Could the delay be content related?

[lasthearth]

Given how far this game is along, and all the talks about how close it's to release, how all the advertising was running in the magazines, the 8 month delay makes no sense.

 

What if the delay is content related? That Sega is finding part of the plot too "real world", and potentially too controversial politically. Remember 6 days in Fallujah getting canceled? What if Sega is asking Obsidian to basically completely rework part of the plot to avoid the potential controversy, and the silence is because they don't even want to hint at what the original controversial content is. So we're dealing with a re-write of the major parts of the game?

Edited September 29, 2009 by lasthearth

[Pop]

If that was the case then it would have been pushed back or cancelled months ago. No, this has to have been something unexpected, or something that they've been hiding for a good long while.

[Bouncer]

Extremely unlikely. It would pretty much mean that Sega hadn't actually played through the game in its entirety until recently. Developers are pretty much required to disclose all content, easter eggs included.

[lasthearth]

Yes, but sometimes it doesn't occur to a company that certain content is controversial until somebody brings it up.

 

 

Remember Resident Evil and the whole racism charge. And 6 days in Fallujah's content was well known for sometime before cancellation.

 

Maybe the issue was only brought up recently and somebody at Sega went, "oh crap it never occurred to us, we gotta take that out."

[Wrath of Dagon]

No chance, nothing here is based on real events, so the comparison doesn't apply. Also, if "6 days in Fallujah" didn't have "Fallujah" in the title, no one would've noticed.

[lasthearth]

You don't think it's possible that part of the plot of the game involve Islamic terrorists? Or attempts by US insiders to fake an attack on the US and blame it on Islamic terrorist, or possible capture and abduction of terrorists that are kept in super secret detention centers subjected to torture for information extraction?

 

I'm not saying any of this is in the game, but I can envision any and all of them being in there and I can envision some group out there having a fit over them.

Edited September 29, 2009 by lasthearth

[alanschu]

I'd be more inclined tot hink it's content related from the aspect of "It's not RPG enough" than something like this.

 

You never know though.

[Slowtrain]

I'd be more inclined tot hink it's content related from the aspect of "It's not RPG enough" than something like this.

 

What does not rpg enough mean? Not enough like Oblivion?

[Oner]

No Primary Attributes.

[Bouncer]

I'd be more inclined tot hink it's content related from the aspect of "It's not RPG enough" than something like this.

 

You never know though.

 

I don't think the "not RPG enough" is anything to worry about - everything's that been said and shown indicates that the opposite is true. The Sega person who said that sounded like he (she?) only played the first level, which is generally a linear tutorial level in most games. It'd be like playing Eden Prime in Mass Effect and judging the rest of the game on that level alone.

 

Also, publishers do have a LOT of useless people in their employ who don't know much about video games. Sadly, some of these people also have some power to influence decisions. And then they wonder why they flail financially.

[alanschu]

I'd be more inclined tot hink it's content related from the aspect of "It's not RPG enough" than something like this.

 

What does not rpg enough mean? Not enough like Oblivion?

 

 

Who knows. It could mean not MOTB enough

 

But based on what I have seen from the game, I wouldn't be surprised if the perception is that the game is more of an action game that has some variability due to dialogue.

 

 

I don't think the "not RPG enough" is anything to worry about - everything's that been said and shown indicates that the opposite is true. The Sega person who said that sounded like he (she?) only played the first level, which is generally a linear tutorial level in most games. It'd be like playing Eden Prime in Mass Effect and judging the rest of the game on that level alone.

 

To be clear, I'm not worried about the "not RPG enough" comment, because I don't know exactly what that means.

Edited September 29, 2009 by alanschu

[Slowtrain]

It's kind of funny when some person who probably has extremely limited exposure to rpgs, can authoratatively declare a game as not rpg enough, yet a message board full of hardcore gamers would never be able to agree on what an rpg is to begin with.

 

I'm just glad to know that those in charge are so darn smart. It helps me sleep better at night.

[alanschu]

It's kind of funny when some person who probably has extremely limited exposure to rpgs, can authoratatively declare a game as not rpg enough, yet a message board full of hardcore gamers would never be able to agree on what an rpg is to begin with.

 

It seems to me it'd be exactly the same as if someone that DID NOT agree with Obsidian's interpretation of "what is an RPG" would be disagreeing with them.

 

There's no "yet" at all. On this very board you'll get the "hardcore" authoratatively telling me that a game I consider to be a fine example of an RPG to be "not RPG enough."

 

 

There definitely seems to be something, as Alpha Protocol is "top priority" according to that leaked release.

Edited September 29, 2009 by alanschu

[Slowtrain]

Not enough an rpg like:

 

a)Fallout

b)Fallout 3

c)Final Fantasy

d)Baldur's Gate

e)Divine Divnity

f)Deus Ex

g)Mass Effect

h)Diablo

 

etc and so forth.

 

So which one? Cause they are all pretty different.

 

My guess is that the comment should be read: Not enough like Mass Effect

[alanschu]

I agree that we don't know what the comment refers to.

 

However, simply having the guy saying "Not RPG enough" doesn't mean that he has no experience with RPGs, as the "hardcore" RPG people say the same thing depending on the game.

 

Given Mass Effect was stated as a comparison, that makes the most sense. Either that, or the commenter thinks Mass Effect is a horrible "RPG" and the comment was derogatory towards the amount of RPG in Alpha Protocol.

[Bouncer]

Given Mass Effect was stated as a comparison, that makes the most sense. Either that, or the commenter thinks Mass Effect is a horrible "RPG" and the comment was derogatory towards the amount of RPG in Alpha Protocol.

 

Ugh. I hadn't thought of that. Maybe they were expecting a sandbox experience like Fallout - explore, kill random thugs, find better loot, etc.

[Cl_Flushentityhero]

My suspicion is that the plot is presented too tongue-in-cheek to trigger a knee-jerk reaction. That said, I thought the same thing about Army of Two and a lot of reviewers suddenly got all patriotic.

[Zoma]

There's no xp and gold grinding in game, so its not RPG!

[Slowtrain]

I agree that we don't know what the comment refers to.

 

However, simply having the guy saying "Not RPG enough" doesn't mean that he has no experience with RPGs, as the "hardcore" RPG people say the same thing depending on the game.

 

Given Mass Effect was stated as a comparison, that makes the most sense. Either that, or the commenter thinks Mass Effect is a horrible "RPG" and the comment was derogatory towards the amount of RPG in Alpha Protocol.

 

 

Based on what we have seen it already appears to be as much an rpg as say Oblivion, in terms of dialogue and choices and what not.

 

No open world or flaming swords, true. So maybe that was the problem. Or maybe no spaceships and aliens? hmmm.

[alanschu]

We haven't really seen very much though.

 

Are the hubs just safe houses? How much does Mike actually move around and interact with the area he is in outside of the combat heavy mission zones?

[Slowtrain]

We haven't really seen very much though.

 

Are the hubs just safe houses? How much does Mike actually move around and interact with the area he is in outside of the combat heavy mission zones?

 

 

I was under the impression that the safe houses are similar to the saefhouses in Bloodlines. And that the actual mission maps were fairly open and non-linear in the same way Deus Ex was. But that the dialog options were better than either. But perhaps I was just making assumptions based on what I hoped to see rather than what I actually saw and heard.

 

Sometimes I get confused.

[Wrath of Dagon]

You don't think it's possible that part of the plot of the game involve Islamic terrorists? Or attempts by US insiders to fake an attack on the US and blame it on Islamic terrorist, or possible capture and abduction of terrorists that are kept in super secret detention centers subjected to torture for information extraction?

 

I'm not saying any of this is in the game, but I can envision any and all of them being in there and I can envision some group out there having a fit over them.

So? This is still a free country. And any publicity like that would've only helped the game. Anyway, I don't think the tone is serious enough for those kinds of things to even be controversial, this is more spy fantasy than a gritty look at the darker side of covert operations.

 

Edit:

 

I was under the impression that the safe houses are similar to the saefhouses in Bloodlines. And that the actual mission maps were fairly open and non-linear in the same way Deus Ex was. But that the dialog options were better than either. But perhaps I was just making assumptions based on what I hoped to see rather than what I actually saw and heard.

 

Sometimes I get confused.

I'm under the impression the actual mission maps are quite linear and don't allow exploration, which is what I assumed to have caused the "barely RPG" comment. Edited September 29, 2009 by Wrath of Dagon

[Oner]

So? This is still a free country. And any publicity like that would've only helped the game. Anyway, I don't think the tone is serious enough for those kinds of things to even be controversial, this is more spy fantasy than a gritty look at the darker side of covert operations.

Doesn't have to be. I saw a TV report about a "racist" kid stabbing a gypsy kid. Somehow they kinda "forgot" to mention that the attacker was a gypsy too. Oops.

[Silvernite]

I'd totally support a delay if they allowed for exploration within the hubs ala Bloodlines. Otherwise I can understand the "not RPG enough" comment.

[Zoraptor]

The Sega person who said that sounded like he (she?) only played the first level, which is generally a linear tutorial level in most games.

IIRC that was the SCEA person (ie Sony, not Sega). Sega should have a producer on AP, so ought to have a very good idea of what's in there.