Jimquisition: Guns Blazing

[Voltano]

If is the case then I would actually be more excited, but the wording used by the publisher says otherwise. Not to mention the developer's director has been replaced. Things are looking a bit shaky.

The quote is something to be concerned about. But the impression I got from this video was this is all speculation and theories that I don't know if it would turn out to be true or not. There is some evidence that this has happened in the past with other games ("Dead Space" and "Tomb Raider", for example, trying to attract an audience it isn't targeted towards). But I guess I'm trying to be more optimistic here. We won't know until we learn more about "Dark Souls II".

The route that the publishers and the new directors who demands loyalty in the developers side means shoving to much money into visuals, homogenizing the gameplay so it's easier, handholding, appeals to wider variety of people (who would probably not buy the game because they already associate dark souls with hard ass game and it turns away existing fans) & publishers shoving tons of money into advertising it's largely increasing expenses that's setting yourself up for failure.

Yeah, when I start to see "Dark Souls II" go this route then I'll agree that Sterling's concerns here are true. But, if "Dark Souls II" was going to be homogenized, then wouldn't they try mimicking "Call of Duty" more? I mean, that is why the multi-player portion of "Tomb Raider" was made to attract that audience. They tried borrowing ideas from a shooter that focuses a lot on military hardware to put into a game that was about a minority character surviving in a hostile environment and growing up into something symbolic in our industry.

From Software always specialized in making Western RPGs, and the big one right now is "Skyrim", so taking ideas to learn from that might be a positive step. Plus "Skyrim" is getting old and Bethesda has said they are no longer making any DLC for the game, so the odds of that still competing with "Dark Souls II" on launch decreases. But if From Software tries making "Dark Souls II" look a lot like "Skyrim" and play a lot like "Skyrim" but being not as good as "Skyrim" and detracting a lot of what makes "Dark Souls" stand out, then I guess we'll have to accept another casualty in the triple-A game industry.

 

[Samudra]

Well it has finally happened. The Games Industry has become the mirror image of the Movie Industry it so enviously aped after for so many years. bravo.

On the plus side, the movie industry is seeing a resurgance of Independent movies because of this exact problem... Hopefully the Independent video game publishers will be able to respond the same way as well. (However, this might mean that consoles will be for generic AAA titles and PC's for more niche, more original games.)

 

[Oskuro]

From reading these [http://thehathorlegacy.com/why-film-schools-teach-screenwriters-not-to-pass-the-bechdel-test/] articles [http://thehathorlegacy.com/why-discriminate-if-it-doesnt-profit/] I came upon the notion that maybe the games industry is suffering from the same problem: Lazy Egotism.

In essence, the industry knows that these attitudes lead to disaster, but acknowledging this could lead to the very foundation of the current industry being shaken, which could result in many bussiness practices, and the people linked to them, being changed or outright replaced.

In other words, despite the risk for financial loss, it's seen as a worse fate to lose the current advantage the AAA publishers have if the status quo should ever be questioned.

So, the result is a self-serving lazyness, where the actual intellectual work to truly understand the complexities of the market is simply not done.


Just a thought, anyway.

 

[TheUnbeholden]

Well it has finally happened. The Games Industry has become the mirror image of the Movie Industry it so enviously aped after for so many years. bravo.

On the plus side, the movie industry is seeing a resurgance of Independent movies because of this exact problem... Hopefully the Independent video game publishers will be able to respond the same way as well. (However, this might mean that consoles will be for generic AAA titles and PC's for more niche, more original games.)

With the increasing popularity of Desura (and its partner sites IndieDB and ModDB, as well kickstarter) indie devs are getting much more exposure.. even Steam taking on Greenlight to allow some indie titles is a step towards fixing the industry by showing what real games are like! A individuals vision, personified through hard work, no cutting corners or over emphasis on things that don't matter... trying new things and listening to feedback.
Stuff like alpha funding and donation milestone rewards, and donation perks have done alot to make it profitable, especially with the relatively low costs of a small team of devs using pre-existing engines.

Things aren't as bleak as they where 5 years ago.. 2008 brought about its own revolution for games with Lets Plays gaining popularity which made playing games in front of a camera cool.

All indie's need is major publishers to establish indie branches! every other entertainment industry has done this already except the gaming industry. Fox has Searchlight Pictures, Sony has Red distribution...

The real storm in the horizon is Xbone... before this its been Securom DRM, and Ubisoft who fueled the DRM, and consolitis.

 

[John P. Hackworth]

I rarely agree with everything Jim says in a video but I do this time. I pray that Atlus never falls prey to the logic failure these other niche game publishers have.

 

[KiKiweaky]

Jim I thought somebody sent you a dildo hahaha great video as always, will they listen to you? No, not a chance the lure of the green will prove too much for them as it always does

 

[gridsleep]

Just before, and I mean moments before you started talking about cutting off Chris Redfield's head, but just after mentioning a solution, these words ran through my head: "First, we must kill all the publishers." Because, as The Corporation [the film] pointed out, all corporations are psychotic entities, because all the most successful executives are, in actuality, psychotic. You don't have to be psychotic to succeed, but to be psychotic is the quintessence of the will to succeed, because nothing else matters, not even the lives of other human beings. After working for I don't know how many corporations, I can unequivocally state that any and every corporation would sell its own employees' internal organs on the open market for profit if they could get away with it. They would do it without blinking. It is only the continued existence of some kind of press and a social order among the nonpsychotics that includes word of mouth, that we are all still allowed to live. I'm afraid that this video, no matter how sensible, and it is sensible, indeed, will fall on deaf ears because, Jim, you are preaching to psychotics. There are probably among them some who are seriously, and I mean in all seriousness, trying to figure out how to rig the brakes of your car. Be safe, people. No fear. Eyes open.