SonOfVoorhees said:
I loved the first two x-com games, and i like the trailer for the new game. Looks interesting. All those fans are bitching about nothing. They can still play the old games, or even that new Xenonauts game that is like x-com thats being made. People just need to get over it already, a remake or redo doesnt make the original games any less good. Just a different interpretation of the material.
I tend to disagree here when your dealing with differant types of games.
See, there is a decent market for things like turn based RPGs and strategy RPGs, and when you take defining games of a genere that people want but are rarely being made due to the increasingly corperate attitudes, it slots people off. Especially seeing as when they are re-creating a game pretty much from the ground up, since there is no reason why they shouldn't use a new franchise name. It's like taking a can of spam, putting the word "beef" on the front and then claiming it's a steak. Someone might like spam (it sells quite well) but no matter what they call it, it's not a steak.
The way I see the things is the game industry not willing to cater to niche audiences, as in real gamers, and instead going after the big bucks in the mainstream. It's not about making a profit or good games, but about making as much money as possible, if something is a niche audience they don't consider it enough money to justify. A good example of this would be say the "Red Faction" games, in the latest "Game Informer" there is a "The Good, The Bad, The Ugly" section talking about how the "Red Faction" series is being cancelled, not because it didn't make any money but because it's a "niche audience" and didn't make ENOUGH money. Basically, producing a more derivitive shooter in a less unique enviroment could potentially make them more money, so it's better to chase that than keep something that is simply making money.... and this is within the shooter demographic, turn based fans (of turn based anything) have it even rougher since casuals HATE turn/stat based games, and due to the amount of work it takes to make games like that (due to visible, consistant mechanics, and creating a unique game engine as opposed to using one from a toolbox) the industry doesn't want to make them even if they make good money off of them. Professional reviewers and critics tend to more or less follow the casuals, because they are paid to try and help create the enviroment the game companies desire. Game companies want to try and generate hype for the cheapest kinds of games for them to roll out, and the influx of casual gamers gives them the oppertunity to exploit paid media to create the kind of customers they want, as opposed to catering to the whims of the customers on their own... which is classic corperate marketing.
Agree or disagree, things like this... what we're seeing with "X-com" is why you have a divide in the gaming community and so much hatred by "serious" gamers for the casuals. See serious gamers might not always play the same niche games, but they all love things that are considered niche games usually as a primary choice for gaming entertainment, that's part of what makes them what they are. Despite an attempt to present them as "hardcore" people who primarily play shooters and such are actually just a differant version of the "Farmville" crowd, which is why they are increasingly being targeted by the same kinds of marketing. These guys will flock to the "Call Of Duty" and "Halo" clones, no matter how derivitive, the same way chubby middle-aged housewives will flock to Farmville. Likewise for all their whining this crowd is increasingly willing to pay for things like multi-player maps, and other gimmicks, which is very similar to how content is sold in a game like "Farmville" it's just styled differantly for a differant audience.
There are plenty of shooters with customizable elements out there and a "quirky" vibe, however there aren't all that many turn based SRPG games being made at a big-budget level. There is room for all kinds of games to be made for everyone in theory, but the problem is that the gaming industry does not do this on a suffiient level. Things like Xenonauts are hardly being developed on the same level as shooters, nor are there enough for the community.
See, with X-com, the actual thought process was probably that they wanted to poop out another shooter. They already have the engines via toolboxes, and largely they just need to decide on what kind of graphics to hire people to draw... the "flash" added to the same basic framework everyone is using. Rather than hiring a creative team, they probably looked back at what properties they had access to, saw X-Com, and pretty much decided "okay we'll do this, and while the retro-one was the least popular, Fallout is popular right now so we'll use that and try and grab it's coattails". The name still having some recognition... enough to get attenion, is also a boon, especially seeing as they can play off the differances with the old games to get attention.
THAT is why people hate the casual market, because it being there has arguably created the industry and turned everything into a casual game. It's funny, but when have you ever seen an FPS property turned into a dedicated TURN BASED game? It might have happened, but not as often as you see this kind of thing. You know... something like the original X-com except using Gears Of War warriors fighting Locusts or whatever, that would be awesome and I would actually play it (where I don't generally play shooters), but it won't happen because even if it made money it's too much of a niche audience.
Thanks for reading this far, whether you agree or disagree with me. This is how I see things. In short it's a big deal because the industry has become so one sided. If you could actually say "there are plenty of recent X-com like games undergoing AAA quality development right now for that niche" it wouldn't be a big deal. Right now you can point to "Xenonauts" which really doesn't fill that void. With things like "Fallout" it's even worse, the only game I can think of that was close to the original two games for those who want isometric turn based games is probably "Planet Alcatraz" which has horrible localization, and some pretty bad production values, and it's hardly brandy new.
ark Crusade, X-Com:Apocalypse, The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind)
