South Park RPG

[Wrath of Dagon]

Don't give them any ideas

[Bos_hybrid]

Think about it: To stay true to the WH lore, there'd be no love, emotions, and....romances in it! The horror!

 

Even if that was the case(which it's not), how is that bad?

 

Or is my sarcasm detector off?

 

mediocre RTS games.

 

Mediocre? I found them to be great fun, especially 2 and Chaos Rising. The only thing they lacked was a complete turn to Chaos.

 

/OT

 

Most of the news coming from this sounds interesting to me, I've gone from being skeptical to being interested.

[Slowtrain]

Hey Obsidian, you know who else does unsavory things for money?

 

Yeah. That's you.

 

Geez, with melodrama like that, would you prefer they handle the Real Housewives of Orange County for their next game?

 

 

I fully understand that in this day and age, a mid-level developer takes whatever work they can. Money is money.

 

But really, is this any different from a Jersey Shore rpg or A Ghost Adventures rpg pr Big Bass Adventure WHite Water Fishing or whatever?

 

Sure, if someone likes South Park or Jersey Shore or Ghost Adventures or Big Bass fishing then they're probably all fired up a potential game. But, for me, speaking personally, it's a disappointing direction for Obsidian and hopefully not an indicator of the direction of other future projects.

[Malcador]

Nah, not as bad as that. Jersey Shore's people are shallower than Stan or Cartman, heh. It can be a nice entertaining game full of wit and humour. It's another Obsidian game I'm not going to buy, but it's nothing to be disappointed about.

[Calax]

Jeeze... people don't even know how it's going to be and automatically are crying "Sellouts! Heathens! You're Cheapening yourselves for money!"

 

give it a chance... good lord... there have been worse properties made into video games.

[Hurlshort]

Hey Obsidian, you know who else does unsavory things for money?

 

Yeah. That's you.

 

Geez, with melodrama like that, would you prefer they handle the Real Housewives of Orange County for their next game?

 

 

I fully understand that in this day and age, a mid-level developer takes whatever work they can. Money is money.

 

But really, is this any different from a Jersey Shore rpg or A Ghost Adventures rpg pr Big Bass Adventure WHite Water Fishing or whatever?

 

Sure, if someone likes South Park or Jersey Shore or Ghost Adventures or Big Bass fishing then they're probably all fired up a potential game. But, for me, speaking personally, it's a disappointing direction for Obsidian and hopefully not an indicator of the direction of other future projects.

 

It really just depends what they do with it. The Jersey Shore one may bother me, but the other two don't, because I think Obsidian can make it their own.

 

I'm not sure if they can do that with South Park. I think it's way too early to tell. I haven't really watched the show in a long time. I may end up with zero interest in this title. But I'm not going to begrudge them for it unless they become a studio completely devoted to turning Comedy Central shows into games. It's one title, it's an interesting opportunity for Obsidian, and it keeps the company in business. I don't see the real negatives here.

[Hassat Hunter]

Well, some people here think Team America bombed... so it looks like some people live in their own little unrealistic world.

 

In that world, it would make sense SP is a "minor IP" and a sell-out to something as "extremely known to every human in the galaxy Forgotten... oh, Planescape"...

[Pidesco]

Everything Parker and Stone have done after South Park has been very successful. Both the South Park movie and Team America were critical and commercial successes. Book of Mormon is also the big thing on Broadway right now. It won a bucket load of Tonys.

 

 

Also, South Park has included well done satire on occasion, and isn't just about pushing back the boundaries of inappropriate content. I'm not a big fan of the show, but making a South Park RPG isn't some sort of terrible selling out of Obsidian's high brow role playing pedigree. Alpha Protocol was filled with lewd humour, for example.

 

Besides, CRPGs and their fans have always taken themselves way too seriously and are really asking for some proper satire of the genre. Personally, I hope Obsidian and the two guys include cosplayers, conventions, larpers, fanboys and overly intelectual RPGers as targets for their humour.

[Gorth]

cosplayers, conventions, larpers, fanboys and overly intelectual RPGers

Sounds a bit like Grotesque Tactics. Have you been adventuring with His Semi-Divine Self?

[WDeranged]

I can't quite understand why people are acting outraged, if you don't like South Park that's fair enough but what small/medium sized developer in their right mind would turn down a licence this big?

[pmp10]

I can't quite understand why people are acting outraged [...]

Because they see Obsidian as the best-last-hope for the old school RPGs.

Clearly a South Park game will target different audiences.

[Slowtrain]

I can't quite understand why people are acting outraged, if you don't like South Park that's fair enough but what small/medium sized developer in their right mind would turn down a licence this big?

 

 

None. The choice is completely understandable, especially given the current economic climate. I'm sure everyone who works for Obnsidian is thrilled. Everyone likes their paychecks at the end of the day.

 

And if I worked for Obsidian, I'd probably be thrilled as well, totally and utterly, even if I totally and utterly hated South Park as a TV show.

 

But I don't work for Obsidian, so, personally, I'm not thrilled.

 

Hopefully, word wil come down soon of another project that is a bit more interesting.

[Gorgon]

South Park is most fun when it delves into the political or exposes/ridicules something and combines it with the super ego of Randy Marsh or Cartman. A computer game can't be about current affairs, that leaves out a lot of the formula from the get-go.

[Pidesco]

cosplayers, conventions, larpers, fanboys and overly intelectual RPGers

Sounds a bit like Grotesque Tactics. Have you been adventuring with His Semi-Divine Self?

 

 

I haven't actually. I'll have to check that out.

[Hurlshort]

South Park is most fun when it delves into the political or exposes/ridicules something and combines it with the super ego of Randy Marsh or Cartman. A computer game can't be about current affairs, that leaves out a lot of the formula from the get-go.

 

I'm not sure about that completely, I mean they managed it with the movie, and that probably has a similar development cycle to a video game. It just might not age well as a game, meaning if you don't play it when it comes out it might not be all that relevant.

[Flouride]

Because they see Obsidian as the best-last-hope for the old school RPGs.

Clearly a South Park game will target different audiences.

 

Or it could be the best RPG in a long time. Just because it's not fantasy nor scifi don't make it automatically a bad RPG. We will have to wait and see.

 

(The following is just in general not as a reply to you)

 

I for one find this project quite intresting, it differs from the normal fantasy & scifi rpgs by the setting alone, not to mention the humour that comes along with South Park. You don't have that much humour in rpgs. I don't think I've really laughed at all while playing most rpgs, only Alpha Protocol and Old World Blues had dialogue that actually made me laugh out loud multiple times.

 

Not to mention this just adds some diversity to Obsidian's catalogue. 2 x fantasy (+ expansions), 1 post-apo (+ expansions), 1 scifi, 1 "real world" spygame and now a "real world" game based on a animated show. You really don't see that from the "competition". Bethesda is busy dishing out Elder Scroll and Fallout games, BioWare (Edmonton) seems to be stuck (for the time being) with Mass Effect and Dragon Age games and the Polish have their Witcher series. And yes, those series are all well received and are selling well, but still I don't think we can expect anything new and/or different from those companies any time soon just sequels...

[Slowtrain]

Because they see Obsidian as the best-last-hope for the old school RPGs.

Clearly a South Park game will target different audiences.

 

Or it could be the best RPG in a long time. Just because it's not fantasy nor scifi don't make it automatically a bad RPG. We will have to wait and see.

 

(The following is just in general not as a reply to you)

 

I for one find this project quite intresting, it differs from the normal fantasy & scifi rpgs by the setting alone, not to mention the humour that comes along with South Park. You don't have that much humour in rpgs. I don't think I've really laughed at all while playing most rpgs, only Alpha Protocol and Old World Blues had dialogue that actually made me laugh out loud multiple times.

 

Not to mention this just adds some diversity to Obsidian's catalogue. 2 x fantasy (+ expansions), 1 post-apo (+ expansions), 1 scifi, 1 "real world" spygame and now a "real world" game based on a animated show. You really don't see that from the "competition". Bethesda is busy dishing out Elder Scroll and Fallout games, BioWare (Edmonton) seems to be stuck (for the time being) with Mass Effect and Dragon Age games and the Polish have their Witcher series. And yes, those series are all well received and are selling well, but still I don't think we can expect anything new and/or different from those companies any time soon just sequels...

 

 

Sure. If the game turns out to be something like American McGee's Alice where the source material is warped and altered in interesting ways, then yeah, it could be cool.

 

But the reality is that tv tie-in games are generally simplisitic cash-ins aimed to remove the money of fans of the tv show. You can go to almost any televison/cable web site and find games based on their series, games produced not to be good games, but simply to generate as much money as possible for as little investment as possible. Heck, you can order them off the back of cereal boxes in some cases.

 

ARe there exceptions? Sure. American McGee's ALice is a prime example, though of course not based on an actual tv show. But they are pretty rare. The people who make tv/cable shows don't want too much stuff in a game that is different from or at odds with or is more interesting than the show itself.

 

If Obs' South Park rpg is the next ALice, then yeah. I'd probably buy it. Not holding my breath though.

 

edit: I should also mention that I personally don't believe that Amerian Mcgee's Alice could even get made in todays current game development world. except possibly as an extremely low-budget effort bya fringe developer or as a completely self-funded vanity project. Which of course, is why the current game development paradigm is creating such a huge number of dull games. If SOuth Park by Obs can do something like ALice than I would highly support it. I'm not convinced that will be the case even remotely.

Edited December 5, 2011 by Slowtrain

[sorophx]

wasn't there a remake recently? I mean Alice. they still think there's a market for it, it seems

[Tale]

There was a sequel to Alice, recently. And a rerelease of the original with support for new resolutions.

[Slowtrain]

wasn't there a remake recently? I mean Alice. they still think there's a market for it, it seems

 

 

yup there was. I vaguely remember looking in on it at some point, but don't recall hearing much about it.

 

Couldn't tell you what my thoughts about it were at the time.

[Maria Caliban]

What about the older Alice game is so odd, unique, or special that it couldn't be made again?

 

It's an adventure game with puzzle elements based on a well-known but publicly available book series.

[Slowtrain]

What about the older Alice game is so odd, unique, or special that it couldn't be made again?

 

It's an adventure game with puzzle elements based on a well-known but publicly available book series.

 

 

I remember it as being a somewhat odd and somewhat disturbing take on the Alice tale (which was all ready somewhat disturbing to begin with) and I wonder if it would be considered a safe-enough investment nowadays.

 

I freely admit my memory may be severely lacking here as I played that game a long time ago. WHen was it released? 10 years ago maybe. ANd its not one of those games I've played repeatedly over the years, so maybe it's not as unsavory as I recall.

[Blodhemn]

South Park is most fun when it delves into the political or exposes/ridicules something and combines it with the super ego of Randy Marsh or Cartman. A computer game can't be about current affairs, that leaves out a lot of the formula from the get-go.

 

I'm not sure about that completely, I mean they managed it with the movie, and that probably has a similar development cycle to a video game. It just might not age well as a game, meaning if you don't play it when it comes out it might not be all that relevant.

 

It solely depends on what subject is touched on. Something like Team America can be relevant for years and years to come due to our stupid American foreign policy which has been going on for years.

[Gromnir]

as we noted in another thread, we could easily see south park as an adventure game, but not as an rpg. move forward to uncover the next one-liner or sight-gag? sure, we get that you can builds a (short) game 'round such stuff, but we is talking 'bout a crpg, no? is south park, so is probably not gonna be a combat game. if it IS a combat game, then we is not seeing the point. use the south park world to create a combat crpg?

 

...

 

sorry, but this whole project makes no sense to us save as a way for obsidian to make some money at the inevitable cost of reputation.

 

oh, and is not that Gromnir is a south park 'hater,' so disabuse selves o' that notion. we likes a good majority o' the south park material. after all, mr. garrison's "merry f&*#ing christmas" is one o' our favorite holiday songs.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Morgoth]

Feargus video interview about SP