Where is this game going?

[Jarskull]

This post may sound familiar to those who have read my first post.

I love this game for many reasons. I think it has serious potential. I was impressed...

I have doubts that it will be fully realized. I just don't see where this game is going. It was fun to play for a few weeks as a demo, but I am very worried that it is just something that the developer works on every once in a while to supplement his reagular income. I fear many empty promises. Call me a skeptic, but it strikes me as odd that the game can be modded twenty times faster then can be developed. Why only one developer? Maybe because the developer is not serious about this project or recruiting help. Where is our money going? Supposedly into development. Supposedly the developer quit their job to wok full time on this game. Why can't the main website even be updated listing the current version's release date? I could do it in 5 minutes. It gives the image of a passing hobby instead of a serious project headed for the stores. If it will never be everything that people say it should be on the boards; if it will never find a publisher, then where is it going? Nowhere. It needs to be finished and it needs to be marketed. I am not impressed.

Open to discussion.

 

[Merentha]

For one, the current spate of updates involved numerous resources purely devoted to the mod development, which required a lot of rewriting basic routines. Yeah, I admit that at times I am ever so slightly nervous, but then realize that even so, it is an excellent game already.

Marketing is pointless until it is finished.

Two developers. Two. Just making sure you understand the scope of the project they have in mind. Modding is far easier, because you are working within the framework that someone has already made. They have to code their own engine from scratch, so delays are to be expected.

And yes, I agree that the website could and should be updated. *shrug*

 

[fisheye]

I've already got my money's worth of enjoyment from this game in its current state. I got what I paid for.

Empty promises? Since when was anything promised?

 

[MadWallaby]

Yeah, I paid my $14USD for the current gameplay and am quite happy with what I've bought. I've had a metric buttload of fun with the game already. Even if the full game never comes to fruition, I'll be satisfied with the Fun Return on my initial investment.

But, that's not going to happen (ie - the game being stillborn). This game has far too much promise, and there are far too many fans out there in M&Bland singing its praises on the Innerned (TM) for development to dry up due to lack of funds/interest.

As long as the devs keep the license cost at a reasonable level while they're polishing their product, everything will be fine.

 

[LCJr]

Are you just trolling or what? Do you honestly believe modding an existing game is as difficult as coding one from scratch?

 

[Sir Prince]

Not another one of these threads.
Although it is the best written.

 

[Ubberdorc]

I have gotten my moneys worth already!

 

[-GandalfTheGrey]

Empty promises? Since when was anything promised?

The point exactly. We paid for a beta. I'm already pretty happy with it (for 12 €).

Anyway, I've been playing M&B since 0.632, and I also downloaded 0.621. It is clearly visible that this game is definitely going somewhere. Moreover, Armagan & Ipek have worked a lot on the module system, and have significantly increased the number of things that can be modded. This explains why the development has been slowed, and why M&B is incredibly easy to mod.

 

[Dracul]

..I paid $14USD just last week and play it about 2 hours/night. Great game with a lot of potential. Not knowing what to expect, I am glad I stuck it out. The training and tournaments were ok, but the frontier fighting is MUCH more fun.

The only thing is I can't ride anywhere without 30+ groups follwing me. I had 5 of them at one point. Thank God I can usually outrun the ones that are too much for me. 21st level with 6 sharpshooters and 20+ various militia/knights/horsemen and loving it!

 

[TheMany]

I paid peanuts for a great game at 0.632. Anything that has happened since then(Hundred Year War, and Last days plus updates to native) has been a bonus.

Plus, what developers ever know when they are going to release an update?

 

[eric virgo]

The way I see it:

I have spent ten times the cost of this game drinking beer during a single night.
The beer I bought with this amount of money, had me on my kness vomiting, to the point of fainting..

I don't ever remeber that night, I suffered through a tremendous hangover and I still don't regret it!!

Mount and Blade still offers me an insane amount of enjoyment with a minimum cost. There is no chance I will ever think bad of Armagan even if he stops developing the game now.
I got what I paid a hundredfold!

I am still playing this damn game! And enjoy it more that I did when I bought it.
So I get it all goes down to:

Let the MAN finish it whenever he wants. I really, really, really DON'T CARE! Even if it takes him years!

 

[Fantus]

I bought the game this weekend and I am enjoying it immensly.
It's great, I especially love charging through a horde of bandits killing them left and right with my bow.

I think Jarskull is right about the marketing, the game and it's development would benefit from a more proffesional web presence and from better marketing. I "found" the game through a fellow member of the Evilavatar forums and I was very glad that I did, but it should be more in the limelight then it is right now.

The debate is not whether the game is worth the 14 bucks, the debate is how much the game could benefit from better exposure.
If some kind of publisher would be interested in marketing the game and leaves the developer free with the direction of the game (some publishers allow this) it's potential could be doubled!!

In addition to that, because I love this game so much, I would like to donate some money to it's development. Is this possible? or should I just buy copies for everyone in the family?

 

[Nathan90]

You have to get one thing strait. Armagan and his wife(the people who are makeing the game) have a life to. They arn't robots they can't spend 24 hours a day 7 days a week makeing this game. They might have kids to look after. They eat,drink,sleep E.T.C. So please just be patient and wait for updates like everyone else. He didn't even have to make the game if he doesn't want to.

 

[Deus Ex]

If some kind of publisher would be interested in marketing the game and leaves the developer free with the direction of the game (some publishers allow this) it's potential could be doubled!!

It is highly unlikely that any publisher would take this on and leave Armagan and Ipek completely in charge still.

However, that said, once the game is a lot closer to release - then it would be a good time to spend some serious effort on promoting it - but through on-line mechanisms would be best - IMHO

We can create some banner ad code and other stuff and start spreading the word, but it does not make that much sense start a heavy effort to do this until it is a lot closer to final release.

Just my 2 denars

DE

 

[Fantus]

You have to get one thing strait. Armagan and his wife(the people who are makeing the game) have a life to. They arn't robots they can't spend 24 hours a day 7 days a week makeing this game. They might have kids to look after. They eat,drink,sleep E.T.C. So please just be patient and wait for updates like everyone else. He didn't even have to make the game if he doesn't want to.

That is very understandable but you are missing the point, I am not complaining about the game itself, it is great! But what if a publisher helps out, buys better rendering tools, helps with the creation of 3D models or something like that. Possibly hires a professional writer to provide background for the nations mentioned in the game? Both Armagan and his wife would be able to focus on the more important parts of the game (game play imho) and possibly their roles would change from lead programmer to team lead.

It is highly unlikely that any publisher would take this on and leave Armagan and Ipek completely in charge still.

However, that said, once the game is a lot closer to release - then it would be a good time to spend some serious effort on promoting it - but through on-line mechanisms would be best - IMHO

We can create some banner ad code and other stuff and start spreading the word, but it does not make that much sense start a heavy effort to do this until it is a lot closer to final release.

Lately with more and more Eastern European game developers making games that make it to the American market, the publisher gets rights for publishing the game in a certain area of the world and then the developers gets additional funding.
This does not automatically means that the developers lose their creative say so in their game.

I really don't understand the "Leave it alone, if they get a publisher the game might be ruined" attitude that all of you seem to have.
If, with help, the game would make it mainstream (Best buy or Wall mart shelves) would that not be great for Armagan and family?
That would also increase the chances of Mount & Blade 2 kicking total ass!

 

[Deus Ex]

Lately with more and more Eastern European game developers making games that make it to the American market, the publisher gets rights for publishing the game in a certain area of the world and then the developers gets additional funding.
This does not automatically means that the developers lose their creative say so in their game.

I really don't understand the "Leave it alone, if they get a publisher the game might be ruined" attitude that all of you seem to have.
If, with help, the game would make it mainstream (Best buy or Wall mart shelves) would that not be great for Armagan and family?
That would also increase the chances of Mount & Blade 2 kicking total ass!

Well, there is always the possibilty things are changing and what you mentioned might be possible..

But the reason many of us have that perspective is that FAR too often in the past, we have seen GREAT games ruined by the large gaming companies - for all the reasons that have been cited previously in this thread. But large gaming companies tend to ruin good games, mostly because they are ONLY worried about the bottom line (that is their job afterall, to make money for the shareholders).

Also, I am not clear on the difference between a publisher and a gaming company like EB or Squaresoft or... You may be right about a pure publisher - and that MIGHT be a viable option for Armagan...

So perhaps you are right - but I think a whole lot of us would really not want Armagan to take that 'chance' and end up having a sucky game.

I do not presume to speak for anyone else, I am merely ASSUMING that others here share this perspective. As always, I could be wrong.

DE

 

[Fantus]

Also, I am not clear on the difference between a publisher and a gaming company like EB or Squaresoft or... You may be right about a pure publisher - and that MIGHT be a viable option for Armagan...

I see it such that the husband & wife team behind the game is the gaming company and that getting a publisher could help create funds which equals to more resources in improving the game.
I think we could all agree that a major overhaul of the graphics would be cool.

Anyway, either way Is fine... I am immensely enjoying the game!!

 

[jrawlings]

I am also concerned about the future of the game. Bottom line, whatever Armagan and Ipek do IRL, they have committed themselves to this game by making an enterprise out of it. If it were purely for the joy of it, they'd put it out for free and we would have no right to whine or complain about lack of updates. But, they are selling the game and with the sale they are promising something in the future, read the website. So, in this scenario, we aren't helpless people without a crutch to stand on... No, we have our monetary investment we all made in this game to stand on. We invested in a game... invested... meaning we see potential in a game, so we fork over some dough in order to get a RETURN on that investment in the form of a completed, finished, polished game. Asking for timely updates isn't too much to ask, afterall, the website says that regular updates will occur every few weeks... Well, to me, few is a vague number that is more than two, since that is a couple, and certainly less than 8 because that would be a couple months not weeks. So here we are 7 weeks since the last update and not even a word that one is looming near. So the natives have a right to be restless, afterall, we have an investment to protect.

As for bringing in a publisher/developer to commercialize this project a bit more, I started a thread back in the suggestions forum on this topic:

http://forums.taleworlds.com/viewtopic.php?t=7320&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

All in all, I am happy with M&B. It is a good game that I've enjoyed playing. Truthfully, I've grown a bit bored with this game. The combat gameplay is great, but that alone does not a great game make. The only thing I hope for with regards to this game is that the next update will add significant play value so that it will hold me off until Oblivion finally ships. After all, that is why I purchased M&B in the first place.

 

[barbaros]

I think we could all agree that a major overhaul of the graphics would be cool.

Yes, graphics are a bit outdated but they are enough for me. Because better graphics will certainly lower FPS. And a lot of people want more people on battlefield (more than 100), how can this be possible with even better graphics?. We would all need monster PC's. Better graphics are lowest priority for me.

Asking for timely updates isn't too much to ask, afterall, the website says that regular updates will occur every few weeks...

Right. This sentence should be chganged to "every few months". This would be more realistic since it doesn't seem possible for Armagan to make updates for every few week. He would have done this if it were possible because I'm sure they are working full time on the game and doing their best.

 

[<deniz>]

... afterall, the website says that regular updates will occur every few weeks... Well, to me, few is a vague number that is more than two, since that is a couple, and certainly less than 8 because that would be a couple months not weeks. So here we are 7 weeks since the last update and not even a word that one is looming near. ...

I've been playing this game since 632 but -as far as I remember- they had never been idle for such a long time. And that's what it is all about: There is no evidence that they gave up developing the game. This, I believe, is just a temporary slow-down. From my point of view, a good update -whatever good means- is worth waiting for one or two months.

I really don't like the idea of having obligatory-regular updates if that obligation is to make the updates meaningless.

Plus, has anyone considered paying money when they announced two updates within a week? They did post two updates within just one week, but no one ever said that "Hey, this is more frequent than 'few weeks', so take those 5 bugs, you deserve this"! (Of course, I'm not claiming that we should pay more when they come up with frequent updates)

And that investment subject. I think, what I already have is a return of my investment; I have a playable game installed on my computer"S". That is, they have already given me more than I did. Moreover, I know that I will be playing the full version without an additional price.