DoD Source Notes (IMO)
Valve's paying very close attention to pre-sales figures on DoD. Given that this is their first HDR release, it's the first DoD release where most of Valve was involved in (outside of the usual suspects), that internal play tests were, according to one insider a "blast" and that they had to put up two 24 person servers to deal w/how much people wanted to play...All signs point to Valve wanting DoD to move out of the niche market into the larger scheme of things. DoD is now more a flagship offering than the ugly step-sister it seemed to be. They priced it nicely ($20) and given that a vast majority of the reviews on the old DoD 1.X product all said "great game play, sucky gfx" you have to expect they kept the core game play and we all know how nice the gfx has become.
That said, I think there's going to be *some* changes in game play. There have been Haiku and other hints coming from the core developers suggesting changes like being able to move between prone and crouching, that grenade priming is an alt-fire sequence, that some weapons have iron sights and others selectable firing rates. We even have one haiku announcing something cryptic about "prisoners".Given the response to internal testing there's something very positive happening inside Valve that either makes the game much more fun to play or that "corporate" Valve, outside the original developers, finally realized what a solid title they have. DoD 1.3, in terms of players, outdraws HL2DM (a Source project) and almost all other Valve and outside mods (w/notable exception of the CounterStrike series) combined. In the old days the devs couldn't get anyone to play test releases from internal staff and had to go outside for testers...Those days are gone.
I suspect we'll see more player models and maps "soon". Valve appears to have taken the CS:Source distribution model (a good plan now is better than a perfect plan later) and applied it to DoD. We already know that the preloaded cache contains four maps. It's also a given that a solid MP game cannot survive on four maps alone so I expect a few ports and a few new ones in the coming months.
Gabe Newell has recently stated his respect of the WoW profit model (Game price + monthly subscription). I think he looks at that model as his competition. Given that Steam offers a continual touch-point to his customer base and Valves recent admission that episodic content is how they are approaching some of their projects I beleive this is the way he's going w/whatever HL3 or TF2 was going to be. Imagine ten (10) post-HL2 episodes over the next few years at $12 a pop...That's a lot more money than one $50 release. There's the future...Episodic (TV-and old Saturday matinee like) content. This could eventually make it's way into DoD: "Buy the Canadian add-on pack and get Five Canadian soldier classes and three maps dealing w/Canadian battles!!!" One can also imagine a post HL2 Valve where they take the WoW concept and apply it to either their HL2 environment or the old TFC environment...building skill levels into a semi MMPFPS concept. I think the next few years at Valve are going to be much more interesting than the last few years.
Game companies survive on either a very wealthy benefactor or through normal business practices...as such I don't see anything wrong w/Valve trying to make as much cash as they can on DoD considering they've sunk hundreds of thousands of dollars of salaries on it over the last few years. Reading all those "I shouldn't have to pay for a mod" posts makes me puke. People like that have zero understanding about how games are created and produced and paid for. Being upset over $20? I suspect most of those who are complaining are younger players w/o credit cards and w/o a steady means of income. I would gladly pay a few dollars every few months to get new maps or new player models as long as there was real value in those purchases.
Interesting Read
Posted by
Anonymous |
2:48 PM
I really liked you're view on things yet I hope HL3 doesn't addopt such scheme... I admit I'm kind of an old fashion guy but I wouldn't like to see HL3 in episodes... It just isn't... Half-Life'ish enough...
Still Valve could make some side products dealling with episodic side stories to half-life, now that I would like to see!
Still I do hope DoD:S mantains the classic system. I wouldn't like to play for improvments... Why do you think I started playing Half-Life in the first place? Durability: you can't beat it!
Posted by
Dextro |
6:27 PM
well, if more online games for pc go the route of WoW, i for one will ditch pc gaming and go xbox online, only reason i haven't now is because of the crappy controllers but i've just found a usb dongle that lets you use mouse and keyboard. xbox 360 for the win :P
Seriously, I don't mind paying for extra content but i Will not pay a monthly fee to play a game that is going to have constant cheaters playing that takes upto 8 weeks for bans to take effect
Posted by
Anonymous |
7:23 AM
i agree with the last comment. buying a game, playing it till the hacks catch up, then taking a break till VAC catches up to THEM... that's much better than having to pay every month and never knowing if this month will be playable or not due to cheaters.
on the other hand, it might finally force valve to give the proper attention to anticheat development. and i'm not talking about more frequent database additions. i'm talking about finally removing the possiblity of cheating once and for all.
it IS possible with current technology. but it's going to be expensive...
Posted by
Anonymous |
7:46 AM
Interesting viewpoints, Fuzz. I agree with most of your observations but I am hesitant about the "pay to play" scheme. I guess it all depends on what is being offered. For example, DOD:S's initial release will only have four maps. Would Valve charge us to have more maps? I would hope not. But where would they draw the line? Are we just going to get 10 maps, and then after that have the option of buying "quarterly map-packs" (or somesuch)? We'll see. Some of this is a little uncharted, but we do have many other online games as precedents.
Posted by
Brian |
6:31 PM