Drakensang - RPC Trailer

I think this will be the next Ultima IX ....

Alrik Fassbauer said:

The result will be a great-looking game which tries to bring the world of Aventuria to the highest possible number of players - of German players, especially, because in my opinion this is still the core group of buyers.

They might have the international market in their plans already, but The Dark eye is a German RPG, so the gme is mainly aimed at a German audience.

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I fear that this might be a big problem for them. I have the feeling that this game will sit between all chairs. The rabid hardcore DSA fans will scream that the game has been "dumbed down", whereas players who never heard of DSA will probably bitch about the arcane system.

Of course, I'm just speculating here. Let's hope that the game will be a nice middle ground that makes most people happy.

Brother None said:

It's very typical of what's wrong with game publishing today.

They can't afford the cutting edge graphics to compete with the mainstream AAA RPG titles, yet they still attempt to design their game as an AAA RPG "to make a profit"

That's just backasswards. If you can't compete with AAA RPGs, why are you designing your RPG as one? It's insanity to think an inferior product can operate in the same market as superior ones and still make a profit. If your product is inferior in certain ways, like graphics, then you need to be in another market.

The license and European market will hopefully pull them through, but it's got "bad idea" written all over it. Still, the German PC market is the biggest in the world, so it's hardly like they have to worry that much about international sales.

PS: combat is like Baldur's Gate. The system runs in turns underneath, determining player actions by turns, but in real-time on the surface.

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I would have to agree with that.

I have no idea what developers that are into great game design are doing messing around with the mass market. They don't have the funds and what's worse, they try to market their products with trailers like this which would seem to target the same kind of people who enjoyed Oblivion. Those people will be severely underwhelmed with a game like this - or at least most of them will.

But the thing is, some developers aren't willing to settle for smaller markets and the limited financing they can get by targeting them. So they're probably pitching their game in a way that lures publishers into coughing up larger sums. That's quite a risk to take, but I can sympathize with that choice - as I prefer a certain standard in terms of production values.

The middle ground approach we could call it, but I still don't appreciate stupid trailers like this - as they pretty much require the hardcore gamer to look beyond the surface and understand the potential beneath. But I'm not convinced as of yet in this case.

Who defines what specifications AAA titles have, by the way ?

Alrik Fassbauer said:

Who defines what specifications AAA titles have, by the way ?

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The latest AAA release does. If you mean technical specifications.

Alrik Fassbauer said:

Who defines what specifications AAA titles have, by the way ?

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Marketing, focus testing, sales statistics and of course comparison with the competition. Your product needs at least as high production values as the last AAA game in the same genre.
For a shooter this means that if you want to to sell your game based on the graphics you have to beat Crysis.

Now I have finally watched the trailer ... and I wonder why they released it?! I can see its value in marketing a computer game to a crowd who mostly prefer LARPs and table-top products. Create atmosphere, show the combat is without hurry, all fine. But why release such a movie full of uninteresting rendered sequences plus a bit of unspectacular gameplay to the general public, especially if the hook so far was the nice medieval world with lots of details?

Alrik Fassbauer said:

They might have the international market in their plans already, but The Dark eye is a German RPG, so the gme is mainly aimed at a German audience.

It's a little bit like the Witcher aimed mainly at the Polish audience. (With the international market being secondary).

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The Witcher was meant to become a big international franchise from day one. It was never meant to be a local product. CD Projekt has the money to stem this.

Drakensang on OTOH is probably indeed primarily targeted on the German market, simply because the license is well known here. The game´s mass market appeal is unproven though, which explains why dtp, unlike most big mainstream publishers, still works hard to get close to core gamers and the RPG crowd.