site especially, Cliffy B gets hate for having made Gears of War and almost nothing else.RedEyesBlackGamer said: