Strategy First acquires Malfador Machinations

Atrocities · #1 April 5th, 2006, 12:20 PM

I am not saying that SFI would ever do this, I am just speculating that anything is possible. I have never seen any company, aside from LucasArts, ever go after another game publishers forums. And even then it was for a ligit reason.

So the thing is, will shrapnel wanna keep footing the bill to keep us freeloaders around? And why should they given that there really is no return on their investment aside from the occational game purchase from one of us. (Looking very forward to Dom3 BTW)

They have been very loyal to us, and we to them, but at some point they might have to think about the bottom line. Not that any of this is anything more than pure 100% fear indused speculation and doom saying.

Dizzy · #2 April 5th, 2006, 12:29 PM

my biggest fear is with mainstream appeal. The publishers want to get the biggest bang for their buck and will broaden the scope of the game to include mainstream users at the expense of anything and everything.

If its a one shot deal, as I surmise it is, I mean how much more polish can you put on the 5th installement of SE, then the publishers wont be concerned with a followup product and thus any support or follow on or add on or support features may be severely lacking, not to mention them possibly recoding much of it so the game isnt easily copied, ported, modded or otherwise so they protect their copyrighted material for any related future release.

Mainstream appeal is the kiss of death for hardcore players used to features and gameplay that allow us to easily mod and enjoy the depth of the game. I'm pessimistic.

dogscoff · #3 April 5th, 2006, 12:56 PM

Walking the line between mainstream and hardcore appeal is difficult and dangerous, since disaster lies on either side: If it strays too far toward the mainstrema it will become so diluted and weak as to become unplayable *cough*MOO3*cough*, or it will go too hardcore and fade into obscurity as it caters for an ever-smaller niche within a niche market. Capturing the best of these two options is difficult, so I suggest that the game branches: Allow Aaron to finish the game and release the first version according to his original design. Allow a few patches to iron out any serious bugs, and then begin the branching- one patch for mainstream, one for hardcore. You'd end up with two games developping in parallel. The mainstream branch would include eye-candy, dumbing-down and stuff like that, while the hardcore branch focussed on improved modding options, greater depth and more features. Sometimes, popular (and suitable) features from one version might migrate across to the other.

The mainstream version would keep the bucks coming in, while the hardcore version would keep the game true to its roots and retain the franchise's credibility and direction. As far as I know this has never been done before, except in open-source games. It's the ideal solution, and now Aaron has a coding house behind him, maybe it could become a reality. Anyone else think this is a cool idea?

Suicide Junkie · #4 April 5th, 2006, 01:28 PM

Well, really, that could be done with a single game, in the case of SpaceEmpires...

You'd have your Rock-Paper-Scissors stock, and your hardcore Carrier Battles / GrittyEconomics mod combos. (To use my own mods as examples)

You could go with a skiing theme, and label all the mods as green circle mainstream, to double black diamond mods for us diehards here.

Annette · #5 April 5th, 2006, 02:28 PM

Quote:

Atrocities said:
So the thing is, will shrapnel wanna keep footing the bill to keep us freeloaders around? And why should they given that there really is no return on their investment aside from the occational game purchase from one of us. (Looking very forward to Dom3 BTW)

They have been very loyal to us, and we to them, but at some point they might have to think about the bottom line. Not that any of this is anything more than pure 100% fear indused speculation and doom saying.

Stragey First's acquistion of the Space Empires intellectual property really doesn't have any bearing on our philosophy on continuing to host these forums.

Our affection for the Space Empires community is genuine, as well as our love of the game. You all have helped shape Shrapnel Games into what it is today, and we are blessed to count you among our friends. We have never looked upon any of you as "freeloaders"

. Quite the opposite. We are honored that you continue to want to make this your home.

I can't imagine a set of circumstances that would make us want to turn this group away. I also can't imagine why we wouldn't want to welcome new players of the game to our site. Please know you all are always welcome at Shrapnel Games!

Ed Kolis · #6 April 5th, 2006, 02:32 PM

Thank you, Annette! Now the only thing we have to worry about is SFI forcing you to shut down your forums, but that seema a bit unlikely, and I'm sure you'd stand up to them as best you could

Annette · #7 April 5th, 2006, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Ed Kolis said:
Thank you, Annette! Now the only thing we have to worry about is SFI forcing you to shut down your forums, but that seema a bit unlikely, and I'm sure you'd stand up to them as best you could

I don't know why they would want to nor what grounds they would have for doing so.