Zengaze wrote:Someone earlier compared this debacle to the silent hunter 5 ubisoft debacle, and essentially claimed that The need for an internet connection had not adversely affected sales, and that those who had stated out of principle that they would not purchase such a product caved and bought it because there was no other option in the end.
That someone was me. Not that I'm all to picky about things, but it generally shows your lack of attention for detail (not to mention your lack of manners), that you did not even take the time to look up my name, even though you obviously must have had a vague idea where you saw it, after all, you pretty much quoted what I wrote earlier.
That lack of attention for detail shows in the rest of your post as well.
Let's see:
Zengaze wrote:
This is a complete misrepresentation of the facts. I followed the ubi mess from start to finish.
Silent Hunter 5 TANKED, largely because it alientated such a large part of it's already niche market.
The only indication for the lack of success was the fact, that they pulled support for the game, but you know what? It was not the lack of hardcore fans supporting the game, but rather the casuals staying away from it. Why?
Because if you are faced with a threatening protection scheme and have no stake in a game, you will just ignore it. Me on the other hand, I caved after about a month and bought it regardless of my better judgement. Along with at least two other hardcore fans (friends of mine) who were set out to boycott the game. Yes: if you really want something, as most hardcore fans do, then you will be willing to go that extra mile to get it, so I'm afraid you've got your facts backwards dude.
In fact, that game's lack of success can't really be written down as the bad protection alone either, as that game was bleeding from quite a few wounds besides the draconian protection.
Apart from that, I merely used that game as a comparison to show, that real fans of the game were willing to ignore the draconian protection, DESPITE of what they say and because its protection is to steam, like your pet dictator's forced labor camp is to your kid's average summer camp.
So if the hardcore is willing to put up with uplay, then Steam will have no issues as it is like a happy summer holiday compared to that.
Zengaze wrote:
SH5 also tried to make itself more casual gamer friendly by dumbing down, just like X, but that couldn't save it when a large portion of it's nerd community walked away in protest.
How does this relate to the protection?
Zengaze wrote:
Furthermore the statement that everybody bought it anyway because their was no other option is blatanly innacurate and demonstrates a complete lack of knowledge of the events.
I saw plenty of activity on the UBI forums, I saw my friends playing it and I myself have bought it. Empirical evidence suggests, that the hardcore followers of the game have mostly bought it despite its protection and flaws and that is the way things usually are for a game. Hardcore => more dedicated => more likely to buy despite what they claim.
That being said, while the hardcore is essential for the success of a game and while it is easy to believe that they are the majority since it is them you see posting on the forums or talking about your game on twitter, it is the casuals that make up for the bulk of the player base and this is true in small niche games just as well as in big AAA titles.
If your game is not casual friendly, or at least appealing enough for them to buy, then your game will fail. Sad, but true.
Talking about blatantly inaccurate:
Zengaze wrote:
Within a day of release there was another version available, without the need to connect to ubi.
To my knowledge, there has not been an official version of the game that can work outside of uplay. I sure as hell do not have one and there was no way on earth there was one within a day of release, when I was forced to use uplay months after I finally bought the game, which was a month after release to begin with.
You migth be talking about the pirated versions, but just so you know, the first pirated version (which I obviously DID *cough*not*cough* TRY) was highly bugged and near unplayable (unable to save progress, start missions, etc), and it took them months to finally create a crack that worked with the game even acceptably, by which time I already owned the official version of the game, with all its glorious protection.
Zengaze wrote:
Please do not misrepresent events.
X is niche, and always will be niche, talking heads may have ideas of populisim, but they alienate a large section of that niche at their peril.
I could ask the same.
Yes, going more casual might alienate a portion of the hardcore fans, but it also has the potential of winning some new ones, maybe even more than you lost.
Is that good? That depends. In an ideal world, everyone can play on the level of abstraction (detail) they find best suited for their skills and interests. We are not living in an ideal world however, and creating such a flexible system would not only be extremely complicated, but would most probably never have a positive ROI (return of investment). So companies try to find a balance where it is not too detailed for the casuals, but not too casual for the hardcore either. If rebirth might not work out because it falls too much on the casual side, then they will just add more features to the game in later expansions, making it a little more detailed. It is harder to do it the other way around, as you can't just trim parts of the game that you deem to be too much, without adversely affecting the balance of it as a whole.
