General Discussion

Nice interview Dana.

I can't blame you for trying, but they, as usual, don't give you much to work with.  Because all throughout the interview, I had the same question you had, Dana:

"Nowadays everyone seems to be about the player, so what makes Acclaim different?"

Its a question that seems to be answered in the same terms all the major players in this industry seem to give us: digital downloads, free trials, listening to customer feedback, etc.

This shows how out of touch Acclaim seems to be.  Because its not the presence of digital downloading that is going to put the player first.  Its the responsibility of not using digital downloading as a free pass to create any change the developers feel is appropriate.

In fact, I think that for whatever reason of convenience digital downloading has in terms of benefits to the consumer, there are about ten times as many ways consumers can be screwed.  Gamers have been cheated and abused by MMO providers far in excess of the retailers, and a level of consumer protection will be lost.

Lack of hard printed documentation is disconcerting.  The fact that the online "rulebook" can be changed, means it will be changed.  My fear is radically, and without warning, for whatever reason the developers deem is necessary.

It seems to me also that the lack of a retail distributor means that they are able to hide more defects, skimp on quality, control all product information channels, and supress negative criticism at the time of sale.

Free trials are nothing new.  But are these going to be trials with stipulations?  Or trials that are limited in terms of the sorts of content they can access?  In other words, are they going to allow players to go into the game proper to witness the game they are to pay for, or are they going to stick them on a newbie island that is protected from everything that is ugly, unbalanced, and buggy?  These are questions that are on this playing public's mind in the light of the Mourning scam, Farlan Entertainment's debacle with Dark and Light preorders, and Sony Online Entertainment's contraversial reworking of Star Wars Galaxies.

All companies say they listen to player feedback.  Some even do something about it.  In fact, some companies do too much about it, and end up sacrificing the integrity of the game for the sake of special interest groups of players.  Where does Acclaim stand on these issues?  Do they believe in strong builds around a strong concept and game mechanics that do not deviate?  Or does it see the game as an "eternal work of progress" where everything can be changed, and nothing is certain?

Mr. Marks certainly didn't tell me anything that I didn't already know about the MMORPG business.  There is nothing very novel, nor player friendly, nor stable, in the business today.  And as a consumer and player of the genre, the real important issues we have as players seem not to be addressed.

We as players want to buy games.  But the development houses don't seem to want to sell us games.  They want to sell us question marks and long term contracts that are one sided.  We are mired in a world of spin, hype, and half-truths; when we want certainties from these people.

So in a sense, I got the answer to your question Dana about what makes Acclaim different.  And the answer is, not much.  Acclaim is just another MMO group that is no different than any other.  If given a chance, they will nerf us, steal from us, mislead us, get rich every second of it, and say the easy, but altogether meanigless words of, "we are for the players."

That is, unless they actually put forth a plan as to how they are going to do things differently than the others from a design, live team, and management standpoint.

You see, I hope they understand that we are becoming a lot more savy, a lot less tolerant, and a lot smarter than the 1337d3wd of the past.  We have been done over too many times, and we don't fall for the same old tricks.

So to the ones at Acclaim like Mr. Marks, I hope for the best.  Someone has to clean up this industry.  If you can do it, I'd appreciate it.  But seeing as how your role models and industry leaders in MMORPGs can do so well by being slimy, I'm skeptical.

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Originally posted by Leesus
I'm glad to see a video game company as popular as Acclaim putting there foot in the MMORPG industry. A lot of these MMOs comming out are by companies that just started and don't have a clue to what the players really want. Acclaim has had 19 years to find out what sells a game. This should be interesting to say the least.

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Not so sure about that, these guys may have made games for a long time, but they have never made an MMO before. Codemasters decided to do the same thing recently, and we got RF online, same old crap with a different shell. They tend to think there is nothing more to this genre than making a leveling treadmil with plenty of rare items to aquire then creating a shiney world and lore around it.

Don't get me wrong though, I love Acclaim ... or at least I did, but didn't they go bankrupt? Not quite sure what happened there.

Well said Beatnik59. While we would all like to be optimistic as Acclaim joins the party, I can't say I was much impressed by Howard Marks. The article seems to paint Acclaim as a marketing firm rather than a developer.

Refusing to provide a hard copy, while perhaps eco-friendly, isn't exactly player friendly. Ever had to repartition a hard drive, thank God it comes with a 4 hour download now too.

No one enjoys downloading patches. If you find yourself constantly updating your game client it means one of two things, either your game content has been devoured, or its too buggy to continue. Either way you're simply putting tape on a leaky bucket. Impatience seems to dominate the market as company after company rushes through production leaving the hopeful consumer with a depressing dose of deja-vu.

To be quite honest I believe many games on the market had great potential, but their downfall was difficulty. Games like EQ, SWG, and WoW have given their players immortal status. I fear immortality within a tiny box grows tiresome even for the most pedantic monkeys.