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I admit, I like quietly playing my games by myself. But then again, I'm also not the kind of person that likes to watch movies with other people. It feels awkward to me.

I'm odd, I know.

 Melissia wrote:
But then again, I'm also not the kind of person that likes to watch movies with other people. It feels awkward to me.

Does it involve a lot of ice cream?

Hate going to the movies too though. Going there with friends is awesome, but other people eating SO fething LOUD JUST WHEN THE MOVIE STARTS really darkens my mood. And you can't get drunk either.

I'm also not a sugar-eating person, either. I don't drink, nor do I smoke.

I'm kinda boring actually

 Amaya wrote:
I somehow managed to completely forget about Origin. Feth that terrible service. Why can't you just use Steam like everybody else?

I continue to be dumbfounded by the antipathy for Origin while simultaneously praising Steam, a nearly identical service, each with utterly identical and draconian DRM.

It's very simple logic. Steam was first, so we already all have it and don't want another fething stupid service.

And people had that whole stink with Origin's data collection stuff in it's EULA even though it was the same EULA EA used for most of its products going back several years that somehow nobody ever noticed beforehand.

$60 for sim city on origin!

That is one of the most expensive computer games I've seen in ages. I usually pay no more than $40, and only then if I feel the game is a must-have. Mass effect 3 was in that category for me.

And yes I have both steam and origin, I'd prefer steam but I got origin for mass effect 3 and the sims. I don't want to mess with DVDs anymore, just want to download games and play.

But 60 bucks for a game, I can imagine this price turning a lot of gamers away.

 Cave_Dweller wrote:
But 60 bucks for a game, I can imagine this price turning a lot of gamers away.

That has been the price for most AAA games for quite a few years now. Here's an (unrelated) price breakdown from 2010 using that price point.

Actually now that I think of it, I'm kinda sad to see him go. He was the one that decided that the ME3 multiplayer DLC should be free.

 Melissia wrote:
Actually now that I think of it, I'm kinda sad to see him go. He was the one that decided that the ME3 multiplayer DLC should be free.

Wait- An EA CEO decided something should be free? No wonder he got fired

Welp, Square Enix' CEO is now also stepping down.

THANKS OBAMA.

EA may be the OCP of video gaming, but if someone gets fired for "not making enough money" this is certainly no calls for celebration, for it does not bode well for the future. The next guy will just make the company even more greedy.

Sigvatr wrote:Maybe becoming so big did not benefit the game development as much as a lot of people hoped.

ding ding ding ... we have a winner.
It seems as if at a certain level, success just starts to corrupt. Studios with creative and idealistic people get purchased by other companies headed by beancounters, bringing in new managers whose vita does not have anything to do with gaming at all but rather amazon or various banks. Slowly, the soul is eroded and the free spirit of those few who stay true to their enthusiasm curtailed by policies and profit targets. It's the critical point where making games becomes less of a "hobby turned profession" and slowly lets go of that first part.

We will likely continue to see good games, and just like with Hollywood movies their budgets and thus invested value actually tends to go up rather than down, allowing for more impressive technologies to be deployed. However, we will also continue to see more and more influence from the financial sector leading to dubious decisions, be them draconian DRM, overpriced day 1 DLCs or, perhaps the most dangerous consequence, an ongoing simplification of games down to the smallest common denominator in order to reach a broader target audience, in turn making the games less complex and thus less amazing to focus groups. In terms of BioWare, comparing DA1 to DA2 tells you a lot about this evolution. More fancy graphics, less actual content. We could probably say the same about the world of movies.

And I have a feeling it's the same thing with GW, to come full circle and return to 40k. The "age of pioneering" with its X-Coms and Baldur's Gates seems to be over - although we may still see some true pearls rise up in Kickstarter, I guess, so all hope should not be lost.

Cave_Dweller wrote:But 60 bucks for a game, I can imagine this price turning a lot of gamers away.

Yup. The game looks good, actually, but ... nah, I'll wait until it goes down to a sensible price.

 LordofHats wrote:

 Melissia wrote:
I think a shake-up within EA would be better than them simply falling apart, however.

This.

No shocker that EA is struggling at all. Their common practice of taking an developer with strong IP's, then driving that IP into ground, and just picking up a new developer afterwards, was bound to stop working sooner or later. Unlike Ubisoft or Activision, EA has been unable to successfully maintain in house IP's for some time, and the number of small time developers for them to buy out has run pretty dry.

Reminds me of Midway XD


As for the comments about "pioneering days" being over, this is simply not true; Double Fine pretty much changed the game industry with Adventure, and I gaurantee that any bigwig is paying attention to which projects (Like Torment) are getting a lot of backing fast.

No one thought Adventure Games would be profitable, and Schaffer raised three times the money he needed.

No one thought a Torment sequal would be profitable, and yet that has made the most money on Kickstarter ever.

That shook up the industry, we just haven't quite seen it yet. I'm also sure that Tomb Raider's Reboot along with the potential Remember Me has will cause us to see a few more femme fatal leads.