Corrain
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Posted - 2010.07.19 03:28:00 -
[1]
I'm possibly one of those who could be happy with Incarna. *IF* it was free to develop. Clearly this isn't the case. Players, subscribers, are already looking at five years of design and development time that will spent before we get to walk around in a 3d body, something that was old hat a long time ago.
Then there's the question of what Incarna is supposed to actually be, gaming-wise. My nightmare is what was shown in the Fanfest 2008 videos. I saw a guy walking around a bar, getting a dialog box from a bartender, standing in front of a dancer whose animation cycle broke, and then the client crashed. Then the client was restarted and the guy walked around tables, went up stairs, and played a table-top board game. This was a planned presentation in a controlled environment.
Of course we're going to hear "It'll be much, much better than that." OK, the question we're all asking ourselves is "How?" If you don't want to say, that will be understandable. Expectation management is important. But if you don't, we're all fearing 3d avatars that are meaningless beyond dressing them up and walking around for 15 minutes.
We also fear something broken/ buggy/ unfinished at launch, with the promise of "C'mon, we'll be fixing it and improving it constantly!" Because, you know, track record.
CCP had darn well better have a good answer for "OK, five years of design and development time got us... what?" And not just asked on release day, but two months after when shiny is all gone. Many Eve players pride themselves on cost/benefit analysis, risk vs. reward. We all have our laundry lists of what the resources could have been spent on, how will Incarna measure up?
In the meantime, holy cow, get a clue. Take a few of the little obvious fixes that need done and do a couple of them, tooting your horn while doing so. Reskin a ship or effect that needs it once a month. Cough up a UI improvment, or throw a couple of new missions into the mix. Present it saying "We listen to you guys and try to give you nice things that you want because we like you and care." Reap applause and breathing room, work on your bigger goals, while continuing to show that things that matter to the players, now, matter to you, now.
( ) <- planet (not to scale)
--EhonVonnre |