Interview Another Troika interview

[Volourn]

No.

 

[NeutralMilkHotel]

Yes.

 

[Calis]

What?

 

[Spazmo]

So! How 'bout them local sports team?

 

[Calis]

They used to rock, but these days they're all about the blow.

 

[Fez]

I like clouds, but sometimes they tell me to kill.

 

[errorcode]

would those be the publishers you publicly pointed the finger at for failing to adequately test your "complex systems" in your buggy games?

I'm sorry, i can't muster a whole lot of sympathy. It's sad that an RPG studio has closed down, but it's there own fucking fault.

Piss poor management - Check
Lack of personal accountability - Check
bad financial decisions - Check

You're an imbecile, son. If publishers actually gave a shit about publishing buggy games, they wouldn't be releasing so many of them. The fact is, publishers don't care a lick about releasing buggy games at all, which is why they never support tham after a month or so.

The only thing a publisher cares about is if a game sells millions of copies these days. Making a profit isn't enough nor is getting back double or tripple the cost of development. Publishers do only care about making mainstream games for the most part, because the more mainstream the game, they think the more likely it is they'll get five or six times the cost of making the game and publishing it.

cute, but you missed my point. They burned bridges with publishers when they publicly pointed fingers at them. Publishersdon't take kindly to that kind of publicity coming from Devs. Most publishers who've worked with Troika wouldn't do so again.

So, you're right that most publsihers only care about sales and not about releasing quality products. But when a dev starts pointing fingers at them they get pissed. Troika might have had a better lifespan if they hadn't bitten the hands that fed them.

 

[Greenskin13]

DrattedTin used to do my taxes.

I like clouds, but sometimes they tell me to kill.

I am so sick of the sun.

 

[Spazmo]

Maybe... maybe if we all throw a rock at the sun at the same time, we could break it and maybe it'd go away.

 

[Fez]

If we got everyone on one side of the world to jump up and down at the same time, then we might be able to tilt the world enough to start it rolling away from the sun.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Get enough people to believe the sun doesn't exist and it won't.

 

[Greenskin13]

DrattedTin has walked the planes for 140 years

Wrong reality, dude.

 

[Reklar]

would those be the publishers you publicly pointed the finger at for failing to adequately test your "complex systems" in your buggy games?

I'm sorry, i can't muster a whole lot of sympathy. It's sad that an RPG studio has closed down, but it's there own fucking fault.

Piss poor management - Check
Lack of personal accountability - Check
bad financial decisions - Check

You're an imbecile, son. If publishers actually gave a shit about publishing buggy games, they wouldn't be releasing so many of them. The fact is, publishers don't care a lick about releasing buggy games at all, which is why they never support tham after a month or so.

The only thing a publisher cares about is if a game sells millions of copies these days. Making a profit isn't enough nor is getting back double or tripple the cost of development. Publishers do only care about making mainstream games for the most part, because the more mainstream the game, they think the more likely it is they'll get five or six times the cost of making the game and publishing it.

cute, but you missed my point. They burned bridges with publishers when they publicly pointed fingers at them. Publishersdon't take kindly to that kind of publicity coming from Devs. Most publishers who've worked with Troika wouldn't do so again.

So, you're right that most publsihers only care about sales and not about releasing quality products. But when a dev starts pointing fingers at them they get pissed. Troika might have had a better lifespan if they hadn't bitten the hands that fed them.

I gather from what you're saying that integrity should be thrown out the window, so the developer can end up just like the publisher who was ultimately responsible for a shoddy product? The high-handed behavior of a publisher really should not be encouraged, regardless of their position in the industry food chain. Ultimately the one who gets the raw deal is the customer, and who are they going to complain to when the publisher is deaf to their complaints? People go on and on about the power of the consumer, but in reality that power is a paper tiger because there are never enough informed consumers to make a publisher notice a miniscule drop in sales. If the publisher sees that the games from a particular developer don't sell well enough they stop supporting the developer and find some other that will make a game that meets their sales quota, but not because they care about the content of the game beyond what demographics tell them should be a hit, so how is the customer, who buys games for the content, of the now defunct developer attaining their intended goal?

-Reklar
(a Fallout/RPG fan)

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Wrong reality, dude.

I make my own reality.

 

[triCritical]

"Yeah, right, a turn-based game was trying to be mainstream."

Are you saying Final Fantasy series isn't mainstream? Gain a clue.

1) How well do FF ports sell on PC's? Not very good.
2) Not all FF's have TB combat, they like change their system every game.
3) Final Fantasy combat is stupid. Half of the combat is scripted, and the other half pointless time filler. Its worse then, dare I say the CRPG console hack KotOR.
4) I wouldn't necessarily say Japanese CRPG's our mainstream in the N. American PC RPG market. Just about every N. American RPG board I have been to lacks people talking about Japanese RPG's.

And now you get a clue you fuckwit.

Final Fantasy Tactics, is a game that much more closely resembles a western CRPG, or for that matter ToEE. How many units did that sell? How many people are still talking about that PSX classic? Why aren't they busting out a FFT game every year and making MMORPG's.

Like you say, get a clue...

 

[triCritical]

i don't know, could it just be that troika thinks much more of their own capabilities than everyone else? for god's sake, how naive can they be to think that a lack of "mainstream appeal" is the reason their games failed? denial at it's best.

taks

I think that is true about Arcanum, which was really a good game, except for the fact that it looked like shareware. As for Bloodlines, they had already failed prior to its release. And ToEE, I blame on the lack of building a good relationship with Atari.