Haven't seen the episode yet, but apparently there was also a mention of "element 115" in the episode itself.
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AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
There is even more irony involved, as before there was an XCOM reboot like we have now, the IP was coming back as an FPS. The elevator pitch for the FPS was "XCOM meets X-Files".
There is even more irony involved, as before there was an XCOM reboot like we have now, the IP was coming back as an FPS. The elevator pitch for the FPS was "XCOM meets X-Files".
There is even more irony involved, as before there was an XCOM reboot like we have now, the IP was coming back as an FPS. The elevator pitch for the FPS was "XCOM meets X-Files".
There is even more irony involved, as before there was an XCOM reboot like we have now, the IP was coming back as an FPS. The elevator pitch for the FPS was "XCOM meets X-Files".
We should really be grateful for The Bureau. If it hadn't been for the tone-deaf defence of that when it was announced, they probably wouldn't have made EU.
Nobody remembers the singer. The song remains.
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DuriniaEvolved from Space PotatoesRegistered Userregular
In the category of "Best XCOM game that I only got 1/3 of the way through before finding something better to do" it is a clear winner.
For business reasons, I must preserve the outward sign of sanity.
--Mark Twain
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Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
There is even more irony involved, as before there was an XCOM reboot like we have now, the IP was coming back as an FPS. The elevator pitch for the FPS was "XCOM meets X-Files".
We should really be grateful for The Bureau. If it hadn't been for the tone-deaf defence of that when it was announced, they probably wouldn't have made EU.
Firaxis was actually working on the game before the XCOM FPS was shown and savaged in 2010.
I know it's not the best, but I really liked The Bureau. It was Mass Effect combat, and the powers were fun to use. The story is a dumpster fire, but the moment-to-moment is a lot of fun. The DLC was good, too.
I am not shocked that I saw an XCOM2 commercial during the X-Files relaunch.
I was so confused by that commercial. Who was the target audience?
People who've never heard of XCOM? But there was literally nothing in the commercial to get them interested in the game, not even a little pre-rendered cutscene.
PC gamers who are XCOM fans? But they probably already know about the game, and have it on pre-order.
Console gamers who are XCOM fans? But XCOM 2 isn't even announced for consoles!
I am not shocked that I saw an XCOM2 commercial during the X-Files relaunch.
I was so confused by that commercial. Who was the target audience?
People who've never heard of XCOM? But there was literally nothing in the commercial to get them interested in the game, not even a little pre-rendered cutscene.
PC gamers who are XCOM fans? But they probably already know about the game, and have it on pre-order.
Console gamers who are XCOM fans? But XCOM 2 isn't even announced for consoles!
We people who are in the know about games frequently underestimate the number of people who like video games but do not keep up with them
I just feel like it's harder to do that with PC games. They don't get advertised on TV, generally speaking, and they're barely sold in physical stores anymore. I feel like you rarely have info on PC games pushed at you; you need to do a minimal amount of seeking that stuff out yourself, even if it's something as relatively low-effort as reading a site that has PC gaming news.
But, again, I may be underestimating it due to being up to my ears in game news every single day. I have a hard time imagining a PC gamer who isn't also a PC gaming enthusiast, who's up on the latest gossip and who knows where to grab the best mods for whatever game they're playing. Those people must exists, I suppose.
The point of the commercial is mostly so that the name "XCOM2" is known to the public, I think.
And honestly everyone I know who plays PC games pays significantly less attention to the news than I do. They might dive deep into a particular mod community, but they spend time in specific games, not in a hunt for generalist news.
I just feel like it's harder to do that with PC games. They don't get advertised on TV, generally speaking, and they're barely sold in physical stores anymore. I feel like you rarely have info on PC games pushed at you; you need to do a minimal amount of seeking that stuff out yourself, even if it's something as relatively low-effort as reading a site that has PC gaming news.
But, again, I may be underestimating it due to being up to my ears in game news every single day. I have a hard time imagining a PC gamer who isn't also a PC gaming enthusiast, who's up on the latest gossip and who knows where to grab the best mods for whatever game they're playing. Those people must exists, I suppose.
I imagine that XCOM 2 is a big enough PC game that it will be stocked in Best Buy, GameStop, Target, etc. even if it is literally a Steam code in a box.
Maaan. Element 115 doesn't have an official name. Nerds need to get on sciencing and get it actually named Elerium within science.
I thought they did give it a non-elerium name?
Apparently it has names, but no official scientific term. It's just layman don't want to keep calling it "Element-115"
It just got confirmed by IUPAC as an element in December. They're in the process of naming it now.
It would be pretty cool if there was a gamer on the naming board and elerium ended up being the name.
I saw a kid get handed a JB poster by who I presume was his parents outside my store today....he tore it in half infront of his horrified parents.....There's hope for our youth yet!
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AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
I wrote this over on the 2k forums, where there has been some discussion about the first games budget and why they didn't do pregenerated maps in the original game. It's something I thought about today, given the way XCOM works compared with the original and I thought it would be worth sharing here. So with apologies to 2k, it's pretty damn obvious nobody there had a lot of faith in XCOM as a project and certainly weren't anticipating the sales/reception it got. XCOM has done more than just revitalized the franchise, it's also been the tipping point in making turn based combat systems/games "viable" again. XCOM proved you could make a modern, fun and purely turn based game and be successful. Remember that at the time XCOM was coming out we'd come off of two years of a raging argument about "Was rebooting XCOM as an FPS a good idea?", with many commenters in defense (including some at 2k) being "Well, Turn Based games just aren't that viable or en vogue anymore, so naturally it had to be an FPS".
Making procedural generated maps that work, especially like what XCOM 2 does with the enormous amount of variation and stuff around - while still looking "good" is really god damned hard. It's even harder when you want to throw in an assumption that the player should be able to destroy everything. So spending the time and resources to do it, especially when your choice of engine isn't naturally good at it - noting that XCOM 2 isn't truly 100% procedural but "sticks" together pregenerated map segments together and then modifies them with weather effects etc - you don't focus on beating your head on a brick wall. Likewise, XCOM was made with an assumption that most players wouldn't do two things, that everyone did:
A) Stretch out the game more or less indefinitely by not doing the alien base or story missions. This put much more pressure on the limited pool of maps than Jake anticipated
That a desire for replayability and randomness in maps etc was really desired, as opposed to a couple of main playthroughs and then that would be it.
XCOM 2 if you haven't noticed, directly addresses both of these mechanical issues with the first game. The aliens have an objective and can "Win" the game, preventing the player from extending it out indefinitely. The second is designed all the way from beginning to end: You have random countries to start off with, who have random bonuses assigned to them each game and not the same one. Maps are generated randomly by sticking bits together and then laying on weather effects etc, plus a bunch of other clever trickery, which keeps a campaign feeling fresh. Guerrilla missions and Alien Blacksite/Dark Events have much more randomness to objectives, plus are more varied.
I could go on, but if you look at the development of the first game and compare it with the second game in the series, it's clear XCOM 2 is designed entirely around players complaints with the original. It's also really obvious, even without the game being out, how much bigger a budget and how much time they had to do XCOM 2 vs. the original game.
Can't say the commercial did much for me. I could see trying to jump onto the X-Files band wagon but it's pretty much useless if there isn't a video game to associate with.
If it wasn't for the over-the-top, melodramatic commercial for Final Fantasy 7, I never would have wanted to buy the game. If it just said "Stop the meteor or die" I definitely would have skipped it.
So with apologies to 2k, it's pretty damn obvious nobody there had a lot of faith in XCOM as a project and certainly weren't anticipating the sales/reception it got.
Yeah, I remember my perception at the time was like:
Devs: Hey guys! You loved XCOM: UFO Defense, right?
OldCOM Fans: ...yeah, why do you ask?
Devs: We're making another one!
OCF: SHUT THE FUCK UP ARE YOU SERIOUS
Devs: Yeah!
OCF: OH MY GOD THIS IS--
Devs: ...and it's a shooter!
OCF: ...complete fucking bullshit, is what this is. Give us a goddamn XCOM.
Devs: But it's cool! And set in the 50's!
OCF: ...
Devs: And it's... got a really cool narrative focus?
OCF: Are you familiar with the concept of a blood rage?
Devs: You're telling me you want that boring old turn-based shit?
OCF: Yes, that is exactly what I'm telling y--
Devs: Because I mean, we're working on one of those too, I guess...
Guys this is the age of the internet, a TV commercial doesn't have to sell you on anything, it just has to let you know about it.
They aired a commercial on a show about little grey men showing an ominous little grey man and gave you the name of that thing. People are gonna go "woah, I'm into aliens and shit" and google it to find out what it's all about.
The commercial didn't do anything for you because you already know what XCOM is.
Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
If they started the marketing wtih EU, everyone would've been NEW XCOM BY FIRAXIS WHAT YOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
oh and you guys are also making some kind of shooter spinoff or something okay that's cool i guess NEW XCOM STRATEGY GAME YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Maybe Firaxis didn't have enough to show at the time. Or maybe it was more cynical and they thought propping up an exciting new shootmans game to reintroduce a classic franchise was The Right Marketing Thing. Whatever. If people know that EU was in the pipe, XCOM 2010 wouldn't have nearly got the horrendous backlash it did. (Yes, that was me too, I remember. I thought it looked cool, but using the Xcom name for it was straight booty.)
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wiltingI had fun once and it was awfulRegistered Userregular
edited January 2016
Firaxis had a prototype that was a bit of disaster and had to go back to the drawing board. Took them a while to get the basic gameplay down, and to figure out how to do the strategy layer. There's an interview somewhere where Jake talks about how he put his best foot forward with the initial design only to have to start all over. Also talks about doing a lot of board game playtesting of strategy layer with Sid.
wilting on
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Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
Yeah, Solomon said they trashed the first prototype all the way back in 2003. The road to EU was long.
Yeah, Solomon said they trashed the first prototype all the way back in 2003. The road to EU was long.
A long road, but a worthy destination. XCOM was a flawed masterpiece; it got its hooks into us, and now Firaxis really gets to show their stuff with the sequel, featuring everything they learned, honed to a fine edge.
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chiasaur11Never doubt a raccoon.Do you think it's trademarked?Registered Userregular
If they started the marketing wtih EU, everyone would've been NEW XCOM BY FIRAXIS WHAT YOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
oh and you guys are also making some kind of shooter spinoff or something okay that's cool i guess NEW XCOM STRATEGY GAME YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Maybe Firaxis didn't have enough to show at the time. Or maybe it was more cynical and they thought propping up an exciting new shootmans game to reintroduce a classic franchise was The Right Marketing Thing. Whatever. If people know that EU was in the pipe, XCOM 2010 wouldn't have nearly got the horrendous backlash it did. (Yes, that was me too, I remember. I thought it looked cool, but using the Xcom name for it was straight booty.)
Honestly? I think the bass-ackwards way they handled things actually helped, on the net.
If they opened with the strategy game, five gets you ten there'd be a lot more grog noise about losing time units, the loadout system changes, the four man fireteams, the "consolfied" skill system, and on and on. Sure, grogs gotta grog, but it doesn't exactly help word of mouth when you're appealing to a (supposedly, at the time) niche audience. Follow up with announcing a shooter, and it gets even worse.
Go the way they went, though, and most people will be too busy being happy about the TBS existing to get into rage mode about the changes.
If they started the marketing wtih EU, everyone would've been NEW XCOM BY FIRAXIS WHAT YOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
oh and you guys are also making some kind of shooter spinoff or something okay that's cool i guess NEW XCOM STRATEGY GAME YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Maybe Firaxis didn't have enough to show at the time. Or maybe it was more cynical and they thought propping up an exciting new shootmans game to reintroduce a classic franchise was The Right Marketing Thing. Whatever. If people know that EU was in the pipe, XCOM 2010 wouldn't have nearly got the horrendous backlash it did. (Yes, that was me too, I remember. I thought it looked cool, but using the Xcom name for it was straight booty.)
Honestly? I think the bass-ackwards way they handled things actually helped, on the net.
If they opened with the strategy game, five gets you ten there'd be a lot more grog noise about losing time units, the loadout system changes, the four man fireteams, the "consolfied" skill system, and on and on. Sure, grogs gotta grog, but it doesn't exactly help word of mouth when you're appealing to a (supposedly, at the time) niche audience. Follow up with announcing a shooter, and it gets even worse.
Go the way they went, though, and most people will be too busy being happy about the TBS existing to get into rage mode about the changes.
I could see that. Like you said though, grognards gonna grog, and for these folks nothing but a near 1-to-1 conversion of the original game will do anyway. At least, at the time, Xenonauts was a thing to look forward to (and OpenXcom now for antediluvian devotees). Hell, last thread ended with yet another argument on how really xcom-y EU is, like it was 2012 again.
Related, someone on reddit posted this interview with Jake Solomon and Julian Gollop from a few years back, and it's adorable how flustered Jake gets with Julian praises EU. Far be it for me to pull appeal to authority, but when the grandaddy of xcom says, "Yo this game is pretty awesome guys," I think that says something.
The amount of nerd respect in that interview is huge. Jake is wiggling out about meeting one of the defining influences in his life, who also loves the work that he has been devoted to for years. Awesome
FreiA French Prometheus UnboundDeadwoodRegistered Userregular
Advertising is about one thing and one thing only: happiness.
Oh wait, no, this isn't Mad Men. Advertising is about brand name repetition and recognition. There's a reason why "big names" like McDonalds and Coke still advertise a lot. There's a big reason why, if asked to name brands of toothpaste off the top of your head, you could only name maybe a handful. It's not about teaching you about the product or educating you, and if you think advertising doesn't affect you, you're wrong.
Posts
I came here to post that exact same thing. X-Com devs/marketing know the target audience well, good job boys.
On a side note, when I play I always have a squad named after X-Files characters. *glee*
Oh you mean THIS?
http://store.steampowered.com/app/65930/
The poster child for 6/10.
Why I fear the ocean.
We should really be grateful for The Bureau. If it hadn't been for the tone-deaf defence of that when it was announced, they probably wouldn't have made EU.
--Mark Twain
Firaxis was actually working on the game before the XCOM FPS was shown and savaged in 2010.
People who've never heard of XCOM? But there was literally nothing in the commercial to get them interested in the game, not even a little pre-rendered cutscene.
PC gamers who are XCOM fans? But they probably already know about the game, and have it on pre-order.
Console gamers who are XCOM fans? But XCOM 2 isn't even announced for consoles!
We people who are in the know about games frequently underestimate the number of people who like video games but do not keep up with them
I just feel like it's harder to do that with PC games. They don't get advertised on TV, generally speaking, and they're barely sold in physical stores anymore. I feel like you rarely have info on PC games pushed at you; you need to do a minimal amount of seeking that stuff out yourself, even if it's something as relatively low-effort as reading a site that has PC gaming news.
But, again, I may be underestimating it due to being up to my ears in game news every single day. I have a hard time imagining a PC gamer who isn't also a PC gaming enthusiast, who's up on the latest gossip and who knows where to grab the best mods for whatever game they're playing. Those people must exists, I suppose.
And honestly everyone I know who plays PC games pays significantly less attention to the news than I do. They might dive deep into a particular mod community, but they spend time in specific games, not in a hunt for generalist news.
They both have X in the title, they must be related!
It just got confirmed by IUPAC as an element in December. They're in the process of naming it now.
--Mark Twain
I imagine that XCOM 2 is a big enough PC game that it will be stocked in Best Buy, GameStop, Target, etc. even if it is literally a Steam code in a box.
It would be pretty cool if there was a gamer on the naming board and elerium ended up being the name.
Making procedural generated maps that work, especially like what XCOM 2 does with the enormous amount of variation and stuff around - while still looking "good" is really god damned hard. It's even harder when you want to throw in an assumption that the player should be able to destroy everything. So spending the time and resources to do it, especially when your choice of engine isn't naturally good at it - noting that XCOM 2 isn't truly 100% procedural but "sticks" together pregenerated map segments together and then modifies them with weather effects etc - you don't focus on beating your head on a brick wall. Likewise, XCOM was made with an assumption that most players wouldn't do two things, that everyone did:
A) Stretch out the game more or less indefinitely by not doing the alien base or story missions. This put much more pressure on the limited pool of maps than Jake anticipated
XCOM 2 if you haven't noticed, directly addresses both of these mechanical issues with the first game. The aliens have an objective and can "Win" the game, preventing the player from extending it out indefinitely. The second is designed all the way from beginning to end: You have random countries to start off with, who have random bonuses assigned to them each game and not the same one. Maps are generated randomly by sticking bits together and then laying on weather effects etc, plus a bunch of other clever trickery, which keeps a campaign feeling fresh. Guerrilla missions and Alien Blacksite/Dark Events have much more randomness to objectives, plus are more varied.
I could go on, but if you look at the development of the first game and compare it with the second game in the series, it's clear XCOM 2 is designed entirely around players complaints with the original. It's also really obvious, even without the game being out, how much bigger a budget and how much time they had to do XCOM 2 vs. the original game.
If they could figure out a way to edit down the Retaliation trailer to a minute... it could play on TV well I think?
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
ALIENS! RESIST! XCOM 2!
I believe that's the gist of it, just said by the bald headed dude with the awesome voice.
You didn't miss much. Here it is though: http://www.ispot.tv/ad/At_K/xcom-2-their-evolution-our-extinction
Can't say the commercial did much for me. I could see trying to jump onto the X-Files band wagon but it's pretty much useless if there isn't a video game to associate with.
If it wasn't for the over-the-top, melodramatic commercial for Final Fantasy 7, I never would have wanted to buy the game. If it just said "Stop the meteor or die" I definitely would have skipped it.
Yeah, I remember my perception at the time was like:
They aired a commercial on a show about little grey men showing an ominous little grey man and gave you the name of that thing. People are gonna go "woah, I'm into aliens and shit" and google it to find out what it's all about.
The commercial didn't do anything for you because you already know what XCOM is.
oh and you guys are also making some kind of shooter spinoff or something okay that's cool i guess NEW XCOM STRATEGY GAME YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Maybe Firaxis didn't have enough to show at the time. Or maybe it was more cynical and they thought propping up an exciting new shootmans game to reintroduce a classic franchise was The Right Marketing Thing. Whatever. If people know that EU was in the pipe, XCOM 2010 wouldn't have nearly got the horrendous backlash it did. (Yes, that was me too, I remember. I thought it looked cool, but using the Xcom name for it was straight booty.)
A long road, but a worthy destination. XCOM was a flawed masterpiece; it got its hooks into us, and now Firaxis really gets to show their stuff with the sequel, featuring everything they learned, honed to a fine edge.
Honestly? I think the bass-ackwards way they handled things actually helped, on the net.
If they opened with the strategy game, five gets you ten there'd be a lot more grog noise about losing time units, the loadout system changes, the four man fireteams, the "consolfied" skill system, and on and on. Sure, grogs gotta grog, but it doesn't exactly help word of mouth when you're appealing to a (supposedly, at the time) niche audience. Follow up with announcing a shooter, and it gets even worse.
Go the way they went, though, and most people will be too busy being happy about the TBS existing to get into rage mode about the changes.
Why I fear the ocean.
I could see that. Like you said though, grognards gonna grog, and for these folks nothing but a near 1-to-1 conversion of the original game will do anyway. At least, at the time, Xenonauts was a thing to look forward to (and OpenXcom now for antediluvian devotees). Hell, last thread ended with yet another argument on how really xcom-y EU is, like it was 2012 again.
Related, someone on reddit posted this interview with Jake Solomon and Julian Gollop from a few years back, and it's adorable how flustered Jake gets with Julian praises EU. Far be it for me to pull appeal to authority, but when the grandaddy of xcom says, "Yo this game is pretty awesome guys," I think that says something.
Destiny Profile : http://www.bungie.net/en/Profile/254/7028016
Oh wait, no, this isn't Mad Men. Advertising is about brand name repetition and recognition. There's a reason why "big names" like McDonalds and Coke still advertise a lot. There's a big reason why, if asked to name brands of toothpaste off the top of your head, you could only name maybe a handful. It's not about teaching you about the product or educating you, and if you think advertising doesn't affect you, you're wrong.