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EQOA Refugee
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38 Studios
- Thread starter Tmac
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Denaut
Trump's Staff
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Well, I wouldn't say that exactly. The lore is useful to design, but you need surprisingly little of it to be maximally useful for production. Things like setting (high magic or low), short descriptions of races (like a paragraph or two), a major events timeline that could go back as long as you want really because it isn't very detailed.
Realistically, you are looking at one designer work part time for a month or two to lay all of that out.
I agree completely, but all of THAT lore is made during production by the content designers. The point I was making was that spending LOTS of pre-production time on lore is essentially wasted time (and money).
Utnayan
I Love Utnayan he’s awesome
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are you insane? we actually have a guy who worked for 38 studios posting here! why the hell would you want this thread to die now? shit is just getting interesting!
I am curious if everyone from pro athletes to Hollywood producers to venture capitalists were passing up on the opportunity to invest, something must have been standing out as wrong/bad. Was it because Curt refused to give up controlling interest of the company(which I understand) or was it something else?
It was cause they asked the simple question 'what happened to the money you had?' and realized that shitty management had pissed through that money like drunk sailors and they would piss through any additional money too. A company like that is going to fail, its not like getting your product on the shelves is some magic thing that suddenly fixes everything. Tons of companies with moderately successful products still fail because they have no idea how to manage their business, and it shoulda been pretty clear to any investor that was the case with 38 Studios, so maybe they went in, were wow'd by the game and then started really digging into the finanaces and asking the serious questions and decided not to invest.
Maybe Curt didn't want change, or maybe he was willing but the added cost of major shake-ups in management was too much for any potential VC. Coming in and doing a Romney style take over and turn around costs alot more than just throwing money into a business that is cash strapped but otherwise OK. I would bet that towards the end Curt was willing to let them blow up his exec team, and it's just that no one was willing to do that.
The reoccurring theme we hear is this company was Curt's baby. This was his passion. He did not want to give up big stakes or control of the company. I think he actually made a mistake by not running the company himself and in hiring the CEO and execs they had. I'm curious if the CEO, the girl from Comcast, actually had ever played an MMO, and what she contributed.
Tha game probably wasn't too appealing to any VC group looking at 1,3, and 5 year ROI. No VC group gives a hoot if they have Rolston or Salvatore or Mcfarlane on their project. The numbers would not add up. I'd be really curious to hear a non-spin Curt post mortem and to see if he could do it over, if he'd run the shop himself, be more of a miser, and hire a single good manager with a solo simple first product planned for marketplace.
I disagree with many of Ut's points, but I do believe .38S has really hurt future small companies trying to get funding for games. It's also probably set the MMO genre back quite a bit. I'd love to have Gates/Buffet levels of money and be able to make an MMO, but it seems these games are not very good investments. How many MMOs has MS eaten tens of millions of dinero to not release, let alone their Turbine stuff?
Tha game probably wasn't too appealing to any VC group looking at 1,3, and 5 year ROI. No VC group gives a hoot if they have Rolston or Salvatore or Mcfarlane on their project. The numbers would not add up. I'd be really curious to hear a non-spin Curt post mortem and to see if he could do it over, if he'd run the shop himself, be more of a miser, and hire a single good manager with a solo simple first product planned for marketplace.
I disagree with many of Ut's points, but I do believe .38S has really hurt future small companies trying to get funding for games. It's also probably set the MMO genre back quite a bit. I'd love to have Gates/Buffet levels of money and be able to make an MMO, but it seems these games are not very good investments. How many MMOs has MS eaten tens of millions of dinero to not release, let alone their Turbine stuff?
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Bah, not really, since most of the big sellers these days were all started as small mom and pop shop games. Even the 12 ton gorilla COD was a small studio game before being bought out.
Utnayan
I Love Utnayan he’s awesome
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Small studios sort of, lacking any big publishing backing? False. Call of Duty was backed by Activision. And before then when this team was 2015, they had EA backing with Medal of Honor.
Most indie games, while I like some of them, are mostly platformers with a couple stand outs like Amnesia.
I haven't seen a solid AAA title that came from smaller dev houses not be backed by a major publisher in the last 25 years. The last one that still exists today would be The Elder Scrolls: Arena back when Bethesda Softworks was it's own publisher. Or Warcraft by Blizzard in 1994.
Mistake one was not hiring any of those relic titians of the mmo space to get the game to ship. It would been ass but would have shipped.
No bucking the trend hire relic titian is priority number 1. This is what happens when hire nobody's that never shipped an MMO just cause you touch greatness doesnt make you great. I am Sure the great dick vogel would brought this to market.
Laugh now cry later
No bucking the trend hire relic titian is priority number 1. This is what happens when hire nobody's that never shipped an MMO just cause you touch greatness doesnt make you great. I am Sure the great dick vogel would brought this to market.
Laugh now cry later
Agenor
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Yeah, I am on the same page with you about overkill on pre-production of lore. My post was directed to those who dismissed the usefulness of lore all together.
I would think a very small team could flesh out the in game lore very quickly, assuming the over arching story is in place by day 1 of production. As I'm not in the industry I have no clue how these games are built from the ground up. I would assume the story is laid out way beforehand, or is it like the musician who lays the music down before the lyric.
Isnt lore more an rp thing..most players I know could give 2 shits about lore. Is it important to know why your collecting 10 bear asses on quest other then it gives xp. Me in swtor "yeah shut ass give the quest" spacebar hit repeatly
Agenor
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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It definitely attracts the RP player. I would agree with you on overdoing it with why I'm collecting 10 bear asses. There should be NPC's in the game though that hint at rarer quests, and such to create an atmosphere of actual exploration, and depth to the game. The hand holding on every quest needs to stop.
Also, don't get me started on SWTOR. That's the poster child of how not to do things.
Also, don't get me started on SWTOR. That's the poster child of how not to do things.