Arcania - Interview @ Hooked Gamers

Dhruin

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Hooked Gamers has an interview with Arcania: Gothic 4 Producer Kamaal Anwar. It's a general piece and doesn't reveal anything new for us but might be worth a look for fans. Apparently, they're holding back for E3. Here's a snip:
HookedGamers: How do North American and European gamers differ in their RPG preferences, and how are these differences reflected in Gothic 4?

Kamaal Anwar: We could go on for quite a while on this topic, but when we break it down everyone has their own preferences. It's pretty transparent that cultures as a whole tend to have more common preferences. North American gamers (and not specifically RPG gamers) would tend to look for the short term reward to spark engagement. European gamers are more methodical in how they appreciate a new experience. At the end of the day though, everyone wants a quality game. Regardless of where they're from, their personal preferences can be influenced if a game can establish its own unique and compelling experience.
More information.
 
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Hm, nothing much new there. He says a good word about Spellbound, but you'd expect him to.

At the end, they say they can't reveal much, they are waiting for E3. Hopefully we'll get more info then.

It is looking like an extremely "Fable-ized" Risen. He even makes reference to Fable II during the briefing. Oblivion, too. He also emphasizes the game being "accessible to all."

Anyway, I'm looking forward to E3. I have hope that the game might be enjoyable in the lightweight way Fable is. I'll look for the next Risen from Piranha Bytes, I guess.
 
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This is ridiculous. This game has been in development forever, is supposed to be out this year, and there is still NO information about it. I have not read one article that talks about the actual features of the game. All i have seen are a few screenshots and videos. Maybe the marketing guys know the game is going to suck so they are afraid to talk about it.
 
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This is ridiculous. This game has been in development forever, is supposed to be out this year, and there is still NO information about it. I have not read one article that talks about the actual features of the game. All i have seen are a few screenshots and videos. Maybe the marketing guys know the game is going to suck so they are afraid to talk about it.

That's the same concern I have, especially with Jowood's background with G3 and Foresaken Gods. Still, I'm hoping for the best. Nothing would make me happier than to see the Gothic series revive itself with a good G4 showing and PB with its new 'Risen' franchise.
 
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I hope the game is great, because i love the Gothic universe. It just seems to me that if the devs were proud of it, they would be singing their praises from the mountain top. The silence from JoWood and Spellbound says a lot.
 
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Well, let's see what we get at E3.
 
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North American gamers (and not specifically RPG gamers) would tend to look for the short term reward to spark engagement. European gamers are more methodical in how they appreciate a new experience.

A very interesting quote. It might shed some light on what the dtp manager meant with "gamers preferences" which he says are ifferent internationally from those in Germany, for example.

Which might shed some light on why they bcked out from Drakensang 3, thus driving Radon Labs into insolvency.

So dtp thought Drakensang was just "too much not international enough", I deduce from this.
 
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There was a pretty long preview video from the German Gamestar magazine and I must honestly say that it looks very good and very Gothic-ish.

I am cautiously optimistic about this game personnally - Spellbound seems devoted to the project and hopefully Jowood will have learned from their mistake of really buggy pieces of crap.

And to be blunt I just don't see how Spellboung could come up with a worst Gothic than PB themselves did with Gothic III, and I'm actually hoping that the new developpers might be able to bring more of a breath of fresh air to the license that PB would (I loved Risen to death - but let's face it : it was basically Gothic II with a new coat of paint a new setting).
 
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What looks "Gothic-ish" that you saw? I'm not trying to attack you - I'm genuinely curious. I haven't seen anything that really looks Gothic, other than general open-world-ish-fantasy-RPG. What did they show in the video?
 
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Gamestar indeed said / wrote more than once that Arcania played and felt like a Gothic. The only serious point of criticism was that the teacher system has been removed.

So far GameStar was the only independent source allowed to play the game unattended.
 
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No offense but do we really have to have exactly the same leveling system for the 5th game (if you include Risen)? Its getting a little old knowing exactly how to play these games. Personally I'm ready for a fresh perspective as long as it doesn't mean dumbing it down.
 
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I'm ready for a fresh perspective as long as it doesn't mean dumbing it down.

Looks like that's exactly what they did. e.g., designed to "appeal to everyone."
 
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What looks "Gothic-ish" that you saw? I'm not trying to attack you - I'm genuinely curious. I haven't seen anything that really looks Gothic, other than general open-world-ish-fantasy-RPG. What did they show in the video?

They showed a bit of everything : exploring, dialogues, combat, the "liveness" of the world...

I do believe the videos they showed a year or more ago while good looking didn't felt very Gothic-ish - but here I don't know it just all felt and look like a Gothic game really.

Of course it's hard to say how the game will turn out in term of world design, quests (which is really where PB shined) combat and plot without playing it, but it does feels like a Gothic to me and looks promising IMO
 
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I'm not going to invest anything in hoping for this to be great, and I'll simply take it as a pleasant surprise if it's merely good.

I have the utmost disregard for JoWood and even if they manage to deal with competent people, they generally manage to destroy everything good about what those people create.
 
This game has a certain positive wibe around it and I'm eager to see SB's new perspective on gothic series. But The whole "appeal to everyone thing" sounds quite troubling.

"appeal to everyone."

I wish I didn't sound like an elitist, but everytime I hear how developers are "appealing to everyone", "making game more accessible" or "streamlining" etc, all I can think is how they are dumbing it down to the lowest common dominator. Why not just being open about it and say it like it is.
 
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Why not just being open about it and say it like it is.

Well, people confuse a dumb game with a dumb audience.

The thing is, that a dumb game requires less investment on the part of the player, and that's generally not because the player is dumb - but because he might not want to invest that much to have a bit of fun.

But since there is such a confusion, being open about dumbing games down would be like telling people that the game is made for morons, so they can enjoy it.

I don't think people like to hear that ;)
 
This game has a certain positive wibe around it and I'm eager to see SB's new perspective on gothic series. But The whole "appeal to everyone thing" sounds quite troubling.

I'm not getting the positive wibe. I think most people are like you, "troubled" by what they hear (or don't).

It's okay that the new guys, Spellbound (?), are taking a shot at it. The Piranha brothers have done the Gothic thing 4x. Maybe a fresh look would be ok.

It'll be a simple game, and easy.
 
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I remember reading about an area system similar to the Witcher (can't return to old areas after you've completed a chapter), a character development system that lost all its flavor (there are a lot of ways to make it more accessible without killing its Gothic soul. Then again.. I still have a slim hope that it will turn out a fine game.
 
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Some impressions from IGN:

There's plenty more to the game, including an alchemy system, lockpicking mini-game, stealth mechanics, scrolls and magic glyphs, side quests you can do for the game's factions, and lots to discover within what looks to be a gigantic world. For this particular demo I got to see and briefly play the game on Xbox 360, and though the game is still in development, it's looking good. The interface for the controller took a little getting used to, but looks like it could be manageable. The one thing that sometimes hurts games like this – bugs and performance problems – could still be an issue, but that's not something anyone will know until the game's ready to go on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC platforms.

http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/109/1090936p1.html
 
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