APB: Finally, I Can Be A PUNK!

[Stormwaltz]

crimecraft... sank without trace.

Not so! There are still piles of boxes available at Best Buy. Like debris left on the surface after a ship sinks.

In fact, the only game they have more copies of is ME2, which I find slightly worrisome.

[Ollie]

And anyone who pre-orders without knowing anything about the game is a hopeless optimist given the terrible MMO launches we've seen. Especially since the last game of this type was crimecraft and it sank without trace.

You're probably right about the contextual warning signs. The games industry does have a remarkable way of underachieving not quite matched by any other field – a kind of calm inevitability that eerily approaches art. Expecting mediocrity is the sane thing to do.

That said, I think I'll approach APB as I would a summer fling. It is available, and I'm bored. Stuff is bound to happen. 

[Sky]

I hope they have pre-order lifetime subs.

[bhodi]

If you haven't learned by now not to pre-order anything, there really is no help for you.

[Malakili]

If you haven't learned by now not to pre-order anything, there really is no help for you.

Well, I wouldn't go that far.  I still preorder expansions to games I play.  Point taken though, and I know that wasn't the spirit in which you said it.

[Signe]

I pre-order lots of things.  Most of the time I do it coming from a place of, at least, some knowledge.  It usually works out ok.  If I'm pretty sure I'm interested in playing a game for a while, why not?  Sometimes you even get pre-order goodies!

[TripleDES]

Hurr durr durr hurr, I what?

[Kageru]

I'm beginning to realize half my pleasure in following the MMO market is imagining the panic when the company realizes the game isn't working out but they've got to launch it anyway. And not bugs, they'll always be there and they can be fixed without changing the game. More the things that someone should have been flagged as an issue when the game was still a design brief on paper with a bunch of people poking at it.

It looks like APB is going to be entertaining :)

[Malakili]

I'm beginning to realize half my pleasure in following the MMO market is imagining the panic when the company realizes the game isn't working out but they've got to launch it anyway. And not bugs, they'll always be there and they can be fixed without changing the game. More the things that someone should have been flagged as an issue when the game was still a design brief on paper with a bunch of people poking at it.

It looks like APB is going to be entertaining :)

Incidentally this seems to be why Valve and Blizzard have been putting out consistently good games.  Both seem willing to go back to the drawing board on mechanics even relatively late in the game (Half Life 2) or scrap something all together if its hopeless (Warcraft Adventures).

[Stormwaltz]

Hurr durr durr hurr, I what?

Wow.

Just... wow.

[Mrbloodworth]

Yeah, but i..... grr... 

[NiX]

God I can't wait for this to release. I've never seen so many of you eager to  break the NDA in magical ways.

[Kageru]

Interestingly the thread that got referenced actually has a APB developer contributing to it, so I assume they're not working too hard enforcing it.

[TripleDES]

Incidentally this seems to be why Valve and Blizzard have been putting out consistently good games.  Both seem willing to go back to the drawing board on mechanics even relatively late in the game (Half Life 2) or scrap something all together if its hopeless (Warcraft Adventures).

The difference is, they can afford it. They have their own rather large financial buffer to sit on. RTW doesn't. These 50 million bucks they've got from investors are first split over APB and another project, plus the investors want to see results, so they can't just push the game up another 6-12 months, altho I wish they did.

Interestingly the thread that got referenced actually has a APB developer contributing to it, so I assume they're not working too hard enforcing it.

Not sure what his spiel is. He only gets upset when screenshots are posted.

[01101010]

Not sure what his spiel is. He only gets upset when screenshots are posted.

"Rumor" has it that part is getting lifted very soon.

[Malakili]

The difference is, they can afford it.

Oh, I know.   Its not just a simple matter of spending more time on the game, or even having a large budget (plenty of big budget games have sucked).  However, if investors were saying "we want to be as popular as WoW" I'd say to them "Well then you'd be prepared to work like Blizzard."  Most of the time they aren't, so they can't expect to get a similar result, was really my point.

[NiX]

Interestingly the thread that got referenced actually has a APB developer contributing to it, so I assume they're not working too hard enforcing it.

I'm sure they realize with the Euro beta being so open now it's futile for them to control it. That being said, it's easy for us to control it and we'll do so because we all agreed to the NDA.

[Ghambit]

I like "Perpetuum."

[Mrbloodworth]

All Points Bulletin Videos: Intro Cinematic Use HD and headphones.

[ashrik]

If you're pre-ordering this without having seen or read anything beyond the marketing materials, you deserve what you get. Good-day sirs!

[Furiously]

If you're pre-ordering this without having seen or read anything beyond the marketing materials, you deserve what you get. Good-day sirs!

And that is true of any game...

[Mrbloodworth]

If you're pre-ordering this without having seen or read anything beyond the marketing materials, you deserve what you get. Good-day sirs!

 

And on another note:

Realtime Worlds: Serving time

[ashrik]

If you're pre-ordering this without having seen or read anything beyond the marketing materials, you deserve what you get. Good-day sirs!

And that is true of any game...

More so of the poor and flawed ones. Just sayin!

[Mrbloodworth]

I would really like to talk about a number of things but I can't. So I guess you can keep speaking as some third party doomsayer with your "I'm not under your rules" info, while the rest of us are silent.

But, for everyone, can I ask you to stop the trolling? Its like kicking someone when they can't respond. I'm sure you feel awesome and all though.

[Trippy]

Once again, shut the fuck about the game if you are in the beta. And stop fucking talking about the preorder.

[NiX]

Can't we just nuke it from orbit?

[Trippy]

It's getting to that point.

[WayAbvPar]

Next breach we will just lock it and give the offender a little vacation? Sounds good to me.

[Lantyssa]

Are we talking about oil companies or NDA offenders?

[Modern Angel]

I'd rather see it remain open for the awesome people like me and Bloodworth who have been good about this.

[Lantyssa]

Bloodworth is doing the emoticon which is also an annoyance of the mods which has direct Trippy "don't fucking do that" history behind it.

I vote for Nuke on the next violation.

[Musashi]

I don't think any of us who care are going to learn anything we don't already know in between now and release.  If something big comes up, we can always PM someone to reopen it.

[Kageru]

That real-worlds interview is interesting.

"We really didn’t put that much an emphasis on the business model at first."

I fully understand that a good game designer wants to make the game of their dreams and doesn't really think about the cost. But you'd really think there'd be some less romantic soul at the back running a calculation. Something like X subscribers fed into this business model gives us how much cash we should spend on development. Which determines whether you can have more budget to spend on a "character theme music editor". Instead it looks like they've spent the money, announced the business model they'd like to have and are now trying to find something that works.

[UnSub]

I saw that too.

I can see the decision making process that goes, "This will be GTA Online - the business model will build itself!" but it is flawed because actually collecting money is critical to seeing the game continue to live. It also influences design decisions.

I don't disagree with some of their pricing options - pay for hours rather than a month's unlimited subscription if you want - but I think they should have put the model they preferred out there as the default (which would be a monthly payment, not 50 hours with the box) and then get the player to opt out if they choose to. When it comes to payment, you want players to be thinking as little as possible about it, rather than thinking about if they got enough value from 50 hours to put some more cash in.

[Furiously]

I thought they had a $9.99 unlimited option. The $6.99 or $5.99 20 hour a month option is also there for people. I'm not sure who the non-unlimited plan is for.