Jimquisition: How Skyrim Proves The Industry Wrong

[Big Phil]

You know, that's what I call truly great music (referring to Skyrim's main theme) - it even makes Jim's awkward laughter at the end look awesome and epic.

 

[DioWallachia]

Before Skyrim, the industry was playing it safe by adding multiplayer so people can blame themselves for not having a good multiplayer experience (AKA You suck at having good friends to play with or even friends to begin with)

However, now thanks to Jim, the industry has found the way that single player IS the profitable. Therefore, the industry now will PLAY IT SAFE by coping Skyrim and by proxy, the fact that Skyrim story is a walking cliche that has been overdone before.

So in retrospect, Jim didnt change anything at all. The industry will do a minimal effort to make sure to use the same tiresome Tolkieneske-formula over and over.

Thanks John.....i mean Jim

 

[DioWallachia]

Jim Sterling is an idiot. I do agree with him though, that Skyrim proved the industry wrong is certain ways, but it proved the industry 100% right in the only way that matters - that you can be unoriginal and without any innovation whatsoever and still get away with huge sales and being proclaimed by the scum of the earth as the greatest thing since Mt Dew.

Amen

 

[DioWallachia]

TL;DR: Resounding sales figures for Skyrim is just the slow culmination of almost a decade of a growing fan base. This is not a new or original game that spat in the face of industry standards. In fact, congratulations RPGers, you've essentially become the CoD fanboys you despise so much, since this game is pretty much the RPG version of Modern Warfare 2.

May I direct you to minecraft? a "mystical dark horse that exploded onto the scene and surprised everyone". Like it or not, minecraft is a runaways success, is not part of a franchise did not have steller marketing or big budget. sooo..... the point stands?

Minecraft is an exception, not a rule. May I direct you to Psychonauts, Okami, Eternal Darkness, No More Heroes, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, more than half of the games on XLBA and the PS Store, etc.? Occasionally, awesome games with no marketing, budget, or established fan base break through and become popular like minecraft. But more often than not, they simply whither on the shelves, and just prove game publishers right about which games they should invest in. Skyrim is a part of the problem, not a solution like minecraft at all. Besides, Jim's point was that Skyrim was a dark horse that spat in the face of convention, so no, the point still doesn't stand.

I would say the problem is a marketing problem. Minecraft is not surprising because it's a single player game, It's surprising because it was never marketed and still successful. Furthermore, the lack of marketing for those games may be as a direct result of this silly mentality. Publishers may not be willing to put their marketing power behind a game with no multiplayer because "only multiplayer can succeed" I don't remember seeing a single trailer for the games you listed (exception to bound in blood, but I only saw it once, then I bought the game). Skyrim had all kinds of marketing that attracted a slew of new customers, minecraft only got popular through fan marketing.

I say you should be supporting Jim in this, maybe the industry will be willing to actually MARKET the games instead of leaving them in the cold. Seems to me like the games you mentioned were expected to fail and were not given a fair shake because they committed the sin of "single player".

The original Star Wars was also expected to fail. Hell, even James Earl Jones (Darth Vader voice) didnt want to appear in the credits of the first movie for what little he did.

And no, Minecraft IS a multiplayer focused game or otherwise it couldnt have the ammount of fanbase it has now. Why you ask? well its obvious that the gameplay on Survival just BEGS to have more people helping you because:

1)The game doesnt teach you crap and you need help from outside to achieve a successful first night (You need bloody Youtube to even begin to know what the game is about)

2)Making anything memorable with the blocks requires patience for resource gathering and constant revisionism with the help of more people to achieve it

Minecraft reminds me of a MMORPG and i dont say for the Enchantment crap that people keep complaining about, that is a retarded excuse for complaining. It feels that way because like a MMORPG you COULD try to kill alone the uber-sided-epic-monsters-of-the-week but it will take forever to do so, however with someones help you could do this monster and more more often and in a more satisfying way

Why do you think that people stopped playing 1.8 with the new Creative mode now? Because it was too easy, you can replace blocks with no efforts whatsoever and you dont have to suffer the consequences of having to redo all your work again and have your tools be destroyed. Why do you need people now?

 

[DioWallachia]

Minecraft is an exception, not a rule. May I direct you to Psychonauts, Okami, Eternal Darkness, No More Heroes, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, more than half of the games on XLBA and the PS Store....

......Legacy of Kain, Tyrian, Sacrifice, Heroes 3 of Might and Magic, IJI, Bastion, The Binding of Isaac, Grim Fandango, Dungeon Keeper, Syndicate, Populous, Stretch Panic, Alien Soldier, Chakan The Forever Man, Gunstar Heroes, Mischief Makers, Thunder Force IV, Messiah, MDK2, Evolva, Hyper Princess Pitch, Frozen Synapse, Blood, Turgor (The Void), God Hand, Fat Princess, Dynamite Headdy, Warzard (Red Earth), Vectorman, Killer7.............

 

[Midoryu]

The piano arrangement in the background is from Final Fantasy IX, called "Jesters of the Moon".
As I am a great fan of this one, I was happy to recognize it here.

Kevin Butler belongs to Sony Computer Entertainment America and since Sony didn't copy the Wii, bashing him is not really a bold move. As far as I know.
Playstation Move is way older than the Wii itself and Sony has the only claimed patent since 2004.
For further information, read this:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-the-case-for-playstation-move-article

@ Topic
Nevertheless, I would really like to see a multiplayer option for a TES game.
But the announced MMO will make that one dispensable for the creators, I'm afraid.

Heyho.

Midoryu

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

No mention of Modding, Jim? Odd. One of the reasons I bought Skyrim was the same as why I bought Oblivion (which I bought after finding this out from Morrowind)- I knew there'd be a rich selection of Mods coming down the pipe to change the game around in a multitude of ways, that would keep the game fresh and interesting even longer than it would be on its own. And I don't have to pay a single penny for them.

But hey, if people want to pay $15 for a handful of multiplayer maps only superficially different from what's already in the game, well....

 

[Jeteye]

Whoda thought 8 years later Skyrim just won't die.