Quote:
Originally Posted by RonCo
If I am correct, OOTP will very soon (if not already) look skin-deep.
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Okay, so in what areas will OOTP look very soon (if not already) skin-deep? I think that the in-game play by play and strategy are not nearly as robust as SOM or DMB (which have had, again, a lot more time to work on getting that stuff right than Markus has, and especially in the case of SOM has had a cadre of fans demanding this a lot harder for a lot longer since it's the core focus of the game), but since I've never seen you make a comment about this part of things, I have doubts that this is what you're talking about. Where else, then?
The player development engine is, again, miles deeper than BM's or PS's, and I can say with some confidence based on prior experience that Clay Dreslough will not achieve OOTP's depth in that aspect within the next 3-5 years (or 10 for that matter). Puresim is another matter in that Shaun Sullivan seems to be the kind of guy who tries to please the grognards out there like you and me, and it's certainly easier to make up ground than it is to blaze new ground, but given the same rates of development over the last several years I would expect PS to lose ground to OOTP rather than gain it (don't get me wrong, I think Shaun is a heck of a guy and is really receptive to change but he also has too much of a social life to compete with Markus) (sorry, Markus). There's also that console GM thing coming out in the spring from Visual Concepts but historically the big companies strike out with this sort of thing. So unless you think there's somebody about to come out with a new game, I just don't see OOTP being "skin deep" within 3-5 years.
As for endgame's comments... I completely agree with you. There are lots of niggling little issues that need to get taken care of as well as some bigger ones (I go back to the in-game experience). I understand what you're getting at but I wouldn't call that "depth". I'd call that... "stability" isn't a great word because the game rarely crashes. Parts of the game do feel like they've been rigorously tested both in and out of beta, and some, well, some do not. It still kind of amazes me that nobody on the beta last year was apparently playing out games (which might even mean that Eugene and I were the only people on it doing that 2 years ago). I am not for a moment calling this a perfect title and I can certainly see a scenario in which OOTP didn't improve on this stuff and I didn't buy a new version because of that. It can be a long ways off from perfect and still be the best. I like that we're trying to push it beyond the best. We all just need to step back every so often and look at the larger picture.