Arcania: A Gothic Tale

[Morgoth]

There's a short preview. http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/gothic4/news.html?sid=6191191

 

"[...] The team invested months of research into the differences between European and American gaming preferences, so much so that there will be two different color palates for Arcania: North American (bright and beautiful) and European (muted and gritty)."

 

That's gotta be the most stupidest thing I've ever heard. Why would they waste art ressources to create two different styles instead on focusing on one (the gritty and muted please) instead? Or do they just mean the usage of different post-processing effects? Anyway, there's not much to get excited about. I'm more excited about what Piranha and Deep Silver are cooking up anyway.

[Moatilliatta]

I'll be very critical of this game unless they show me something which is actually worth playing for, and considering what I find in the article (Arcania: A gothic tale? Oh please.) this isn't gonna be something special.

[Morgoth]

Ditto. A huge world with random monsters to kill doesn't cut it for me anymore. That worked maybe 5 years ago, but I got tired of these loose open-world-tree-and-caves type of Action RPGs.

[Morgoth]

Another preview from IGN.

[J.E. Sawyer]

That's gotta be the most stupidest thing I've ever heard. Why would they waste art ressources to create two different styles instead on focusing on one (the gritty and muted please) instead?

Because different markets have vastly different expectations in terms of visual aesthetics. Localization doesn't just apply to the translation of text.

[Moatilliatta]

Is this more common that most of us think? I would tend to believe that focusing on making a good middle of the road version would work better and more efficiently than trying to service two kinds of people at the same time.

[newc0253]

That's gotta be the most stupidest thing I've ever heard. Why would they waste art ressources to create two different styles instead on focusing on one (the gritty and muted please) instead?

Because different markets have vastly different expectations in terms of visual aesthetics. Localization doesn't just apply to the translation of text.

 

isn't it a little late for april fools?.

 

i'm in the UK but don't recall anyone asking me whether i liked my video games bright & shiny or dark & gritty. nor would i want the look of my game to be determined by the tastes of the french or the italians.

 

i agree with Morgoth, this sounds retarded.

[Moatilliatta]

He is right that the markets are vastly different, just look at how different consoles sell in America, europe and japan. Similarly different things sell in America and Europe when it come to games. Also you need to get used to Europe being one province when it comes to marketing.

[J.E. Sawyer]

i'm in the UK but don't recall anyone asking me whether i liked my video games bright & shiny or dark & gritty. nor would i want the look of my game to be determined by the tastes of the french or the italians.

I wouldn't be surprised if the U.K. Arcania used the U.S. color palette.

 

The localization of the Witcher to North America involved a great number of content changes. The localization of many games for the German market can involve radical changes due to the severely restrictive policies of the USK. Though many Japanese games are never "content-localized" for North America, NA games are often content-localized for Japan (adding fingers and whatnot).

 

I think you guys are overreacting to changes that you haven't even seen, and complaining about a waste of resources that you have no way to quantify.

[Moatilliatta]

Isn't the entire idea behind previews that we're supposed to react to them so that we remember the game when it comes closer to being finished? When I say that I'm critical about a game it usually just means that the preview was succesfull in getting me to be interested in what they're doing to the game, and as such they have me put down as someone who will follow the game and look at what happens with it.

 

I'll be following the game all the while swearing at the developers for not making the game be what I want it to be, it's what I do.

[J.E. Sawyer]

You haven't seen side-by-side differences in color palettes, you don't know if individual SKUs will able to optionally switch between them, and you don't know how much effort the developers have put into making this change.

[aries101]

I think this means that the US version gets a tad more bloom than the European version. I don't like the bright and shiny color palette used in Oblivion. It hurts my eyes. They obviously have overdone the bloom effects way too much in Oblivion. Yet, it seems that the Northamerican market much prefer visuals to be light and bright whereas the European market much prefer a darker tone visually - or a more toned down version. I think this is done to increase sales in the US; i also think that this won't happen, since the fans in the US of the Gothic series probably buys it because it does not have the same bright colors as everything else - in the US.

[Morgoth]

i'm in the UK but don't recall anyone asking me whether i liked my video games bright & shiny or dark & gritty. nor would i want the look of my game to be determined by the tastes of the french or the italians.

I wouldn't be surprised if the U.K. Arcania used the U.S. color palette.

 

The localization of the Witcher to North America involved a great number of content changes. The localization of many games for the German market can involve radical changes due to the severely restrictive policies of the USK. Though many Japanese games are never "content-localized" for North America, NA games are often content-localized for Japan (adding fingers and whatnot).

 

I think you guys are overreacting to changes that you haven't even seen, and complaining about a waste of resources that you have no way to quantify.

But adhering to these policies (no hardcore gore for Germans, no nipples for Americans) is not the same as making such aesthetic changes. I think they're just gonna make changes in the HDR/post-processing effects, and not changes in the actual art data (like using different shapes for assets and symbols and what not).

Edited May 17, 2008 by Morgoth

[Tigranes]

Sawyer's right, there is a lot of localisation that goes on - e.g. some scanty Japanese model gets covered up for the North American version, the children of Fallout, the Witcher's content, etc, etc. I believe the funniest one was when a Kirby game was released and the only change the NA version did was to make him frown on the cover. Yeah, Kirby's like, all, radical and ****, yo!

 

I am sure this is just post-processing effects rather than model/texture/etc: probably in terms of HDR/Bloom (remember lots of people that actually liked, or didn't mind, the Great Oblivion Bloom That Melts All? This isn't quite as offensive to the US market as some of you take it as).

 

Sure, I'd probably work hard to get a hold of the European version as well (I wonder where NZ falls into), but it's nothing very bad yet.

[mkreku]

I'm not worried about the colour palette at all. I'm mostly worried about what they'll do to the license. I would love to see a continuation of the Gothic universe, but I'm not sure if the direction they're taking the franchise in will be what I am looking for in a Gothic game. It's kind of worrying that they mention that their main objective is to penetrate the American market. This will sound horrible and condescending as hell, but to me that usually means dumbing down the game, adding more violence and removing EVERYTHING that can be even remotely offensive. Operation main stream commenced!

 

We'll see though. I'm actually happy that a new team is doing the next Gothic game! This means that instead of having one small niche team making a new Gothic every 3-4 years, now we have two teams working on similar types of games, the type I enjoy the most of all. If Spellbound can produce a top quality product, we're in luck. If they don't, we still have Piranha Bytes upcoming project on the horizon. Win-win.

[Slowtrain]

This will sound horrible and condescending as hell, but to me that usually means dumbing down the game,

 

 

It doesn't so horrible or condescending to me. Most of the new games I've enjoyed over the last couple years have been developed by eastern european developers. It's sad to me, but most of the qualities I enjoy in computer games are generally lacking in US developed titles, I guess. My favorite developers right now are not US based. Except for Bethesda and Todd Howard (LOLOLOL) I find it distressing that EUropean develoeprs want to make their games more American. Gah. Its hideous, actually.

[Morgoth]

I don't think more "American" is the goal, but generelly making it more digestible for the international market. I kinda like that they want to make travelling and quest-destination finding easier, that saves time and you get straight to the point of actually playing, not fighting the game. That's something American devs seem to undestand better, making controls and some gameplay mechanisms more refined and intuitive.

[newc0253]

I look forward to games localized to south east london:

 

dark, violent and everyone has bad teeth.

 

not lewisham or bermondsey, mind. the game players there are a bunch of wankers.

Edited May 18, 2008 by newc0253

[mkreku]

I don't think more "American" is the goal, but generelly making it more digestible for the international market. I kinda like that they want to make travelling and quest-destination finding easier, that saves time and you get straight to the point of actually playing, not fighting the game. That's something American devs seem to undestand better, making controls and some gameplay mechanisms more refined and intuitive.

I take it you liked the quest pointers in Oblivion then. I didn't. I don't want to be hand-held by the game I am playing. Yes, some quests are very difficult.. to the point that it is actually possible to FAIL THEM, something that American game designers seem to have forgotten as an option.

 

For example the quest in Gothic 3 when you're supposed to find people for the Okara rebel camp. It gave you NO CLUES as to where to start looking, how many people would be needed or anything. You just had to walk out into the gigantic land and try talking to people! It's also one of the best quests I've ever seen in a RPG ever. Mainly because it's so overwhelmingly difficult that you give up before you've even started.. but as time goes by and you explore more and more of the land, you'll run into stranded fire mages, bored hunters, greedy paladins and you'll convince them to join the rebels. When you finally finish the quest (if you ever do), it's a fantastic feeling of accomplishment, something that the typical unfailable Fed-ex quests never provide.

 

Making the game dumb and easy is to make a game I won't remember five minutes after playing it.

[Musopticon?]

I'm with mkreku, I don't mind being lost in some dark bush, if it's my own fault for not taking a map with me or paying attention to landmarks. Similarly, it's great when a game challenges you by, my god, letting you fail every once in a while.

 

Then again, every Gothic fan, including me and my Swedish friend here, has learned to pay no mind to constant deaths by wildlife, the character getting robbed and mugged every other hour, and usually both starting and ending a dirty mine pool with nothing on you except a sharp stick and breeches, so we tend to be more accustomed to challenge the than the general gaming Joe.

 

As for Arcania, I'm really not interested in the slightest. The PB project that almost promishes to provide Gothic 1 scale in Maori-inspired setting has my interest piqued enough at the moment to not really care what some team nobody knows is doing with a finished story(as far I'm concerned).

Edited May 18, 2008 by Musopticon?

[Slowtrain]

to the point that it is actually possible to FAIL THEM, something that American game designers seem to have forgotten as an option.

 

 

lol. That is so true. I didn't even think anybody else noticed that. I guess recently, it was mostly while playing Oblivion, that I realized I wasn't worried about failing quests because the game system made it impossible to do so. I remember thinking how odd that was cause there once was a time when it was possible to actually fail at a quest when playing a computer game, a time when I would actually think about what I was doing so I didn't screw it up. Now it doesn't really seem to be an issue.

 

I've become a lazy gamer.

[~Di]

I like my games bright and beautiful. Depressing game worlds are... well... depressing. Besides I hate having to up my gamma just to see more than three feet in front of my character. Icky.

Edited May 19, 2008 by ~Di

[Morgoth]

I don't think more "American" is the goal, but generelly making it more digestible for the international market. I kinda like that they want to make travelling and quest-destination finding easier, that saves time and you get straight to the point of actually playing, not fighting the game. That's something American devs seem to undestand better, making controls and some gameplay mechanisms more refined and intuitive.

I take it you liked the quest pointers in Oblivion then. I didn't. I don't want to be hand-held by the game I am playing. Yes, some quests are very difficult.. to the point that it is actually possible to FAIL THEM, something that American game designers seem to have forgotten as an option.

 

For example the quest in Gothic 3 when you're supposed to find people for the Okara rebel camp. It gave you NO CLUES as to where to start looking, how many people would be needed or anything. You just had to walk out into the gigantic land and try talking to people! It's also one of the best quests I've ever seen in a RPG ever. Mainly because it's so overwhelmingly difficult that you give up before you've even started.. but as time goes by and you explore more and more of the land, you'll run into stranded fire mages, bored hunters, greedy paladins and you'll convince them to join the rebels. When you finally finish the quest (if you ever do), it's a fantastic feeling of accomplishment, something that the typical unfailable Fed-ex quests never provide.

 

Making the game dumb and easy is to make a game I won't remember five minutes after playing it.

Never played Oblivion; I don't waste time with sucky games.

And no, I don't need this quest pointer or other hand-me-down bullshat either, but I want that the game rewards me for discovering new NPCs, Quests etc. not by accident. Gothic1/2 did that very well. There was plenty to discover, the world big, yet it had direction and I never had to waste time finding something. In Gothic 3 however, you just run around and run around then plop someone literally on the head. Whoops, didn't want that, but there I'm, now fighting a dozen rogues and dying in a single second.

[mkreku]

Rise from the dead, ugly thread!!

 

Anyhow, I have no idea why noone's been posting in this thread since 2008 (over two years ago!) because I am sure I've talked about the game on more than one occasion since.

 

A few new screenies!

 

http://arcania-game.ru/modules.php?name=Ne...iew&sid=287

 

This one (if hot-linking works):

 

 

There's a lot of controversy over on the official forums about the look of the new nameless hero. Some say he's too emo, other think he's too much like an American Action Hero ©. Myself, I can't make up my mind. I think he looks OK, I guess, but for some reason I also immediately resent the character slightly. It's such an unsympathetic character, but I don't know what's wrong.

 

All in all, I'd say the character models look excellent. Much better than in any of the former Gothic games, in fact. Check out the picture of the tattooed guy sitting in a beam of light (from the link above). Looks fantastic!

[WorstUsernameEver]

Looks mighty fine. A bit of a pity that according to GameStar's preview the world feels a bit lifeless compared with the previous Gothics though =|