[RD] Games as a Service

[MaryKB]

I think for me, a lot of it has to do with how I view the world and my role in it (and very different than how you see things!)

I don't believe I am qualified to decide what should and shouldn't be, I feel this kind of attitude is selfish and in fact rather capitalist ... the idea that you take whatever you want, if I'm making sense? I don't feel I'm ever justified in saying "I want this, but I don't think I should pay that amount, so I'm going to steal it." To me, that feels like chaos, if everyone's doing such a thing. I feel that we as a society should come together and decide upon codes of conduct, and everyone is not just subject to my personal whims. If I disagree with a law or rule, I don't believe it's my place to unilaterally decide everyone else is wrong, and I'm the only one qualified to make judgements. To me the whole idea of "taking the law into my own hands" feels extremely arrogant, it means I feel I've decided the rest of society is wrong and I'm so much wiser than they are and that only I know best.

Do I make sense what I'm saying? I'm hoping I'm describing my feelings well enough so you can see why I have a mental block in my mind about rule-breaking.

Now not to say I don't actually know better, and I'm fairly certain if you give me absolute rule by making me Queen of the World, you'll find a much more equitable and happy state of things XD

 

[Lexicus]

This might belong better in another thread though.

Indeed.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Indeed.

You should start it. I'm not sure I could come up with a decent opening post.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Someone has to program all that data.

GTA 5 200 million
Assassin's Creed 100 million

I think Star Citizen is up to 250 million.

A game at 50 dollars the developer only gets iirc maybe $10 so you need to sell millions of copies just to break even.

Part of this is the questionable choice of where to allocate development resources.

Indy titles don't need nearly those sales figures to hit healthy profitable margins. Compare something like Assassin's Creed with something like Hollow Knight, Celeste, Necrodancer, Binding of Isaac, FTL, Slay the Spire, Shovel Knight, or Rimworld.

Project management is hard and there are tough decisions/tradeoffs to be made that only become more so as the project/team gets bigger. I don't like the way the market tries to adjust. AAA in particular are probably going to wind up phasing themselves out/undercompeting with Indy over time until they get replaced or adjust, though this won't be an instant process.

Big part of the issue is that elite project managers/programming teams are not going to wind up in gaming on average, they get bigger money elsewhere. So it's something like a labor of love or someone with a ton of potential proving themselves and moving on from game programming to see high performance in these categories.

There are lots of bad indy titles, but because project management pitfalls are reduced with fewer people, one or several developers with average or better programming skills and strong design sense can wind up making a great game. Indy gets the advantage of huge volume --> stuff at the top is going to be pretty good as a result also.

 

[Lexicus]

You should start it. I'm not sure I could come up with a decent opening post.

Oh, you'd be at least as good as me, I assure you. I am usually too disorganized a thinker to come up with good thread hooks...

 

[civvver]

You only have to look at the graphics differences between those games to see where the money is going. It's going to digital effects, they're like movies now a lot of these games, but they don't have a big movie audience, worldwide release, etc.

 

[AdamCrock]

Now not to say I don't actually know better, and I'm fairly certain if you give me absolute rule by making me Queen of the World, you'll find a much more equitable and happy state of things XD

Your word is my command !

 

[Timsup2nothin]

You should start it. I'm not sure I could come up with a decent opening post.

Oh, you'd be at least as good as me, I assure you. I am usually too disorganized a thinker to come up with good thread hooks...

Handled.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Thankyu.

 

[Zardnaar]

HD gaming won't kill the gaming industry but you're going to have less games than say PS2 games.

Steam Indy type games may be an exception to that statement but you have less games on consoles.

Alot of genres are on life support or functionally dead.

 

[AdamCrock]

HD gaming won't kill the gaming industry but you're going to have less games than say PS2 games.

Steam Indy type games may be an exception to that statement but you have less games on consoles.

Alot of genres are on life support or functionally dead.

True I saw many titles that are "in production" state for several years and finally canceled. I just didn't realized it is so super costly. Take Stardock for example with our homegrown Kael (FFH2 mod for Civ 4). Fallen Enchantress is still a very good title that did not take billlions of dollars to produce.

 

[Zardnaar]

True I saw many titles that are "in production" state for several years and finally canceled. I just didn't realized it is so super costly. Take Stardock for example with our homegrown Kael (FFH2 mod for Civ 4). Fallen Enchantress is still a very good title that did not take billlions of dollars to produce.

Civ IV isold and wasn't HD iirc.

Some genres are still cheap. But they're not AAA titles. Witcher 3 is a cheap AAA game and that's because it was made in Poland (60 million is cheap).

There's Indy games and big budget, not much in the middle.

Kinda like movies. Sub 20 million and 150+ million, not much in the middle. Hence The Joker is unusual.

 

[Commodore]

In practice, yes, games as a service is a horrible concept.

In theory however, I think there are niche situations where games as a service would be a superior model. Yearly sports games being one of them. If yearly sports games were subscription based, then the developers could focus on making one quality title per console generation and just update the rosters every year instead of putting out a bunch of mediocre games every single year with no significant gameplay changes or quality improvements.

 

[Zardnaar]

Netflix type deals I like. Pay a small amount lots of games.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

True I saw many titles that are "in production" state for several years and finally canceled. I just didn't realized it is so super costly. Take Stardock for example with our homegrown Kael (FFH2 mod for Civ 4). Fallen Enchantress is still a very good title that did not take billlions of dollars to produce.

Fallen Enchantress is on sale at GoG. I've considered it a few times. It seems you would recommend it so maybe I'll take advantage of the sale.

 

[MaryKB]

Fallen Enchantress is on sale at GoG. I've considered it a few times. It seems you would recommend it so maybe I'll take advantage of the sale.

I've played that game, and I really enjoyed it ... especially since you get to completely design your own units (and can universally select either gender)

 

[AdamCrock]

Fallen Enchantress is on sale at GoG. I've considered it a few times. It seems you would recommend it so maybe I'll take advantage of the sale.

Oh I do Play "Legendary Heroes" straight - much improvement over the base game and much more CPU friendly IMHO. (patched up for performance issues)

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Oh I do Play "Legendary Heroes" straight - much improvement over the base game and much more CPU friendly IMHO. (patched up for performance issues)

Ultimate, included both, twelve bucks. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Arakhor]

It turns out that I already own Journey of a Roach, so I'm installing it now. Thanks for the recommendation,

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Do you routinely buy games and then forget about them?