So I sat down and gave Dust another shot. In all fairness, it is a fun FPS game. There is still a lot of work to do but I can't get much more specific then that.
Everything in my previous post still holds true for me, though.Therefore I think Dust is being released at a severe disadvantage. However, because its free there will definitely be an influx of players. Will those players buy anything and pay CCP's bills? That's something I certainly can't answer...
MJ Out
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Dust 514: Implementation Is Everything
Below is a blog post I began writing well before Dust 514 was in Beta. Hence you'll notice that most of the critique does not center around game play, nor should it. I believe all of my arguments still hold true today -even more so after extensively playing the beta... I will have even more to say later once the NDA is lifted.
So first things first: I hate incessant whining and blogs where the author complains about everything endlessly. They aren't fun to read, especially when little or no constructive criticism is given. With that said... Its about time to explain why I am not excited about Dust 514 in the least.
At some point the decision was made to put Dust exclusively on consoles. It was then realized that the only console with a gaming network capable of supporting what CCP wanted to do was Sony. Hence we have Dust coming out on the PS3 only.
First lets look at the platform. The PS3 is near the end of its life cycle. Sony has publicly stated they do not intend to release another gaming console -whether this is true or not we don't know. Either way the PS3's days are numbered. How much longer will the console even be supported by Sony? One Year? Two years? Perhaps this doesn't matter to CCP, but it should. (I will explain why below.)
Our next consideration is the transitory nature of console gaming and gamers. We all know the pattern well. Play the hell out of a game for a week or two, then move on to the next "big thing". Perhaps the game will be picked up again some other time, but most likely it will just be put back down again. This marketing model benefits Sony. Does it benefit CCP or any company marketing a long term product? Obviously the answer to my rhetoric is no. Sony doesn't want us playing console games too long. They want us buying the next hot product. This is the strategy Sony uses to make money, and what the customer base expects, and to a large extent, wants.
As the customer base on the PS3 falls off, which it will, the players left will find less and less reasons to play. Anyone coming back to the game will find less opportunities to play. This is the the spiraling problem of online games developed exclusively for consoles. CCP has effectively attempted to merge a very short-term venture into a very long-term universe. What could have solved this? Releasing a PC version, for one.
For these reasons I think releasing Dust on console only, and exclusively for PS3 was a huge mistake. Once any initial excitement wares off CCP can expect zero support from Sony and a dying customer base.
CCP has spent a vast amount of resources completely rebuilding Eve Online from the ground up in a way that supports future development and all new environmental rendering, aka Walking In Stations.
This begs the question: Why would CCP then pay to use the Unreal 3 Engine (U3E), which is dated and has inferior graphics to reproduce a large portion of the work they have already done? For a game directly tied into Eve? Clearly they did not choose U3E for cross-platform compatibility. Was it for a faster development to market cycle? For ease of console programming? Whatever the reasons it is a clear duplication of work already done for the Carbon engine.
Of all the poor decisions made by CCP regarding Dust I find this one to be the most striking. They have locked themselves into an engine with severe long term limits. There is only so much retro- fitting one can do to the Unreal Engine graphically or algorithmically. I guarantee you CCP has already hit a number of these limits. Worse yet, how much the two games can be inter-connected is permanently limited by this decision. More on this one below...
"Eons ago" when CCP first gave clues they were working on an FPS game at Eve Fanfest I was really excited. An FPS game in the Eve universe? What could be better? As any dreamer would, I began to imagine... I could see myself docking in a station to take a shuttle to a planet. I could see wars spanning from battles in space, to fights in stations, to fights on the planet surface and beyond. I could see all this intertwined within a single system in which players could take on different roles with the same character, or at least within the same seamless universe.
Sadly, none of this possible, at least not between Dust and Eve. Platform and Engine incompatibility has created a hard wall which limits any possibilities of major expansion between the two games. Could Eve ultimately be updated in this way? Perhaps... But certainly not any time soon, especially with such a large portion of CCP's staff working on an entirely different product. I really think a massive error was made here and great opportunities lost. The vision of a true science fiction simulator was thrown by the wayside.
So lets recap:
- A game released on a single console with an extremely limited software life cycle.
- A user base that does not stay with any game for too long.
- A dated engine that limits expansion.
- No possible cross platform compatibility.
- The repeating of work done to produce 3D environments for Carbon and the Unreal Engine.
- Future merging of these two worlds is largely impossible.
I really can't see Dust doing well at all. Note you, I haven't even begun to talk about the game itself. These are all simply business decisions.
For these reasons, when CCP Helmar issued a public apology I fully expected it to end with him stepping down as CEO. Why? Because his business decisions as the leader of the company had been so poor. Those of you not living in the states may wonder why our companies tear through CEOs so quickly sometimes. The reason is simple. When leaders exhibit a certain level of incompetence it compromises the trust others can give them. This includes subordinates within the company, but more importantly investors and customers. Do I question Helmar's ability to lead CCP into any kind of future considering the disastrous decisions he has made regarding Dust? You bet, but then again, I want to be proven wrong (more on this below).
I am not one who enjoys condemning others to failure or simply being right. I hate the "told you so" mentality and general negativity. I want Dust to succeed and CCP to prove me wrong. I own a PS3 and intend to give dust another go on its official release. However, for all the reasons given above I cannot see Dust being successful long term.
Maybe CCP doesn't care as long as they can make enough money in the first 3 months -who knows? But to be honest, I am nervous. I think CCP is a good company full of smart people who love what they do. I also think Dust failing miserably could end CCP games, or at least geld it so badly recovery isn't possible. Only time will tell, but this one where I really want to have gotten it completely wrong.
So what do you think? Got a strong argument why I am wrong? Do you love Dust 514 as it is now?
So first things first: I hate incessant whining and blogs where the author complains about everything endlessly. They aren't fun to read, especially when little or no constructive criticism is given. With that said... Its about time to explain why I am not excited about Dust 514 in the least.
Unsustainable Platform and Fickle Customer Base
At some point the decision was made to put Dust exclusively on consoles. It was then realized that the only console with a gaming network capable of supporting what CCP wanted to do was Sony. Hence we have Dust coming out on the PS3 only.
First lets look at the platform. The PS3 is near the end of its life cycle. Sony has publicly stated they do not intend to release another gaming console -whether this is true or not we don't know. Either way the PS3's days are numbered. How much longer will the console even be supported by Sony? One Year? Two years? Perhaps this doesn't matter to CCP, but it should. (I will explain why below.)
Our next consideration is the transitory nature of console gaming and gamers. We all know the pattern well. Play the hell out of a game for a week or two, then move on to the next "big thing". Perhaps the game will be picked up again some other time, but most likely it will just be put back down again. This marketing model benefits Sony. Does it benefit CCP or any company marketing a long term product? Obviously the answer to my rhetoric is no. Sony doesn't want us playing console games too long. They want us buying the next hot product. This is the strategy Sony uses to make money, and what the customer base expects, and to a large extent, wants.
As the customer base on the PS3 falls off, which it will, the players left will find less and less reasons to play. Anyone coming back to the game will find less opportunities to play. This is the the spiraling problem of online games developed exclusively for consoles. CCP has effectively attempted to merge a very short-term venture into a very long-term universe. What could have solved this? Releasing a PC version, for one.
For these reasons I think releasing Dust on console only, and exclusively for PS3 was a huge mistake. Once any initial excitement wares off CCP can expect zero support from Sony and a dying customer base.
Duplicated Development Paths and Limited Tools
CCP has spent a vast amount of resources completely rebuilding Eve Online from the ground up in a way that supports future development and all new environmental rendering, aka Walking In Stations.
 |
| Do you think this rendering engine could support an FPS game? |
This begs the question: Why would CCP then pay to use the Unreal 3 Engine (U3E), which is dated and has inferior graphics to reproduce a large portion of the work they have already done? For a game directly tied into Eve? Clearly they did not choose U3E for cross-platform compatibility. Was it for a faster development to market cycle? For ease of console programming? Whatever the reasons it is a clear duplication of work already done for the Carbon engine.
Of all the poor decisions made by CCP regarding Dust I find this one to be the most striking. They have locked themselves into an engine with severe long term limits. There is only so much retro- fitting one can do to the Unreal Engine graphically or algorithmically. I guarantee you CCP has already hit a number of these limits. Worse yet, how much the two games can be inter-connected is permanently limited by this decision. More on this one below...
A Future Vision Lost
"Eons ago" when CCP first gave clues they were working on an FPS game at Eve Fanfest I was really excited. An FPS game in the Eve universe? What could be better? As any dreamer would, I began to imagine... I could see myself docking in a station to take a shuttle to a planet. I could see wars spanning from battles in space, to fights in stations, to fights on the planet surface and beyond. I could see all this intertwined within a single system in which players could take on different roles with the same character, or at least within the same seamless universe.
Sadly, none of this possible, at least not between Dust and Eve. Platform and Engine incompatibility has created a hard wall which limits any possibilities of major expansion between the two games. Could Eve ultimately be updated in this way? Perhaps... But certainly not any time soon, especially with such a large portion of CCP's staff working on an entirely different product. I really think a massive error was made here and great opportunities lost. The vision of a true science fiction simulator was thrown by the wayside.
The Culmination of Errors
So lets recap:
- A game released on a single console with an extremely limited software life cycle.
- A user base that does not stay with any game for too long.
- A dated engine that limits expansion.
- No possible cross platform compatibility.
- The repeating of work done to produce 3D environments for Carbon and the Unreal Engine.
- Future merging of these two worlds is largely impossible.
I really can't see Dust doing well at all. Note you, I haven't even begun to talk about the game itself. These are all simply business decisions.
For these reasons, when CCP Helmar issued a public apology I fully expected it to end with him stepping down as CEO. Why? Because his business decisions as the leader of the company had been so poor. Those of you not living in the states may wonder why our companies tear through CEOs so quickly sometimes. The reason is simple. When leaders exhibit a certain level of incompetence it compromises the trust others can give them. This includes subordinates within the company, but more importantly investors and customers. Do I question Helmar's ability to lead CCP into any kind of future considering the disastrous decisions he has made regarding Dust? You bet, but then again, I want to be proven wrong (more on this below).
I Hope to be Proven Wrong
I am not one who enjoys condemning others to failure or simply being right. I hate the "told you so" mentality and general negativity. I want Dust to succeed and CCP to prove me wrong. I own a PS3 and intend to give dust another go on its official release. However, for all the reasons given above I cannot see Dust being successful long term.
Maybe CCP doesn't care as long as they can make enough money in the first 3 months -who knows? But to be honest, I am nervous. I think CCP is a good company full of smart people who love what they do. I also think Dust failing miserably could end CCP games, or at least geld it so badly recovery isn't possible. Only time will tell, but this one where I really want to have gotten it completely wrong.
So what do you think? Got a strong argument why I am wrong? Do you love Dust 514 as it is now?
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