Jimquisition: Perfect Pasta Sauce

[deathbydeath]

Holy poop Jim, I am amazed. This is the first episode I've seen in a long time that didn't feel like a waste of time. Admittedly, I've been saying this for quite a while, but it was still a good episode.

 

[comadorcrack]

Frankly Jim, this has been said 100 times in 100 different ways. And you know what... this is probably you're best episode ever, because you have said it the best that it has ever been said.

Thank god for you Jim

 

[Rawbeard]

Unfortunatly the most important people to please are shareholders. Doing money is not enough, because you could have made Big Money! Not trying for Big Money, especially when competitors do it, makes shareholders unhappy. Decisions that make sense (and money) can't be made in such an enviroment.

 

[Rad Party God]

What I've wanted to see fully fledged in this gen was a freaking 3D platformer, not a stupid kart building game, thankfully Sonic Generations was awesome and I still play it from time to time, but I wanted a freaking collectathon, Banjo-Kazooie style.

While I appreciate Nintendo is still making great Mario platformers... they're still Mario platformers, we need something else.

Also, remember Bionic Commando Rearmed?, I want a fully fledged Contra game with that style of retro/new stuff, not a freaking MegaMan 9, heck, I wanted MegaMan with that style, not freaking 8 bits and then forget about it.

I mean, fortunately it's not all doom and gloom, thanks to the indie scene and it's multiple awesome 2D platformers, heck, even we have a AAA 2D platformer with Rayman Origins, Donkey Kong Returns and Sonic Generations (I consider it mostly 2D), but... I want a AAA 3D platformer with Banjo-Kazooie's style, or even better yet, a Banjo-Kazooie platformer.

 

[chiefohara]

You are obviously not a royalist anyway jim.

Good episode

 

[Waaghpowa]

I believe the recent Syndicate reboot could have been what XCOM Enemy Unknown is if they had bothered to release it as a strategy game. But no, opportunity wasted.

 

[PunkRex]

Jim, theres plenty inside the head of Prince Philipe... like racism.

 

[mjc0961]

On one hand, I want to have this sent to all publishers immediately and make them watch it again and again until they get it.

On the other hand, I want to make sure no publishers see this and allow them to continue bringing about their own deaths. If they're this fucking horrible at running a business then they shouldn't be in these jobs in the first place.

I know I would like more plat formers that are not Mario

I mean just look at how the killed Banjo Kazooie by turning into a racer and stating as much in game. They literally said they were broadening the demographic and assumed gamers nowadays just want to shoot things with some serious 4th wall breaking. DAMN YOU MICROSOFT I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID TO RARE!

Microsoft didn't do anything to Rare. Rare ruined Rare. Why do you think Nintendo was so willing to sell? Because they knew Rare was turning into shit. It astounds me how many people still don't realize this very simple fact and blame Microsoft.

 

[Jimothy Sterling]

If there is one thing that really needs to listen to Jim's words and fits the pasta sauce analogy, it's the MMO genre. Considering WoW is the Ragu, and a whole lot of other MMOs are Pregos, no wonder people just aren't finding the series interesting enough to explore. GW2 really tried, and for the last few months I've heard nothing about it; TERA tried, and it ended up going F2P, and we all know what happened to TOR. TESO isn't looking too good either.

I've actually had an episode all about MMOs planned for a while, along those lines.

 

[templar1138a]

I've been wondering how long it's going to take before developers start thinking in terms of niche markets. I'd like more RPGs with rich characterization options like Bioware makes.

 

[Darth_Payn]

Excellent analogy, Jim. I see no need to mix in elements in a game where they don't make sense. I noticed you didn't mention anything publishers are doing to MMORPGs, so those are safe, right?

 

[Maszynow]

I'm equally interested in and scared of seeing a "point and click" game, made today. The plot could be taken from a good book, if it's too difficult for publishers to think of a good storyline. It could be very interesting, having all this modern tech and all. Probably AAA fans wouldn't like it very much, but still it'd be a bloody fascinating project

 

[Tombfyre]

Good points indeed there Jim! There's definitely a lot of other kinds of games to be made out there. Fortunately they do seem to be getting tackled by other developers, either on their own or through ventures such as Kickstarter. Hell, just look at the massive kickstarting success of Star Citizen, or the upcoming release of Stardrive. A new Freelancer and a new Master of Orion like experience? Sign me the hell up!

 

[geier]

Jim, i doubt you can ever go back to britain without having the SAS watch your as through a scope.

 

[mbarker]

Support for smarter more diverse types of games have been so big that AAA companies aren't going to ignore smaller more stylised titles or forms of game-play. COD, Halo, and Battle Field are one angle that big publishers are going in, but I think they are going to considerable effort to try and captivate the middle ground. For example: support for new independent developers, more willingness to finance indie development with smaller budgets and to produce mid-level titles for themselves.

The X-Com example is a good example for this. Through" duress" when X-Com was released as a strategy game not an FPS it sounds like it was a complete fluke that something like that happened. The big publishers look at the people still buying games decided to do this. This shows growth not idiots who stumbled upon something. There will be more games like X-Com it's just takes time for larger companies to evolve to market changes.

 

[LoLife]

Great show Jim! got to say the decline & stagnation of the MMO market with all those WoW clones should of been the early warning signal for the AAA market especially after SWTOR failed.

I believe the recent Syndicate reboot could have been what XCOM Enemy Unknown is if they had bothered to release it as a strategy game. But no, opportunity wasted.

Quoted For Awesome Truth

So much focus on FPS's while the publishers forgot about the super success of XCOM, Batman Arkham City & company =/

 

[Sir Shockwave]

4- A game that Blends Science and Fantasy in extreme ways.
Seriously, who doesn't want to see a Mage Fighting off Robots with a Magic Gun that She uses like a wand? or a Knight That uses a Lazer Sword to Decapitate an Ogre? You Following? Now... Imagine doing all this while traveling across space with an Elf, a Cyborg, a Dragon and a Cat girl, all taking up roles as Scientists and Wizards to Study life on other worlds, and they come across an Alien Race of Trolls that are essentially the Larval Form of some offshoot of Fairies, and have built a giant cocoon world in the sky out of gleaming metal and are just beginning they're quest into space.
... This Overlaps with 2.

TV Tropes to the rescue!

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ScienceFantasy

Complete with Video Game samples to go and try out X3

Sigh...

This just reminds me of how much I want a good new RTS that isn't totally indie or some f2p nonsense, I just want a fair priced RTS with a decent single player story and some skirmish modes for me to mess around in.

Sigh....wonder how much Red Alert 3 is on steam.

Red Alert 3? Single player? Hah, good luck. Enjoy being saddled with a brain-dead AI partner.

I had a similar reaction to "Red Alert 3" and "Decent" in the same post.

OT: I think Jim actually helped me out here with the whole Pasta example than he realised. Thank Menoth for Jim X3

 

[tehwalrus]

Ironically, the shooter that will eventually outsell Call of Duty will be something disruptive - something new, nothing like Call of Duty, that takes chances and redefines the genre. You'll never outsellf Call of Duty with a CoD-like game, because the CoD fans are used to it already, and like it how it is. Plus they're getting new version just as often as they want them, they definitely don't want another similar shooter when they're 'shooter slot' is filled by Call of Duty already.

I know I would like more plat formers that are not Mario

I mean just look at how the killed Banjo Kazooie by turning into a racer and stating as much in game. They literally said they were broadening the demographic and assumed gamers nowadays just want to shoot things with some serious 4th wall breaking. DAMN YOU MICROSOFT I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID TO RARE!

... you know platformers are probably the most numerous type of game at the moment because they're the easiest for entry level designers to make, yes? And that lots of them are unique, well-received games?

Did a brit just totally rip on the royal family? Anyways, while I can certainly get behind his message, I do not see an easy solution to the current problem. Perhaps continued, painful economic losses are the only way to derail the pursuit of the "perfect" game. The only issue is that it leads to a bunch of talented people getting laid off for doing what their idiotic bosses told them to do.

The reality of the current market, is that anyone working at EA or unfortunately Squeenix or similar dinosaurs ought to be sprucing up their resume and taking a little look around to see if there's any other job options available to them. As Shamus and others regularly say, the future seems to be in small and medium-small sized companies making games with budgets that are actually budgeted towards projected sales, rather than projecting sales based on how much has been spent.