Survey for the future

[Dainalt]

No. Diablo III is so boring. Hell is it boring. It's so boring it even bores me to tell folks how boring it is.

So you're saying that Diablo II Is boring as Hell? Actually, I agree. I should probably go back and give it another shot with patches and all, but I was extremely unhappy with the path they took with Diablo III. To me, and I know other people felt the same, they made it too much of an MMORPG than the old school action RPG that I loved in Diablo and Diablo II.

[Boeroer]

Diablo II was awesome. Diablo III is the opposite - at least for me. Somewhere in between something went really wrong with Blizzard. I guess it was WoW.

[Fenixp]

So you're saying that Diablo II Is boring as Hell? Actually, I agree. I should probably go back and give it another shot with patches and all, but I was extremely unhappy with the path they took with Diablo III. To me, and I know other people felt the same, they made it too much of an MMORPG than the old school action RPG that I loved in Diablo and Diablo II.

Path of Exile, you're welcome.

 

Or kinda... boooring?

Know what? Yes, that's exactly what I meant.

[Boeroer]

I'd love to play Path of Exile - but it's Windows only.

[Chilloutman]

I loled at that PF art styles, they are both cartoony as hell. Otherwise nice survey

[Nonek]

Yes, i'd have liked an option that advocated using Poe's art style, it's superior to both of the Pathfinder ones.

[Boeroer]

I hate comicesque style in fantasy rpgs. Torchlight I and II were great - but the art style gave me shudders.

[SkySlam]

Indeed! A PF game would be welcomed by me - as any other isometric RPG developed by Obsidian really - but please keep the PoE art style, which trumps the two shown in the survey.

If there is one thing even the detractors of PoE couldn't complain about is the art direction, that is undoubtedly magnificent.

[InsaneCommander]

 

I just want a vampire dark ages setting. And something from Sanderson books.

I voted for the Stormlight Archives - although they are not finished yet. I seems to be the perfect lore and setup for an RPG. Lots of different orders with different powers, enchanted items, different "races" and so on, while the books are simply awesome.

 

So true! I'd love to see that happen one day.

[anameforobsidian]

Why does the survey ask about whether we watch TV? I'm willing to help Obsidian out, but come on, respect our time.

[Fenixp]

Why does the survey ask about whether we watch TV? I'm willing to help Obsidian out, but come on, respect our time.

To gauge your interest in gaming as opposed to other common hobbies. You can skip questions if you feel offended by having to spend 15 more seconds on a 20 minute long survey.

[Karkarov]

Diablo II was awesome. Diablo III is the opposite - at least for me. Somewhere in between something went really wrong with Blizzard. I guess it was WoW.

Nah just blizzard sucks.  They are creatively bankrupt and dead, all they do is steal other peoples ideas then push them into their own games.  WoW only holds on because mmo players like playing with other people and don't want to "risk it", which is hilarious because WoW has far more dead servers than busy ones.

 

Seriously, stop and look at blizzard as a company.  When was the last time they did something original?  How long had it been since they had done a new IP when they finally released overwatch?  How long did it take them to make Diablo 3?  Any other company would be getting shamed like hell, but they have brain dead fanboi in droves, so they get away with it.

[Nonek]

 Any other company would be getting shamed like hell, but they have brain dead fanboi in droves, so they get away with it.

 

This applies to almost every company doesn't it? Logical criticism and buyer awareness are frowned upon and scorned in general as "hating" and "entitlement" rather than signs of a canny self interested consumer.

 

Of course it doesn't help that the media is laughable and either in publishers pockets, too busy muckraking, or preaching about their cherry picked "problematic" content.

[Fenixp]

This applies to almost every company doesn't it?

There were people defending Arkham Knight after it released.

 

Just sayin'.

[Sedrefilos]

I don't believe there is a point in talking about originality, since we're asked which established ip we want to see in an upcoming iso-rpg. This is unoriginal by itself in any case. The point is if the given companies will make it any good of a game. Of all the choices I was given, I was mostly familiar with Bethesda, Blizzard and Bioware. Between these 3, I believe Blizzard will make it best gameplay/control-wise and will give it a nice linear epic story, but nothing special. Bioware will make it more interesting story-wise but less good gameplay-wise (although not bad) and Bethesda... I don't know - I think they'll screw it up. Maybe it'll have good locations graphics-wise?

[Fenixp]

I don't believe there is a point in talking about originality, since we're asked which established ip we want to see in an upcoming iso-rpg.

Established IP only implies setting and some mechanics tho, it hardly means you can't be innovative in your gameplay design.

[evilcat]

I think there is market, there is not enought in the niche for:

• Mystery or Horror crpg, maybe some form of detective stories in cthullu mythos, or vampire setting. Rather modern times, however steam punk could be fun to. Maybe more adventure gengre rather than party ombat oriented.
• SciFi isometric but with action gameplay, where we shot real time like in Magica or Torchlight. Having action gameplay does not block rpg layer in any form. I think that action style could work well with gunplay.

The problem with Vampires is that Bloodlines was so good, and not delivering mix of stealth, action, FPS could be a miss.

 

I like idea of Patchfinder. Not much epxperience with pnp version of it, but i looked fine. System where each class got something which is good start.

 

Not sure what is the difference in Patchfinder art style 1 and 2, both are same!

 

Having mixed feelings with Bioware. Dont liked ME3 (previous 2 was cool) and had problems with DA after 1st. SWTOR is ok but its combat mechanic is bad, combat is neither dynamic nor strategic, and it consumes a lot of time. Generally MMO has its limits, that everything must last forver, which dont fit quality game time.

Edited October 25, 2016 by evilcat

[Karkarov]

 

 Any other company would be getting shamed like hell, but they have brain dead fanboi in droves, so they get away with it.

 

This applies to almost every company doesn't it? Logical criticism and buyer awareness are frowned upon and scorned in general as "hating" and "entitlement" rather than signs of a canny self interested consumer.

It does, but not to the extent blizzard gets away with it.  Activision for example is creatively bankrupt too.... but it isn't doesn't take them 5+ years to release the new call of duty.

Edited October 25, 2016 by Karkarov

[Fenixp]

It does, but not to the extent blizzard gets away with it.  Activision for example is creatively bankrupt too.... but it isn't doesn't take them 5+ years to release the new call of duty.

Oh come on, fair's fair - Blizzard couldn't come up with an idea of their own if their lives depended on it, but they put far more effort into their games than yearly updates that Activision/Ubisoft keeps releasing.

[Nonek]

 

 

 Any other company would be getting shamed like hell, but they have brain dead fanboi in droves, so they get away with it.

 

This applies to almost every company doesn't it? Logical criticism and buyer awareness are frowned upon and scorned in general as "hating" and "entitlement" rather than signs of a canny self interested consumer.

It does, but not to the extent blizzard gets away with it.  Activision for example is creatively bankrupt too.... but it isn't doesn't take them 5+ years to release the new call of duty.

 

I agree they do seem to engender fanatical loyalty that bears no relation to the product they produce, but then again just look at Bethesda, a company that has been producing less and less for years, while gaining more and more acclaim and fevered adulation from their "fans." One just has to look at a city or dungeon in Daggerfall, and then compare and contrast to the dumbed down and streamlined Skyrim to see how much their larping aids have degenerated, but their obsessed fans will squeal and whine if you so much as mention their mediocrity and laziness.

[Fenixp]

One just has to look at a city or dungeon in Daggerfall, and then compare and contrast to the dumbed down and streamlined Skyrim to see how much their larping aids have degenerated, but their obsessed fans will squeal and whine if you so much as mention their mediocrity and laziness.

Comparison to Morrowind I'd understand in your crusade against everything you dislike, but Daggerfall, really? That game fed its procedural generator with like 10 buildings that it then kept recycling throughout entire game, not to mention dungeons that all felt the same after you finished each tileset at least once. I mean if navigating places that all essentially look and feel the same is your idea of perfection then absolutely, more power to you, but it's not particularly difficult to understand why would some people prefer hand-created content.

 

Similarly, it's really not difficult to understand why people like games made by Blizzard, that is if you spend more than 10 minutes trying at any rate. I quite dislike their games myself, but majority of competitive players will love them and of course they will - they spend ungodly amounts of resources on polishing and balancing their games to present players with an experience that makes them a pure challenge of skill in one area or another, which is precisely what a big subset of gamers is looking for.

 

Naturally, actually understanding why something is popular does take effort and some research, far easier to just call everybody disagreeing "obsessed fans" :-P

Edited October 26, 2016 by Fenixp

[Nonek]

See.

[Fenixp]

See.

Sigh What can you do, lack of basic courtesy and of patience to form non-fallacious arguments are the signs of younger generations I suppose.

Edited October 26, 2016 by Fenixp

[Nonek]

Ooh.

[algroth]

So... I just finished this survey. I have to say, I'm very wary of the information and ideas the company gets out of these results, I for one found many of the responses and questions a little too vague to really be in agreement or disagreement of. Meanwhile, the slides and questions regarding tone just made my heart sink. What if I don't want fantasy to be thought of in terms of "light" or "dark"? To my mind, one of the great successes about the likes of Planescape: Torment (to my mind the best game I've ever played) is that it didn't need to assume itself as being dark, it simply was thanks to the thematic content. It is a much more affecting and disturbing game than the likes of Dark Souls or Dragon Age: Origins, which on the other hand do try so hard to dress their rather standard fantasy tropes in a dark and cynical outfit, and pretend they're so much more serious for doing so. The matter of tone is complicated, because you can ONLY pick your tone in accordance to the content you have before you: if we don't know what this hypothetical upcoming RPG is about, how are we supposed to know which style works best for it? It is best to let the tone develop naturally from the content and the story opposed to reinforcing it just because it's what the playerbase wants to see.

 

In terms of worlds I'd like to see adapted to isometric RPGs, I'd much rather see original content the likes Pillars of Eternity and seemingly the upcoming Anarchy offer; however, I did suggest that looking into the Hollow Earth/Agartha myth may also make for a pretty interesting 'original'/adapted setting.

 

Looking forward to Tyranny anyhow.