Review Leave Arcania Alone!

[Clockwork Knight]

Why would these people want to try a genre that focus on the exact opposite playstyle is beyond me.

Dude if you make the games simple enough and easy enough then everyone will play them and you will make mad tons of money. It's a proven fact.

Sure, that justifies why companies do it. But it doesn't explain why the player that wants a dating simulator doesn't just play a proper dating simulator instead of an unholy hybrid creature.

 

[made]

honest

Nah. If he were honest he'd say "Look, we're out of funds and had to cut tons of features to ship asap. Please buy this sad husk of a game anyway so we don't go out of business." Not this casual gamer BS. As if having a quest compass automatically necessitates the rest of the game being crap.

Reactions of German press, which I would expect to readily gloss over flaws in a German game, have been devastating btw, with scores as low as 30%. Even the buggy POS that was G3 fared better in the media and that wasn't a financial success either so I'm really curious how this works out for JW.

 

[DalekFlay]

Sure, that justifies why companies do it. But it doesn't explain why the player that wants a dating simulator doesn't just play a proper dating simulator instead of an unholy hybrid creature.

Your comment was excellent actually, I was just poorly wording my sarcasm. While the Wii shows that simpleton bullshit makes a lot of money I don't think dumbing down traditionally hardcore genres works as well. You might get lucky and hit that magic mainstream vein, but you also might just turn away your hardcore fans and not attract any new ones.

I bet Arcania is the latter.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Reactions of German press, which I would expect to readily gloss over flaws in a German game, have been devastating btw, with scores as low as 30%.

Do you have any info on the sale too? He seems to say they were good...

 

[made]

Only the official statement that was posted recently. 200k copies shipped EU wide, 28k activations on day 1, which they consider a success.

http://english.boerse-express.com/artic ... /fullstory

 

[Azrael the cat]

Only the official statement that was posted recently. 200k copies shipped EU wide, 28k activations on day 1, which they consider a success.

http://english.boerse-express.com/artic ... /fullstory

Depends a bit on the time period to which they are accruing their costs. They lost from 10-15 million Euros last half-year (from the link). They say that the game cost something in the 'high single-digit million figure' - not much for a large title, and substantially less than the sum of their losses - so they are obviously bleeding money outside of their publishing/development costs. It also raises the question of where the losses come from, as it's almost impossible for back-catalogue to LOSE money - the production cost has been long spent, and they should just be getting profit from whatever sales still exist for G1-3.

That makes me think that EITHER they've separated their running costs from production costs and included them in the 1st half year (and their ratio of running costs : production costs is fucking huge), OR they've placed a chunk of the entire production costs into the 1st half of the year (by which I mean the incidental costs that are in reality needed to produce their product, but aren't required to be accrued together with the value of the product).

In any event, the real cost of creating Arcania (unless they have other major titles in production) includes that 10-15 million that they lost last half-year. We can assume that they weren't burning that kind of money just keeping the lights on, so that's cost needed to maintain the enterprise as a running concern. Which means that when they say that they: 'expect JoWooD to be profitable again in fourth quarter thanks to Arcania', they aren't including the losses that they've been incurring prior to then.

Think of it this way: if JoWood publish a game once every 2 years, they're paying costs for four half-years, but only getting a 'new-release' run of exceptional income for ONE of those half-years (unless their game sells well beyond 6 months). If they aren't making profit IN THE SAME FOUR MONTHS THAT THEY RELEASE THE GAME, they've swum past shit creek and are digging down to the underground shit basin.

Arcania needs to do more than put them in profit in the 4th quarter. It needs to make enough profit in the quarters after that to recoup what they've been spending in the quarters up until now. That is, they need the profits to cover the costs of the entire product cycle.

They aren't out of the woods yet.

Though, sadly enough, 200,000 copies for Europe this close to release is pretty decent. It would take a sharp dropoff to really hurt them from here (although their past troubles could certainly sink them even if Arcania makes a profit).

As for what they really think about the possibility of that happening? Well, they've just deliberately shrunk their company by reducing their capital base (returning funds to their shareholders, where creditors can't get them). You don't do that if you're positive about future investment opportunities.


Oh, and: "Börse Express: In various game forums Arcania did not receive the best feedbacks ... "

The PRESTIGIOUS RPGCODEX MAGAZINE strikes again!

 

[made]

Keep in mind that's 200k units shipped to stores, not actual sales. I won't pretend to know enough about the other stuff you wrote to join in on the speculation. Time will tell.

 

[thesheeep]

In Germany, the game gets reviews from 40% to 75%...
Abysmal for a german game

 

[Mortmal]

200000 shipped, that means 200k box sent to stores, that doesnt equal sales i think, 28k activation that is the number of boxes sold for now. If hes not lying.

 

[SCO]

This seems to be an inevitable progression that every game company goes through. At some point the suits say "We aren't making enough money!" and they try to come up with excuses that make their greed seem altruistic. Origin and Sirtech jumped the shark in the early 1990s and neither survived. Interplay held out until the late 1990s, and it didn't (really) survive either. Gotta say, though, this is about the first time I've seen a little indie company try it. Seems a bit idiotic for a niche company to abandon it's niche market before it's established itself.

JoWood is the publisher, the company that made Gothic is Piranha Bytes and they are now making Risen.

Don't you forget it

 

[circ]

You mean they MADE Risen?

 

[Excidium]

Obligatory

"The classic Gothic fan might be disappointed because the game no longer follows the classic Gothic approach.

Then what's the point of putting Gothic name I ask, since their main target is audience who doesn't give a flying duck about Gothic games.

Because sequels sell. Even if people don't know the original series they think "oh, it's the 4th game so it must be good."

 

[SCO]

You mean they MADE Risen?

Sequel expected.

 

[godsend1989]

For me good games are easy to play for everyone but hard to master, it seems Arcania is just easy from head to tail, they just killed gothic brand. "Don`t worry we will trow some more shit on gothic series, guess they didn't get the first message when we lunched forsaken fags."

 

[Micmu]

"The classic Gothic fan might be disappointed because the game no longer follows the classic Gothic approach.

We'll piss on your company's grave, soon.

 

[Melcar]

So RPGWatch is filled with morons who make shitty reviews. What else is new?

 

[AnalogKid]

I thought the review was pretty good, if odd. It served it's purpose of helping me decide if I will buy ArcaniA or not. I won't. It was clear and detailed as well. Only thing is, it had this whole "good-for-what-it-is" alternate reality. That part was also clear and detailed, but WHY? Just to be different from the German reviewers? Just to get more traffic?

It's like a review of Oblivion that states: this game sucks, but it will be awesome great fun for anyone that's never had a computer, heard of computer games, or done anything but mine coal for their entire miserable existence. All true, but WHY include the last bit?

 

[Zlaja]

This review is one of the most vile and disgusting things I have read on the Internet. It's not that the author is plain dumb, he just feels compeled to make excuses for this piece of garbage that masks itself as an CASUAL RPG.

And those fucking manboons in the commentary section...."OH I DON'T HAVE TIME TO GET IN TO DEMANDING GAMES ANYMORE".....who the fuck are you trying to fool you fucking miserable dorks with your shit jobs, stupid friends,ugly wives and fat girlfriends. YOU don't have the fucking time to deleve in to Gothic 2 for an hour or two but you have time to spend five hours a day on facebook pretending that you're a real social type and chat with your imaginary fucking friends! You fucking souless zombie clowns!!

 

[Mortmal]

This review is one of the most vile and disgusting things I have read on the Internet. It's not that the author is plain dumb, he just feels compeled to make excuses for this piece of garbage that masks itself as an CASUAL RPG.

And those fucking manboons in the commentary section...."OH I DON'T HAVE TIME TO GET IN TO DEMANDING GAMES ANYMORE".....who the fuck are you trying to fool you fucking miserable dorks with your shit jobs, stupid friends,ugly wives and fat girlfriends. YOU don't have the fucking time to deleve in to Gothic 2 for an hour or two but you have time to spend five hours a day on facebook pretending that you're a real social type and chat with your imaginary fucking friends! You fucking souless zombie clowns!!

Truly my opinion too, thats why i prefer to come here, even if i risk to slip on a multiheaded cock or fall on tranny pics, than posting on rpgwatch.Casual gamers shred to pieces my hobby, commputer games, and i was more interested to gardening lately than new computers rpgs.

They are very handy for tomatoes! my brother asked me if i wanted some games for birthday, but i asked for those instead, true story!

 

[jazzotron]

This review is one of the most vile and disgusting things I have read on the Internet. It's not that the author is plain dumb, he just feels compeled to make excuses for this piece of garbage that masks itself as an CASUAL RPG.

And those fucking manboons in the commentary section...."OH I DON'T HAVE TIME TO GET IN TO DEMANDING GAMES ANYMORE".....who the fuck are you trying to fool you fucking miserable dorks with your shit jobs, stupid friends,ugly wives and fat girlfriends. YOU don't have the fucking time to deleve in to Gothic 2 for an hour or two but you have time to spend five hours a day on facebook pretending that you're a real social type and chat with your imaginary fucking friends! You fucking souless zombie clowns!!

You, sir, are my hero!

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Tons of butthurt in this thread, pink socks practically flapping in the breeze.

 

[GarfunkeL]

If a game like BG2 (to use an old example) were shipped with the options to add quest markers, eliminate repair or rest needs, etc., then I would welcome such a possibility. It would let both the casual and classic RPGers enjoy the games they most like.

jebus fucking christmas.

Can someone just firebomb RPGWatch server already, please?

"Weeeeeell, the game is pretty shitty but if you lobotomise yourself before playing, it won't seem that bad anymore and you'll actually like it and hey, if the classic games would have been saddled with all this new shit, they would've been even greater!"

Can't even be arsed to create a troll-account over there anymore. Unless that one whiteknight has more dead grannies

 

[markec]

My humble contribution to RPGWatch http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1061029580&posted=1#post1061029580

 

[HiddenX]

@markec
My humble contribution to RPGWatch...


-> +1

 

[zeitgeist]

Sure, that justifies why companies do it. But it doesn't explain why the player that wants a dating simulator doesn't just play a proper dating simulator instead of an unholy hybrid creature.

Because they're not as socially acceptable. This deceptiveness is a feature of many modern games - play an action game, but feel like an oldschool RPG player, play a dating sim, but feel like a "hardcore gamer", you get to indulge in your ridiculously silly tastes, and still maintain a facade of being the proverbial elite individual.

 

[Zlaja]

I used to respect poster DArtagnan over at the Watch but he really went overboard in that thread:

I know I'll enjoy it, even though it won't be a particularly good match for my preferences.

You apparently live in a world of black and white, where a game is either good or bad.

Combat is entertaining

I know that casual gamers are becoming less casual by the minute

That means that the masses will slowly evolve and start demanding more and more

If Arcania doesn't do well, it means casual gamers have already evolved beyond that simplistic formula

If it DOES do well, then it's still a step towards a real Gothic in the minds of the casuals. That means it might actually HELP the success of Risen 2 - just to name an example.