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The sad part is, the MP component could be the most profitable by far if it were done right. I doubt it'll ever happen though, simply because CA hasn't shown they will budge off of their "protecting intellectual property" stance, hence a closed game (which gets old real fast). Maybe the Lordz will come up with something that can fill in this void, who knows.
Oh well. It was fun playing with you guys back in the Shogun and Medieval 1 days...
:bow:
Amen, brother. :bow:Quote:
Originally Posted by Whacker
You know all is lost once the bean-counters get involved in the everyday decision-making for ANY product line. Innovation, risk-taking, customer satisfaction #1, all take a back seat to ever-increasing cost control, micro-managing and the ever-elusive increasing profit margins for the Wall Street types. Less emphasis is put on the seemingly less profitable areas (MP is seen not as an opportunity but as a costly-yet-necessary liability) are given less and less resources.
Everyone in charge seems surprised when the bottom drops out and the higher-ups blame everything on the lower-wage labor force (too high salaries/too little productivity) instead of where the blame really belongs: In the stupid decisions they made and/or supported during previous years.
To remedy this, executives (ignoring their own shortcomings) focus on the talented (but higher cost) employees, by removing and replacing them with cheaper (less experienced) employees who are unrealistically expected to pick up right where the previous employees had stopped. Then the product begins a steady decline in quality.
Currently, executives (in all industries) are universally ignorant in the best ways to recover from a downward sales trend. They only focus on cost issues (since these are the easiest to address) by downsizing, cutting costs, and other quick-results-but-temporary fixes, rather than sticking to what made their companies successful in the past: innovation and addressing customer wants/needs. The reason being, there is no finite way of measuring how much innovation/customer wants add to the bottom line. If it can't be measured, then it is overlooked by marketing, finance, accounting, etc . . and all costs associated with such are considered liabilities instead of vital parts of the success of the product.
You see this in every industry. You will notice the beginning of such a decline when executives begin making public their strategy of opening up new markets by copying features of products in the larger market segments instead of trying to increase their segment to compete in size with them. They try to emulate the top products in cost structure, profit margins, etc . . instead of sticking to the business structure which made them successful in the first place.
Of course, this isn't a problem to the highly-paid decisionmakers, since they will just move on to another company if their current one goes belly up. Executives are never held accountable for the failure of the companies which they lead. Though they are the first to accept kudos when their company is successful. Nice work if you can get it.
The only ones who pay for this are the companies non-executive workforce and customers.
hehe This turned into a rant about the state of the corporate world instead of TW and CA/SEGA. Sorry. :sweatdrop:
Why don't you come play <whispers name> on Sundays at 19:00 GMT? We usually play for 2 or 3 hours. The game is just as much fun, if not more, than original STW.Quote:
Originally Posted by Whacker
I'm waiting for 2nd patch and I'm wondering if we will ever see that 2nd patch. More likely we will see expansion pack as 2nd patch.
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/...rgames;title;2
I know it is not sword vs sword but Company of Heroes is great RTS.
Well, I have to say I do like MP, but since the days of Shogun I have never been a frequent MP player, I do come to play once the mood strikes me, but I also do not play for extended periods of time. This is to say that I, personally, object to paying any monthly fee for a TW MP game, it's simply not worth it for me, given my gaming habits (and financial resources as well).Quote:
Originally Posted by KukriKhan
On the other hand, I do like SP also, but if a TW game came out that was strictly for MP but offered dedicated servers, moddability and a reasonable patching/updating policy that incorporates sensible suggestions given by the players, then I'd even pay the full standard price for standalone games today.. i.e. ~$50.
That said, I think it doesn't take so much additional effort to design a "normal" TW game (with SP and MP combined, just with better MP than now). All that is needed would be, as has been said here before, a strict splitting of unit choice and unit stats for SP and MP which allows for a balanced, competitive MP match as well as for a casual, fun match. And that is more an issue of careful design and thorough testing and trial&error than a big financial hurdle, especially if beta testers would be given more importance.
On a related note, I've owned M2TW since Christmas and just recently ventured in the MP lobby and played a couple of games. I have to say that I was disappointed. The lag was bearable, my system is slightly above average and still I turned all settings to the lowest just to be on the safe side, so any lag I had was probably caused by the connection or the settings on other people's PCs, there was a general slowdown compared to SP battles but still acceptable IMHO. What disappointed me were the narrow range of maps to choose from, the kind of games being hosted and the army compositions I was encountering. I just didn't get involved the way I did when I was playing VI. Sure, the lobby looks better, some functionality has been added, but overall the matches seemed "lifeless" to me, I don't know how to put it in another way.
I suppose I will check MP again after the patch is out, but I don't think I will see myself there very often.