A Very Special Geek Repore

XBOX:
Chrome Hounds servers are being turned off Jan. 6. Thought you should know.

MOVIES:
G.I. JOE has earned $190.5 million worldwide in 10 days. Thought you should know.

MMOs:
The mythical console MMO. That concept really pisses me off. What game makers don’t realize is that it’s not a myth, it’s a RACE and the first one to deliver a top quality console MMO wins ALL the money. Second, there were console MMOs as early as last generation (Phantasy Star Online, FFXI). And the real mentally deficient fallacy is the concept that if something comes out, and it doesn’t absolutely kill in the market, it’s not because there was anything lacking in the execution, it’s because the concept as a whole is a bust. The movie industry is also brain dead in this way.

Ok so here’s what happened. The “EVE Online” guys, they applied for this logo patent. And it looked damn similar to the EVE logo. So the online game community started speculating on an EVE sequel of some sort. No problem, same old same old, nothing to report on. Now, the company has just revealed that not only is it not a sequel, not only is it a “Strategy FPS”, not only is it a direct tie-in to the EVE Online game with real game world effects… it’s a console game. Well crap my pants and call me Stinky. This is being called everything from risky, to insane. I say, you know what, it makes perfect sense. It makes perfect sense that the makers of the game that defined how to be successful in the MMO market without copying WoW, or being WoW, are the ones who know that you don’t have to copy success to be a success. They realized that not only can we take a game market in a new direction, we can also simultaneously hit players with a new and never really successfully implemented genre, and it does not equal an automatic failure, so long as we execute the top quality experience we know we can deliver.

This is considered taking a huge, huge risk, potentially losing tens of millions for investors. The fallacy is, this is not the risk for game makers. The risk is, actually, copying and existing game with terrible execution and delivering a lack luster game. That’s the real risk. At least an innovation has the appeal of novelty. Well executed games that are just rehashes of existing games are always praised, as long as they are top quality. But the legendary games are the ones that combine quality with innovation.

Anyway, I’d keep an eye out for “DUST 514”. Or check back with me, you can probably tell that I will.