RPGs Don't Compete With Each Other, Says Witcher 2 Dev

Therumancer

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Nov 28, 2007
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Hmmm, well I think this is only correct because RPGs have gone from a mainstay to a niche genere due to the mainstream having come into the genere.

There was actually a time when we saw a lot of RPGs being produced, and big series like "Might and Magic", "Wizardry", and "Ultima" being compared to each other heavily and leading to massive fanboy wars. To say there was no competition sort of overlooks events when say "Wizardry: Crusaders Of the Dark Savant" and "Ultima VII: The Black Gate" came out right on top of each other. The virtual blood that flowed between warring fanboys accross Fidonet (for those who have ever heard of it) was the stuff of legend.

As far as staggering out release schedules, companies do that anyway. I don't think there is much competition in the industry at all. Back when say "Modern Warfare 2" came out most of the similar games in the same genere, like say "Bioshock 2", were simply pushed up to a later release. Right now the industry is producing a smaller number of high budget titles which makes it fairly easy to space them out.


One of the reasons we will never see any kind of direct competition is because the way things are done is fairly pre-meditated. The game industry operates as a cartel, much like gas companies are accused of doing. They agree on a standardized price which all games cost irregardless of respective budgets when they come out. Nobody directly competes with each other, and as a result the prices can stay high because nobody is lowering their prices in order to compete with the other guy.... and that kind of competition with companies trying to release the highest quality product, for the lowest price, is what is supposed to keep the American ideal of capitolism working, and prvent a lot of the excessive greed you see nowadays. Cartels and Monopolies are not supposed to be able to operate in the US, and if one becomes a nessicary reality (ie only one company can practically sell a product) then the goverment is involved in setting the prices, not the companies themselves.
 

Nalgas D. Lemur

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Nov 20, 2009
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SmokingMirrors said:
But concerning The Witcher, I never actually played the original however from what I could gather after having done some research (With that I mean, watched Zero Punctuation.) i've come to the conclusion that it wasn't particularly well received and perhaps with good reason.
Some of his complaints were pretty reasonable, but a lot of them are the usual "person who hates RPGs trying to play an RPG" reaction that's common from him and didn't bother everyone else as much (or in some cases at all). It started out a bit slow, and the combat was never all that great, but overall I ended up liking a lot of stuff about it more than most BioWare games (which is the style of RPG it's most similar to). Enough people liked it for them to be able to afford to make a sequel, and I think I remember hearing that it eventually sold over a million copies between the original release and the Enhanced Edition, so it seems to have done decently for itself.
 

DayDark

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Oct 31, 2007
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Seriously, I have to say this again, those are some beautifully sculptured massive boobs. But then again, this is The Witcher sequel.
 

William Dickbringer

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Feb 16, 2010
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You know I kinda agree with this guy I mean there are flame wars over which rpgs you play but they don't seem to really compete with each other
DayDark said:
Also, Epic boobs in the picture.
$5 says you get to have sex with her
 

Ekonk

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Apr 21, 2009
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I don't think there A. were that kind of boobs around during the Dark Ages, and 2. they wouldn't be so eager to show them.

This was directed at the picture, obviously.
 

fnartilter

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Apr 13, 2010
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Awesome avatar, Nalgas. I haven't seen those guys in yeeeaars. :)

The Witcher was a great game, IIRC there were options (on the PC version anyway) to change the combat dynamics. There was dodging, blocking, and magic you could play around with. Some cool finishing move animations too (something I also enjoyed in Dragon Age).

While I'm a thrifty spender - meaning I wait for sales or prices to go down, I don't go to Gamestop for second hand stuff - I'm 97% more likely to buy an RPG vs Generic FPS, unless of course my friends are buying it (the FPS) too.


edit: Boobies!

+5 Happiness
-5 Maturity
 

SmokingMirrors

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Therumancer said:
SmokingMirrors said:
Well, I never did say my research was extensive. Though if this is to be the case then I do not quite understand why they'd change the gameplay in its entirety unless that which Yahtzee spoke of was echoed by enough people to have them desire to do so.
Yahtzee hates RPGs as a matter of course, he's made no bones about it. When you get down to it's he's extremely proud of being low-brow. His basic complaint about the game if I remember was that there was too much dialogue, which caused him to pretty much end the review really quickly as a joke.

It's one of those cases where you can actually consider an RPG ridiculously good if he has nice things to say about it, largely because you expect him to shred an RPG 10x worse than anything else that comes over his desk just for being an RPG. His reviews most of the time are spent bashing the RPG or JRPG genere when he does wind up doing one, rather than talking about the games themselves (though there are exceptions).
While I certainly agree with you that Yahtzee wouldn't appear to enjoy that many a RPGs (Be they Japanese OR western), its entirely besides the point. While I highly doubt one of the games developers sat down one day and watched the particular episode of ZP that dealt with the game in question there would have had to be something that drove them to the decision of altering the way its successor would play out in terms of game mechanics.
 

UnravThreads

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SmokingMirrors said:
Well, I never did say my research was extensive. Though if this is to be the case then I do not quite understand why they'd change the gameplay in its entirety unless that which Yahtzee spoke of was echoed by enough people to have them desire to do so.
With regards to the Witcher, one of the biggest and most consistent complaints I've heard is that the combat isn't great, and I can agree with that. It's not terrible (It's different), but it was probably one of the worst bits about the game.

I've got to agree with the dev, though. There's not a lot in terms of RPGs coming out, at least when compared to other genres. Fallout: New Vegas, The Witcher 2, Fable 3, Drakensang: The River of Time, Divinity 2: Flames of Vengeance/Dragon Knight Saga, Hunted: The Demon's Forge, Two Worlds 2, Dragon Age 2. Uh... Can't remember what else.
 

spartan231490

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i will buy the witcher over fallout 3, but thats cuz i don't like modern rpg's. Other than that, i would agree that similar rpg's don't compete. i bought oblivion and dragon age, and i am eagerly awaiting the sequels to both.
 

DarthLurtz

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With regards to the Witcher, I enjoyed it, having picked it up for $20 once I heard some hype about the sequel.

It's really fun so far, but I'm glad they came out with the Enhanced Edition.

BTW, if you didn't know, the Enhanced edition was made available for free as a digital download for everyone who had purchased the original.

That, if nothing else, makes me want to support these Polish fellows.
 

Christemo

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Jan 13, 2009
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SmokingMirrors said:
But concerning The Witcher, I never actually played the original however from what I could gather after having done some research (With that I mean, watched Zero Punctuation.) i've come to the conclusion that it wasn't particularly well received and perhaps with good reason.
i will have to disagree, besides the generic plot, loose combat and other usual "Atari flaws" its alot of fun. i bought it on the steam summer sale for about 10 ? and i have to say those money were well spent.

im excited for the 2nd, so that they make clear up on some of the first´s flaws.

OT: he has a great point, though devs will probably be scared to place their releases close to bethesda or Bioware, whos games i see as some of the most overrated of all time (except Dragon Age).
 

Sniper Team 4

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The man speaks the truth. Although I am one of the rare people who will pick up any and every shooter that interests me, no matter how close they are to each other on release dates (Black Ops, Medal of Honor, Reach), I never see people stressing over which RPG to buy, and I find that I don't concern myself too much about it either. I know that doesn't make a lot of sense given what I just said, but still...
 

Flamezdudes

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Yeah, he does make a really good point. I'm always on the lookout for RPG's and i can talk more easily about the genre than Shooters.
This man speaks a world of truth.

Now if only BioWare and Bethesda merged together to create BethWare or Biothesda.

Awesome would surely follow.
 

Blind Sight

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May 16, 2010
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He makes a good point, the social part of online shooters often play a huge role in consumer choices, RPGs are always about YOU, not anyone else, and thus it's more about what you want to play. I have to say I'm a fan of RPGs but I didn't play the Witcher, was it worth it?
 

One of Many

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Corpse XxX said:
First thing i noticed was the insanely large boobies in the picture..

Then i had to read the text to see if it contained information on said boobs.. it did not..
I was mightily disappointed about that. With a pair of epic boobies in that pic, at least half of the text should have been about said pair.
 

Frenger

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May 31, 2009
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Considering how many (good) RPG's there is out there. He's probably right. Honestly, I don't know what to play now, after I finished Dragon Age, Mass Effect, The Witcher and Fallout. Play old games? Try some J-RPG? Don't know, really, probably missed alot.







Also, mammaries.
 

Keava

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Frenger said:
Considering how many (good) RPG's there is out there. He's probably right. Honestly, I don't know what to play now, after I finished Dragon Age, Mass Effect, The Witcher and Fallout. Play old games? Try some J-RPG? Don't know, really, probably missed alot.
That's pretty much what i do. Finished DA/ME2 on release, then played through Planescape:Torment and Fallout2, re-played DA and ME2 with DLC, now back to Icewind Dale and Arcanum while waiting for DA2 or some other interesting cRPGs.
 

Omnific One

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Flamezdudes said:
Yeah, he does make a really good point. I'm always on the lookout for RPG's and i can talk more easily about the genre than Shooters.
This man speaks a world of truth.

Now if only BioWare and Bethesda merged together to create BethWare or Biothesda.

Awesome would surely follow.
God, yes. That would be amazing. Here's to hoping Bethesda/Zenimax's publishing deals nets them enough to buy Bioware from EA.

Edit: It's entirely possible that Bethesda could raise the $400-600 million+ necessary to buy Bioware. They raised $300 million in 2007 from an investment firm (when Bioware was worth around $400 million) without even a clear goal for the money.