Vault Dweller
Commissar, Red Star Studio
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2003
- Messages
- 28,044
Tags: Fallout
<a href=http://www.nma-fallout.com>NMA</a> has posted an <a href=http://www.nma-fallout.com/article.php?id=39341>interview</a> with several Fallout developers: Leonard Boyarsky, Chris Taylor, Feargus Urquhart, Chris Avellone, and J.E. Sawyer.
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<blockquote><b>Any idea why there were almost no more turn-based cRPGs after Fallout?</b>
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<b>Leonard Boyarsky</b>: I’m sure people were intimidated by its enormous financial success. Seriously, though - marketing, PR and even execs in the game industry are convinced that you can’t make big money with a turn based game, so no one tries. Now, I don’t know whether you could actually go huge with a turn based game (on the PC) anymore, but, unless someone actually puts out a good one with proper marketing and PR support we’ll never know, will we?
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<b>J.E. Sawyer</b>: I think a lot of it has to do with the perceived acceptability of certain play modes among PC gamers and retailers. Games like Darklands showed that real-time with pause RPGs could be pretty fun. The Baldur's Gate series was such a huge financial success that it must have seemed like real-time with pause was the inescapable evolution of RPG combat.
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I think ToEE was the last strong showing of any turn-based PC CRPG, but it was plagued by two problems: it was pretty buggy, and low-level D&D combat in a CRPG is incredibly dull. After patching, learning the D&D rules, and getting to about 4th level, it was great fun. Still, I doubt it made a lot of random shmoe gamers jump up and declare that turn-based combat was the most rad thing they had ever experienced.
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To be honest, I don't think most gamers actually care a whole lot about whether combat in a CRPG is turn-based or real-time. They just want it to be fun and interesting. I think that convincing retailers that you can have fun and interesting turn-based combat is more difficult than convincing the mythical average gamer. Retailers and publishers get locked in cycles of self-fulfilling prophecies about the viability of certain game elements.</blockquote>It's a great interview, so go to NMA and read the entire thing.
<a href=http://www.nma-fallout.com>NMA</a> has posted an <a href=http://www.nma-fallout.com/article.php?id=39341>interview</a> with several Fallout developers: Leonard Boyarsky, Chris Taylor, Feargus Urquhart, Chris Avellone, and J.E. Sawyer.
<br>
<br>
<blockquote><b>Any idea why there were almost no more turn-based cRPGs after Fallout?</b>
<br>
<br>
<b>Leonard Boyarsky</b>: I’m sure people were intimidated by its enormous financial success. Seriously, though - marketing, PR and even execs in the game industry are convinced that you can’t make big money with a turn based game, so no one tries. Now, I don’t know whether you could actually go huge with a turn based game (on the PC) anymore, but, unless someone actually puts out a good one with proper marketing and PR support we’ll never know, will we?
<br>
<br>
<b>J.E. Sawyer</b>: I think a lot of it has to do with the perceived acceptability of certain play modes among PC gamers and retailers. Games like Darklands showed that real-time with pause RPGs could be pretty fun. The Baldur's Gate series was such a huge financial success that it must have seemed like real-time with pause was the inescapable evolution of RPG combat.
<br>
<br>
I think ToEE was the last strong showing of any turn-based PC CRPG, but it was plagued by two problems: it was pretty buggy, and low-level D&D combat in a CRPG is incredibly dull. After patching, learning the D&D rules, and getting to about 4th level, it was great fun. Still, I doubt it made a lot of random shmoe gamers jump up and declare that turn-based combat was the most rad thing they had ever experienced.
<br>
<br>
To be honest, I don't think most gamers actually care a whole lot about whether combat in a CRPG is turn-based or real-time. They just want it to be fun and interesting. I think that convincing retailers that you can have fun and interesting turn-based combat is more difficult than convincing the mythical average gamer. Retailers and publishers get locked in cycles of self-fulfilling prophecies about the viability of certain game elements.</blockquote>It's a great interview, so go to NMA and read the entire thing.
