Preview Deus Ex 3 Lead Designer Speaks

[Hümmelgümpf]

Deus Ex is a deep game, but - tell me guys, did it EVER feel like you were playing a Smart Man's Elitist game?

In terms of philosophical issues and thematic material, yes.

Wut. DX was a tongue-in-cheek mishmash of all conspiracy theories known to mankind. The "My vision is augmented." line should tell you everything about the mood and the tone of the game.

 

[MetalCraze]

But for us, console-isation isn't about dumbing down features.

It's funny hearing this come from a guy who worked on Far Cry Instincts, an immensely dumbed down console port.

And Rainbow Six Vegas which was an extremely dumbed down console version of R6.
Considering that he already said that DX will have dumbed down elements like de facto immortality and a focus on killing stuff... This is so reassuring!

 

[yes plz]

I suspect they'd ban the lot of us rather than going "Yeah, you guys are right on! We'll listen!"

 

[buccaroobonzai]

I suspect they'd ban the lot of us rather than going "Yeah, you guys are right on! We'll listen!"

Thats the thing, developers are almost all very reactive and take everything as an offense. They do like most people react equally to the manner in which they are spoken to.
It would take someone with the guile and slickness of a snake to accurately give developers constructive criticism that would go beyond them just hearing it. I don't know if Iron Tower and Kereberos (who are working on Northstar turn based squad combat RPG) have the most exceptional developers or what, but on their forums they encourage people to post suggestions about anything and take them into consideration if most of the experienced gamers along with the develers all conclude that the idea has merit.

I might be possible to get the attention of devs of games Deus Ex 3, but it would take talk from only a couple of really smooth talking people, who can show a signed petition of a very large number of people who have all stated that yes they want these features. It should influence them if their was enough clout behind it.

The major problem is devs do not want to share their development with the fans/consumers. They ignore the fan aspect, and concentrate almost exclusively on the consumer aspect.

Iron Tower, Stardock, and Kereboros are are chnging that, but wholly crap if the semi-mainstream (Obsidian, Deus Ex3 devs, Bio) could be brought on board to enlightenment haha yeah right....

 

[yes plz]

Most official forums I've been to the developers rarely even look at them, let alone read and post in. Instead, you're almost always dealing with mods who have absolutely nothing to do with the actual development of the game. And a petition? When was the last time one of those actually worked?

 

[Solivagant]

Most official forums I've been to the developers rarely even look at them, let alone read and post in. Instead, you're almost always dealing with mods who have absolutely nothing to do with the actual development of the game. And a petition? When was the last time one of those actually worked?

when they made the big daddy figurine for bioshock's special edition. not a grand achievment, though it was a pretty cool figurine.

 

[Wyrmlord]

Deus Ex is a deep game, but - tell me guys, did it EVER feel like you were playing a Smart Man's Elitist game?

In terms of philosophical issues and thematic material, yes.

Wut. DX was a tongue-in-cheek mishmash of all conspiracy theories known to mankind. The "My vision is augmented." line should tell you everything about the mood and the tone of the game.

Remember the Hong Kong woman's lines?

"I knew yo bradah...INTIMATELY."

"Let's just say I PAHSUADED him to come to our side."

God, she was awfully bad at subtlety. Though, it's not any less ridiculous than JC being an undercover agent, but wearing large baggy overcoats.

That's how DX deliberately mocked itself. And then the MiBs, who protected information so sensitive, they had to explode when they died.

 

[Xor]

And then the MiBs, who protected information so sensitive, they had to explode when they died.

I thought that was just to fuck with my attempts at a melee-only character.

 

[Wyrmlord]

Could also be that.

 

[Dionysus]

It would take someone with the guile and slickness of a snake to accurately give developers constructive criticism that would go beyond them just hearing it. I don't know if Iron Tower and Kereberos (who are working on Northstar turn based squad combat RPG) have the most exceptional developers or what, but on their forums they encourage people to post suggestions about anything and take them into consideration if most of the experienced gamers along with the develers all conclude that the idea has merit.

Those are small indie devs that absolutely need to cater to their niche audience.

For a game like Deus Ex 3, the franchise's hardcore fanbase (the sort of people that create messageboard accounts just to bitch about games) is more of a burden than a legitimate source of input.

The major problem is devs do not want to share their development with the fans/consumers. They ignore the fan aspect, and concentrate almost exclusively on the consumer aspect.

That's not a problem, because the devs are working on commission from the publisher, not the fans. If you don't like mainstream games, then don't buy mainstream games. It's ridiculous to think that a dev should blow millions of dollars on a game that is catered to a couple dozen anonymous internet users (who probably don't agree on much other than what they don't like).

 

[doctor_kaz]

Deus Ex is a deep game, but - tell me guys, did it EVER feel like you were playing a Smart Man's Elitist game?

In terms of philosophical issues and thematic material, yes.

Wut. DX was a tongue-in-cheek mishmash of all conspiracy theories known to mankind. The "My vision is augmented." line should tell you everything about the mood and the tone of the game.

That's sorta true, but it had a lot of underlying themes to it that gave much more depth than just "OMG conspiracy". Actually, I think that it's a shame that the game's story is widely remembered just for its popular conspiracy theories.

Also, I don't think that it's intended to be totally tongue-in-cheek, but it comes across that way somewhat because of some things like crappy voice acting and hilarious AI reactions.

 

[Wyrmlord]

The French were exceptionally badly voice acted in Deus Ex.

 

[ghostdog]

All the foreign accents were horrible. Some of them were hilarious : "I SPILL my DRINK !!". Most of the main characters VO's were pretty good though.

 

[Wyrmlord]

Bob Page was amazing.

"Denton, I wanted you to be present here for a reason. If you attempt to interfere in the slightest, I will have my men shoot his daughter on notice."

It was one of the most chilling lines I have heard delivered in a videogame. He was not threatening you; he was stating his protocol, bluntly and in the coldest inhuman fashion.

 

[Forest Dweller]

Wut. DX was a tongue-in-cheek mishmash of all conspiracy theories known to mankind. The "My vision is augmented." line should tell you everything about the mood and the tone of the game.

That's sorta true, but it had a lot of underlying themes to it that gave much more depth than just "OMG conspiracy". Actually, I think that it's a shame that the game's story is widely remembered just for its popular conspiracy theories.

Also, I don't think that it's intended to be totally tongue-in-cheek, but it comes across that way somewhat because of some things like crappy voice acting and hilarious AI reactions.

This. There may be some cheesy moments, but there was a whole lot of depth to the game. Some great conversations toward the end.

 

[Pliskin]

Dugas is a Québécois, non? Then THIS would explain his dislike of DX1.

 

[buccaroobonzai]

It would take someone with the guile and slickness of a snake to accurately give developers constructive criticism that would go beyond them just hearing it. I don't know if Iron Tower and Kereberos (who are working on Northstar turn based squad combat RPG) have the most exceptional developers or what, but on their forums they encourage people to post suggestions about anything and take them into consideration if most of the experienced gamers along with the develers all conclude that the idea has merit.

Those are small indie devs that absolutely need to cater to their niche audience.

For a game like Deus Ex 3, the franchise's hardcore fanbase (the sort of people that create messageboard accounts just to bitch about games) is more of a burden than a legitimate source of input.

The major problem is devs do not want to share their development with the fans/consumers. They ignore the fan aspect, and concentrate almost exclusively on the consumer aspect.

That's not a problem, because the devs are working on commission from the publisher, not the fans. If you don't like mainstream games, then don't buy mainstream games. It's ridiculous to think that a dev should blow millions of dollars on a game that is catered to a couple dozen anonymous internet users (who probably don't agree on much other than what they don't like).

You have some good points, but remember this: I would bet that almost all of the people who played Deus Ex 1 loved it for all of the features and detail that it had. It is not a stretch to think that they would agree and want a new game to feature all the types of gameplay and multiple solution paths that the first one offered.
So we woul dnot be talking about 10 people requesting these features, the goal of a petition would be to have 50,000,100,000 or more people on it. The whole point would be to show requested features by weight of consumer numbers. It would be a form of reverse marketing.
However of course petitions aredifficult to get organized, and then get a return on the investment. However they have been known to work, Facebook was petitioned by several hundred thousand users to prevent some profile changes from being made, and it worked, and Facebook is very mainstream.
It woulkd take several dedicated people to organize it, spread the word, post links and things on many websites. And of course if you could get some advertisement for it, the more free the better, it would help tremendously. Get a few large gaming sites to write up a few short articles about the effort etc.

Once you get a petition in several months signed by a large number of people, you post your plan on the DX3 forum, where BTW one or two devs do post. You keep gently blitzing any possible communication connection points where devs might be, eventually you will get them to look at the petition, and evevn respond. And if its in the right direction, any response is better then none.

 

[J1M]

It would take someone with the guile and slickness of a snake to accurately give developers constructive criticism that would go beyond them just hearing it. I don't know if Iron Tower and Kereberos (who are working on Northstar turn based squad combat RPG) have the most exceptional developers or what, but on their forums they encourage people to post suggestions about anything and take them into consideration if most of the experienced gamers along with the develers all conclude that the idea has merit.

Those are small indie devs that absolutely need to cater to their niche audience.

For a game like Deus Ex 3, the franchise's hardcore fanbase (the sort of people that create messageboard accounts just to bitch about games) is more of a burden than a legitimate source of input.

The major problem is devs do not want to share their development with the fans/consumers. They ignore the fan aspect, and concentrate almost exclusively on the consumer aspect.

That's not a problem, because the devs are working on commission from the publisher, not the fans. If you don't like mainstream games, then don't buy mainstream games. It's ridiculous to think that a dev should blow millions of dollars on a game that is catered to a couple dozen anonymous internet users (who probably don't agree on much other than what they don't like).

You have some good points, but remember this: I would bet that almost all of the people who played Deus Ex 1 loved it for all of the features and detail that it had. It is not a stretch to think that they would agree and want a new game to feature all the types of gameplay and multiple solution paths that the first one offered.
So we woul dnot be talking about 10 people requesting these features, the goal of a petition would be to have 50,000,100,000 or more people on it. The whole point would be to show requested features by weight of consumer numbers. It would be a form of reverse marketing.
However of course petitions aredifficult to get organized, and then get a return on the investment. However they have been known to work, Facebook was petitioned by several hundred thousand users to prevent some profile changes from being made, and it worked, and Facebook is very mainstream.
It woulkd take several dedicated people to organize it, spread the word, post links and things on many websites. And of course if you could get some advertisement for it, the more free the better, it would help tremendously. Get a few large gaming sites to write up a few short articles about the effort etc.

Once you get a petition in several months signed by a large number of people, you post your plan on the DX3 forum, where BTW one or two devs do post. You keep gently blitzing any possible communication connection points where devs might be, eventually you will get them to look at the petition, and evevn respond. And if its in the right direction, any response is better then none.

Honestly, waiting for DX3 to flop and buying the license is a lot less work than that.

 

[deuxhero]

I remember Auto-Heal from Portal. It sucks ass - but maybe they can make it good? HAH.

Oh no, auto heal worked in Portal... but that was because Portal was a puzzle game, and everything but the turrets were insta kill.

 

[Dionysus]

So we woul dnot be talking about 10 people requesting these features, the goal of a petition would be to have 50,000,100,000 or more people on it.

I don't think it's reasonable to expect 50 billion signatures. Seriously though, Deus Ex wasn't a huge hit. If it was, I'm sure that Eidos would have been quick to inundate us with a ton of rehashes. They aren't satisfied with the original fanbase, which is why it is being made for a different audience.