Jonquill Caronite
Tronhadar Free Guard
Minmatar Republic
115
   |
Posted - 2012.10.20 02:47:00 -
[1] - Quote
I think the progress of this game is tailored perfectly for a very small minority, which is exactly what it needs to be. EVE grew from a VERY dedicated small audience that CCP catered to in every way, and eventually just became so damn cool (Even if it was complicated), that it attracted people that would normally never play a game like that.
This game in its release form will NOT cater to most FPS, it won't be of the same shooter quality as other shooters, don't kid yourself and think otherwise. However, it will be MUCH MUCH more complicated, deep, intricate, and ever expanding, with a lot more cool things tools, features, aspects, and controls then any other game on the market. At first they will be buggy, it won't be for the impatient gamer, but this is the key.
This game will be supported, it will grow from a small dedicated audience, and as time goes on it will get more and more refined, more and more polished, human interface will get better, graphics will get better, tutorials will get better, options will expand, capability will expand, content will be added, and every time it will gain a proportional amount of increased curiosity.
This game doesn't need to launch with a giant initial audience, because its audience will grow with the game, and it will eventually with a lot of hard work by both the developers and the people who dedicated to the game, begin to surpass all other FPS games on all counts. Why? Because its one game with non-stop dedicated feedback that no other 'individual game' could ever compete with on the FPS market. Maybe some shooter series have the same level of dedication, but what they DON'T have is a drive for innovation that is present in this game.
I want to make this point clear, because it has always been CCP's desire to do what THEY wanted, and appeal to a very dedicated minority fanbase that made their flagship EVE great. I don't want them to buckle under pressure from the FPS market. Yes that's who they are marketing for, but not the COD of MW crowds, not the typical FPS gamers, they are marketing to a different sub-genre, that wants depth, and they need to keep that in mind.
Fluency, graphics, and controls will be the most important thing to the typical FPS player, they wont be happy until they can jump in, run and gun, get a quick fix, and jump back out of the game again. These features are not important to the minority you are trying to please, emergent game-play, meaningful battles, strategic innovation, and a large array of possibilities and options is what is appealing to the market you want to advertise for. As such the latter points are what you should be focusing on, refining controls and general fluency should continue, but in the background, as a side-note, not as the main point of developing.
Keep innovating CCP, do what you do best, and rely on the dedication of your fanbase to carry you through. You'll find we aren't near as fickle as the casual first person shooter. Once more you'll find in a year when your just innovating because the controls have finally been refined and the graphical interface completed, that the very gamers so critical of your concern with innovation over 'the basic' will be envying the game they bailed on early due to impatients, and flocking back to it, because the alternatives just aren't as appealing as what you made.
I trust your a more forward thinking company, and I trust your ability to both listen to the gamers, but also keep your priorities straight and have more foresight then some of the less thoughtful in our community... |
Jonquill Caronite
Tronhadar Free Guard
Minmatar Republic
115
|
Posted - 2012.10.20 03:46:00 -
[3] - Quote
On a side note, take the time to go to any development or feed-back thread for ANY of the major first person shooters of the last couple years... The reality is the FPS crowd is not a group of people very good at giving constructive criticism in any game, and for the most part they are very very immature compared to most other gamers. Every one of these games that people are comparing this game to has development threads filled with flame-wars and endless balance complaints, and continuous graphics uproars, and endless glitch hating, and this was even during these other games extremely polished borderline demo BETAs...
The reality is CCP gives too much credit to many FPS complaints. You have to view them through the lenses of how FPS gamers actually act, and by reinterpretting it, you can begin to understand why they are doing so poorly... They listen to these gamers too much when many of them are complaining the same exact way they would with any other game regardless of how polished or balanced it is. Very few give good critical arguments and the ones who do are for the most part not FPS gamers. |