Umm… really fucking hard?
Going from “vast tracts of empty space” to “vast tracts of space filled with interesting details” requires a lot more than a technological upgrade. It requires actually creating interesting NPCs and lively quests.
To put it another way, perhaps if you redid Arena with today’s technology, and *added a huge number of lively quests and NPCs* it would be better than Oblivion, because it would contain a huge number of lively quests and NPCs.
“Honestly, not hard at all. you all pretend to know more than me about programming (or at least put doubt about my background) yet you can’t figure out that today technology can indeed generate a very sophisticated simultion of the real world that would make the world alive as long as you want and more lively than oblivion.”
I know sod all about programming. I know a lot about games. Today’s technology can’t do shit to produce a believable NPC or an interesting quest. It doens’t matter how good your algorithms are “deliver this message for me” is always “deliver this message for me.”
You might as well say that if you took a book written in the 1980s and then published it as a .pdf the magic of “modern technology” would somehow make it into a better book.
You can’t program something to be interesting, you certainly can’t program originality, and you definitely can’t program character development.
]]>-pvg
]]>“[[> Considering over 50% of the customers that bought oblivion are unsatified
Do you have a source for this, or is this the well-known, time-honoured technique known as "argument by making things up"?]]
About every poll on the official forum ?”
For a guy who claims that his maths and programming skills are genius level, he really doesn’t know a great deal about statistics does he?
“I didn’t say I was lacking a brain. [...] peterb article was full of contempt for peoples taht *dared* to criticize oblivion.”
Errmm… I think peterb has been criticizing Oblivion, and he has been doing that without too much self-loathing going on.
What peterb is criticizing, though, is the game as it actually exists. Rather than say compared to a game that seems to exist only in some peoples’ imagination. Some of the stuff this guy is coming out with suggests he’s either a time-traveller or has only vague acquaintance with reality:
“Every game out there manage seamless transitions”
Really? So, what, I was just imagining those horrendous loading times for Jade Empire?
“today technology can indeed generate a very sophisticated simultion of the real world”
I asked Eliza “can todays technology generate a very sophisticated simulation of the real world?”
Eliza replied “Say, do you have any psychological problems?”
]]>Do you have a source for this, or is this the well-known, time-honoured technique known as "argument by making things up"?]]
About every poll on the official forum ?
I’m sorry mr wiseguy. But the morrowind forum didn’t look like the oblivion mess at launch time. I don’t recall ever seing that many complaints about a game, not even when they released the weird Diablo II patch on Battle net just before the xpack went on sales (the famous patch where Diablo II/hell was made unplayable… they fixed it within a week)
[[Since English isn't your first language, I can see how you might have misinterpreted this. ]]
Nice try really, I didn’t say I was lacking a brain. I just lack your 20-40 years experience at getting the spelling and grammar perfect. Or perhaps you never tried learning a second language so you don’t have a clue.
peterb article was full of contempt for peoples taht *dared* to criticize oblivion.
I explained what dumbed down meant for the peoples who used it, and that whatever you guys want to fantasize it meant it got no bearing on facts. it DOESNT mean simplified it the way you think. It mean all the stuff uselessly cut off.
Simple obvious exemple. Every game out there manage seamless transitions, why can’t oblivion do it ? answer: they pushed all into hiring artist to produce high poly bells and whistle and not enought into hiring programmers. you have to be blind not to noticed all technology was licensed from outside.
As for complicated, Oblivion *is* complicated for some of the simplest things. even the level up and leveled monsters are all screwed up for nothing. you have to design your character backward. I’m sorry but this ISNT simplifying
[[As for the rest of your points, this is still - as far as I'm concerned - a conversation about gameplay, not tech specs]]
you still haven’t read it, have you ?
[[Peterb's point about Arena/Daggerfall having randomly generated terrain is not that he felt it should have used a different method to generate its world, just that he felt that vast, pointless tracts of wilderness do not add to a game.]]
just for starter, he’s wrong. the terrain was NEVER randomly generated, it’s pulled out of a topography database. The comment on pointless tract of land is absolutely ridiculous.
I already stated 10x already the ram/cpu speed limitation. Redo Daggerfall with today technology (unfortunately Bethesda said they lost the code) and it will look and feel BETTER than both oblivion and morrowind. How hard do you think it is to turn the *pointless track of land* into *filled with lively npcs and quests* land.
Honestly, not hard at all. you all pretend to know more than me about programming (or at least put doubt about my background) yet you can’t figure out that today technology can indeed generate a very sophisticated simultion of the real world that would make the world alive as long as you want and more lively than oblivion.
for god’s sake, we got automated robots that can find peoples stucked in dangerous terrain, but we can’t do a simple world simulation where kingdome (and demons, dragons, whatever) clashes and where merchants exchange goods ? seriously, using a petri net that stuff is so easy the cpu wont even feel the heat. you couldn’t witness rebelions, assasinations, war, the whole deal that make heroic fantasy what it is.
instead they DIDN’t hire much in term of programmers, bought outside technology (speedtree, havoc, gamebryo and much more) and focused on hiring an army of artists that would create ultra high poly models. they didn’t evenn bother to do Level of Details which is why Oblivion graphic performance suck so much it melt all but the fastest graphic card.
Oblivion doesnt NEED a fast card. never did. it’s just 10x slower than it should be. look at game out there, there manage to look better while not melting anything. why ? because they didn’t spet their money wisely.
As for the rpg aspect. beyoond the fact it doesn’t have all the expected weapons (you can’t even throw a dagger) it doesn’t have any crafting (unlike all mmorpg) it barely got a small assortment of creature and dungeons (less variety than morrowind or any mmorpg)
on the quest side it’s rather linear. once you do all quest (and does this make sense from a rpg point of view ? you roleplay a good monk or paladin type guy ? are you supposed to do the evil quests) – anyway, even if it take you 2-3 chracters – once all quests are done, it would get rather repetitive to play again. the closing of the oblivion gates are already ultra-repetitive.
they had in their power to make the game much better. they improved the graphic (even if its in an inneficient way) but they cut a lot on the feature from previous games without adding any new feature.
If you played mount & blade (whih is still only a demo version !), you know oblivion’s horses are hardly worth talking about. tell me, how can only 2 peoples have delivered a game that does horse combat in a balanced way yet Bethesda with a team of 70 could not ?
How come mount & blade, which doesn’t even claim to be a rpg, manage to have factions waring against each other in a believable world ?
why Oblivion didn’t deliver on it’s promises of really large battle ? on the promise of *live another world*
it doesn’t even have the simplicity you guys claim it has. just try decorating your house. you’re in for an headache.
it’s hard to see oblivion as anything but a short hack n slash game.
in fact judging by google video…. I’ll let you see what peoples who keep playing it do whit oblivion… deem to have more in common with gone postal or hentai games than with rpgs. if that’s your style, have fun. I prefer rpgs and real-life women (and not to beat them up as those peoples seem to be doing)
I’m underimpressed to say the least.
I still fail to see the *simplicity* in oblivion. it’s totally weird and conter intuitive as a game. want an easy game, attack quickly at level 1. want a hard game, prepare for battle. please explain to me how this is logical or simple. It got tons of player frustrated. Of course all morrowind veteran figured out the easy exploit : don’t level up
I wish I could send an email to warn King arthur to level up so he can be allwed to loot excalibur. of course a level 1 hobit isn’t allowed to meet a nazgul, so froddo was in the illegal business there.
I am trully impressed by that article !
Seriously, only a very easy customer would be satified after buying oblivion. worst rpg I ever played. it may be nice graphically, but otherwise useless.
And quite frankly, I would rather watch Lord of the Ring 10x in a row. It’s much nicer.
If you don’t get bored after the 5th gate, you really love replaying the same scene over and over. you would be better off playing unreal or quake. at least you can play against real peoples, not some dumb easilly fooled AI.
]]>I have to agree that the industry has labeled any game which has character statistics (even if they aren’t modifiable) as a RPG. I like the “three numbers” classification scheme.
The lack of even vaguely interesting choices has led to me shunning the RPG genre and playing FPSes, where at least the cardboard cutout characters are intentional. I believe the last interesting RPG I played where I enjoyed the dialogue choices was Fallout 2.
Without the details of storytelling (little things like character, coherency and pathos), I tend not to see the point of RPGs. They don’t offer reflex-driven competition, social interaction (even the stunted social interaction of the 12-year-old squeaky gaming community), or mental challenge.
I find it analogous to watching a 60-hour long B-grade movie that I have to click through scene by scene.
Now, I sympathize that Oblivion doesn’t live up to high-art storytelling, but what exactly were you expecting? What particular aspect of Elder Scrolls are you missing that has left you feeling so betrayed?
]]>Thanks!
]]>Since English isn’t your first language, I can see how you might have misinterpreted this. The title of this post is a reference to the fact that a lot of “oblivion haters” describe Oblivion as being “dumbed down”. The term “dumb patrol”, then, refers to people who describe Oblivion as having been “dumbed down” (which is, in fact, a useless allegation to make, since it tends to basically mean “isn’t complicated in the ways I think it should be complicated.”
As for the rest of your points, this is still – as far as I’m concerned – a conversation about gameplay, not tech specs. Peterb’s point about Arena/Daggerfall having randomly generated terrain is not that he felt it should have used a different method to generate its world, just that he felt that vast, pointless tracts of wilderness do not add to a game.
]]>Do you have a source for this, or is this the well-known, time-honoured technique known as “argument by making things up”?
]]>