Jimquisition: Guns Blazing

[Marowit]

Ah, to be beholden to shareholders - You simply can't break even you need to make money grow from trees, because how else would you see your share price increase?

But, afterall how else is the publisher stumble bad enough to get bought out by EA? har har har

 

[punipunipyo]

Or... we could just make a wax/fake head... with out "killing a hobo".... yeah... passion/anger aside... this is a topic EVERY ONE WOULD (me too) agreed with you for Jimmy... don't make it sound weird at the last minute.

BTW, great Episode and nice pose at the end... LOL!~

 

[Kraakdoos]

Jim.

Don't pander to your popular audience.

Niche is not pronounced nitch, it's pronounced neesh.

You know this to be true.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

I think you read too much into that statement, Jim. Perhaps all they were saying is that they weren't really concentrating their efforts when they made Dark Souls but they will now. The rest of it could also be understood likewise. Skyrim sold a royal ****ton. That's not what I would call a niche game. So naturally, it would be safe to assume that some people who bought Skyrim might be interested in Dark Souls as a franchise but never really got around to it or maybe it did something or didn't do something small that some of the fans of Skyrim really didn't appreciate.

I don't know. I'm just speculating. Either way, I don't think that epic rant was really needed right now until we know for sure that homogenizing Dark Souls 2 was really what they were talking about.

 

[Mr. Q]

Way to piss away any credibility, Namco, by allowing your pack of retards to skuttle any chance of Dark Souls to reach its target audience by forcing bullshit no one asked for.

I'd like to offer a proper punishment in regards to Jim's suggestion. Rather than punish some poor rube who looks like Chris Redfield, lets take the mouth-breathing dipshits of the AAA market that ignore the smaller audiences and try aiming for bigger crowds and inflict the following torment:

1) Kidnap a smaller group of these idiotic AAA publishers (I'd go with a baker's dozen) and have them march, wearing only their underwear, to a large stadium. Before that, we'd have to take a long route with plenty of gravel roads for these barefoot schmucks to walk on. In fact, lets set it on the hottest summer day in somewhere like Arizona.

2) Hold a lottery for pissed-off gamers to be selected in order to partake in whacking these dumb fuck publishers 5 times in the ass with a boat paddle.

3) Allow fellow game commentators (Jim Sterling, Ben "Yahtzee", etc.) the opportunity to use a bullwhip and give the condemned 10-15 lashes across the back and chest, followed by a lemon juice/salt water bath.

4) Move them to a grand stage where these offenders are to be disemboweled, castrated, have their limbs removed by wild horses, beheaded, and have what is left of their bodies burned.

5) Take their heads, put them on a large pike for all to see, including other AAA developers, and tell them "THIS IS WHAT AWAITS YOU IF YOU PULL ANY OF THESE BULLSHIT STUNTS EVER AGAIN! GOT IT?!?"

I'm sure, in a couple of months after we've exterminated most of them, the AAA market will finally see the light.

 

[Bvenged]

BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURN!

Does any management from game publishers or dev's actually watch this show? It would do them good.

 

[freaper]

This is probably relevant;

Spoiler

Even though they might get more people interested with a "broadened gaming experience" they'd still alienate the core fans of the game. Let us not forget that the cost that goes into broadening this experience will probably not get paid back in full with the money they make from those few extra customers.

It's as if gaming is trying to become TV...

 

[WildFire15]

There's a minor problem in your argument (and apologises if this point has already been brought up), Jim: Not aiming to improve brings stagnation. While I do agree it is potentially the top of a very slippery slope, simply releasing largely the same game aimed at the same audience won't bring constant success either. In fact, over time, even the loyal fans will tire and bugger off.
World of Warcraft didn't need the Cataclysm expansion, City of Heroes didn't need the Going Rogue expansion, but if they didn't get it then players would have simply left as there was nothing new and if it was, it was basically the same with a new coat of paint (admittedly they were more of the same, but with new maps and in CoH's case a significant new feature in being able to swap sides, not to mention branching stories and conversations).

 

[gphjr14]

It doesn't help when good games come out like Dishonored and at least 10 dumbasses on a daily basis somewhere in the world state

"durr this needs multiplayer hadurrr"

Then developers say
"hadurr lets divert money time and resources to making a generic multiplayer with the same game modes we've been seeing since sega dreamcast hadurr"

And the result is games like Far Cry 3 where a great singleplayer mode which could've had more missions, weapons etc end up having buggy crappy co-op missions crammed in.

 

[geizr]

Jim, you must be getting sick and tired of having to flog that dead horse eh?

He's getting really anal about homogenization and unrealistic expectations.

Don't misunderstand me. I agree with everything he said. What I meant was that he must be getting sick and tired of having to say it because Publishers refuse to listen.

Or because publishers (in any industry) don't really listen to critiques, reviews, or video rants especially. They listen to the customers' wallets.

Yeah, that's the part I don't understand. Surely the market has already shown that that practice isn't sustainable.

I have repeated this mantra more times than I care to remember on the Escapist: a company hears and understands only two sounds, the creak of your wallet opening and the slap of your wallet closing. Everything else is just noise to be ignored. The apparent fact is these "cheap, offensive" tactics that many of us on the Escapist rail vehemently against actually do work to improve sales and revenue for the publishers, as is evidenced by the repeated sales of 3+ million copies of these recycled franchises. Unfortunately, the shit that many of us here on the Escapist hate seeing in games does seem to cause more wallets to creak open. What has not been working for the publishers is the complete mismanagement of production and marketing costs. These have escalated faster than the corresponding increases in sales. If publishers could actually get better control of their costs while still maintaining their corresponding increases in sales, then the triple-A industry would be absolutely rolling in the green (and you would see even greater levels of homogenization and appeals to the mass audience). The perception of insufficient or lagging sales is only relative to the costs that have gone into the game, not because people are not buying games.

 

[Trishbot]

I admit, as a long-time gamer, I get kind of mad when I look at some of my favorite franchise of my youth and young adult years and what has become of them now.

Resident Evil was the KING of survival horror. It had dozens of imitators snapping at its heels to steal its thunder. Then Capcom decided that horror was dead and decided to turn Resident Evil into the imitator instead, borrowing bits from every popular game on the market and turning it into a much-less-interesting Uncharted and Gears of War game with so many bad QTE that even Kratos is mocking it.

Look at what happened to Dead Space in a few short years; from a successful, brilliant psychological horror game to a co-op buddy-buddy action shooter with enough microtransactions to make Scrooge McDuck blush.

Look at Final Fantasy, desperately milking that FF13 cow with their gender-swapped Cloud while ignoring almost EVERYTHING that FF4, FF6, FF7, or FF9 (hell, even FF12) did so exceptionally well, but instead sticking us in restrictive, linear hallways with no deviation, one-button victories, 20 hour tutorials, a completely contrived and plothole-filled story and not a single likable, believable character in the entire cast.

Look at what happened to Metroid when the gameplay suddenly got kicked to the curb and the folks that invested breast physics got involved, coupled with a script and character portrayals that make George Lucas look genuinely inspired in his handling of the prequel trilogy. They threw SO much money at it, and for what? What a travesty.

The new Tomb Raider is, admittedly, awesome... but everyone and their dog is wondering how much MORE awesome it could've been if they had focused their efforts more on single-player and not a multiplayer, Gears of War clone that nobody asked for or is interested in.

Mass Effect 3 will forever sadden me as I step back and look at how much RPG elements were stripped out, how little your choices actually mattered, and how much was sacrificed to make it a crappier Gears of War-in-space clone, at the expense of so much passionate roleplaying and lore.

Dragon Age has already been beaten to death. Dragon Age 2 is a classic example of a franchise with a dedicated, passionate, loyal audience that had everything they loved about the original stripped out in favor of more action, a "broader" audience, and dumbed down consumer appeal... and it didn't WORK.

Even games that are still pretty good, I'm just not getting the same "fix" as before. The Metal Gear series is a far cry from its isometric Playstation classic; Zelda has been terrified of doing anything truly surprising outside of its predecessor's successes; Call of Duty is practically the poster child for stagnation; folks had to fight tooth and nail to get a strategy XCOM game made; we're having to resort to Kickstarter for classic Adventure games; Silent Hill took a trip into a hack-n-slash dungeon crawler and (again) Gears of War action-fests; The 3rd Birthday is basically one big middle finger to every fan of Parasite Eve; the DMC reboot is now legendarily notorious; and now we're getting Dark Souls "the triple-A" experience that's interested more in chasing after Skyrim's players and success than catering to the fanbase that put it on the map in the first place.

I'm just sad because... I want my scary, thought-provoking Silent Hill games... I want my isolated, tense Dead Space games... I want my RPG-driven Mass Effects and Dragon Ages... I want my platforming Tomb Raiders and my enormous, deep JRPG Final Fantasies... I want my survival horror, puzzle-driven Resident Evils and my stealthy Metal Gears and my unrelentingly vicious Dark Souls and my parkour-enabling Mirror's Edges and my player-enabled Zelda adventures and my strategy-orientated XCOMs....

But it seems publishers don't WANT their fanbase to have these things. They want a one-size, fits-all approach to gaming. Every game with all the same features; enjoy your multiplayer, your social integration, your online passes, your Day-1 DLC, your pre-order, retailer-exclusive DLC, your computer-crippling DRM, your forced online components, your mandatory registrations and server installs, your micro-transactions, your co-op and leaderboards, and your expensive set-pieces filled with stupid quick-time events.

With new systems on the horizon, and costs sure to skyrocket, companies are going to either learn that their "formula" will ruin them, or adapt and start making smaller games with smaller teams for niche audiences, and just start making MORE of those instead of 600-person-team, mega-million-dollar messes like Resident Evil 6.

 

[RJ 17]

"And then they'll start talking about mobile gamers for some fucking reason."

Don't know why but I got a great laugh out of this line.

 

[TwistedEllipses]

I whole heartedly agree with Jim, but he said 'niche' as 'nitch' so many times, that the English pedant in me snapped and I wanted to scream "SHEESH! IT'S FRENCH! IT'S NEE-SH!"

 

[Orekoya]

Heh, I bet Jim would have been much happier to receive that ***** fist toy if it was modeled after Nathan Drake's [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escapist-expo/6292-The-Hour-of-Love].. what did he say: "I know no other kind of love than fisty love."

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

I admit, as a long-time gamer, I get kind of mad when I look at some of my favorite franchise of my youth and young adult years and what has become of them now.

Resident Evil was the KING of survival horror. It had dozens of imitators snapping at its heels to steal its thunder. Then Capcom decided that horror was dead and decided to turn Resident Evil into the imitator instead, borrowing bits from every popular game on the market and turning it into a much-less-interesting Uncharted and Gears of War game with so many bad QTE that even Kratos is mocking it.

Look at what happened to Dead Space in a few short years; from a successful, brilliant psychological horror game to a co-op buddy-buddy action shooter with enough microtransactions to make Scrooge McDuck blush.

Look at Final Fantasy, desperately milking that FF13 cow with their gender-swapped Cloud while ignoring almost EVERYTHING that FF4, FF6, FF7, or FF9 (hell, even FF12) did so exceptionally well, but instead sticking us in restrictive, linear hallways with no deviation, one-button victories, 20 hour tutorials, a completely contrived and plothole-filled story and not a single likable, believable character in the entire cast.

Look at what happened to Metroid when the gameplay suddenly got kicked to the curb and the folks that invested breast physics got involved, coupled with a script and character portrayals that make George Lucas look genuinely inspired in his handling of the prequel trilogy. They threw SO much money at it, and for what? What a travesty.

The new Tomb Raider is, admittedly, awesome... but everyone and their dog is wondering how much MORE awesome it could've been if they had focused their efforts more on single-player and not a multiplayer, Gears of War clone that nobody asked for or is interested in.

Mass Effect 3 will forever sadden me as I step back and look at how much RPG elements were stripped out, how little your choices actually mattered, and how much was sacrificed to make it a crappier Gears of War-in-space clone, at the expense of so much passionate roleplaying and lore.

Dragon Age has already been beaten to death. Dragon Age 2 is a classic example of a franchise with a dedicated, passionate, loyal audience that had everything they loved about the original stripped out in favor of more action, a "broader" audience, and dumbed down consumer appeal... and it didn't WORK.

Even games that are still pretty good, I'm just not getting the same "fix" as before. The Metal Gear series is a far cry from its isometric Playstation classic; Zelda has been terrified of doing anything truly surprising outside of its predecessor's successes; Call of Duty is practically the poster child for stagnation; folks had to fight tooth and nail to get a strategy XCOM game made; we're having to resort to Kickstarter for classic Adventure games; Silent Hill took a trip into a hack-n-slash dungeon crawler and (again) Gears of War action-fests; The 3rd Birthday is basically one big middle finger to every fan of Parasite Eve; the DMC reboot is now legendarily notorious; and now we're getting Dark Souls "the triple-A" experience that's interested more in chasing after Skyrim's players and success than catering to the fanbase that put it on the map in the first place.

I'm just sad because... I want my scary, thought-provoking Silent Hill games... I want my isolated, tense Dead Space games... I want my RPG-driven Mass Effects and Dragon Ages... I want my platforming Tomb Raiders and my enormous, deep JRPG Final Fantasies... I want my survival horror, puzzle-driven Resident Evils and my stealthy Metal Gears and my unrelentingly vicious Dark Souls and my parkour-enabling Mirror's Edges and my player-enabled Zelda adventures and my strategy-orientated XCOMs....

But it seems publishers don't WANT their fanbase to have these things. They want a one-size, fits-all approach to gaming. Every game with all the same features; enjoy your multiplayer, your social integration, your online passes, your Day-1 DLC, your pre-order, retailer-exclusive DLC, your computer-crippling DRM, your forced online components, your mandatory registrations and server installs, your micro-transactions, your co-op and leaderboards, and your expensive set-pieces filled with stupid quick-time events.

With new systems on the horizon, and costs sure to skyrocket, companies are going to either learn that their "formula" will ruin them, or adapt and start making smaller games with smaller teams for niche audiences, and just start making MORE of those instead of 600-person-team, mega-million-dollar messes like Resident Evil 6.

I'm not going to snip that. It needs to be read again by everyone. Applause.jpg .

I myself had a big rant ready, but everything you just said was efficiently stripped from my mind and put into that post. Did we have parallel childhoods?

 

[malestrithe]

The thing is, the copy paste strategy works well with the movie and television industries.

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

Wow, Jim was sure getting worked up this time. Hell, I'd even say he's starting to sound desperate.

This is pretty much what happened with Sanctum 2, my own latest disappointment. After the moderate success of Sanctum, the developers went back to the drawing board for the sequel, with the apparent design brief of "make it more like Call of Duty". So the tower defence game with FPS elements was reworked into an FPS game with tower defence elements- and it's AWFUL! The beefed-up shooting is STILL completely half-baked and would embarass an FPS released 10 years ago, while the tower defence features have been gutted to the point where I question whether the game even belongs in the 'tower defence' genre any more- towers are overpriced, ineffective and worst of all, HARD CAPPED TO 10 PER MAP! I played the game for half an hour before giving in utter despair at how badly the developers had managed to completely and utterly fuck up what should have been a very, VERY simple sequel- do the original game again only better. Instead they decided they wanted to "do something different" (translation: like a mnainstream generic shooter) and "appeal to a broader audience" (translation: the CoD fratboy crowd) and completely ruined the game. The worst thing is that it seems to have received an even better critical reception than the original, which is unfathomable because it is purely and simply a far worse game.

 

[Reyold]

It's just mindboggling how stupid those publishers actually are. I just want to go over there, grab them by the shoulders, shake them as hard as I can and shout "what's wrong with you!" in their faces.

Personally, I'd rather just give a nice, solid punch to the face and leave it at that. At this rate, it's not like they're any closer to understanding how they're screwing over the AAA industry. I say let them destroy themselves. It'll be good for the rest of us.