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turtleman@can
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Posts: 8841
Location: Canada |
yeah considering video games have a very small percentage chance of completion because they bleed money while in development, and most game studios are in such a tight schedule that if anything serious goes wrong, it pretty much kills their product, blizzard is in a pretty unique situation. That's why they make the best games, is because they can afford to make them.
Other factors contribute to it but It's very rare that you see a game that's been in a serious production cycle for 3+ years that sucks. On the other hand, ash probably knows pretty well first hand how lucky they are considering his company is firing from the hip every two years to get a compelling product out.
But even still I think that if they get too overzealous they will end up on the losing end. Just look at what happened to EA with spore. They implemented some really strict anti-piracy DRM software which resulted in the game getting rated poorly by shittons of fans on every consumer website, and resulted in it being the most pirated game of all time. The developers admitted it being a mistake and then they relaunched another version without it but it was too late. They lost millions of dollars
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Tue Jun 01, 2010 9:09 pm |
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hassan-i-sabbah
Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Posts: 27424
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quote:
Originally posted by BanMe
I still REALLY want chat rooms, but I realize that I am still part of a minority and that it is ignorant to believe that only my cares matter.
is it really only a minority that wants chat rooms?
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quote:
Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.
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Tue Jun 01, 2010 9:21 pm |
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BanMe
Joined: 24 Jul 2003
Posts: 2472
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quote:
Originally posted by hassan-i-sabbah
is it really only a minority that wants chat rooms?
I'd say so, definitely under a million people care, and the game will sell many multiples of that. If this game can manage to bridge more casual gamers into the scene while maintaining the integrity of a competitive game (of which the facebook thing is a component of), they will have accomplished something incredible. They've got some very smart people working there, so I'm willing to sit back and observe how it all goes down before crying about change too much.
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Kanuks - The fact is you and foonew tried a double gay on me and ended up being BOTH behind me. Enough fucking said.
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Tue Jun 01, 2010 9:39 pm |
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Fast Luck
Joined: 11 Oct 2001
Posts: 22805
Location: Penis |
No, every single person wants chat rooms and thinks this is insane
Even if I was only playing with Facebook friends I would want a room we could all meet in anytime any of us logged on
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Tue Jun 01, 2010 9:57 pm |
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7VlesSiah
Joined: 16 Feb 2001
Posts: 2456
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Bnet 2.0 = Anonymous play vs anonymous players
Ash can try to defend Bnet 2.0 but the only thing it does well is giving you random matches against random players. If they want to cut out chat rooms, that is fine. Just give us better tools to create custom games.
I think it is stupid. It is extremely awkward gaming. I'd rather have lan with Zone anyday. People will just have to create an irc server but launching and setting up games will be a huge headache. It really is bizarre.
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I have hacks in my brain and I use them.
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Tue Jun 01, 2010 11:33 pm |
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BanMe
Joined: 24 Jul 2003
Posts: 2472
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I'm not defending it, if it were my decision I would include chat rooms for sure and then some. I think the direction of online gaming is getting away from the "rewarding" type of experience I had, and it's one of my career goals to help recreate communities like we have here.
However, I first experienced - and continued to experience - great online communities through blizzard games for the last 10 years. I'm not going to write them off before the game has even shipped. I'm more eager to learn what there is to learn than complain about it. But that's just me, no need to try to beat me down when I'm just giving my opinion of relative pacifism:)
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Kanuks - The fact is you and foonew tried a double gay on me and ended up being BOTH behind me. Enough fucking said.
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Wed Jun 02, 2010 12:13 am |
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kublikhan
Joined: 11 Jul 2003
Posts: 2849
Location: Schaumburg, IL |
quote:
Originally posted by ~Dakine..HeX
the most successful companies don't make "getting money" the primary concern.
of course, they do end up getting money, or else they wouldn't be successful.
good example is Zappos, great company
I think it's shortsightedness and poor management decisions more than anything. Blizzard was always there to make money. But they did so by making great products and services that people wanted. Even Blizzard's new owners recognize the important of providing quality products and services:
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Originally posted by article
We believe that the main competitive factors in the interactive entertainment industry include: product features and playability; brand name recognition; compatibility of products with popular platforms; access to distribution channels; quality of products; ease of use; price; marketing support; and quality of customer service.
SC2 is still a great product. It just seems they are falling short on the service end of things lately with bnet2. I've seen good companies go belly up because of poor decisions made by new management. There was a restaurant by my parent's house that had excellent food and service, best pizza in the area. They were always packed and were making money hand over fist. When their lease expired, they tried to renew it. But the property owners wanted a larger cut of the profits than just the meager rent payment. So they kicked out the old managers and tried running the place themselves. The place took a huge dump in quality and service. They even started serving frozen pizza to it's customers! It did not take long for people to realize the place had gone to shit. Customers stopped coming and the placed closed.
Blizzard has not sunk this low and they are still likely to make a tidey profit from SC2. But I still think it's sad to see them deliver a lower standard of service than they used to.
quote:
Originally posted by ~Dakine..HeX
quote:
Originally posted by foonat
yeah that's all nice and cute but in the end every company exists to make money
you are so, so wrong.
quote:
Originally posted by Fast Luck
I could see some idealistic developers making quality their #1 priority but in general everyone just wants money
You can't let idealistic developers have quality become their sole concern either. If you do, the developers will tinker with the product until the end of time and it will never be released. Look what happened to 3D Realms. Prey was in development for eleven years before it was released. Even then they had to fire the development team and outsource the development to a third party. Duke Nukem forever has been in development for 13 years and still hasn't been released. Again, they had to fire the development team due to lack of funding. One game developer said something to the effect of:
"At some point, the publishers have to come and rip the product out of the hands of the developers or the developers will tinker with their baby forever."
You have to find a balance between quality, features, and a timely release. IMO, they are letting the quality of the service slip too low. I can see the appeal of catering to the casual gamer, there are alot of them and hence alot of money, but they would want chat rooms too.
As for the casual ladder system vs pro ladder system, perhaps they could create and maintain 2 ladder systems, one for casual players and one for pros. Let players opt into which one they want to be in when they create their account. Casual players don't want to play with the pros anyway and their "stupid ass rush strats, cheese, etc." And Pros don't want to be in the casual ladder either.
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Give me a lever long enough and I shall move the world. - Archimedes
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Wed Jun 02, 2010 1:21 am |
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hassan-i-sabbah
Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Posts: 27424
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quote:
Originally posted by BanMe
I'd say so, definitely under a million people care, and the game will sell many multiples of that.
so do the other people actively not want chat rooms or do they simply not care? its not really a good business practice to alienate tens of thousands of hardcore fans for no good reason, its not like chat rooms would radically fuck up the way b.net 2.0 works
quote:
Originally posted by BanMe
If this game can manage to bridge more casual gamers into the scene while maintaining the integrity of a competitive game (of which the facebook thing is a component of), they will have accomplished something incredible. They've got some very smart people working there, so I'm willing to sit back and observe how it all goes down before crying about change too much.
this is just industry buzz word crap with "bringing in casual gamers" being code for "less features." as if chat rooms would alienate and turn off "casual gamers," lol
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quote:
Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.
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Wed Jun 02, 2010 6:59 am |
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BanMe
Joined: 24 Jul 2003
Posts: 2472
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quote:
Originally posted by hassan-i-sabbah
this is just industry buzz word crap with "bringing in casual gamers" being code for "less features." as if chat rooms would alienate and turn off "casual gamers," lol
It was actually plain english. Although my perspective and motivations are different so I may not be clear - I'm already very used to seeing decisions I disagree with be made, so my instinct now is not to get uber upset but to watch and learn.
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Kanuks - The fact is you and foonew tried a double gay on me and ended up being BOTH behind me. Enough fucking said.
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Wed Jun 02, 2010 1:06 pm |
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hassan-i-sabbah
Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Posts: 27424
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i'm not super super upset but it's not really plain english. you say "bring more casual gamers in" or whatever, OK. what remains to be seen is what relevance that has to taking out chat rooms
_________________
quote:
Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.
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Wed Jun 02, 2010 2:48 pm |
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7VlesSiah
Joined: 16 Feb 2001
Posts: 2456
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All they need is an option to create a private game that anyone with the password can enter. The community can work out the rest. The community can create the chat server and everything that Blizzard should have done to begin with.
_________________
I have hacks in my brain and I use them.
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Wed Jun 02, 2010 9:22 pm |
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stoned@chayliss
Joined: 21 Aug 2003
Posts: 2427
Location: Indiana USA |
quote:
Originally posted by Kith-Kanin
Yeah I'm pretty disappointed with the new Bnet they're attempting. If I was a more serious gamer I'd be pissed right off, but considering that the "casual" atmosphere of the game kind of suits where I am in life... I'm only moderately annoyed.
Sucks we won't be able to play with our greek friend Scrubbo though, unless he buys an American client. Really stupid in fact. That's probably my largest complaint.
im sure scrubbo will be supplied an american copy of sc2, i mean teh usa just gave them ONE TRILLION DOLLARS
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Thu Jun 03, 2010 8:34 pm |
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stoned@chayliss
Joined: 21 Aug 2003
Posts: 2427
Location: Indiana USA |
how in the name of fuck can this be going down
i can imagine KHB bursting into large meeetings and tossing around some WTF's AND STFU's raping those scrub project managers and gettin promoted to fix this horrific shit. im sure obama had a hand in the bnet2.0
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Thu Jun 03, 2010 8:40 pm |
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Allstar
Joined: 23 Sep 2000
Posts: 2509
Location: Texas |
Rofl if only
khb is probably just a low level follower like the rest of them though.
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Fri Jun 18, 2010 1:46 pm |
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