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Trent Reznor should apply the same logic to Quake, which although an awesome game isn't really that mechanically different from Doom (much to Romero's chagrin).

:retarded:

Full 3D environment and all of the various features and mechanics to go with it doesn't count? It may not be novel now but back then it was and it required a lot of resources to pull off. This is totally different from e.g. the omnipresent first person/open world/crafting/rpg mechanics games we have today that may as well be reskins of each other. Quake was an innovative step, lack of innovation is more akin to all of the DOOM clones. I say this as someone who doesn't really care for Quake and much prefers DOOM.
 
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That's a technical argument and not necessarily related to gameplay. In fact, one of the reasons why Romero left id was that the original idea for Quake (which was supposed to be significantly different in both structure and gameplay to Doom) was scrapped because it was too ambitious. The end result is something that is quite similar to its predecessor (linear levels structured in episodes).

I'm not disputing the absolute revolutionary nature of Quake from the technological standpoint (and I would go even further and say that its biggest innovation wasn't even the polygonal shift, but rather the move from IPX to the TCP/IP stack), but rather that the end game was very far from what was originally envisioned. This illustrates my point that it's not bad because it's derivative - quite the contrary, I love Quake and have played it since the very first Quake Test.

Also keep in mind I'm mainly referring to the single-player aspect of the game. The multiplayer aspect is another thing altogether.

Anyway, the main point was that games today aren't bad because they're derivative. Many of the classic games I consider my favourites are iterative refinements of a basic formula (most of what I consider the best shmups aren't revolutionary, but rather evolutionary, for example. There are exceptions to this rule of course and especially on the PC during the late mid to late 90's, the biggest example of which I can think of is Thief). They're bad because they're incompetent drivel, made by incompetent people who are reinforced by incompetent media.
 
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The engine obviously had gameplay ramifications, so it counts. Not just for Quake 1, but for all of the dozens of excellent mods and evolutions of the Quake engine (e.g. half life).

Furthermore innovation is fundamentally about taking risks to try and do something new, which Quake did. No one knew whether a full 3D engine would be doable on the hardware of the time, or whether it would require compromises that resulted in an un-fun game that wouldn't be able to succeed on the market. No such risks are being taken today, publishers go to developers and say "you'll make an FPS on UE4 and it will play like every other UE-based FPS of the past decade, we will dump $50M on marketing and we are fairly sure it will produce revenue of $500M"
 
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But your point is that technology frameworks are not being custom-made to suit particular projects (which I agree with to an extent), so it's a technical point at heart.

I think developing custom engines (or modifying them thoroughly) to suit a particular need is very much part of what made the great FPS games of the past so great, because there was a clarity of purpose in the design. This ties into my other point, that most game designers today largely aren't engineers anymore but rather enthusiastic software end-users who get questionable 'education' to produce questionable games through an assembly-line process.

However, I don't think games using established middleware necessarily need to be shit, as you said yourself the Quake engine was licensed to a great many projects and gave birth to many cool things, ditto the Build Engine.

Again, it's not a matter of iteration or completely novel ideas, it's simply a matter of competence more broadly. Take a game like Ghost of a Tale, for example, which was largely made by one guy. It's a great game with a few novel ideas, but mostly it's very well executed and well constructed. Sold like shit, I'm pretty sure the developer would make more money asset flipping instead of making a competent use of Unity. HBS had an infinitely higher budget, scores of people and they managed to royally fuck up Battletech using the same engine. The games are very different but the comparison still stands. They fucked up because they're incompetent, not because they used Unity.

Competence isn't rewarded because the market is flooded with garbage. There are upsides and downsides to the popularization of tech and the ability to actually deliver a product, but honestly in my opinion it's mostly negative. However, that's another discussion altogether.
 

TheHeroOfTime

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man, fucking romances in rpg games. I hate this shit in my gaems

*sees a cool female romaceable character in a rpg*

60B28A96D47661FE84D7C829051A8CB90E863581
 

LESS T_T

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Codex 2014
Open, cross-platform version of Steam Workshop, from the ModDB owner: http://www.moddb.com/news/introducing-modio

https://mod.io/

Introducing mod.io
A drop in mod platform for game developers, from the creators of ModDB.com.

For the longest time, we have championed mod support. What began as a hobby 20 years ago (see Old Timers), quickly became an obsession, and in 2002 we launched ModDB.com.

Over two decades we have watched modders transform games in creative and unique ways. The longest lasting franchises with amazing legacies like Half-Life, Warcraft, Skyrim, ARMA and Minecraft have spawned many of today's genre defining hits including Counter-Strike, League of Legends and PUBG.

Our newest product
Today we are proud to announce the launch of mod.io, the first open cross-platform mod API that puts developers in-control of their modding community. mod.io is designed to operate behind-the-scenes and be a drop-in solution that does the heavy lifting required to support user generated content in-game.





Our aim with ModDB.com has always been to support creators, and help games grow their modding community. We believe the more open and accessible modding is, the stronger and wider the adoption will become. So for us mod.io is a natural evolution of this belief. It is quite a different product from ModDB.com, which proudly supports mods for every game. mod.io will only support games that integrate the API and automate the process of installing mods.


Our launch games
We are incredibly excited to be launching mod.io with the titles 0 A.D, ECO, and Sinespace. Partnerships with these titles were sought to demonstrate mod.io's flexibility to tackle unique challenges. In the case of 0 A.D, it is working with the open source community that require a platform agnostic solution. In ECO, mods are purely server-side and Sinespace is a virtual world that treats mods as templates that are there to be built and modded themselves.




Games wanted to support mod.io
Game developers, we invite you to explore mod.io, read the docs and test integration in your games. We are investing heavily in games that want to support mod.io, as well as providing marketing support across our network. Reach out if you'd like to hear the details and work together to grow your playerbase. A whitelabel solution for large studios that require an in-house product is available to discuss on request.



We are incredibly excited to be launching mod.io, and help games of all shapes, sizes and requirements tap into the power of mods to deliver deeply personalised, amazing new gameplay experiences. This is step one of many for ModDB.com and mod.io and we cannot wait to grow this community with your support.
 

RK47

collides like two planets pulled by gravity
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Dead State Divinity: Original Sin
Cleared Ventrue run on VTMB, decided on Nosferatu next despite my worry of getting masquerade breaks and revisiting the dreaded sewers.
Turns out it's not so bad, the Nosferatu can still walk around in the streets without breaking masquerade as long as you don't bump on civilians.
Also, Animalism is surprisingly good. Was spamming the Boring Beetle while firing Glock at the same time on bosses and it worked really well compared to the clunky melee combat.
As a result, I maxed out Ranged skill and didn't put any more point on Potency. I didn't bother taking non-combat skill for this run and I didn't feel like I missed a lot of rewards.
In fact, some painless quest resolutions surprised me. Hollywood Motel guy just folded in terror without a persuasion check and hands over his manuscript AND leaked his source.
This seems very tame compared to some heavy penalties players would suffer when doing a Low INT Arcanum run.
 

RK47

collides like two planets pulled by gravity
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Dead State Divinity: Original Sin
Welp. Nosferatu playthrough abandoned. Keeps crashing at Giovanni Mansion completion. Truck cutscene plays, loading screen...crash.
Tried five times. No dice.
 

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