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Thief: Deadly Shadows - Review @ Filefront
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Dwango
Head Merchant
Head Merchant




Joined: 06 May 2002
Posts: 68
   

quote:
Originally posted by Wolfgarou

Err...I'm not going to refer to T3 specifically, but didn't the original DX catered to all gameplay types and was heralded as one of the best games ever? And weren't you guys complaining how limited the options in DX IW was?



Okay, it is true that Deus Ex was famous for being more than an FPS. But you have to take the motivation into account to understand why design decisions for that game worked and the decisions for IW failed.

When Deus Ex was being developed, a lot of risk was being taken to further the FPS genre. Would players respond to RPG-like statistics? Was the world too open, too confusing? The decisions were about making major changes to an existing proven system. No fear.

But in IW, a lot of the inclusive design decisions seemed to be made of fear. Add stealth, but make it simple to do (vents) so we get the stealth crowd, but don't scare of average users. Simplify the RPG elements by removing statistics so casual gamers don't get confused, but we have something to say it still has the RPG elements. Simplify the ammo and the inventory to make sure we keep everyone happy, but have kewl weapons. It has ammo and inventory, but a four year old can use it. This is what I mean to make everyone happy. Make it so that casual gamers might buy it, but keep the "complex" stuff for serious gamers. In the end, no one was happy.

At least Thief 3 avoided a lot of those problems (though the latest expert level bug undermines some of that). They just kept the game a lot more to its revolutionary roots. Encourage stealth, push the hidden aspects, try not to make it too much Thief: Splinter Cell. I'm impressed they could stick to their guns with all the pressure from Eidos to make the game more palatable for all users. There is still the gloves and loss of water, but you can see from the game play they tried to avoid some of the pitfalls of being too much to everyone. In a way, by not being everything to everyone, they are avoiding the current trend and being risky. (Kind of a major change from the period Deus Ex came from, where bleding genres was huge risk)


quote:
Originally posted by Wolfgarou

Btw, playing a niche game doesn't make a person more intelligent or dumb in any way. I'm kinda dumb and still playing niche games like Ghost Recon and F1 sims. A game is still a game

quote:
You don't have to get everyone in the world to by your game.


Then you won't get your game because nobody will fund the project


The point of my previous rant is that playing to a niche can be profitable. There are groups who will pay serious money to be catered to. In super stores, Target plays to the upper-middle class with its higher scale version of WalMart. Southwest Airlines concentrates on a smaller scale airport system and is one of the ony airlines showing profit. There are many such examples where a company does not have to appeal to everyone to make money.

Sure, a Walmart (EA ) will always make money. But that doesn't mean all stores should be walmart, or all games should want to be the SIMs or, in Thief's case, Splinter Cell.
_________________
Ha, Ha, Ha.... Oh, you were SERIOUS?

-Dwango
Post Tue Jun 08, 2004 6:58 pm
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