Gothic 4 - First Look @ Gamespot

The team invested months of research into the differences between European and American gaming preferences

Now THAT could be interesting - as a study in itself. This is something I would really looking forward to read.
 
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well the conclusion was: they like different colours :p
 
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No, seriously, I meant if they *really* did intensive research, then at least *something* must've come out of it ...
 
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Gothic series has never sold well in US iirc. Sounds like they are getting desperate to figure out reasons why. Perhaps the game is too unforgiving and hard. The dark setting just amplifies it.
I think that the number one reason for negative reviews was the game interface of the first two titles. It was non-intuitive, and the mouse was sorely missed. I already hear the answer "But you have to learn the interface for every game!". While this is true, there is a certain threshold where many people just give up, and then they write bad reviews ;).

Gothic3 didn't sell because the message of those horror bugs crossed the pond before game release. I don't think brighter colors would have changed that.

Edit: One other point nobody mentions is the name of the game. "Gothic" sounds like horror, which might address the wrong casual buyer.
 
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No, seriously, I meant if they *really* did intensive research, then at least *something* must've come out of it ...
Yes, I would also be interested in hearing the results of some real research. I can only go from my own experiences with avid gamers from both sides of the pond, but these experiences are necessarily biased and not representative.
 
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I think that the number one reason for negative reviews was the game interface of the first two titles. It was non-intuitive, and the mouse was sorely missed. I already hear the answer "But you have to learn the interface for every game!". While this is true, there is a certain threshold where many people just give up, and then they write bad reviews ;).
True, but I guess it was hard to foresee that the many reviewers outside the German market would be so unflexible to blame a game which takes a standard combat control system and builds upon it. Everybody knows how to control a FPS. You run with ASDW + mouse and initiate the action with the mouse buttons or CTRL & ALT in the good old days. In Gothic you also initiate action with the a mouse button (LMB), or alternatively with CTRL, but then you have to chose your action with the movement keys.
It´s really simple - but developer and publishers failed miserably at communicating this.
The trade interface was rubbish though.

Edit: One other point nobody mentions is the name of the game. "Gothic" sounds like horror, which might address the wrong casual buyer.
Also correct, IMHO. It has been brought up before, but people tend to forget it.
 
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"Gothic" sounds like horror, which might address the wrong casual buyer.

Yes, this is a point. Hearing of the game in the first place, I was quite distracted by the (this) title.

@Gorath: I always liked the trade interface after I had learned it. It even appeared as almost "natural" to me, then.

It was rather bartering to me than "real" trading.

I'm speaking of Gothic 1, by the way.
 
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I've always been surprised at how few people reconfigure controls. Gothic's interface worked very well for me after I remapped the keys.

It worked so well that I reconfigured Freelancer's controls to work pretty much the same way (space shooter), and I became sort of infamous for PvP on some multiplayer servers. The number one reason was that I reconfigured the controls while just about no one else did.

It's never difficult; it usually takes only a minute, and it's always a lot easier on your wrists.
 
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I think I should add that of the Gothic 1 trading window the only thing that annoyed me was that the balance in the value of the wares was not made *automatically* .

It was as if the traders remained so passive that I had to "draw the stuff out of their pockets" to keep the balance of the value.
 
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