11 réponses à ce sujet

[ztemplarz]

I understand that IP control is a pretty huge issue, but my guess is that the IP for Arcanum couldn't be that expensive, given it had no game or book based origin.  I personally loved the game of Arcanum, and it would be a great addition to the current Bioware universes, since Mass Effect is the futuristic sci fi while Dragon Age is the semi-classical fantasy realm- steampunk combining both features would be AWESOME!  Additionally, one of my biggest complaints about Arcanum was the nature of the animation, and obviously some mix of the Mass Effect and Dragon Age animation would be perfect.  Anyone else's thoughts?

[Seagloom]

It's unlikely to happen, sadly. :/ Arcanum was a financial flop for Sierra. Troika was revved up to work on sequels; save for their first outing in that universe bombing. I would be very surprised if BioWare took up the mantle of a proven commercial failure. That and with the exception of Star Wars, they seem intent on starting their own intellectual properties.



I do like the idea however. Arcanum was a wonderful little game that was sadly overlooked by many. It was the closest a fantasy CRPG ever got to Fallout. I loved some of the humor and its overall concept. The core gameplay was seriously flawed, but I still enjoyed it immensely.

[MerinTB]

All of Troika's games (well, maybe not the D&D one) were overlooked for the most part. Or at the very least underrated.

Arcanum AND VTM: Bloodlines were awesome!



But I feel like Bioware likes the idea of creating it's own franchises and thus controlling all the licensing and marketing of said franchises.

Though if they bought Arcanum out whole, hmm...

[Seagloom]

It still amazes me that VtM: Bloodlines was Troika's poorest selling title yet arguably their finest hour. I read once Temple of Elemental Evil sold the most copies, and it was the buggiest and most incomplete game of the three.

Modifié par Seagloom, 21 février 2010 - 06:13 .

[Godak]

Seagloom wrote...

It still amazes me that VtM: Bloodlines was Troika's poorest selling title yet arguably their finest hour. I think Temple of Elemental Evil moved the most copies, and it was the buggiest and most incomplete game of the lot.

Where I live, we call that "irony".

[ztemplarz]

Yes, I by no means claim that Arcanum was perfect, cause it was far from. What I loved was the overall concept, and how being either magically or technologically aligned had repercussions in your dealings with people. I loved how your choice of race had HUGE effects on the game, with some characters flat out refusing to speak with you- I loved playing my intelligent half-ogre that literally killed everyone that didn't either act polite or apologize to him for being rude (with the exception of some characters he wasn't confident in being able to take). And playing as either left so many possibilities with crafting, in terms of tactics, money, everything. On the other hand, my mage with teleport and disintegrate was pretty godly... Oh, and thievery actually took strategy, as in timing, friendliness, skill, level, etc. I think it's the most replayable RPG of all time, even considering Baldur's Gate and DA.

[MerinTB]

Seagloom wrote...

It still amazes me that VtM: Bloodlines was Troika's poorest selling title yet arguably their finest hour. I read once Temple of Elemental Evil sold the most copies, and it was the buggiest and most incomplete game of the three.

Popularity of D&D over WoD.  That and the classic title "Temple of Elemental Evil" probably added even more purchases.

You'd think VtM: Bloodlines being the FIRST game out with HL2's engine (even before HL2) would have helped it more.

White Wolf's franchises tried at the wrong times.  Both Kindred and Bloodlines.  Had Bloodlines come out even like two years later, when the real paranormal romance crap was kicking into high gear - I think more of an audience would have tried the game.

As it was Bloodlines came out after Buffy had ended, the same time Angel was ending - think of after Twilight and True Blood and Vampire Diaries hit, like two years ago and Bloodlines probably would have sold many more copies.

Bad timing.

[Leinadi]

It always puzzled me that Bloodlines didn't do better. I think Arcanum is a *far* better game but Bloodlines... It just seemed to be a title that could crossover into the mainstream. There was a fair amount of hype here in Sweden around the game, good reviews and lots of ads around. Was really surprised to find out later that it did poorly.



As for Arcanum going to Bioware, nah. The style Bioware is going with nowadays is something I wouldn't care for Arcanum to be transformed into. That's nothing against Bioware at all mind you (Dragon Age turned out to be my fav game of theires and I liked ME2) but the style is too different. I wouldn't want a cinematic, plot-heavy, largely companion-driven game from Arcanum. Same with Fallout (I've also read about people wishing that came to Bioware).



Just don't think it'd be a good fit. Would rather have Bioware continue developing their own franchises as well.



Arcanum is my second favourite RPG of all time though, love it.

[Arbiter Libera]

Problem with Troika's games, and ironically why they're still well known and have active communities (not to mention that they're basically cult games mentioned whenever someone "old-school" talks about good old RPG days), was that they were bug ridden to hell and back (Bloodlines, anyone?) leading to such a phenomena that their awesome communities are STILL patching them even today (especially Bloodlines) despite severe limitation in what actually can be accomplished on their part due to unavailable editors or whatever.

But I do agree about Arcanum ending up in BioWare's hands.

Modifié par Arbiter Libera, 23 février 2010 - 12:28 .

[Seagloom]

I don't know about Bloodlines. I thought it ran okay out of the box. It wasn't nearly as buggy as Temple of Elemental Evil. The first few unofficial patches fixed it well enough. The latter stuff, and what's still coming out now, are closer to mods than actual patches.

[Arbiter Libera]

That's the problem, it didn't, mainly because of the whole Source engine dispute and HL2. Compare Bloodlines to HL2 and see how much better the latter one runs when compared to Bloodlines, even if you ignore all the bugs that Bloodlines had (and there was plenty, so I guess you just got lucky and missed them... or tried it post-patch because there was one game breaking bug where you literary couldn't progress further unless you fiddled with the console to change area).

True, most UP post-6.5 are basically changing the game more according to creator's preferences, but you have to consider how long it took to make the game relatively bug-free (not to say completely, the infamous elevator bug is still there, for example). From what I gather, the problem is lack of any official tools because Troika didn't release any before it went down under.

Modifié par Arbiter Libera, 23 février 2010 - 12:52 .

[Seagloom]

I guess I was extraordinarily lucky because I've only ever run into the Beckett warning bug in all my years playing Bloodlines. Once the unofficial patches started messing with the core game rather than squashing actual bugs, I stopped updating them on my harddrive. I'm willing to accept there were lots of bugs I missed though. There had to be, to warrant so many fixes. I just think Bloodlines bugs have a tendency to be exaggerated. Maybe I have low standards too. Generally if a game runs and gameplay abilities work as advertised, I'm content.