Indie Developer Tells Epic To F**K Off

[Hystaspes]

"Chris Harris from UK indie developer Positech said that smaller developers have the advantage of building a personal relationship with the end user--thus landing an actual sale--by emailing them directly."

No thank you! I will report your e-mail address as spam to yahoo, google and live! If I want to buy a video game, I will just go to gamespot, read some reviews, watch the trailer and then go to a store and buy whatever I want. I dont like advertisements in my inbox.

 

[jamus34]

[citation][nom]walt526[/nom]What Epic fails to understand is that great graphics is a necessary, but not sufficient condition for having a great game. [/citation]

I completely disagree with this. You can have a great game with 5 yr old graphics...the "media types" would probably pan this but it would sell. Look at Plants vs Zombies...you probably could have made that game 5 or more years ago...but it's been selling like crazy.

I like eye candy as much as the next person but when it comes to throwing eye candy at the expense of story and gameplay then no thanks.

 

[irh_1974]

At a LAN given a choice between UT2004 and UT3 the majority go for UT2004.

Graphics are worse, but gameplay rocks.

What does that say?

 

[dextermat]

The other problem why we have games that suck so much is because PEOPLE ARE BUYING THEM...

Stop buying them and well get good games again hopefully.

 

[Icehearted]

Between this douche and Cliffy B it's easy to see why Epic's games tend to have a definite immaturity to them. Unless anyone here knows soldiers that say "Sweet!" every time they get ammo. Also, I've read/see Cliffy B in interviews and he's a genuine burglar of turds.

Douche bags of a feather.

 

[ragequit]

As bustapr stated, Valve is the only "Big Brother" role model there is for large corporations, most of them could give a s*** about their customers, only making money. Taking care of the customers is something that large corporations in general suck at.

 

[buzznut]

[citation][nom]chaoski[/nom]Arrogant stupid rich people is what's ruining this country AND the gaming industry.Agreed with atdhe, game quality (not graphics) has been on a decline.[/citation]

I see evidence of this every time I read video game reviews. I can't tell you how many times over the last couple of years I've read where a game has no story, forgettable characters, a stupid ending, but great action and beautiful graphics and it is given a 9/10.

This just encourages devs to crank out more garbage that is solely focused on graphics. We should really be more critical and demanding as consumers. This also explains why game developers should listen to individuals. We should all have a voice, if we're not satisfied with the direction gaming is heading we need to make our voices heard.

 

[axilon]

I actually have one of Chris Harris's games, Gratuitous Space Battles. I got 32 hours out of a game I've paid about 30 dollars into (I bought the 3 expansion packs). When you get down to it, his meager little game gave me a good bit of enjoyment when compared to modern PC games which last 8 hours or less.. I bought UT3, steam says 2 hours total playtime. Imagine that.

 

[i8cookiemonster]

@sincreator I agree with you 100%. Epic started off as a small studio making shareware games...I think GoW was the game changer for them though. I recall back in the day when they were working on Unreal and Unreal Tournament all those guys you mentioned also frequented their IRC channel (especially Rein). So, he definitely has experience talking 'one on one' with gamers. Apparently things have changed...although I do like most of the games they've made, it'd be nice for those guys to get back to their roots...

 

[K-zon]

Alot of great games many people play and make our from indies, and those indies will develope into big studios. I myself have been getting back into some indie new of game release. Some titles very interesting. Not saying the bigger companies arent any good, but they are focused with many titles with barely any original vision for the game. But yet we still buy the titles, why? cause we enjoyed the original releases, and now there is little to be said or done until they change what they bought around, in some cases make it better, or worse.
Some indies probably seak the settler of bigger companies too. It all abuot preferences and what the industry is doing with them towards the consumer. Most times the consumer is on the lesser with the bigger part of industry in full captivation of what they have bought or pulled their shares on. And some times not. As a consumer we need to find out what our interest is in and find ways to enjoy it so the indies dont feel out of place cause all we know are big names.
Even with the attempt to just put a big name on an indie development is a hassle for the fact of other indies wanting their names out. Everyone gamer has had a company buy in or buy out right one of thier favorite titles to some point. Why?, may never know. But as long as indie developers are out there and can make new titles there still going to be good games coming rather mainstream or not.

 

[mook33]

For those of you die-hard, old school PC gamers out there...I remember when Sierra was at the height of its power (which was on top of the PC gaming WORLD at that time, followed closely by LucasArts), I somehow came across & emailed Ken Williams, the co-founder and President of Sierra (or was it CEO)?
Anyway, that company was HUGE (note: they only declined in stature when he & his wife [other co-founder] sold off the company to Vivendi, who later shut that division [sierra] down).
Would you believe that I got a thoughtful email back in response from Ken, saying that they were all carefully listening to customer feedback on their games / possible games...and that he really appreciated me taking the time to write? He and his wife literally built that company from two people on up...and if they were still in command, I believe it would still be here with us...in FULL force.
Anyway, the reason I mention this is -- this guy from Epic definitely doesn't seem like a good guy in this regard. Rich, yes. But then again, a lot of A-holes are.

 

[rantoc]

It was when Epic stopped listen to their gaming croud their own products went to hell, such a coincident... maby they want the indies to do the same misstake!?

 

[deweycd]

Developers need to take a step back and take some key notes from Blizzard. They have delivered hit game after game. They know that the user wants a good experience and that most are willing to put up with delays and added cost as long as the game is worth it. when you add delays and cost but no extra value you get upset customers that stop buying your product. Look at Diablo 3 and StarCraft 2. People have been waiting years and will continue to knowing that they will be just as good as their predicessors.

 

[zaznet]

Epic built their business giving away free copies of their PC games and selling them one at a time direct to the consumer. They started there, made a LOT of money there and are now well beyond their starting point and lost sight of how to get off the ground again.

This happens to just about every successful business out there and is not limited to the video game market.

 

[eyemaster]

What's the name of the gaming studio?

 

[zaznet]

[citation][nom]eyemaster[/nom]What's the name of the gaming studio?[/citation]

Did you read the article? First paragraph, first sentence...

"Chris Harris from UK indie developer Positech"

 

[IM0001]

I have to agree totally with Chris and really how he sorta handeled the situation. It is good to see a Indy Dev with balls as well as good customer focused roots. Today we do not see that with many of the big guys and sadly companies like Activision are going off the deep end and loosing sight on what the Games actually mean to gamers. (All they see is $$$ signs nowadays). I have to say even EA though still big and making a lot of crap, isn't as evil directly as they once were. And companies like Bioware and especially Valve are still trying to put out quality games that are fun and innovative. I hope this starts a good push with the Indy devs and shakes up the market a bit to bring the Big guys in check for what really needs to be done in the market. Stop rehashing what has already been done, think up new ideas, bring back old ones that were great and underutalized (Descent, X-Wing Series, Mechwarrior) and make the games aw awesome as they once were. (for more than 6 hrs hopefully)

 

[rooket]

UT was good. I forgot what 2 was like and 3? I don't remember playing 3 so they must have done something inherently wrong with that game. Isn't it funny guys how a game that will run on a clunky old pentium 4 perfectly or even on a sega dreamcast is so damn fun whereas 3 needs a higher end PC possibly and isn't that good of a game? No I didn't play it as much on dreamcast as on PC but you get the point. It was a good port, nonetheless.