Radon Labs - Drakensang 3 = Drakensang Online?

You'll recall that when broswer game giant Bigpoint acquired Radon Labs, it immediately confirmed "Drakensang 3" for 2011. The fear of many fans was that DS3 would be some sort of browser or online game, in the vein of Bigpoint's other products.
It looks like that fear was right, with Bigpoint revealing Drakensang Online via Twitter, as reported by PC Games.de. PR Manager Janine tweeted that they were working on "drakensang online" and "the prototype looks great".
For those of us with challenged German, you can read the Google translation here.
Thanks, Alrik!
More information.

Shit! Well, nothing lasts forever and BG was as short lived. I won't touch any online grinders.

Luckily the sequel and the addon are still to be discovered.

You linked to twitter twice!

OUCH! Bad to hear. Bad, bad, bad. And I wasn't even that much of a fan of Drakensang in the first place but this =/

The google link is dead btw.
I am not sure I can call them stupid, greedy I guess, but it is sad to see the game go that direction.

I like MMOs, so I would like Drakensang Online in theory, but for some reason I don't think it's a good choice. MMOs are mostly based on having lots and lots of loot, but TDE system is more about the characters than the loot. Besides, the TDE system is very complex, so I'm afraid they'll have to butcher it left and right to 'streamline' it.
Besides, I hate the Final Fantasy style of merging MMOs with the original series. Leave Drakensang 3 for a Drakensang RPG, make Drakensang Online separate.

Sigh, what a letdown. Who the heck wants that?

I can see the quests now. "Go and collect 16 pieces of lint and three pocket knives. Bring them to me and your reward will be a soup spoon or a pencil."

Multiply the above by 1000, and turn the speed down to molasses-drip and there you have the Drakensang MMO.

Another failed MMO in the making.

Originally Posted by wolfing
MMOs are mostly based on having lots and lots of loot, but TDE system is more about the characters than the loot. Besides, the TDE system is very complex, so I'm afraid they'll have to butcher it left and right to 'streamline' it.

Bigpoint isn't going to butcher the TDE system as they don't have a license to it. This whole Drakensang 3 = Drakensang Online is nothing more than to advertise this MMO as from the makers of Drakensang really. Radon Labs doesn't exist anymore crumbled ruins that Bigpoint bought are called Bigpoint Berlin.

Discouraging

They could still use that Style of Drakensang.

If they make Drakensang Online like DDO then it could be a good game and far different then the typical MMO.

Originally Posted by noctrun
Radon Labs doesn't exist anymore crumbled ruins that Bigpoint bought are called Bigpoint Berlin.

Hate to quote myself but I just read Bigpoint did not even buy the crumbled ruins of Radon Labs, they only hired a few employees and bought the Drakensang-Trademark. Radon Labs on the other hand is being liquidated.

Originally Posted by noctrun
Hate to quote myself but I just read Bigpoint did not even buy the crumbled ruins of Radon Labs, they only hired a few employees and bought the Drakensang-Trademark. Radon Labs on the other hand is being liquidated.

I'd consider that semi-good news actually. The bad part obviously is that Radon Labs is out of the game. This is unfortunate because they were able to produce polished, high quality games that were nicely balanced between an old school appeal and the mainstream while still being commercially viable (at least until recently ). Call me a fanboi but I consider Bernd Beyreuther as a bit of a genius for finding that balance. The guy is gold.

The semi-good news is that if Chromatrix does want to keep on producing DSA/Dark Eye video games they can now freely look for a new studio. The end of Drakensang (as a DSA franchise) does not equal the end of end of DSA video games. I sincerely hope that Chromatrix will find a new reliable partner to launch a new series similar to Drakensang but with (even) more commercial success.

I believe they just need to work on their marketing for future titles (and international releases, of course).
Drakensang marketing was OK but the River of Time was really bad, beginning with the title of the game.
Can you imagine a more boring title? And soooo the riiiiiiver, well, it flooooooowws and there is a lot of tiiiiiiiiime that is passing all alooooong… yeah, *snore* *snore*.
Same with Phileasson's Secret expansion. If you can actually manage to remember the title after reading it for the 47th time then there's still the barrier of spelling or pronouncing it correctly. It's just such a dumb, unnecessary waste of potential.

Oh well, in the end I just hope that Chromatrix makes the best of the situation and that a new video game series will rise from the ashes of Radon Labs and Drakensang. Please make it so, Tsa*!


* DSA goddess of life (and resurrection)

Originally Posted by Moriendor
This is unfortunate because they were able to produce polished, high quality games that were nicely balanced between an old school appeal and the mainstream while still being commercially viable (at least until recently ). Call me a fanboi but I consider Bernd Beyreuther as a bit of a genius for finding that balance. The guy is gold.

I hate to break it to you then: Bernd Beyreuther had nothing to do with the game design of any Drakensang game, the responsible game designer was Fabian Rudzinski who is not among the Radon Labs people Bigpoint hired.

Musings from Alveran about Bigpoint's information policy : http://www.alveran.org/index.php?id=10#newsID3781

Edit : Oh, noctrun had it before me.

Originally Posted by noctrun
I hate to break it to you then: Bernd Beyreuther had nothing to do with the game design of any Drakensang game, the responsible game designer was Fabian Rudzinski who is not among the Radon Labs people Bigpoint hired.

Oh, I know that. Though I wouldn't be so sure as you that he had no hand in the game's design. He is credited as "Director" in the Drakensang manual so in his role as a director (=supervisor) I'm sure that he had a word in a lot of high level decisions (which the balance between old school and mainstream appeal certainly is).
I'm pretty convinced that just about every important decision had to be approved by Beyreuther while Rudzinski dealt more with the day-to-day stuff (= details).
In fact, Beyreuther said in this interview that in his position as the (creative) director he is simply responsible for the game as a whole.

That completely aside, I know exactly what I heard Beyreuther say in various interviews so unless you are going to claim that Rudzinski was his secret ghostwriter (written interviews) or that Rudzinski owns a Beyreuther face mask (video interviews) I stand by my statement that the guy is my hero .

I heard Mr. Rudzinski on the RPC, and I got the impression that he was a "Designer", he called himself that (his position).

He was responsible for a lot of things, a little bit - that's my purely personal impression - overlapping with the position/role of a producer, though not much.

He was responsible for the mechanics, for designing everything - bzt not graphically, or at least not much (my impression), rather for balancing (combat-related, for example), mechanics, non-graphical design in general.

It's difficult for me to describe. Because it is so long ago now.

Well, Drakensang without the TDE system. Not sure I would have enjoyed it nearly as much, as the system was the main selling point in my case. Drakensang with Dragon Age system? Meh!