IO Refuses To Be "Dictated To" by Fans

[Awexsome]

For the most part I tend to agree. Perhaps for a series like Hitman it would need a bit more fan input than normal games since the series hasn't been around for a while and the risk of widely missing the mark is greater.

Fan interaction and input is priority one come post-launch support but during development the fans aren't the people who's job it is, it's the developers. Generally it's very much the best approach to do what IO said, "listen, but not be dictated." Plus fans is a very broad term and demographics of them can, nay, will ALWAYS call a game shit over the pettiest of things.

 

[Woodsey]

"Blystad seems to be specifically referring to Hitman: Absolution's new navigation system, which highlights possible in-game routes with colored lines, a feature some fans argue, may make the game too easy. Blystad claims that the feature is necessary, and that the degree of player freedom in the original Hitman games wasn't readily apparent because of the game's breadth of options and unforgiving difficulty.

I would disagree - freedom is not necessarily about standing on a hill and being able to point out all your options straight away. There's a lot to be said for exploration, as well as plans that are completely improvised.

Crysis 2 practically destroyed the sense of freedom present in the first game by not only making levels much smaller, but by literally pointing out your set-piece options. OK, I'm aware of my options, but I don't feel as if I have freedom because I'm just choosing from 3 pre-fabricated options.

Yes, the other Hitman games had paths that were technically mapped out, but they were spread in such a way that you felt as if you were still simply being clever and combining all these elements together.

The game will be rated 18, make the most of that fact and build a game that's intelligent. Gamers have managed the past 30 years just fine without having to have lines drawn on the floor for them.

If that's considered "hardcore" now then its because developers have let gamers get lazy.

That's a thin line to straddle. Since, as you mention, the paths are technically mapped out, it can be a struggle for a player to decide if they are failing because of tatical/execution errors, or because they are trying to follow a path that doesn't exist and cannot work.

A toggled ability like this seems to me a fairly elegant solution to that problem.

Only they did it in Blood Money. As I said, the potential for this "solution" to take charge of the game's level design is a major thing.

And looking at it from that perspective stinks of laziness. If your level isn't working, they should be trying to fix it, not employing this sort of thing.

I'm pretty sure its why we now have bloody keys designated to make you look at background set pieces (again, see Crysis 2). A good designer will draw your attention to it subtly - Valve's games are a very strong example of this, particularly Half-Life 2 and the Portal games. Bad design is sticking "press F to look" on the screen.

 

[Something Amyss]

That's a good point about that faux-freedom that Hitman had, I'm playing through Blood Money right now, and while it is a ton of fun (it really is, pick it up now), I often find myself playing and replaying the level just to find out which route leads to what. The first time on a level can be overwhelming to those not familiar with the layout or the position of guards.

That's kind of the best part of the game to me. Exploring a dozen different routes and trying different options. A couple of the levels were kind of frustrating, but whatever. In the end, it felt rewarding.

 

[AGenericHero]

I've considered trying out the new hitman to enter the series, but if IO is this cruel to the fans than forget it.

 

[RA92]

1. All investment ventures come to an end sooner or later, they still have made enough money on the cod franchise and their other tried and true titles to buy valve and ship its HQ to space(and not through a portal either) and I believe that market saturation is somthing that they have both forseen and are unbothered by(judging by the rate they release COD games). As soon as COD stops selling they simply make another type of game that will,or it will never stop selling because the apeal of a updated cod never dies I believe that this is a real possibility judging by their sales not decreasing after all the titles they released.

And what're the chances that when CoD's appeal wears off Activision will be able to set up a new franchise even remotely as profitable? See Treblaine's post on the status of the rest of their franchises. That's what happens when you run a creative medium like a business.

And why the fuck did you quote me in the first place? I wasn't bitching at AAA devs o change their practices - I merely said I had lost faith in their model after such debacles as the XCOM game. It's not my business to see what's profitable for them. I'm a consumer, and if I don't find something to my liking, I sure as hell ain't gonna change my taste and expectations to accommodate their business practices.

 

[Treblaine]

2. That statment was a joke and a fairly obvious one as that, if your offended somthing as mild as that then Im not sure how you get by on the internet without being angry all the time.

Jokes can be insulting.

That was just an insult.

 

[TheDooD]

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong but is this the 3rd time this week a team basically said "FU fans"?

 

[Sjakie]

Blystad seems to be specifically referring to Hitman: Absolution's new navigation system, which highlights possible in-game routes with colored lines, a feature some fans argue, may make the game too easy. Blystad claims that the feature is necessary, and that the degree of player freedom in the original Hitman games wasn't readily apparent because of the game's breadth of options and unforgiving difficulty. "That kind of freedom is not very interesting, because it's not really a choice, but you just try it and then you see if you fail and then you try something else," he said.

Sure, put that in so we can jump through your hoops.
/sarcasm
It's not necessary.

Why not include an option to TURN THAT HANDHOLDING-SHIT OFF!

 

[TheDooD]

It's like the fans don't trust the actual developers to handle the game, and that's kind of sad I think.

Why would they? So many developers are so concerned with making their games "appeal to a wider audience" that the games simply devolve into something that the original fans don't want to play, and the supposed "new audience" still has no interest in because what the game has now become is something they've seen done better, elsewhere.

That's the irony of "dumbing it down". They basically say fuck you original fans that made this new game possible. We're gonna appeal to people that never gave a shit about our game in the first place and somehow we're gonna make more money.

This is a reason why I think quite a few public relations people should be fired. Unless they truly understand how gamers think and not kissing the ass of faceless stock holders. It's getting proven more and more that dumbing down a product for a wider audience it kinda backfires. You pissed off original fans and new people still have no idea whats going on. It's better to keep original fans that'll encourage newer fans then having less of both.

 

[Hungry Donner]

If I don't have the option to play the game with a large multi-colored clown wig I'm not getting the game IO, do you hear that! I'm serious mind you!

 

[Sven_Untgaarde]

Being an avid player of Hitman, i can easily see this as a partially optional choice (the map-directions thing) because in Blood Money, if you played in Professional, your map showed no AI's: neither enemies or the innocent, while in Expert, you could only see the innocent.

whether they keep it or scrap it, I think the game will be a great game well worth it's cost, and i think it's story and missions will be on par or even better than their previous ones.

I also hope Jesper Kyd can cook up some awesome music. Out of any game composer out there, he's the only one that seems to be given credit, and well worth it.

 

[Woodsey]

It's like the fans don't trust the actual developers to handle the game, and that's kind of sad I think.

Why would they? So many developers are so concerned with making their games "appeal to a wider audience" that the games simply devolve into something that the original fans don't want to play, and the supposed "new audience" still has no interest in because what the game has now become is something they've seen done better, elsewhere.

That's the irony of "dumbing it down". They basically say fuck you original fans that made this new game possible. We're gonna appeal to people that never gave a shit about our game in the first place and somehow we're gonna make more money.

This is a reason why I think quite a few public relations people should be fired. Unless they truly understand how gamers think and not kissing the ass of faceless stock holders. It's getting proven more and more that dumbing down a product for a wider audience it kinda backfires. You pissed off original fans and new people still have no idea whats going on. It's better to keep original fans that'll encourage newer fans then having less of both.

Agreed, and I think its especially necessary for studios that could be somewhat considered critical darlings, even if their games aren't the bestsellers. If you fall from grace in that regard then you can quite easily be wiped off the map.

This sheer obsession with having everyone like everything is just silly. Its why we have genres in the first place.

I also hope Jesper Kyd can cook up some awesome music. Out of any game composer out there, he's the only one that seems to be given credit, and well worth it.

He's being replaced, along with all the original voice actors. That was the other thing - they seem to be gutting it out rather shamelessly (reportedly they won't even return David Bateman's phone calls) with a distinct lack of respect for the previous games in the series. Its all a little bizarre.

 

[Treblaine]

Blystad seems to be specifically referring to Hitman: Absolution's new navigation system, which highlights possible in-game routes with colored lines, a feature some fans argue, may make the game too easy. Blystad claims that the feature is necessary, and that the degree of player freedom in the original Hitman games wasn't readily apparent because of the game's breadth of options and unforgiving difficulty. "That kind of freedom is not very interesting, because it's not really a choice, but you just try it and then you see if you fail and then you try something else," he said.

Sure, put that in so we can jump through your hoops.
/sarcasm
It's not necessary.

Why not include an option to TURN THAT HANDHOLDING-SHIT OFF!

it's annoying but I wouldn't say it is handholding in the paternal sense, buch more like your pushy brother who has already played the game and he's going:

Bro: "OOH OH OOOOH! No, go through there, you can get in through there. No not there, down straight down there, in through the window. Or you could go up that pipe there - see that pipe, that pipe, walk up to it and grab the pipe. Grab... grab the pipe."

Le me: "hey, I'm trying to play the game my own way, OK?"

Bro: "yeah, well you're going to miss the good shit! JESUS CHRIST I'm just trying to help you, now shut the fuck up and sneak in through the back way... I thought it was so fucking clever when I figured all of this out... you should be grateful that I'm telling you all this"

Yep, that's what the devs are doing, they're being those obsessive pricks drawing lines and highlighting shit because they think it's more important to end up somewhere than to get there yourself.

Ultimately if fails to be an immersion experience, you no longer thing about the world according to the logic of the fictional world i.e. that you are sneaking through the villa of a druge lord, what would a drug lord's villa be like. But rather you are thinking about it like a game - as Yosharian's vid points out - you only think about what the developers want with their magic highlighting and pathfinding.

You can't write this off as a kind of 6th sense, this is game breaking in how it defeats all the in-world logic.

There have to be ways to give clues to these alternate entrances.