Game development has simply gotten out of hand. It's way too damn expensive now.

100 million to create the APB? The 200+ to create SWTOR?

People who play PC games these days don't need a boxed copy or cd. Downloading the game is the future. So that saves bundles of cash right there.

Story / Quest Writers? Dime a dozen. You can these cheap - almost free. Anyone with a high school diploma can whip up some interesting story via imagination.

Coders and Graphic Artists? There are endless pools of these guys out there. ENDLESS.

Concept Artists? You can go to deviantart.com and find some of the most breath-taking artists that will work for very little.

Marketing? A superior and innovative product doesn't need much of it. A simple booth at E3, YouTube video, or even some news coverage at sites like this is all they need. If a game is good, people will hear about it and play it.

I really hope this sets a new precedent in the MMO realm. It would be nice to see clones of the SandPark vs the Redundant ThemePark.

Excellent video. The 0:37 Old Navy Swim Suit is a little lame, but no big deal. I'll run around wearing a rubber dog turd if it gets me away from the countless WoW clones.

It would be unique, but it's just not for me. I like the attachment feeling to my character. I can't have that with 3 or more of them.

I'm not asking for a sandbox, but we just need a game that has endless tools of player driven content, e.g., player housing, cities, rivals, etc. The only time we see tools like this are in hardcore sandbox games like Darkfall and Mortal Online - so hardcore to the point where it's boring for most.

I want a blend of WoW and SWG.

WoW is getting old and it's understandable. However, losing subs in all these other games? The only excuse is lack of originality and innovation.

People don't mind paying a subscription. What people mind is playing a subscription to something that rehashed, redundant and boring.

Originally posted by sagil

I have supported Path of Exile and Starbound. I bought closed beta key for PoE (it is a f2p game actually) and bought the shitty game Wanderlust to support their Terraria-like game that in paper blows Terraria away.

Which game(s) have you supported? Not by buying an AAA game, just donating, buying another game to make another indies game grow or to buy a key. Maybe even from kickstarters.

I thought about this the other day. I haven't supported any game. However, I would certainly support some type of 80's G.I.Joe FPS game or He-Man MMO. I'd throw them a few bucks for a kickstart.

There was a time when I thought, "Any game with a Blizzard title is going to be fantastic." This was back in the Warcraft 2 / Starcraft days.

When I think of Blizzard today, all I think about is money. True Story.

I know companies don't produce these games for the fun of it. Their goal is to generate money. However, with Blizzard and most other companies, they don't balance Innovation and "for the love of the game" with money. With them, it seems to be 99% money / 1% care.

Originally posted by DaezAster

In creative industries such as music,art, etc... When you are doing business it is common practice to not have a set price for a specific service but to ask what's your budget. If you are a graphic artist you are going to charge coke a hell of a lot more than a local mom and pop shop. Imagine you went to the store to buy a soda and you asked how much for this soda and there response was how much you got. That's basically how it works...

lol. Indeed.

What a shame, though.

Originally posted by alexanys1982

Yup, I remember when music was awesome, then a fatcat realized the Beatles could be sold to little girls by the billions and that was the end of that.

 

Is WoW our Beatles?

I guess.

Everything costs too much these days. This is why we rarely see any new indy games. It's all business, e.g., make a game to keep it legal, market the hell out of it, and sell all we can i the first month.

APB Wiki "Development costs were in excess of $100 million.^[25]"

I know information on Wiki cannot be completely trusted. However, it's not the first time where we've seen huge numbers flying around when it comes to game development.

APB is a fun game with loads of customization. However, it's still pretty small with not that much to it. It's 100% Player Vs. Player, consists of only 2 large zones and a few little arena-like areas.

Why the hell does game development cost so much? Over $100,000,000 for one game? How can this be the norm. Are companies just that stupid or are coders just that costly?

I remember I wanted a drawing done for a website that I was making. I contacted a professional company and was quoted some crazy number in the thousands. I then went to devientart.com. I posted what I needed done and was bombarded by some of the most talented artists around. They worked for very reasonable rates, too.

This game has the best character customization period.

As for bot-crying players...  most of you are just not good. I've played fps at a professional level for many years (made lots of money doing it). I'm 100% legit and nobody ever gives me a problem. FPS takes a long time get down and nobody every really masters it.

Originally posted by Quethalos

Its Sad to see these jackholes destroy a developer, an IP, and a great concept all at once.  And to top it off they have an arrogance about them that almost make you want to slap them for how foolish they truly are.. Their game is dead in the water....no more lifeboats or life preservers...

They still have their few fanboys lingering around, but it has nothing more then a Single player feel to it.  And the option to team up for a very CC heavy pvp match.  

All and All they flat out failed.... and no ammount of fanboy backlash can change that.  The #'s and the product speak for themselves!

It's funny that you brought up "developer arrognace". I've always thought that most of these devs seemed extremely arrogant.

I feel like this is a console game that just happens to work on PCs. Calling this a MMO is like calling a politician honest.

The PvP in this game has a lot more problems than cooldowns. The same redundant warzones over and over was sickening after the 2nd day.

This is why World PvP is the future. And when I say World PvP, I'm not talking about some half-assed option to kill an opposing playing anywhere in the world. I want something deep, complex, and memorable. I want something with proper sanctions to protect lowbies from being 1-shotted or corpse-camped. I want the ability to infiltrate (if I'm good enough) an opposing city with the goal of assassination in mind. I want the ability to use the environment to escape an approaching enemy guild.

There is so much that can be done with PvP. However, developers take the cheap route and provide us with this simply created battleground garbage. I swear... it's like barfing on a pile of ****.

Trailers are generally deceptive. This one is kind of lame to be honest. However, I've seen countless player-made ArcheAge gameplay videos to get me excited about this game.

This game has most of what I want in an MMO - something that AoC, WAR, SWTOR, Aion, Tera, STO, etc have been missing: a social realm and interactive community.

All I know is this: Open Beta testing has saved me so much money. GW2, SWTOR, STO, Aion, Tera, etc.......

Quest hub to quest hub...   it's sickening. I personally think that story isn't meant to be for MMOs. I know they are trying to get your character too feel unique, but that's just impossible when you have 2,000,000 other people doing the same exact quest and story. But this discussion isn't really about that. It's about the redundant go here, go there epedemic. I can't do it anymore. It wouldn't bother me so much if modern games offered more than that. But they just don't.

lol @ GW2. I couldn't play that for more than 30 min without turning if off. Probably a good game, but I can't stand the rail anymore. I agree with the OP.

Getting a little tired of Zombies. I just don't get it. Fad.

I find myself logging into Diablo 3 by habbit. I'll then shut it down after 5 min.

It's not a bad game. It's a Diablo game. I just wish it took advantage of the jumps technology has made since Diablo 2 and made it a little more grand.

4 players max? Lame. I wish the land was more on the scale of Mythos or Lineage Eternal. They could've done so much more.

I'm a fan of Blizzard North. New Blizzard just sucks. nickel & dime.

Am I the only one who thinks this game is completely typecasted to the point where it's cheesy?

Han Solo was frozen in carbonite. This was supposed to be a unique thing to happen to a living being. However, in SWTOR, you see loads and loads of people frozen in carbonite. CHEESY.

The constant sayings from the movies, "I have a bad feeling about this", "Here we go again". CHEESY

The class typecasting, e.g., Every Smuggler must be rugged like Han Solo, fly the ugliest, yet fastest ship in the galaxy, and have a best friend Wookie companion. CHEEEESY