Green Monster Games - Curt Schilling

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Ngruk said:
I can"t help but laugh at the amount of coverage that 10 seconds of animation got.

It"s amazing the interest people have in "just seeing something".

The animation you saw was more for animations sake than style.

BTW that animator is one of the more talented ones around, with a very lengthy award winning pedigree of titles under his belt, his names Aaron Carlson.

Our group of animators is absolutely fantastic, even more so as a team.
Not that I would presume to lecture you, but I think alot of developers and game companies take for granted, just how important our avatars are to us. It"s important how they look, how they sound, how they move, how their armor fits, how their weapons get wielded and so on.

Skimp in any of these areas (looks at EQ2 over his glasses) and we WILL notice, and we will not be pleased at all.
 

Ngruk_foh

shitlord
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The Hiram Key said:
Not that I would presume to lecture you, but I think alot of developers and game companies take for granted, just how important our avatars are to us. It"s important how they look, how they sound, how they move, how their armor fits, how their weapons get wielded and so on.

Skimp in any of these areas (looks at EQ2 over his glasses) and we WILL notice, and we will not be pleased at all.
Dude, you are talking to someone as passionate about gaming as anyone on this board. You don"t need to tell me about the importance of my pixel rendered alter ego.
 

Daezuel

Potato del Grande
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As long as my avatar can sport a bloody sock I"m all in!! jk

That video was an interesting little piece...I don"t see how anyone cannot take serious a 60 million dollar investment into a billion+ industry. You"ve got all of our attentions and heck, its still probably 3 years away.

I, for one, cannot wait to see what mind bending stuff RA and Todd come up with and, even though I"m sick to death of the fantasy genre for MMO"s, just the passion evident and the serious talent you"ve got behind you has me excited for this title even if it is still years out. Just thinking what a real fantasy author could do in this medium when he has created real, breathing worlds with just writing alone has got to be one hell of a boon.

Good luck and don"t suck, as many around here have said, you"re only going to get one chance to make a good impression!
 
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The Hiram Key said:
Not that I would presume to lecture you, but I think alot of developers and game companies take for granted, just how important our avatars are to us. It"s important how they look, how they sound, how they move, how their armor fits, how their weapons get wielded and so on.

Skimp in any of these areas (looks at EQ2 over his glasses) and we WILL notice, and we will not be pleased at all.
The problem the Developer has is determining what looks good. I really like the EQ2 Avatars, however someone else may not. I don"t like the WoW Avatars, but obviously many people do.

Debating how good a character looks is the same as debating who looks better; Ginger or Mary Ann?
 
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I"m Rich Bitch said:
The problem the Developer has is determining what looks good. I really like the EQ2 Avatars, however someone else may not. I don"t like the WoW Avatars, but obviously many people do.

Determining how good a character looks is the same as debating who looks better; Ginger or Mary Ann?
Mary Ann of course, less mileage and more easily trained, and a longer service life.

Edit: This is not about which is better, photo realistic vs cartoonish. This is about animating them correctly, making sure their armor fits, their weapons don"t impale them when mounted etc. Doesn"t matter which style of graphics, were talking polish here.
 

Azrayne

Irenicus did nothing wrong
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Maxxius said:
Whether you liked his novels or not is personal. But I"d back him any day of the week over anonymous bloggers like you or Agraza. Time, of course, will tell. But Agraza throwing terms like "I don"t respect" a person because he didn"t like Salvatore"s novels, is ignorant at best.
I"d argue it"s not personal, and what they suffer from is straight up mediocre writing (queue the "go write something better then lol!" response?) But if they entertain people, as they obviously do, then thats fine, they serve their purpose. Mcdonalds sell plenty of burgers, though I"m sure there are places you can obtain burgers that are better in every respect. Sometimes you just want something filling and vaguely tasty without too much thought or effort, and there"s nothing wrong with that.

On the other hand, sometimes it "does" matter, and when you"re sinking so much money and effort into something like this, when you know that the difference between succeeding where so many others have failed and crashing and burning relies on every facet of your product being exceptional, not just acceptable, is it really the guy who works at Maccers who you want making the burger, so to speak?

Of course he could amaze us all with as of yet unimagined burger making skills, you never know, but personally I wouldn"t want to bank on it.
 

Noah EQ2_foh

shitlord
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The Hiram Key said:
Mary Ann of course, less mileage and more easily trained, and a longer service life.

Edit: This is not about which is better, photo realistic vs cartoonish. This is about animating them correctly, making sure their armor fits, their weapons don"t impale them when mounted etc. Doesn"t matter which style of graphics, were talking polish here.
Pretty sure any company developing an MMO right now understands the importance of polish at this point. Longer developement and beta cycles may be costly upfront but they net much better returns in the long run via subs/customer retention.

As far as the MMO market place goes, its really still just getting started. The news / press reaction is the same it was towards consols years ago. Early 80s 1:20 kids had some kind of game consol. 20 years later, you would be hard pressed to find someone w/o one or three even! The video mentioned some statistic saying the market place is 1 Billion and project to grow to 1.5 Billion by 2012. I think those are pretty low projections but even so, a 50% growth in 5 years is pretty sick.

PS: Realistic art is not a style, it is a limitation. Fantasy / Cartoon is the only way to go.
 
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Realism is boring and bland. If you tried to make a game based in a very realistic world, it"s going to be just as "blah" as the world around you is in terms of awesomeness.
 

etchazz

Trakanon Raider
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i see in that interview you"re wearing a roethlisberger jersery. now me being a steelers fan i"m all for that. however, i can"t imagine the guys in boston being too thrilled with that choice...
 

Maxxius_foh

shitlord
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Azrayne said:
I"d argue it"s not personal, and what they suffer from is straight up mediocre writing (queue the "go write something better then lol!" response?) But if they entertain people, as they obviously do, then thats fine, they serve their purpose. Mcdonalds sell plenty of burgers, though I"m sure there are places you can obtain burgers that are better in every respect. Sometimes you just want something filling and vaguely tasty without too much thought or effort, and there"s nothing wrong with that.

On the other hand, sometimes it "does" matter, and when you"re sinking so much money and effort into something like this, when you know that the difference between succeeding where so many others have failed and crashing and burning relies on every facet of your product being exceptional, not just acceptable, is it really the guy who works at Maccers who you want making the burger, so to speak?

Of course he could amaze us all with as of yet unimagined burger making skills, you never know, but personally I wouldn"t want to bank on it.
God this pain"s me to say, but Twobit is right. Keep your burger analogy, since this isn"t comparable. That is YOUR opinion that somehow Salvatore is the McDonald"s hamburger, others feel he is sirloin steak I suppose. No problem with stating your personal opinion, but twisting it into some kind of character attack like what Agraza did is ignorant. If you told me Joe Shmoe was the loremaster whose credentials are having played EQ and WOW 80 hours a week for years, I"d laugh and say good luck. That isn"t the case here with Salvatore, nor is it a guarantee for success, but it certainly warrants being taken more seriously.
 

Agraza

Registered Hutt
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Maxxius said:
Whether you liked his novels or not is personal. But I"d back him any day of the week over anonymous bloggers like you or Agraza. Time, of course, will tell. But Agraza throwing terms like "I don"t respect" a person because he didn"t like Salvatore"s novels, is ignorant at best.
I think my explanation dispelled any concern over ignorance. I"m perfectly willing to give you a more thorough review of his work, but this thread isn"t at all about his novels. I cut 2 paragraphs out of my damning post just to remain conversational. And I"m anonymous? My opinions and location have been on display for years here and elsewhere. I"ve never tried to support any issue from behind a curtain. I"m not famous, but I"m not aiming for anonymity by any stretch.

So you"d back him over me? As an author? So would I. I wasn"t comparing my work to his. I was comparing his work to the authors I do appreciate. It isn"t as if I"m going out of my way to dislike his work. It"s common to have a good or bad opinion on the man since his work is so popular.

As fun as all this is though we"ve spent enough time on my alledged hatred of Salvatore. There is a book forum for this. Have fun with the next derail while waiting for Comic-Con.
 

Draegan_sl

2 Minutes Hate
10,034
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That McDonalad reference needs to go. I really hate when people use it. Just shuttup.

Curt:
In my opinion, animation is much more important than graphics. Prime example is WOW. The model animation is top notch though the graphics are on the low end. If you can animate a pile of rocks well, I"d play it over a realistic-looking guy that walks like he has a stick up his ass.

Of course graphics are important as well but I think animation trumps.
 

Maxxius_foh

shitlord
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Agraza said:
. . . And I"m anonymous? My opinions and location have been on display for years here and elsewhere. . .
You do know what anonymous means right? It means no one knows who the hell you are as an actual human being, aside from your typing letters on websites. I don"t care if you don"t like Salvatore"s works, it just irked me when you started with the character attacks.
 

Rythonn_foh

shitlord
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Draegan said:
Of course graphics are important as well but I think animation trumps.
Good jumping!! WoW has great jumping, who here doesn"t like to jump into dungeon portals? So many games fail at fluid jumping. Like your character hits some invisible ceiling and you come crashing down. Oblivion comes to mind in how NOT to do jumping, fuck I hated the animations in that game.
 

Agraza

Registered Hutt
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I recall my high elf in EQ doing some strange stumble when I fell past the elevation I jumped from, but didn"t fall far enough to die. I thought it was a nice touch. This was going downhill so it might have only turned on then.

I really don"t care about how natural animation is. I view graphical strangeness as a source of comedy relief. If my character cartwheeled from point A to point B I wouldn"t even notice by the second day.

But if I CAN"T jump, like my feet are stuck to the ground, I"m unhappy. Same goes for pussy swimming (stuck on the top or bottom of water). It"s not a big deal, it just makes me feel like the world is that much smaller. I"ve never read any explanation or discussion on why X game doesn"t let you jump or swim.
 

Ngruk_foh

shitlord
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I"m Rich Bitch said:
The problem the Developer has is determining what looks good. I really like the EQ2 Avatars, however someone else may not. I don"t like the WoW Avatars, but obviously many people do.

Debating how good a character looks is the same as debating who looks better; Ginger or Mary Ann?
Are you kidding me? At the age I was when this was on it was Ginger in a land slide, not even close. As I got older I realized that what Mary Ann might bring to the table was the great unknown, and therefore sexier, as opposed to Ginger who had herself on display...
 

Daezuel

Potato del Grande
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Ngruk said:
And I would, and did.
This reminds me...while designing quests please make them have a choice which can affect your character or the world going forward. All to often now I find myself just clicking through quest texts without bothering to read them at all and it really has nothing to do with the quality of the text, but more so the quality of the quest.

This has to do with the nature of most quests...kill x/y/z, bring me 10 hides...I really don"t ever want to see another rat, bat, or freakin boar in my life. Fed ex quests and collection quests both need to die a horrible death. Do not fill your world with bloat for the sake of content.