Problem is it doesn't matter. In the game industry if you buy it you get more of it, and if you don't, it gets scapegoated anyway and no one ever gets made an example of. They just get hired somewhere else.
I think the idea that it's broken has been beaten to death thanks to folks like yourself and while that's great that you can point out all the negative aspects of it, what would impress me MORE is if you, or anyone for that matter, had a solution.
In my opinion the only hope is for an independent developer ( indie or not owned by a public company ) to come out with something new. However, i am not aware of any AAA mmo developer that is not part of a public entity now other than the wildstar guys ( correct me if wrong ).
I haven't seen anything that states their delivery date is set in stone. Maybe it is, perhaps someone could provide a link?/\/\ Brink!(Trivia tip: The same people who marketed Brink grassroots (We all know how that game turned out) are backing TESO grassroots currently. )
You are not understanding... They have no choice.
You of all people should know what a firm deadline is to ship right?
This is what happens when you fuck up your development cycle like this.
(And just to be fair to TESO, it's been like this for the last 10 years with every game that has been shipped)
just for point, I think Amalur gets disaster of the century. Shit ruined lives.
Thing is, even if you sell 1 million boxes, TESO probably won't come close to recouping their development costs. This shit has been brewing for a long time.
It was more of a rhetorical question as opposed to targeting TESO specifically.
The solution will come. Since these games take years to make, it will take more compounded years to fix. It probably will take another cycle or two to flush out all the bad design ideas. It will happen naturally.
The solution is an industry crash, and starting over. Which will then come to another result just like this, and it will crash again. It's not going to happen as games and media merge even further.
You and Draegan are asking for a solution to a problem the industry doesn't think exists. The vast majority of mmos are hugely profitable, and for the suits that is success. SWTOR is the only recently "released" mmo that was a major disapointment to the stockholders. But apparently even it is profitable.
You are completely and totally right. One of these days, someone up there will look at the opportunity cost lost and the money they * could * have made. Rather than settling for profits that are expected. And then we will see games worth a shit. More games like Bioshock Infinite.
Bioshock inf didnt sell that well really.
I wouldn't hold your breath. Gaming has shown over the decades that genres are heavily front-loaded when it comes to things worthy of praise. The industry takes those unique genius ideas that form a game genre and rapes them to the point of inbred stagnancy. Eventually someone comes along and creates something new and unique and the cycle just repeats. If we ever see a new MMO worth a damn it will be so unlike anything we've ever seen that it won't even fit within our general definition of an MMO. Shitty part being that it will feel so unlike what we thought we wanted that we bitter vets will hate it.
The ugly part of corporate America is the MBA Manager in Finance who makes decisions based on spreadsheets from trending data, and could give a shit less about your subjective ideas of what should be done. Fuck you, you dirty artist. Give me proven winners and sustained guaranteed Madden and Assassin Creed recognition and growth.
This sums up how I feel at this point. Yeah, I'm a little skeptical based on what has been shown, but I also think that there's too much money, and too many experienced people involved for this not to be a LOT further along than Utnayan's tinfoil hat theories would suggest. Only time will tell.
