Guns Blazing
Dark Souls 2 is all about going in, guns blazing, and hoping to God it works. Oh dear.
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Dark Souls 2 is all about going in, guns blazing, and hoping to God it works. Oh dear.
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Jimquisition: Guns Blazing
- Thread starter Jimothy Sterling
- Start date
I really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really don't want this to be true - but I too have been feeling this deep down in my gut and with every new thing I hear about Dark Souls 2 the feeling gets worse. It started when I heard that Miyazaki had been ousted as director by Namco.
Why must this happen? Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are two of my favorite games from this generation.
Why must this happen? Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are two of my favorite games from this generation.
I was all ready halfway through, to give my opinion on why they are doing taking this direction, and then you go ahead and word it perfectly.
Hell, you even expanded into my other issue with triple A gaming, and that's the need to try to appeal to people who don't give a damn about the title. It's what pissed me off so much about Dragon Age and Mass Effect. It's not that the sequels were bad games because of the directions they chose, it's that they were not the reasons for why I got into those series in the first place.
If I wanted a cover based shooter with brilliant combat, I already had Gears of War, it's not what interested me about Mass Effect.
Publishers, developers or whomever makes the decisions on these matters are just far too greedy. Wanting to sell millions is not a bad goal, but if you are already selling millions and have a happy fanbase, then why risk throwing it away in the attempt to just make another million?
Sure, they make more money in the short term, but in the long run they just end up alienating the fans. Hell, look at Bioware fans before ME3 and DA2, and now look at them. Yes, there are still plenty of them, but I imagine Bioware have also lost a hell of a lot of them too. Or else they have made people unwilling to trust them enough to get a day one purchase, and so people are more wary.
I don't bring up Bioware and EA to beat a dead horse, but they are the people with this attitude with whom I have the most experience, so I apologise if people have a "Oh here we go again" reaction.
Hell, you even expanded into my other issue with triple A gaming, and that's the need to try to appeal to people who don't give a damn about the title. It's what pissed me off so much about Dragon Age and Mass Effect. It's not that the sequels were bad games because of the directions they chose, it's that they were not the reasons for why I got into those series in the first place.
If I wanted a cover based shooter with brilliant combat, I already had Gears of War, it's not what interested me about Mass Effect.
Publishers, developers or whomever makes the decisions on these matters are just far too greedy. Wanting to sell millions is not a bad goal, but if you are already selling millions and have a happy fanbase, then why risk throwing it away in the attempt to just make another million?
Sure, they make more money in the short term, but in the long run they just end up alienating the fans. Hell, look at Bioware fans before ME3 and DA2, and now look at them. Yes, there are still plenty of them, but I imagine Bioware have also lost a hell of a lot of them too. Or else they have made people unwilling to trust them enough to get a day one purchase, and so people are more wary.
I don't bring up Bioware and EA to beat a dead horse, but they are the people with this attitude with whom I have the most experience, so I apologise if people have a "Oh here we go again" reaction.
Wow... Just wow. It might be a bit of a early call to say this, but I think this might be the angriest that I've seen Jim in a very long time. And I have to say, he's right to be. I'm not the biggest fan of the Souls franchise myself, but I do wholeheartedly agree that have been in too much of a trend of putting in features that they don't need in games just to attempt to appeal to an audience, and not focus on what those who are already fans of the series say they want more of.
The games industry is crumbling all around us, and people like Jim are trying to quickly repair it with duct tape as it falls.
I'm imagining pieces breaking off, rotting and snapping like twigs under their own weight as Jim screams "Noooooooo" dramatically
A very sad image to be sure and it brings tears to my eyes but as I look on I can't help but feel that maybe it's time to just let it die.
I'm imagining pieces breaking off, rotting and snapping like twigs under their own weight as Jim screams "Noooooooo" dramatically
A very sad image to be sure and it brings tears to my eyes but as I look on I can't help but feel that maybe it's time to just let it die.
Aaaaand, several users now went and looked up the Belladonna ***** Fist just to see if this is real. It is and the comment on the Amazon page is priceless, I tell you. Priceless. I also like how the Amazon page I found says it's a package of four. I don't even want to know what someone would do with four rubber fists.
It's doubly obvious as he keeps putting out examples of games that only went for that niche market and ended up doing very well, ie. Dark Souls, Dead Space, X-COM, etc.DVS BSTrD said:
Don't misunderstand me. I agree with everything he said. What I meant was that he must be getting sick and tired of having to say it because Publishers refuse to listen.DVS BSTrD said:
You know, I think I am missing a healthy dose of undeserved mental and physical pain in my life. Whereabouts could I get my own Belladonna ***** Fist?
To my knowledge, the moment someone utters the phrase "hope to God it works" has already dug their own grave. I have a hard time believing any normal human being could look at that phrase and think "Well gee, now I should totally go and get Dark Souls 2". The idea that a professional uttered those words makes me cringe. That's something you only see in parodies on the net, made for the purpose of comedy.
To my knowledge, the moment someone utters the phrase "hope to God it works" has already dug their own grave. I have a hard time believing any normal human being could look at that phrase and think "Well gee, now I should totally go and get Dark Souls 2". The idea that a professional uttered those words makes me cringe. That's something you only see in parodies on the net, made for the purpose of comedy.
Well, I'm not going to go on the offensive until the game has been released, It's a little disappointing to hear that statement but I will most likely like the game as long as it has the same attitude as the first one.
Tis true,
And it saddens me as a massive Dark Souls fan. Oh well. I still have faith that From Software will deliver a good game. As good as the master piece that was Dark Souls? One can not hope for such a thing as no Zelda game has topped a Link to the Past in almost 20 years.
And it saddens me as a massive Dark Souls fan. Oh well. I still have faith that From Software will deliver a good game. As good as the master piece that was Dark Souls? One can not hope for such a thing as no Zelda game has topped a Link to the Past in almost 20 years.
I can understand why Sterling would be upset by this, and we won't know if "Dark Souls II" would turn down this route of trying to compete against "Skyrim" until it is launched or we see more advertising indicating this. But, I'm willing to disagree with Sterling on this as competition like this could encourage growth.
If games stuck to their niche audience by making the same game for them to enjoy, then that is what Nintendo is doing. Same Zelda game, same Mario game, and only trying to do something new with the Metroid franchise (that didn't work out so well, I know). The point here is that games can become stagnant and homogenous if they don't try something new. In laymans terms, if I heard that "Dark Souls II" provides all the content I like from "Dark Souls I", then why should I buy it?
On the other hand, if I heard that "Dark Souls II" was borrowing ideas and features from "Skyrim", like a crafting system or screwing the souls system in favor a skill-growth system, I might be interested in trying it. Sterling has a few videos here where we could try ideas of a modern shooter game set in a horror setting, or showing interest in "Silent Hill" done in a top-down action RPG similar to "Diablo" on the PS Vita. I don't see how it could be harmful for the developers of "Dark Souls II" to look at "Skyrim" and see how they can use what they learned to potentially make the game better. It would be an interesting experiment, I think.
Though it seems like the wording here is the developers of "Dark Souls II" want to 'compete' against "Skyrim", not 'learn' from it. In that case, they might be setting themselves up for failure as Sterling talked about. But either way we won't know until we learn more about the game.
If games stuck to their niche audience by making the same game for them to enjoy, then that is what Nintendo is doing. Same Zelda game, same Mario game, and only trying to do something new with the Metroid franchise (that didn't work out so well, I know). The point here is that games can become stagnant and homogenous if they don't try something new. In laymans terms, if I heard that "Dark Souls II" provides all the content I like from "Dark Souls I", then why should I buy it?
On the other hand, if I heard that "Dark Souls II" was borrowing ideas and features from "Skyrim", like a crafting system or screwing the souls system in favor a skill-growth system, I might be interested in trying it. Sterling has a few videos here where we could try ideas of a modern shooter game set in a horror setting, or showing interest in "Silent Hill" done in a top-down action RPG similar to "Diablo" on the PS Vita. I don't see how it could be harmful for the developers of "Dark Souls II" to look at "Skyrim" and see how they can use what they learned to potentially make the game better. It would be an interesting experiment, I think.
Though it seems like the wording here is the developers of "Dark Souls II" want to 'compete' against "Skyrim", not 'learn' from it. In that case, they might be setting themselves up for failure as Sterling talked about. But either way we won't know until we learn more about the game.
Actual subject matter of that video aside:
If there was House 'Quisition in Game of Thrones, its sigil would be a black Belladona Bitchfist rampant upon a red field. That's a banner I'd flock to.
CAPTCHA: general tso... more like General Jim - the gaming industry needs a revolution.
If there was House 'Quisition in Game of Thrones, its sigil would be a black Belladona Bitchfist rampant upon a red field. That's a banner I'd flock to.
CAPTCHA: general tso... more like General Jim - the gaming industry needs a revolution.
Welcome to modern capitalism. It sucks.
Yeah, that's really the only thing to add: this isn't just limited to gaming. The world's full of people and businesses that think growth is automatic and infinite, and that not getting the return you wanted is failure even if you're in the black. A business's money doesn't come from thin air from the capitalism fairy, it comes from customers, and even overlooking how stagnant wages can hinder buying power or market over saturation can lead to even willing buyers not being able to, the reality is eventually you will sell to everyone that wants your product and nothing you can do will lure in customers not interested in any great numbers. The game industry is right now desperate to try and bring in the more casuals and get them to buy like the hardcore, but that's what makes them casuals: they don't buy in bulk, they don't buy repetitive clones, and they may not even know Tomb Raider had multiplayer as they don't visit the websites.
This is market maturity and it isn't a bad thing. I mean, if you only value share prices, yes it's bad, but if you just want more money in your pocket at the end of the day than you started with, it's perfectly viable. Know your market and appeal to it. Know your costs and don't let them get out of hand. Make something good enough and you might even draw in outside markets to see what the fuss is all about (ie: how Final Fantasy 7 brought RPGs to the mainstream). The hard part is getting over the mental block generated over the last 30 years that prevents you from going, "I was good yesterday, and I haven't moved, so I'm still good."
Yeah, that's really the only thing to add: this isn't just limited to gaming. The world's full of people and businesses that think growth is automatic and infinite, and that not getting the return you wanted is failure even if you're in the black. A business's money doesn't come from thin air from the capitalism fairy, it comes from customers, and even overlooking how stagnant wages can hinder buying power or market over saturation can lead to even willing buyers not being able to, the reality is eventually you will sell to everyone that wants your product and nothing you can do will lure in customers not interested in any great numbers. The game industry is right now desperate to try and bring in the more casuals and get them to buy like the hardcore, but that's what makes them casuals: they don't buy in bulk, they don't buy repetitive clones, and they may not even know Tomb Raider had multiplayer as they don't visit the websites.
This is market maturity and it isn't a bad thing. I mean, if you only value share prices, yes it's bad, but if you just want more money in your pocket at the end of the day than you started with, it's perfectly viable. Know your market and appeal to it. Know your costs and don't let them get out of hand. Make something good enough and you might even draw in outside markets to see what the fuss is all about (ie: how Final Fantasy 7 brought RPGs to the mainstream). The hard part is getting over the mental block generated over the last 30 years that prevents you from going, "I was good yesterday, and I haven't moved, so I'm still good."