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Video Game Industry Thread: January's over, go to the new thread

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Posts

  • TOGSolidTOGSolid Drunk sailor Seattle, WashingtonRegistered User regular
    edited February 2012
    Sheep wrote:
    I got into the DOTA 2 BETA.

    Booted it up.

    Information overload, no tutorial, closed it down, haven't touched it.
    MAN YOU'RE JUST A SCRUB LOL NOOB DOTA2HARD 4 U HUEHUEHUE BRBRBRBR

    There, you now have the complete DotA experience and I've just saved you a huge headache.
    I still can't fathom that LoL has a huge playerbase when the learning curve is a mile high just like DotA and the community is just as terrible. I suspect that they're just touting the people that have registered and attempted the game rather than their actual active player base.

    TOGSolid on
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  • cloudeaglecloudeagle Registered User regular
    Sheep wrote:
    I got into the DOTA 2 BETA.

    Booted it up.

    Information overload, no tutorial, closed it down, haven't touched it.

    ...I'm starting to think that not bothering to give the games a proper name other than the semi-meaningless and off-putting acronym for the game genre is actually the most appropriate name they could have.

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  • Alfred J. KwakAlfred J. Kwak is it because you were insulted when I insulted your hair?Registered User regular
    to be fair, LoL's community is slightly less terrible then DotA's

    slightly

    the shitty community is actually what keeps me from ever enjoying a Moba again

  • UncleSporkyUncleSporky Registered User regular
    Actually the main reason I don't like dotas and mobas is because pronouncing it the way it looks sounds ridiculous.

    I prefer acronyms that require letter pronunciation, like rpg!

    Plus the threads we had here that said LOL MOBA DOBA with no explanation as to what that meant in the OP. I thought it was some in-joke, something a character in the game said.

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  • skeldareskeldare Gresham, ORRegistered User regular
    Actually the main reason I don't like dotas and mobas is because pronouncing it the way it looks sounds ridiculous.

    I prefer acronyms that require letter pronunciation, like rpg!

    You don't pronounce it Rahpig?

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  • The_TuninatorThe_Tuninator Registered User regular
    edited February 2012
    TOGSolid wrote:
    MAN YOU'RE JUST A SCRUB LOL NOOB DOTA2HARD 4 U HUEHUEHUE BRBRBRBR

    There, you now have the complete DotA experience and I've just saved you a huge headache.
    I still can't fathom that LoL has a huge playerbase when the learning curve is a mile high just like DotA and the community is just as terrible. I suspect that they're just touting the people that have registered and attempted the game rather than their actual active player base.


    Actually, the explanation is easy, I think.

    They have an actual matchmaking system, so your odds of getting put against other genuinely awful players are, at the very least, decent.

    Go into a Battle.net pub and you're probably going to be destroyed by people who actually know how to play, and never touch the game again because of how thoroughly you were annihilated.

    Sheep wrote:
    I got into the DOTA 2 BETA.

    Booted it up.

    Information overload, no tutorial, closed it down, haven't touched it.

    Yeah, if you don't have a friend who can teach you the ropes, it's very hard to get into. I'd wait for them to actually implement a tutorial, but a friend's the best way to learn for sure.

    The_Tuninator on
  • SheepSheep Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    Actually the main reason I don't like dotas and mobas is because pronouncing it the way it looks sounds ridiculous.

    I prefer acronyms that require letter pronunciation, like rpg!

    Plus the threads we had here that said LOL MOBA DOBA with no explanation as to what that meant in the OP. I thought it was some in-joke, something a character in the game said.


    You prefer initialisms over acronyms!

  • Dac VinDac Vin S-s-screw you! I only listen to DOUBLE MUSIC! Registered User regular
    Sheep wrote:
    I got into the DOTA 2 BETA.

    Booted it up.

    Information overload, no tutorial, closed it down, haven't touched it.

    It truly is the darkest of video game times when "beta" has become a synonym for "FREE DEMO".

  • Warlock82Warlock82 Never pet a burning dog Registered User regular
    edited February 2012
    Dac Vin wrote:
    Sheep wrote:
    I got into the DOTA 2 BETA.

    Booted it up.

    Information overload, no tutorial, closed it down, haven't touched it.

    It truly is the darkest of video game times when "beta" has become a synonym for "FREE DEMO".

    Huh? How is he supposed to beta test if he can't even figure out how to play it? Though I suppose that in-and-of-itself is kind of a beta test-ish type of feedback :P

    Warlock82 on
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  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    Warlock82 wrote:
    Dac Vin wrote:
    Sheep wrote:
    I got into the DOTA 2 BETA.

    Booted it up.

    Information overload, no tutorial, closed it down, haven't touched it.

    It truly is the darkest of video game times when "beta" has become a synonym for "FREE DEMO".

    Huh? How is he supposed to beta test if he can't even figure out how to play it? Though I suppose that in-and-of-itself is kind of a beta test-ish type of feedback :P

    SOMEONE needs to give one of these damn games a tutorial so people don't get thrown straight into the meat grinder.

  • vagrant_windsvagrant_winds Overworked Mysterious Eldritch Horror Hunter XX Registered User regular
    You mean like LoL has tutorials and bots of different levels?

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  • MaddocMaddoc I'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother? Registered User regular
    Yeah LoL really is by a wide margin the friendliest moba on the market.

    Which, granted, isn't saying much.

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  • Brainiac 8Brainiac 8 Don't call me Shirley... Registered User regular
    Not sure if this was talked about earlier:
    Long awaited Team Ico adventure The Last Guardian is still alive and well but is making slow progress, according to Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida.

    Speaking in an interview with 1Up, Yoshida confirmed that the PS3 game, which has been in development for the best part of six years, is still a priority for the publisher.

    "The project has been making progress, but slow progress," he admitted.

    "So that's tough, but we haven't changed any focus. It's still a really important project and a vision we want to see realised, and Fumito's vision is really causing a very difficult challenge for the developers, so there's some scrapping and rebuilding - iteration in the process. That's why [it's taking so long]."

    Elsewhere in the interview, he also clarified the employment status of studio lynchpin Fumito Ueda, following a Eurogamer report late last year revealing he had left Sony and is now working for the platform holder as a contractor.

    "He was an employee, and now he's working on a contract basis," said Yoshida.
    "You know, we discussed an arrangement so he could focus on the creative side. But his work and his presence on that team never changed, so it was just more a contractual rearrangement, and that was taken [by many] as 'he left'.

    "He comes in every day, and he's probably one of the people who works the longest hours," he added.

    When asked whether Ueda would be working with Sony again in the future, Yoshida replied: "If this project goes well - you know, fingers crossed - we've worked with him for a long time so yeah I certainly hope we can maintain a relationship."

    http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-02-10-sony-the-last-guardian-is-making-slow-progress

    This might top the super long dev cycle for GT5...or has it already?

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  • PeewiPeewi Registered User regular
    cloudeagle wrote:
    Sheep wrote:
    I got into the DOTA 2 BETA.

    Booted it up.

    Information overload, no tutorial, closed it down, haven't touched it.

    ...I'm starting to think that not bothering to give the games a proper name other than the semi-meaningless and off-putting acronym for the game genre is actually the most appropriate name they could have.

    But Dota 2 isn't an acronym. It is the game's proper name.

    And yeah, there isn't a tutorial right now, but it does have the option of playing with bots. And it's not like there's much of a chance that they'll launch the game proper without having a tutorial first.

  • GaslightGaslight Registered User regular
    Peewi wrote:
    cloudeagle wrote:
    Sheep wrote:
    I got into the DOTA 2 BETA.

    Booted it up.

    Information overload, no tutorial, closed it down, haven't touched it.

    ...I'm starting to think that not bothering to give the games a proper name other than the semi-meaningless and off-putting acronym for the game genre is actually the most appropriate name they could have.

    But Dota 2 isn't an acronym. It is the game's proper name.

    It has no more meaning than "KFC" or "ECHL."

  • agoajagoaj Top Tier One FearRegistered User regular
    Now I want Rare to release a game called Dinosaur Planet 2.

    ujav5b9gwj1s.png
  • subediisubedii Registered User regular
    edited February 2012
    Dac Vin wrote:
    Sheep wrote:
    I got into the DOTA 2 BETA.

    Booted it up.

    Information overload, no tutorial, closed it down, haven't touched it.

    It truly is the darkest of video game times when "beta" has become a synonym for "FREE DEMO".


    At the moment this is still deliberately a very limited beta, and it's primarily focused on the hardcore community in order to get the balance and feel right. Valve could have very easily opened this up to a tonne more people (as with TF2), but the priority at this stage isn't actually the tutorial stuff. That's almost inevitably going to be coming later, right now they're putting a massive focus on things like the community system and balance. Which is why they have the huge quiz before you can even get in without friends inviting you, and why the community / observer systems are in place well before anything else.

    Basically the limited beta was never really going to be designed to cater to ultra-new people, at least not initially. That's going to come later. Beta is Beta etc.

    I mean when they made a big play to finally showcase Dota 2, it wasn't with a public access showing, it was with a massive invitational tournament for the world's best teams.



    EDIT: Then again, like Tuninator said, I feel like the matchmaking system is going to be the important thing here. Personally I feel that's going to be way, way more important than a tutorial. A tutorial is just a one-off thing (and let's be honest, when it comes to RTS's, no matter how good it is it still does almost nothing to prepare you for actual online play), what's absolutely crucial is that they have a good matchmaking system, and a large enough community to support it.

    Starcraft 2 is really good in that respect. It doesn't matter if you're the lowest rung of a bronze league player and barely understand anything that's going on, what's important is that you're playing with other people of the same level.

    Dawn of War 2, between the shift from GFWL to Steamworks, the split of the playerbase between game modes, and the general community size, is an example of what can happen when these things don't work out.

    subedii on
  • CouscousCouscous Registered User regular
    http://www.joystiq.com/2012/02/11/hasbro-and-zynga-make-a-deal-toys-and-games-incoming/
    Hasbro has struck a deal with Zynga to produce toys and games based on the social developer's catalogue of rich, nuanced IPs, which is great news if you've ever found yourself wishing you could somehow continue to give Zynga all of your money, even when you're away from your computer and smartphone.
    Shit boardgames based on shit videogames.

  • CantidoCantido Registered User regular
    DoW2 is sooooo fun but matchmaking is shit and it makes me sad. I love its frantic, actiony feel.

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  • CouscousCouscous Registered User regular
    http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/02/10/shuhei-yoshida-interview.aspx?PostPageIndex=1
    We talked to the president of Sony's Worldwide studios Shuhei Yoshida about what the company learned from the Vita's Japanese launch and the mistakes they hope to correct this year.
    Q: What have you learned from the Japan launch of the Vita that you might look to remedy for North America and Europe later this month?

    A:There are two major differences. One is the type of lineup that we had for the launch. Games like Uncharted are not a big name in Japan. Hopefully it’s growing in awareness like Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto. It’s not like this game will sell a million units. Gamers in Japan want games catered to their tastes. From that standpoint we didn’t have a strong lineup for the Japanese market.

    The second is the PSP. We’re advertising PSP on TV while advertising Vita. So it’s three portables in Japan.

    I’m cautiously optimistic. We’ll have to see how the launch goes. In terms of what we have as a foundation as a platform, we’re envisioning this as a seven or eight year platform and are very happy with what we have today and can improve upon it.
    On passing up Demon's Souls in NA and Europe.
    In short, that’s what happens to any game. Especially games made in Japan since the majority of them aren’t relevant to markets outside of Japan. There are always processes between product development and marketing in U.S. and Europe. All things considered, it’s part of the issue of making games in Japan. The game development in Japan typically is made horizontally where all assets are made in parallel, so it’s difficult to figure out what the final state of the game is going to be.

    The western style game development is typically a vertical slice. So in the very early process, the team tried to create a small piece of the experience that resembles the final product. What happened with Demon’s Souls was until very late in the game’s development, we were not able to play the game through. There were framerate issues and the network was not up and running. We underestimated the quality of the game and to be honest, the media in Japan did the same.

    For my personal experience with Demon’s Souls, when it was close to final I spent close to two hours playing it and after two hours I was still standing at the beginning at the game. I said, “This is crap. This is an unbelievably bad game.” So I put it aside.

    Luckily, third party publishers, Atlus in North America and Namco in Europe [stepped in], and it really became a great hit outside of Japan.

    We definitely dropped the ball from a publishing standpoint, including studio management side. We were not able to see the value of the product we were making.

  • subediisubedii Registered User regular
    edited February 2012
    Cantido wrote:
    DoW2 is sooooo fun but matchmaking is shit and it makes me sad. I love its frantic, actiony feel.

    Off topic, but they still run community tournaments too, mainly based out of Gamereplays.org . Latest I saw was a 2v2 KotH tournament, casted by FitzRupee and Ganelon (and unfortunately this time, with some annoying mic noise). You can find them on youtube if you search for Redrupee.

    And I definitely prefer playing it to Starcraft 2. SC2 has way too much of an emphasis on deliberate micromanagement for my preferences.

    subedii on
  • CouscousCouscous Registered User regular
    edited February 2012
    http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=35042574&postcount=728
    1. X360: 270K
    2. PS3: ?
    3. 3DS: ? (-90% versus the previous month)
    4. Wii: ?
    YOY decline of 29 percent.

    Couscous on
  • reVersereVerse Attack and Dethrone God Registered User regular
    Did something happen that would warrant a 90% decline in 3DS sales?

  • Dac VinDac Vin S-s-screw you! I only listen to DOUBLE MUSIC! Registered User regular
    reVerse wrote:
    Did something happen that would warrant a 90% decline in 3DS sales?

    January happened.

  • CouscousCouscous Registered User regular
    edited February 2012
    I wouldn't be surprised if the Wii and 3DS are much more holiday dependent than the 360 or PS3.

    Edit: 360 fell about 84 percent if you do the math.

    http://www.1up.com/news/next-gen-consoles-most-wanted
    What's the One Thing You Want Most in Next-Gen Consoles?

    Randy Pitchford, Todd Howard, David Jaffe, and more tell us what they want to see next time around.

    Couscous on
  • Ninja Snarl PNinja Snarl P My helmet is my burden. Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered User regular
    The one guy mentions not having to sit through a startup sequence every time you want to play a game. That is some seriously stupid shit to have around in this day and age. Nobody needs to be told about the developer, the publisher, the graphics engine, speedtree, Havoc, and AMD every damn time a game starts. Startups need to be start game, menu screen, the end. None of this intro crap. And companies that make that stuff unskippable need to burned at the stake.

    A sleep mode would also be really nice and a couple of guys mention that. Consoles are never not plugged in, so why not a sleep mode for everything?

  • GaslightGaslight Registered User regular
    edited February 2012
    I especially appreciate how the NVIDIA vanity plate animation always seems roughly twice as loud as everything else regardless of how high I have my speakers turned up.

    Got things tuned to a perfect level where everything is just barely audible to me sitting in front of the screen because the rest of the house is sleeping and then

    BWWWWWOOOOOOAAAAAHHHHH

    NVIDIA.

    Gaslight on
  • reVersereVerse Attack and Dethrone God Registered User regular
    Here's an idea: instead of front loading the game with that crap, just put the appropriate logos on the loading screens. There's more of those than start-up screens, makes sense if you think about it.

  • CouscousCouscous Registered User regular
    Aren't intros an easy way of hiding load times?

  • LockedOnTargetLockedOnTarget Registered User regular
    I don't really mind startup screens and such, what I really hate is games that make you go though all that again when you die and need to reload your save.

    As much as I like Persona 3, it's infuriating to die to an enemy's lucky shot then have to go through like 5 or 6 screens just to reload.

  • reVersereVerse Attack and Dethrone God Registered User regular
    Couscous wrote:
    Aren't intros an easy way of hiding load times?

    Depends on the game, I guess. There's plenty of games (on PC, at least) that let you skip the splash screens by hammering ESC (or, y'know, straight up removing the movie files) so those ones are there just for the sake of being there. There are some games where they use them to disguise load times and you can't skip them, Civilization V comes to mind as a specific example.

  • LockedOnTargetLockedOnTarget Registered User regular
    edited February 2012
    Edit: sorry, double post.

    LockedOnTarget on
  • KadokenKadoken Giving Ends to my Friends and it Feels Stupendous Registered User regular
    Cantido wrote:
    DoW2 is sooooo fun but matchmaking is shit and it makes me sad. I love its frantic, actiony feel.

    I'm always poking for a partner. I want to share the misery of my newness :). Or perhaps find a good player to show me the ropes. Look up Voltaere on Steam. Avatar is Max Payne, just like Kadoken.

  • AutomaticzenAutomaticzen Registered User regular
    Couscous wrote:
    On passing up Demon's Souls in NA and Europe.
    For my personal experience with Demon’s Souls, when it was close to final I spent close to two hours playing it and after two hours I was still standing at the beginning at the game. I said, “This is crap. This is an unbelievably bad game.” So I put it aside.

    I'm going to call that fair. I can totally see someone not expecting Demon's Souls to make it.

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  • DoctorArchDoctorArch Curmudgeon Registered User regular
    Couscous wrote:
    On passing up Demon's Souls in NA and Europe.
    For my personal experience with Demon’s Souls, when it was close to final I spent close to two hours playing it and after two hours I was still standing at the beginning at the game. I said, “This is crap. This is an unbelievably bad game.” So I put it aside.

    I'm going to call that fair. I can totally see someone not expecting Demon's Souls to make it.

    As someone who loves both games I concur. These two games completely went against conventional wisdom and it ended up being a successful gamble for Atlus/Namco.

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  • Al BaronAl Baron Registered User regular
    edited February 2012
    Couscous wrote:
    http://www.joystiq.com/2012/02/11/hasbro-and-zynga-make-a-deal-toys-and-games-incoming/
    Hasbro has struck a deal with Zynga to produce toys and games based on the social developer's catalogue of rich, nuanced IPs, which is great news if you've ever found yourself wishing you could somehow continue to give Zynga all of your money, even when you're away from your computer and smartphone.
    Shit boardgames based on shit videogames.
    We're apparently getting a Warcraft Monopoly and a Starcraft Risk, too; they both drop in May.

    Heh, maybe WotC can go ahead an make another PnP game for Diablo 3, like they did with Diablo 2.

    Al Baron on
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  • ZephiranZephiran Registered User regular
    I think passing up on Demon's Souls was the right call in the end. It only had the effect of drumming up further interest of the title, and I think the low-key NA launch of the game did more good than harm in the end. Now it's a cult title, had it been given that initial "official" push it'd just come across as another failed attempt by a Japanese developer to stay relevant for a "Western Market".

    Alright and in this next scene all the animals have AIDS.

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  • CantidoCantido Registered User regular
    Al Baron wrote:
    Couscous wrote:
    http://www.joystiq.com/2012/02/11/hasbro-and-zynga-make-a-deal-toys-and-games-incoming/
    Hasbro has struck a deal with Zynga to produce toys and games based on the social developer's catalogue of rich, nuanced IPs, which is great news if you've ever found yourself wishing you could somehow continue to give Zynga all of your money, even when you're away from your computer and smartphone.
    Shit boardgames based on shit videogames.
    We're apparently getting a Warcraft Monopoly and a Starcraft Risk, too; they both drop in May.

    Heh, maybe WotC can go ahead an make another PnP game for Diablo 3, like they did with Diablo 2.

    Dammit, SC already has a board game...

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  • AthenorAthenor Battle Hardened Optimist The Skies of HiigaraRegistered User regular
    Al Baron wrote:
    Couscous wrote:
    http://www.joystiq.com/2012/02/11/hasbro-and-zynga-make-a-deal-toys-and-games-incoming/
    Hasbro has struck a deal with Zynga to produce toys and games based on the social developer's catalogue of rich, nuanced IPs, which is great news if you've ever found yourself wishing you could somehow continue to give Zynga all of your money, even when you're away from your computer and smartphone.
    Shit boardgames based on shit videogames.
    We're apparently getting a Warcraft Monopoly and a Starcraft Risk, too; they both drop in May.

    Heh, maybe WotC can go ahead an make another PnP game for Diablo 3, like they did with Diablo 2.

    Huh. So Hasbro lost/let elapse the Star Wars board game rights, and gained the Blizzard rights, whereas Fantasy Flight lost/let elapse the Blizzard Rights, and picked up the Star Wars board game rights? Interesting.

    Also, I thought Diablo 2/Warcraft's PnPs were White Wolf?

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  • cloudeaglecloudeagle Registered User regular
    Peewi wrote:
    cloudeagle wrote:
    Sheep wrote:
    I got into the DOTA 2 BETA.

    Booted it up.

    Information overload, no tutorial, closed it down, haven't touched it.

    ...I'm starting to think that not bothering to give the games a proper name other than the semi-meaningless and off-putting acronym for the game genre is actually the most appropriate name they could have.

    But Dota 2 isn't an acronym. It is the game's proper name.

    Like I said: they didn't bother to give it an actual name. :P

    At any rate, the Double Fine Kickstarter thing has slowed down at about $1.5 million. Shafer said on twitter that the last few games they did had budgets of around $2 million each.

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