Editorial Penny Arcade Disses Troika

[Sol Invictus]

How many fans of Vampire do you know? Vampire: The Masquerade is hardly a 'well known franchise'. Not in comparison to Spiderman, Shrek or Halo. If a Halo RPG came out on the PC, I would bet it would sell extremely well because of the name.

Bloodlines? Monopoly? Hardly. It had to go up against the likes of World of Warcraft, and that is infinitely more popular than some niche gothic franchise. Most people don't even like the goth subculture, hence the lack of popularity. Goths might be 'well known' for their idiocy but they're certainly not popular. They aren't trend setters.

 

[Greatatlantic]

Bloodlines? Monopoly? Hardly. It had to go up against the likes of World of Warcraft, and that is infinitely more popular than some niche gothic franchise.

No, Bloodlines had something of a monopoly on SINGLE PLAYER NON-MMO RPGs. The only other titles released were Sacred, Beyond Divinity, and I of the Dragon. Of those four, which has inspired rants or raves? Yeah, it had a gothic motif, but it was the only game in town, besides those other titles. Plus, those titles were all developed in Europe, for which the RPG market seems stronger, from my observations. Maybe there is a large cross over audience for MMOs and SPs, whatever. All I know is MMOs are being made in droves, and only one SP managed to find its way out the door in the past year, Bloodlines.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Those other games were also awful with the exception of Sacred, which was okay, but marred by a bad release in the US. Bloodlines didn't have any competition, but so what? If the only FPS released last year was Chrome, I doubt it would have sold well, either.