Alpha Protocol - Sells 700k

[GothicGothicness]

You *do* seem to care enough to read my posts and reply to them KNOWING that I have not bought the game..why? May be because you just like to goad people into arguments and blabber irrelevant stuff?

All my replies after I read that you pirated the game have been about how pathetic it is to steal something and complain about it after that.

I want to add that since game companies has more or less stopped providing demos, they got this kind of thing coming to them.

 

[Aditya]

All my replies after I read that you pirated the game have been about how pathetic it is to steal something and complain about it after that.

Yep, just another day in your life apparently. Its fun to pick on people as that automatically makes you appear clean. Continue, I guess..

I don't consider the game bad, I was merely explaining why you can't compare the graphics to games that are streamlined. I had a lot of fun with the gameplay itself, I feel it works out exactly the way it should consider it's an RPG - you start out being fairly poor at everything, but get better as you put points into stuff. You're pretty much useless at anything you haven't invested points into. Sounds good to me.

The problem is that people expect an action game because it looks like one.

In that sense, its similar to Diablo or any other skill-driven RPG then, where you put points into various skills and watch your character grow stronger. The additional topping AP offers is narrative affecting C&C. I can understand if you had fun with this, but as I said, the way the game actually plays, and the things that affect your playing the game, are sub-standard. Only C&C isn't a real draw for me to suffer other mediocrities.

The leaked/early torrent version of Titan's Quest contained a deliberate bug that made the game crash when you reached a certain point in the game (I'm not sure whether it was when reaching a certain amount of exp/level or when arriving at a certain point in the gaming world), thus anyone complaining about this particular and easily recognizable bug was in fact wearing a hug neon sign above their head flashing "Pirate Prick". Unfortunately they didn't handle this very well publicly so instead of being a wake up call to the general public and pirates alike, it back fired and gave the game a bad rep due to the many bug complains. A shame really. I would have loved to see this technique being used by many other companies.

I know about Titan Quest. I was asking him about AP's case.

However, you continue to comment on a game in its entirety even though you've already admitted that you haven't played more than the first 10-20% of the game and THAT makes your comments more or less invalid in my book. I don't give a flying hoot for what people are saying on forums. Unless you've tried it yourself, your "experience" with the game doesn't really matter much to anyone.

I have tried enough to know how the game plays and I am certain the experience will not change till the very end. What I am discussing isn't story or plot twists here but faulty implementation of basic things. I know there are forced fights in almost every mission, boss fights that require ONLY combat even when you are playing a stealthy character, Overpowered abilities like chain-shot and invisibility etc. and I certainly don’t need to 'experience' it to know its NOT good.

Even if I had not revealed not playing the game fully, I doubt anyone would have suspected. Its too easy to project completion of game by reading forums posts, walkthroughs, you tube videos etc. But my admittance has simply given you and others a strawman to argue upon, which has nothing to do with game's well- established and objective flaws. Same with these parrots who are suddenly talking about piracy. I would like to see their download history.

What's more I do believe you're complaining to the wrong people. Some of the most popular games here at the Watch look and feel like they were created 15-20 years ago, so complaints about animation and graphics are mostly going to fall on deaf ears.

Way to generalize or may be you are simply talking of your personal taste? I know people here like Risen, ME, The Witcher etc which are anything but look and feel like they were created 15-20 years ago. Gothic and Gothic 2 had good graphics for their times as well. Also, graphics and animation are LEAST of AP's problems.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Attacking others off-topic assuming a high moral stand is petty and is usually done to make oneself feel better. In no way you can prove you haven't done any sort of piracy in your life, so step down from your holy alter already..

A) You act very aggressively. Drunk too much red bulls today ?

B) You reply relatively often, but the percentage of useful in your on posts (aka arguments helping your own point of view) is relatively low.

C) You will surely attack me for what I have written in this post. You will say that my post consists of irregular, non-rational blabber and that i am not able to proof my own points of view. Last, you will say that everything I say will be dismissed by you, an you will try very hard to install in me the feeling of being hurt by your replay on how incompetent, inrregular, irrelevant etc. I am.

You will do everything you can for attacking me at on emotional level, meanwhile using relatively few rational, logical arguments at all.

You have already tried very hard to draw the whole discussion from a rational, logical level down to an emotional lvel, because flming and destroying people on an emotional level is so much easier -

- plus is distracts your auduience from the fact that you have quite few löogical agurments supporting your point.

Your dragging the discussion dobn to an emotional level is like a bait, a try to istract the discussion - and its participants - from the fact that you have too few logical arguments to stand the test of time (this discussion here).

And next you will most likely go into different forums,lamenting and saying that RPGWatch is a chesspool (in contrast to a cesspool, both are very much different things, you know ?).

 

[Aditya]

It takes one to know one, I assume? If you are bothered by me, feel free to ignore me.

 

[bemushroomed]

Aditya, you can't argue with fanboys so just drop it already, it's just a tremendous waste of time

 

[holeraw]

Man!… That game just has to be awesome if it can inspire such passion!
It's the truth: controversial = awesome

I have to stop putting off playing it at some point…

 

[fatBastard()]

I know about Titan Quest. I was asking him about AP's case.

Okay, I must have misunderstood what you meant. Never mind then.

Way to generalize or may be you are simply talking of your personal taste? I know people here like Risen, ME, The Witcher etc which are anything but look and feel like they were created 15-20 years ago. Gothic and Gothic 2 had good graphics for their times as well. Also, graphics and animation are LEAST of AP's problems.

Actually no. Unlike many of the regulars here at the Watch I've moved into the 21st century along with the industry. The Gothic series (including Risen) holds a sacred place to many here at the Watch so you'll find very few negative posts about those games, but there are plenty of rantings about ME (or any other Bioware game since Baldur's Gate 2), not to mention a game like Oblivion. Indie games like the Spiderweb games and other titles rich on hardcore RPG mechanics yet extremely simple in their presentation (i.e. graphics) are generally hailed here.

I agree with Maylander in the sense that a gaming experience is the sum of all the parts. I can easily overlook multiple shortcomings if other aspects of the game make up for them and that's the crux of it in this case: I feel that the good parts of AP outweighs the bad. You obviously don't. And that's that.

 

[JDR13]

Actually no. Unlike many of the regulars here at the Watch I've moved into the 21st century along with the industry. .

So in other words, you don't mind playing shallow, dumbed down RPGs?

 

[pibbur]

So in other words, you don't mind playing shallow, dumbed down RPGs?

Everything went downhill after "Colossal Cave"

From Pibbur who admits this wasn't a very useful post but who couldn't resist.

 

[Maylander]

In that sense, its similar to Diablo or any other skill-driven RPG then, where you put points into various skills and watch your character grow stronger. The additional topping AP offers is narrative affecting C&C. I can understand if you had fun with this, but as I said, the way the game actually plays, and the things that affect your playing the game, are sub-standard. Only C&C isn't a real draw for me to suffer other mediocrities.

I think fatBastard() summed it up nicely when he said: "I feel that the good parts of AP outweighs the bad. You obviously don't. And that's that."

It's just a matter of priority. To me, great RPGs include games like Arcanum and Planescape: Torment, neither of which had gameplay or graphics comparable to good action games. They had other qualities though, such as interesting characters, dynamic quests and lots of choices/consequences.

 

[Aditya]

Aditya, you can't argue with fanboys so just drop it already, it's just a tremendous waste of time

But sometimes its fun! Didn't you enjoy reading Alrik Fassbauer's self-parodying post above?! When he has nothing substantial to say, he resorts to tasteless humor as always.

It's just a matter of priority. To me, great RPGs include games like Arcanum and Planescape: Torment, neither of which had gameplay or graphics comparable to good action games. They had other qualities though, such as interesting characters, dynamic quests and lots of choices/consequences.

I wonder if AP would ever be remembered as fondly as those classics though. Also, I find it funny that you compare those RPG's gameplay and graphics to good 'action' games. But I guess we have discussed enough to gain or understand anything new.

Speaking of interesting characters, dynamic quests and lots of choices/consequences, you can consider trying Heavy Rain. It has everything that you like EXCEPT points to invest into skills! One or more character can get imprisoned or killed depending upon your choices, hence closing further missions, story changes according to how you deal some critical situations and the game is hyper reactive to your every action. You get 20 different endings too!

 

[Davion]

Aditya, resorting to trolling because you can't win people over is never a good idea.

You either like AP or you don't, at least that's the vibe I get from this game and people's reactions on numerous sites. This isn't the first thread where this is evident and it won't be the last. Different people, different tastes.

Also, voicing disdain for a game you pirated and didn't even bother playing for more than a few hours, is a proper way to lose any credibility you might have on most gaming forums.

 

[Aditya]

You assume that winning some virtual credibility over Internet gaming forum is my goal? You all are random strangers from different countries..and I don't care what you think of me. I simply liked to exchange my views here and spoke harshly to those who attacked me first. Some people continued to discuss THE GAME with me while others like you are more concerned about irrelevant matters. Derailing threads and attacking someone unprovoked isn't a very productive thing to do and instead just exposes your hypocrisy.

I suppose this thread will soon lead to lockdown if people with self-esteem issues continue to get obsessed over me instead of discussing AP. *sigh*

 

[Thrasher]

So 700K in sales translates to around $2.5M to $3.5M?

That's hardly anything, especially if the employees live in VERY expensive Southern California. Guessing annual costs of $100K to $200K per person, that's only around 8 - 35 person years. Suppose an average 3 year development, that's 2-12 people.

It's a shame.

 

[Gorath]

So 700K in sales translates to around $2.5M to $3.5M?

No, probably much more than that. Calculate with 10 to 25$ per unit depending on wholesale price. Maybe it's even more in certain countries.

 

[Thrasher]

er, yeah, I left off a zero. :facepalm:

$7M to $17.5M =>
35 - 175 person years =>
11 - 69 people for 3 years

So the numbers didn't look entirely ridiculous.

Maybe not a loss (ignoring production costs, and overhead) - certainly little or no profit...

 

[Grog]

Yep, it was £18 ($28/€22) here, not much more than expansion pack.

I still haven't got round to playing it yet, since I'm waiting for them to fix the jerky mouse camera controls, I find it almost unplayable in its current state. I've tried all the fixes and the only one that works reliably is using a controller instead, but that's not a satisfactory alternative.

As was mentioned elsewhere, there will be no patch. So are you saying you already did the APEngine.ini fixes mentioned here: http://forums.obsidian.net/index.php?showtopic=55163

I did that, and found it made a huge difference for me. The game went from choppy to very smooth and responsive.

 

[DPB]

As was mentioned elsewhere, there will be no patch. So are you saying you already did the APEngine.ini fixes mentioned here: http://forums.obsidian.net/index.php?showtopic=55163

I did that, and found it made a huge difference for me. The game went from choppy to very smooth and responsive.

Yeah, it's an improvement, but it still doesn't feel as smooth as with a controller, and the camera still has a tendency to jump about when making quick mouse movements, though not nearly as often as before. I'll play it eventually, I'll just have get used to aiming with a controller, something I've never really liked.

 

[tolknaz]

Speaking of interesting characters, dynamic quests and lots of choices/consequences, you can consider trying Heavy Rain. It has everything that you like EXCEPT points to invest into skills! One or more character can get imprisoned or killed depending upon your choices, hence closing further missions, story changes according to how you deal some critical situations and the game is hyper reactive to your every action. You get 20 different endings too!

Sorry, but for me Heavy Rain was nothing but overhyped pretentious console crap just like Indigo Prophecy (the developers previous game). You seem to think that a good game is something absolute while in reality it's very subjective and what makes or breaks a game for each person lies mostly in small details. We obviously disagree about Alpha Protocol being a good game. That's fine. I do have a problem with your view that anyone who thinks differently is a fanboy and desrves to be ridiculed however.

 

[Aditya]

Sorry, but for me Heavy Rain was nothing but overhyped pretentious console crap just like Indigo Prophecy (the developers previous game). You seem to think that a good game is something absolute while in reality it's very subjective and what makes or breaks a game for each person lies mostly in small details. We obviously disagree about Alpha Protocol being a good game. That's fine. I do have a problem with your view that anyone who thinks differently is a fanboy and desrves to be ridiculed however.

Indigo Prophecy started on a very good note but lost its grip on logic in the later half. While I would love to discuss pros n cons of Heavy Rain with you, this isn't the forum for that. And I absolutely agree its the small details that actually make or break the game, hence my disdain for AP.

Lastly, I don't recall ridiculing Maylander, fatbstard, Dhurin who actually think differently from me on AP. And I have stated my position regarding other posters in my post above.