Decline New King's Quest game - MASSIVE DECLINE Everything is shit

[Infinitron]

So...they intend to relaunch the King's Quest franchise by remaking Dragon's Lair?

That's actually a very perceptive comment, since Dragon's Lair also had a similar kind of hapless/dorky protagonist. Actually, this Graham is probably more like Dirk the Daring than Guybrush Threepwood.

 

[Taluntain]

Oh well, they can just call it King's Quest IX: Dragon's Lair Edition.

 

[Blackthorne]

I saw someone somewhere refer to this as "Kings Quest 9: Dragon's Lair 3"! I laughed.


Bt

 

[mindx2]

Wow... just, wow... There is nothing there that says KQ at all. Another truly sad day here on the Codex......

 

[SCO]

I saw someone somewhere refer to this as "Kings Quest 9: Dragon's Lair 3"! I laughed.

Too tame for modern marketing.
Kings Quest 3²: Dragon's Lair 3

 

[Renegen]

I saw someone somewhere refer to this as "Kings Quest 9: Dragon's Lair 3"! I laughed.

Too tame for modern marketing.
Kings Quest 3²: Dragon's Lair 3

King's Quest Renewal²: Dragon's Lair Chapter 3: The one who Sleeps

 

[ghostdog]

Apart from the acclaimed Dragon's Lair series, I also glimpsed inspiration from the company that makes the best modern "adventure games".

Thus, I name thee:

DRAG3N'S LAIR : THE KING AMONG US

 

[MRY]

Ordinarily, I try my best (often failing) to have goodwill for all and see indie projects as noble endeavors. But even though I don't particularly care for the KQ series -- unlike felipepepe, I think that particular scene is the height of maudlin sentimentality and is itself indicative of a departure from the KQ roots in zany mixed-up fairytales -- this whole thing exasperates me mightily.

In Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Gibbon in an almost throwaway line captures an example of one of the bleakest refrains in human history: marble from Rome's monumental buildings was, in later years, "burnt to lime for the purpose of cement." Much of that marble likely came from Carrara, which required "only" 250 miles of transportation to the city. Some had come all the way from North Africa. All of it had been dug from the ground at great effort, carved with great skill, mounted with great care; an enormous, ostentatious, perhaps indefensible use of human capital that yielded marvels.

In the squalor of fallen Rome, people needed homes; cement is a material for building them; quicklime is an ingredient for making it. Quicklime can also be made from limestone; travertine, a type of limestone, is easily found all over Italy, including in Tivoli, less than 20 miles from Rome. But quarrying and transporting stone is hard work and stripping it from buildings is relatively easy. So away went the monuments, and up in smoke went the vast investment of human capital spent to create them. "Burnt to lime."

If you want to make the next Gawker, don't buy The New Republic and drive out the whole editorial staff. If you want to make a console platformer, don't use KQ. For me, the series is far from a monument to human ingenuity, but it's something that matters to a great many people, and what they're making from it is worse than a hovel and no one needs it to begin with. Alas.

 

[Diablo169]

I honestly just wish that if developers have no intention of treating old and much loved franchise with the respect they deserve, they should leave them the fuck alone. I've seen nothing in that trailer that couldnt have been done with an original IP.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Ordinarily, I try my best (often failing) to have goodwill for all and see indie projects as noble endeavors. But even though I don't particularly care for the KQ series -- unlike felipepepe, I think that particular scene is the height of maudlin sentimentality and is itself indicative of a departure from the KQ roots in zany mixed-up fairytales -- this whole thing exasperates me mightily.

In Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Gibbon in an almost throwaway line captures an example of one of the bleakest refrains in human history: marble from Rome's monumental buildings was, in later years, "burnt to lime for the purpose of cement." Much of that marble likely came from Carrara, which required "only" 250 miles of transportation to the city. Some had come all the way from North Africa. All of it had been dug from the ground at great effort, carved with great skill, mounted with great care; an enormous, ostentatious, perhaps indefensible use of human capital that yielded marvels.

In the squalor of fallen Rome, people needed homes; cement is a material for building them; quicklime is an ingredient for making it. Quicklime can also be made from limestone; travertine, a type of limestone, is easily found all over Italy, including in Tivoli, less than 20 miles from Rome. But quarrying and transporting stone is hard work and stripping it from buildings is relatively easy. So away went the monuments, and up in smoke went the vast investment of human capital spent to create them. "Burnt to lime."

If you want to make the next Gawker, don't buy The New Republic and drive out the whole editorial staff. If you want to make a console platformer, don't use KQ. For me, the series is far from a monument to human ingenuity, but it's something that matters to a great many people, and what they're making from it is worse than a hovel and no one needs it to begin with. Alas.

Goddamn this was a good post.

 

[mindx2]

If you want to make the next Gawker, don't buy The New Republic and drive out the whole editorial staff.

Excellent current event reference...

 

[RK47]

The King Returns: an Action Arcade Adventure fun for the entire family.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Some bizarre motivation forces me to make this post.

My experience with the King's Quest series.

By a drunken old fart.

My gaming background goes way back to the late 80s. Even though I never played the games back in the day, the phrase "King's Quest" popped up time and time again, from guys I knew at school, from the gaming mag(s) I read back then, and so on. It wasn't just a thing, it was something spoken of in revered tones, even though it was just a game series. "A new King's Quest game is coming" was a phrase that seemed to make far too many people wet their pants with glee. Only the Ultima series was more revered back then. Space Quest was just something funny and silly, and the Larry games were something people loved to chastise in public, but played extensively at home when no one was looking. (Just trust me on that last bit.)

Today I own the King's Quest Collection that comprises of KQ 1-6 (the one with the minotaur from KQ6 on the front) plus a budget re-release of 7. I do not own a copy of KQ8. Meanwhile, a friend of mine who pretty much grew up on the King's Quest games, who discarded almost all of his game stock some years ago (and some of it to me) STILL holds on to his copies of the Roberta Williams Anthology and KQ8 to this day. He loves the series, almost worships them. Now I have to bring him the bad news that there's a new King's Quest game coming, and that it's even worse than KQ8.

While I've had a go at all the KQ games (except KQ8, for obvious reasons) I've only completed the first four. Here's the thing: Despite having completed the first four KQ games, I barely remember anything worthwhile from them. A screen here, a snippet there (mostly from KQ3) but that's it. KQ5 always felt wrong somehow, so I never got far with that (I never even managed to reach a point where I should hate/loathe the owl.). KQ6, on the other hand, though I never completed it myself, I remember parts of it vividly. In my books, KQ6 is the highpoint of the series. Memorable setting, memorable (side) characters, memorable puzzles, and who can forget "GIRL IN THE TOOOWWWEERR!"? KQ7, no memories. Looks Disney-esque, but that's it.

How does my memory compare to other Sierra games? I could fire up Larry 1 right now and complete it before dawn without any outside help, even though I haven't played it in over a decade at the least. I might forget some of the protocols of Police Quest 1, but otherwise get very far. I remember BOTH ways to get rid of the Spider Droid in Space Quest 1, and could get as far as Space Quest 3 (or even 4) without any outside help. But King's Quest 1-4? "404 - memory not found"

What many people have said here is true, King's Quest was by far the weakest "Quest" series that Sierra had going. But it was the first, the one that got the ball rolling. Without it, we would not have had Roger Wilco, Larry Laffer, Sonny Bonds or even Willy Beamish. We might go as far as to say that without King's Quest we would not have Maniac Mansion and the entire LucasArts catalogue of adventure games. It has its place in gaming history. But sadly, that is where King's Quest belongs, in the history books. Trying to revive an old corpse like King's Quest isn't feasible, regardless of what Roberta Williams thinks of it. Just forget it.

And that is precisely what these "Odd Gentlemen" should do: Forget it. Pack it up and move on. Whether they realize it or not, they're tampering with gaming history here. In the worst way possible. They've strayed too far from the formula that makes a KQ game, there's no correlation. At best they could (should, in fact) make a new IP, using the assets they've already created, and feel free to point out "how strong an influence King's Quest has upon it" and leave it at that. "An homage to King's Quest" has a lot better ring to it than someone digging up the dessicated corpse of the King's Quest series and raping it live at some stupid Las Vegas show.

...

Drunken rant over. Carry on.

 

[Skunkpew]

A few things overheard during this discussion:

 

[Dexter]

RPG Codex ‏@RPGCodex 4h4 hours ago

@TheOddGentlemen Looks like a worthy successor to King's Quest 8.

That's being unfair to King's Quest 8. Regarded without any sort of consideration to the King's Quest series it was still a semi-competent ARPG without "Awesome Buttons" and with a lot of secrets and thought behind it. One should compare this more with Dragon's Lair or Fahrenheit or something along those lines.

Otherwise I vomited my thoughts about this type of cynical franchise rape and gaining of "mainstream audience" over here when Broken Age released already: http://www.doublefine.com/forums/viewthread/12483/

 

[MicoSelva]

You guys are delusional if you think Dragon's Lair comparisons are derogatory today. Most modern gamers do not remember Dragon's Lair and Telltale has already softened the market up for QTE-based gameplay, as long as the story and graphics are good.

Comparing this to old KQ games is so pointless I will not even go there. KQ as a brand has no market value today except ringing as 'classic franchise' (which usually helps the sales).

 

[Jaesun]

If they wanted to make yet another shitty Platformer, why in the fuck did they need the Kings Quest name?

Activision could have saved (thousands(?) and just made a new game with a new IP.

 

[Tom Selleck]

Activision could have saved (thousands(?) and just made a new game with a new IP.

How many IGN lists have had "King's Quest" in the "Top 900 Classic X".

There's an entire body-odored, skittle-haired, neckbearded contingent of shit-eating Twitterites and PoMoGamers that know the words "King's Quest" and in that order (naturally not having played the originals, being all of twenty-one years on this planet and to whom graphics and consoles are they beholden) who will gladly drink this blended, liquified shit and act like they've been there the whole time. "A worthy successor to the originals!" they'll say, wiping the shit chutney from their blanched, diseased, stubbled faces.

 

[Dexter]

Activision could have saved (thousands(?) and just made a new game with a new IP.

Activision owns the IP, so they wouldn't have saved anything. And the point of a popular/known IP is pretty much that they don't have to build up expectations and hype, but just profit from the in-built fanbase and past popularity. Might as well say Disney could have made their own Sci-Fi movies, they didn't need Star Wars when the reason they bought LucasArts was specifically for the rape of that franchise. It's a shitty practice and scummy, but it makes perfect commercial sense.

 

[Blackthorne]

It really blows my mind when I see people defend QTEs. "Oh! Heavy Rain had them! Fahrenheit had them!" Sometimes good things have shitty elements in them - this does not give the shitty idea any validity. I really don't KNOW if this "King's Quest" will have QTEs, but it seems likely. It also irks me that I have seen people refer to these as "adventure game mechanics". If someone were to do this to me, in person, I would probably throttle them as I explained to them how their revisionist and apologist views of adventure games has lead to their doom.

I will say - this "teaser trailer" and conveniently timed publicity stunt of giving Ken and Roberta Williams an "Icon Award" has left me wanting for sure - let's see some game-play, some REAL gameplay, and show me how you really "innovated" the charm, magic and wonder of King's Quest. Or if you really did make Dragon's Lair 3. I'm glad all the kids think this is so cool, but older gamers like me aren't so impressed by cheap tricks.


Bt

 

[Vault Dweller]

Wow... just, wow... There is nothing there that says KQ at all. Another truly sad day here on the Codex......

That's because it was re-imagined for the modern and much more sophisticated audience.

 

[taxalot]

It's true. People read books in the past because the technology for movies was not there.
It's the same with games.

 

[Archibald]

If they wanted to make yet another shitty Platformer, why in the fuck did they need the Kings Quest name?

Activision could have saved (thousands(?) and just made a new game with a new IP.

With established brand name their PR companies (also known as "game journalists") will be able to generate lots of articles about how this new game fixes all the problems of original games and basically is another masterpiece in the making.

 

[buzz]

It reminds me of something ...






It's official: Peter Jackson killed video games (remember Oblivion interviews)

 

[TheGreatOne]

How... is that real? How is this even possible, how can a GAME JOURNALIST not know/never played freaking King's Quest?

What makes a person prepared to bear the title "game journalist" then, if they don't even know the most basic and mainstream stuff? It's not like KQ was obscure

I think every one else has already stated the nessecary disdain and outrage at this decline, so I'll try to write this in a calm and matter of factly manner:
The last time the series was relevant was in the mid 90s. And even then it was PC only (though there was the Master System port of KQ1 as well as others I'm sure, but I digress). In 2014, King's Quest is far from mainstream for said reasons: unless you're into retro gaming/adventure games/game history, the chances are that you've never been exposed to the KQ series if you're a millenial. And as we all know, 95% of game journalists are averse to doing any research. Some might've had it on an old computer as kids, but broadly speaking KQ is not a commonly known series amongst the popamole generation. The game industry was much smaller then. What was mainstream in the early 90s does not translate well to 2010s, when mainstream games sell tens of millions of copies instead of hundreds of thousands.

... shit-eating Twitterites and PoMoGamers

"PoMo gamer" is an excellent term. We should make a it a thing, like something that spreads outside the confines of codex.