Drakensang - Updates @ Official Site

Originally Posted by rune_74
Well it could have been released in another country with english…who knows?

True. They could have sneaked it into a smaller market which also gets the English version.

Originally Posted by Corwin
I might have an advanced SG from the demo, but the character really looks no different.

Could you send me the save?

I have done so.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by EvilManagedCare
I know this title is just a shadow of the original RoA series in terms of combat, but I don't care. It's retailing in the US for $29.99, which is a good deal and will be a nice diversion from the onslaught of MMORPGs and bad Diablo clones. I'm hoping this game will rise above being a bad Baldur's Gate clone.

I enjoyed the demo enough to go ahead and buy this one. I am fully prepared for the possibility it will disappoint in every way.

I wonder why this game is being released at $30 bucks? This is the only fancy-graphics game I know of that I am willing to play or pay money for, and I'm more than willing to pay full price (and have expected to all along). I get the feeling that this game, even with the fancy-graphics, just does not appeal to "rpg" fans. You'd figure it would at least have most, if not all, of the NWN fanbase, and all the people looking for just a decent actual rpg to play that’s not aimed at the four year old demographic. I really don't get it anymore. I have absolutely nothing in common rpg-related with 99.9% of rpg fans, while being a rpg fan.

I don't understand how I could have the exact same taste of 99.9% of the crpg fans of the 80's and early 90's, and the exact opposite taste now. It’s like all the elementary schools invaded and took over the faculty and student body of all the graduate schools, and no one ever told them it's not really a graduate school any longer, so all the 5th graders are walking around believing they are the faculty or students of graduate schools. And they are so numerous, annoying, and loud enough that no one is capable of explaining to them that they really aren't. So while graduate schools in fact no longer exist, all the kids crazy, united belief that it does keeps the crazy going.

I saw someone on here say NWN was a spreadsheet game. That made me laugh hard enough a little pee leaked out of me. Then I cried. Then I thought I was in the twilight zone so I took my clothes off and rubbed my pee sprinkles on my nipples and then masturbated while yelling out vulgarities, because the twilight zone is a family friendly show and that sort of behavior would force them to end the episode and this craziness along with it. But it’s not the twilight zone, because its still going on. Or the twilight zone is now only for adult audiences. Or they're just going to edit that part out. I’m still not sure.

Is that you Roqua? We miss you!

Originally Posted by Dhruin
Is that you Roqua? We miss you!

Nope. And by "we" do you mean just you? And by "miss" do you mean willing to tolerate? The hippy-fascists’ and fps fans’ power and influence here seem to have grown exponentially, and they probably miss roqua like a fat kid misses lunch.

Originally Posted by Unrestigered
Nope. And by "we" do you mean just you? And by "miss" do you mean willing to tolerate? The hippy-fascists’ and fps fans’ power and influence here seem to have grown exponentially, and they probably miss roqua like a fat kid misses lunch.

Sounds like someone from the Codex, considering the writing style.

Of course its Roqua, there's no mistaking his unique style - yes a Codex member.
I trust he is in good health?

Roqua practises what he preaches about rpg decline etc' - he's an rpg 'true blue' - he see's Drakensang as 'holding to the genre' somewhat or, Radon Labs/Anaconda are proving it can be done.

It'll be interesting to see how the sales figures of this English version compare to the German version.

Just like kings Bounty has gone english retail, so has Drakensang, that's why i'll be buying this game, i strongly and morally support the retail outlet infrastructure.

Originally Posted by Unrestigered
I wonder why this game is being released at $30 bucks? This is the only fancy-graphics game I know of that I am willing to play or pay money for, and I'm more than willing to pay full price (and have expected to all along). I get the feeling that this game, even with the fancy-graphics, just does not appeal to "rpg" fans. You'd figure it would at least have most, if not all, of the NWN fanbase, and all the people looking for just a decent actual rpg to play that’s not aimed at the four year old demographic. I really don't get it anymore. I have absolutely nothing in common rpg-related with 99.9% of rpg fans, while being a rpg fan.

I don't understand how I could have the exact same taste of 99.9% of the crpg fans of the 80's and early 90's, and the exact opposite taste now. It’s like all the elementary schools invaded and took over the faculty and student body of all the graduate schools, and no one ever told them it's not really a graduate school any longer, so all the 5th graders are walking around believing they are the faculty or students of graduate schools. And they are so numerous, annoying, and loud enough that no one is capable of explaining to them that they really aren't. So while graduate schools in fact no longer exist, all the kids crazy, united belief that it does keeps the crazy going.

I saw someone on here say NWN was a spreadsheet game. That made me laugh hard enough a little pee leaked out of me. Then I cried. Then I thought I was in the twilight zone so I took my clothes off and rubbed my pee sprinkles on my nipples and then masturbated while yelling out vulgarities, because the twilight zone is a family friendly show and that sort of behavior would force them to end the episode and this craziness along with it. But it’s not the twilight zone, because its still going on. Or the twilight zone is now only for adult audiences. Or they're just going to edit that part out. I’m still not sure.

Hmm time to get out of the basement?

Originally Posted by Unrestigered
I wonder why this game is being released at $30 bucks? This is the only fancy-graphics game I know of that I am willing to play or pay money for, and I'm more than willing to pay full price (and have expected to all along). I get the feeling that this game, even with the fancy-graphics, just does not appeal to "rpg" fans. You'd figure it would at least have most, if not all, of the NWN fanbase, and all the people looking for just a decent actual rpg to play that’s not aimed at the four year old demographic. I really don't get it anymore. I have absolutely nothing in common rpg-related with 99.9% of rpg fans, while being a rpg fan.

Probably because they were unable to find a publisher who both has a significant market coverage and believes the target audience is big enough for solid marketing at full price.
Maybe now the (nearly) complete absence of international marketing bites them in the ass. In such a situation I would have considered doing 44.99$ worldwide downloads first. The game is good - word of mouth would have helped it to sell a couple of thousand units, especially in countries physical distribution cannot reach. After that they could still have given it to a budget publisher.

roqua wasn't that self-indulgent. plus his post would have been alot longer considering his absence. roqua was i thought much more critical than overblown.

Originally Posted by Gorath
Probably because they were unable to find a publisher who both has a significant market coverage and believes the target audience is big enough for solid marketing at full price.
Maybe now the (nearly) complete absence of international marketing bites them in the ass. In such a situation I would have considered doing 44.99$ worldwide downloads first. The game is good - word of mouth would have helped it to sell a couple of thousand units, especially in countries physical distribution cannot reach. After that they could still have given it to a budget publisher.

Agreed. Egosoft recently did a Steam-only English launch for X3: Terran Conflict, with the retail version following later. I believe it was quite successful, all things considered.

… By the way: Drakensang has a new logo for the international market. Me, I don't like it.

Originally Posted by Gorath
Probably because they were unable to find a publisher who both has a significant market coverage and believes the target audience is big enough for solid marketing at full price.
Maybe now the (nearly) complete absence of international marketing bites them in the ass. In such a situation I would have considered doing 44.99$ worldwide downloads first. The game is good - word of mouth would have helped it to sell a couple of thousand units, especially in countries physical distribution cannot reach. After that they could still have given it to a budget publisher.

You being on that end and doing what you do would know far more on what lengths a company is going to market a game. But, at the end of the day, gaming media and gaming fans decide what games get the limelight. Let’s look at two rpg sites, the watch and the codex: avernum 5 news posts probably had 1/1000th the hits and 1/1000000 the replies as a post on Bioshock, a non-rpg. So real rpgs get ignored, in lieu of action games and FPS's.

Why did The Witcher, a game that isn't based on the most poplar pnp system in Germany, or have the fanbase of three of the greatest crpgs that will ever be made, cause a lot of hullabaloo? Marketing? Or interest? Is gaming media more interested in a Witcher's action style game over a BG style game? Is the gaming public? Are "rpg" fans?

I remember when it seemed this game had a semi-big marketing push for the English market. They sold it as a BG-clone. I remember not very replied to posts or much interst even then. They could have decided not to poor good money over bad, or use their resources in a more cost effective manner. Because, and I ask you this, would a big marketing campaign generate interest where there isn't any? We decide what games get the attention, what games get the sales, what games are profitable, what game elements are viable.

I would like to be able to blame the devs for making a BG-clone over a RoA-clone, but i can't really, because there is no way a RoA clone would've received funding (I can blame "rpg" fans though). I would, again, have to blame "rpg" fans for deciding that only BG-clones from Bioware and Obsidian are interesting, after they made it so all party-crpgs would be forced to adapt this model. I would also have to blame them for the lack of interest in this game.

Originally Posted by curious
roqua was i thought much more critical than overblown.

Maybe he is critically overblown?

Originally Posted by wulf
yes a Codex member

He was a member of rpgdot long before the codex. And I don't understand where or how people get the idea the kids at the codex are any less FPS fans than the kids here. The same posts generate the same amount of interest from the same type of "rpg" fan at each site. All the people there with taste, reasoning, and logic left years ago. The only distinguishing feature between the sites is hippy-fascism vs. 12-year old retardedness. The taste in games, the interest in games, and the content of likes/dislikes is virtually indistinguishable. The rest is lip-service (with few exceptions).

Originally Posted by run_74
Hmm time to get out of the basement?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hehehe. Where would I go, silly? Heheheehhe tee-hee?

Totally agree on the current Rpgcodex, I used to go there alot a very long time ago. Now, I do not have the time to sort through all the "stuff".

Originally Posted by Unrestigered
Why did The Witcher, a game that isn't based on the most poplar pnp system in Germany, or have the fanbase of three of the greatest crpgs that will ever be made, cause a lot of hullabaloo? Marketing? Or interest? Is gaming media more interested in a Witcher's action style game over a BG style game? Is the gaming public? Are "rpg" fans?

The Witcher -> Great name, great marketing from the very beginning, interesting license, controversial topics, good product quality and the right guys to handle it. CDPR & The Witcher was the perfect fit.
And don't forget that CDP is also a big publisher in Eastern Europe. They know everyone, everyone knows them and have a lot of money behind them. The Witcher's budget was easily 3 times as big as Drakensang's, and that's aiming low.

I remember when it seemed this game had a semi-big marketing push for the English market. They sold it as a BG-clone. I remember not very replied to posts or much interst even then. They could have decided not to poor good money over bad, or use their resources in a more cost effective manner. Because, and I ask you this, would a big marketing campaign generate interest where there isn't any? We decide what games get the attention, what games get the sales, what games are profitable, what game elements are viable.

They should have stuck to the BG clone story on the international markets. Better a clone story than no story.
I agree with you that a big campaign would have hardly helped an unknown party based RPG. Therefore I suggested a skimming strategy. Release online, say Steam first and then some of the usual download portals if they're interested. Impulse too, and especially a DL service which delivers to remote areas like Africa. Let it cook slowly for, say, 3 months. Collect the money from the few thousand people who are willing to pay 44.99 $/€/GBP. After that decide to eithe continue online with a lower price or stay at the high price and convince a retail publisher to put it on the shelves for 30 bucks. Such a strategy would have two advantages: 1. more money due to high price combined with higher margin. 2. More buzz for the retail release (now it's close to zero!). There would have been a couple of risks though, so I don't blame them for not trying such a stunt.

I would like to be able to blame the devs for making a BG-clone over a RoA-clone, but i can't really, because there is no way a RoA clone would've received funding (I can blame "rpg" fans though).

I still remember a summary of a talk by one of the Radon Labs bosses. He said lots of publishers were interested in a DSA RPG. But …. they demanded it for a budget of 1M EUR. "Impossible!"
For comparison: NWN 2 without add-ons cost 7-8 Mio EUR. This sum includes fees for producing and other secondary things though.

Gorath,

I can't disagree with anything you said, but lets get some clarification on what you didn't say:

"The Witcher -> "

"Great name." Either you mean "The Witcher" itself is a great name, or the books behind the game is a great name/content/source for a game. In which case The Dark Eye isn't a great name/content/source for a game, or drakensang itself is not a good name itself.

"great marketing from the very beginning." So, drakensang never had good marketing at all anywhere, or The Witcher just did it all right? And was the marketing easier because of all the interest, or was the it easier to garner the interest due to the fabulous marketing?

"interesting license." Unlike drakensang?

"controversial topics." Like boobies and banging hoes left and right? I think the biggest controversial topic in this century was the rapping of the license of the greatest crpg trilogy ever into a BG-clone. But I guess boobies always win in the end, so i have to give you this one, even if it kind of proves my point about the state of the community.

"good product quality." I see no disparity in quality from the two. I only had it in me to play The Witcher up to chapter 2 when he gets arrested, so i did play it longer than the demo for drakensang, but all the aesthetic bullshit both games provide seems to be on par.

"the right guys to handle it. CDPR & The Witcher was the perfect fit." Is it not true for this game? I don't know, but it seems to me a dev and publisher fitting shouldn't impact fan interest in a game.

"And don't forget that CDP is also a big publisher in Eastern Europe. They know everyone, everyone knows them and have a lot of money behind them. The Witcher's budget was easily 3 times as big as Drakensang's, and that's aiming low." Casual fans would have no idea about budgets. They see a screenshot and say, "AWESOME!!!!" or "Icky-Puke!!!!" and move on. Both games have fancy-smancy graphics so, budget shouldn't factor in.

I'm talking about why the lack of interest from the people supposedly in the know, the people from this site, who love NWN and BG, do not seem to be interested in this game. Why is that? I can't figure it out. Would they be interested if the game was marketed better? Why? The would go from knowing about the game to knowing about the game, how does marketing create interest in a game from people who know about the game all ready?

That would be saying people are stupid enough to just pay attention to hype? No hype=no game worthy of interest? Regardless if its the same type of game, with the same level of fancy graphics, that they like?

A couple more questions, if you would be kind enough to answer:

Let’s say, or assume, marketing is not a factor for the following

Should this game appeal to BG and NWN fans?

If yes, it should appeal to them, do you think it does or doesn't?


If no, it doesn't, why is that?

Originally Posted by Unrestigered
Gorath,

I can't disagree with anything you said, but lets get some clarification on what you didn't say:

"The Witcher -> "

"Great name." Either you mean "The Witcher" itself is a great name, or the books behind the game is a great name/content/source for a game. In which case The Dark Eye isn't a great name/content/source for a game, or drakensang itself is not a good name itself.

"great marketing from the very beginning." So, drakensang never had good marketing at all anywhere, or The Witcher just did it all right? And was the marketing easier because of all the interest, or was the it easier to garner the interest due to the fabulous marketing?

"interesting license." Unlike drakensang?

Why is it one or the other?

You do know you can make two DIFFERENT games nowadays. It doesn't just have to be one or the other!!!

And in his posts he in no way stated (or "didn't say" as you so eloquently put it) that this was a direct comaprison between the two games.

You should go into politics, they're great at putting words into peoples mouthes.

i'm guessing the unregistered is a hardcore d&d and fan rather than just an rpg fan. not descending into an 'rpg' discussion, but the witcher was far less 'hooray for boobies' than the drakensang demo was for me. (the 2nd character i met…sure didn't look like a queen but more like a preview of dark messiah 2) the ultimas were not d&d based at least after iv, but instead brought morality and consequences to the table which to me is a crucial part of an 'rpg'. i'll probably by and play drakensang but the story didn't grab me, and some like myself would argue that writing should play a bigger role in the budget than graphics and drakensang doesn't seem to acknowledge a mantra like that. i hope i'm wrong but both developer speak and my eyes seem to tell a different story.

d&d fans will at least always have there pen & paper. but for rpg fans who like rpgs like gothic and the witcher the only substitue that might exist involves becoming trained in swordfighting and moving to the black forest.

the sun may be setting for those who die hard
but for those who grind on action, passion, and grit
their world is about to be --RISEN