Preview Mage Knight Apocalypse scoops at WorthPlaying

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Mage Knight: Apocalypse

There's a <a href="http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=30058">preview</a> of <a href="http://www.namco.com/games/mkapocalypse">Mage Knight Apocalypse</a> over at <a href="http://www.worthplaying.com/">WorthPlaying</a>. It talks about how lengthy the single player is, the five classes, and the bad guy:
<br>
<blockquote>The villain of Mage Knight: Apocalypse is an evil beast called the Apocalypse Dragon, and you'll have one of five heroes to choose from in order to quest against it. InterServ emphasized that the game's story would be less good vs. evil than grey vs. evil, with the various warriors each pursuing their own reasons in the fight against the Apocalypse Dragon.</blockquote>
<br>
I can see the reasoning behind bad guys not getting along with an <i>Apocalypse</i> Dragon. That's one dragon I doubt has many friends and allies. Probably has poor people skills.
<br>
<br>
Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.bluesnews.com">Blue's News</A>

 

[Section8]

I'd like to see a calypso dragon. Mellow, drunk and high, stuck on a tropical island somewhere, and happy enough with its own little space that it doesn't aspire to fuck with anyone elses. Probably wouldn't make much of a villain though.

 

[Kuato]

why take an already popular strategic turn based game license and make it into an action game? Why not not make the game based on what made Mageknight popular in the first place I mean what could be the value of using the mageknight license if your not making a game for the people who will even recognize the name(seeFOBOS)? this is just another example of why the video game industry is broken, I can already speculate on how this happened, it all centers on the 3 minute exec demo where a turn based game is nearly impossible to demonstrate immersive gameplay in 3 minutes but an action game can do it with one button press triggerring one over the top combo attack with special effects and deafening sound,

Welcome to the age of the 3 minute exec demo

 

[pseudo intellectual]

why take an already popular strategic turn based game license and make it into an action game?

Because bean counters run the gaming industry now and mindless action games have a much larger demographic than turn-based strategy games. Welcome to the future.

 

[Kuato]

I guess Id compare it to taking something like poker and turning it into and action game because poker is supposed to be really popular but by making it an action game we can appeal to a much broader audience because all those people who may not like orhave the pateince for poker will run to nearest store to buy something called Action Poker.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

why take an already popular strategic turn based game license and make it into an action game? Why not not make the game based on what made Mageknight popular in the first place I mean what could be the value of using the mageknight license if your not making a game for the people who will even recognize the name(seeFOBOS)?

I think instead of making the video game to sell to the people that are fans of the tradiational game, they're making a video game to be more of a commercial advertisement for the traditional game. Think of how every new toy that came out in the 1980s had it's own cartoon show, no matter how silly the toy or how lame the cartoon.

 

[Kuato]

I think instead of making the video game to sell to the people that are fans of the tradiational game, they're making a video game to be more of a commercial advertisement for the traditional game. Think of how every new toy that came out in the 1980s had it's own cartoon show, no matter how silly the toy or how lame the cartoon.

Cartoons on TV are free to watch so are TV commercials, making a different game as an advertisment for another game ultimately sounds like a longshot that your message is going to get through and unlike a bad TV episode if the game doesnt meet expectations the investment is lost. I can see pushing the IP through a different genre once its already well established but I dont think there is an actual Mageknight video game adaptation yet is there?

I think they could probbaly learn something from Konami but I guess the hardest lessons are the most costly.

http://www.upperdeckentertainment.com/yugioh/en/

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Cartoons on TV are free to watch so are TV commercials, making a different game as an advertisment for another game ultimately sounds like a longshot that your message is going to get through and unlike a bad TV episode if the game doesnt meet expectations the investment is lost. I can see pushing the IP through a different genre once its already well established but I dont think there is an actual Mageknight video game adaptation yet is there?

What else would be the point if not for pimping the original franchise? Like you said, it's a smallish game with very little name recognition at this point, so the only thing they could hope for is that the video game will bring more name recognition to the original product.

I think they could probbaly learn something from Konami but I guess the hardest lessons are the most costly.

http://www.upperdeckentertainment.com/yugioh/en/

Well, here's the fundamental problem. Most marketting is common sense. The problem is, there's a degree out there for marketting that apparently doesn't require much sense to get. My half sister has a degree in marketting, and she's a ditzy twit. But hey, that degree means more to people than common sense.

 

[Section8]

I guess Id compare it to taking something like poker and turning it into and action game because poker is supposed to be really popular but by making it an action game we can appeal to a much broader audience because all those people who may not like orhave the pateince for poker will run to nearest store to buy something called Action Poker.

It happens more often than you think. One of the worst offenders in this respect was the Tiger Woods' Golf version that introduced "Speed Golf," in a failed bid to give the game more action appeal.

Basically, instead of resembling real golf, with all of its skill and patience, the game was scored according to how fast you completed holes, and not only did you have to hit and hope for each shot, you had to sit there nucking a button to make your golfer run after his ball.

Now aside from the fact that action gamers are going to be instantly dismissive of a golf title regardless of its feature list, all it managed to do is piss off the people who actually want to play a golf game by forcing them to do "speed golf" as part of the games challenge mode.

Fucking ridiculous.

The same title also introduced various visual enhancements based on Happy Gilmore and bullet time, which give the game a bit of mass market appeal without utterly disrupting the core gameplay. A much healthier choice.

Thankfully, the series has gone back to what it should be with numerous enhancements, and scarily, its the only EA Sports title I actually care about these days.

What else would be the point if not for pimping the original franchise? Like you said, it's a smallish game with very little name recognition at this point, so the only thing they could hope for is that the video game will bring more name recognition to the original product.

It's also advertising that is purpose built to recoup at least some of its production costs. I had the pleasure of working on one such game - "Hot Wheels Bash Arena." At one point during the development, Mattel said "Make the cars bigger. We need the kids to see the cars we want them to buy."

So we spent a couple of months re-rendering every single tile and sprite in the game. Their response - "We can't see enough of the road in front of the car. Make the cars smaller again." Hooray for marketing!

Well, here's the fundamental problem. Most marketting is common sense. The problem is, there's a degree out there for marketting that apparently doesn't require much sense to get. My half sister has a degree in marketting, and she's a ditzy twit. But hey, that degree means more to people than common sense.

Tell me about it. Marketing is a big course at the university I'm at, and its basically the catch-all "I'm-not-particularly-bright-but-my-parents-want-me-to-go-to-uni" course. Plus you see evidence of it every day in media. One of my recent favourites was an add for tea, where the tea is so tasty, the woman drinking it decides she's going to eat the mug she's drinking it from. The glass mug she's drinking from. I don't think I'd ever seen anyone watch it without cringing/wincing/turning away/screaming/etc before it was pulled.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tell me about it. Marketing is a big course at the university I'm at, and its basically the catch-all "I'm-not-particularly-bright-but-my-parents-want-me-to-go-to-uni" course. Plus you see evidence of it every day in media. One of my recent favourites was an add for tea, where the tea is so tasty, the woman drinking it decides she's going to eat the mug she's drinking it from. The glass mug she's drinking from. I don't think I'd ever seen anyone watch it without cringing/wincing/turning away/screaming/etc before it was pulled.

When you think about it, marketting is all about figuring out what niche a product caters to and aiming to bring in as much of that niche as possible. The problem is that you removed the common sense from the field and made niche a dirty word. So, instead of trying to go after a selection of people who already are interested, they try to go after as many people as possible by going after whatever trends they think will bring in the most money.

The first thing they should teach in marketting classes is Whatever you do, don't fuck with the product itself. Find out what makes the product interesting to the consumers that like it. A well made product should find it's market on it's own, with marketting people being there to nudge up sales with those people.

Unfortunately, they're going the other way.. They're changing the product to get people who not only would be interested, but try to get those who wouldn't be interested to buy the product as well. In many cases, this alienates the original consumers with interest.