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A Very Simple Question

FreeKaner

Prophet of the Dumpsterfire
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If they just discontinued the tabletop

And give up the damn goldmine that are those figurines ?

The reason they discontinued Warhammer fantasy in the first place was it wasn't selling as much as Warhammer 40K, so they made Age of Sigmar. A fantasy setting that's derivative of 40k with similarly shallow and nonsensical setting but good for tabletop as an alternative due how freeform it is. This way they can produce material for fantasy in terms of books, toys whatever else and sell those with help of video games developed by others without investing in its tabletop.
 

Arthandas

Liturgist
Joined
Apr 21, 2015
Messages
1,371
I also have a very simple question: why there's only one Planescape game? IMO Planescape is the most rich, fun and original setting in all the rpgs I've ever played and PS:T just scratched its surface.
 

Lahey

Laheyist
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Grab the Codex by the pussy
Speaking of GW and dreams, a reminder: http://www.ianwatson.info/plumbing-stanley-kubrick/
Ian Watson said:
I had written a novel entitled Inquisitor set in the wacky far-future world of Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000; he wanted a pre-publication printout right away. “Who knows, Ian?” he mused. “Maybe this is my next movie?” I arranged for Games Workshop to send him samples of their games and artwork and obtained for him from fantasy artist Ian Miller a portfolio of drawings of monsters. Anything could be grist to the mill, now or at some future date.
 

Arthandas

Liturgist
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Apr 21, 2015
Messages
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Planescape: Torment sold poorly at release. It became popular in the very long run.
Yes, and it's a cult classic for more than a decade now, still no Planescape games.
How come generic shit like The Dark Eye has around 12 video games while Planescape has only 1?! It's not like the setting wasn't popular, there's like 30 published books...
 

ilitarist

Learned
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857
Back when BG1 was made Forgotten Realms world was popular all over the world. My fellow kids read books about that Dark Elf with panther and Elminster. And we've read it in Russian living in Eastern Europe!

But BG1/BG2/NWN sales are probably ten times more than that of the books. People who don't care about THAC0 still played those games. Making a new game in the setting is more like making a BG/NWN follow up. There were some OK games trying to go beyond that, like Demon Stone. But they didn't get popular.

Compare it to Warhammer 40K. They were lucky to get diverse game library. It's mostly strategy games, but you have all kinds of strategy games - classical RTS, tactical RTS, TBS, 4X. You can make Warhammer 40k or Warhammer Fantasy games. You can't make Forgotten Realms game, you can only make Forgotten Realms RPG with some expected ruleset. And that means very generic fantasy with established lore. Every writer would have to send every word for review. And you'll be compared to BG/NWN even more harsh than PoE was. Just as Planescape setting RPG is doomed even more than Torment Tides of Numenera.
 

Jokzore

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Messages
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Back when BG1 was made Forgotten Realms world was popular all over the world. My fellow kids read books about that Dark Elf with panther and Elminster. And we've read it in Russian living in Eastern Europe!

But BG1/BG2/NWN sales are probably ten times more than that of the books. People who don't care about THAC0 still played those games. Making a new game in the setting is more like making a BG/NWN follow up. There were some OK games trying to go beyond that, like Demon Stone. But they didn't get popular.

Compare it to Warhammer 40K. They were lucky to get diverse game library. It's mostly strategy games, but you have all kinds of strategy games - classical RTS, tactical RTS, TBS, 4X. You can make Warhammer 40k or Warhammer Fantasy games. You can't make Forgotten Realms game, you can only make Forgotten Realms RPG with some expected ruleset. And that means very generic fantasy with established lore. Every writer would have to send every word for review. And you'll be compared to BG/NWN even more harsh than PoE was. Just as Planescape setting RPG is doomed even more than Torment Tides of Numenera.

This applies solely to the Codex. I doubt your average Joe gamer would care about any of it.
 

VentilatorOfDoom

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We had DnD games up until 4th ed hit. Then it kinda stopped and the one game (SCL) since then sucked.
It's a valid question, why pay IP fees to Wizards for a butchered setting that pissed DnD fans off and an MMO like cooldown based dumbed down character system the likes of which you might just as well create yourself?
While I would like more DnD games (ADnD or 3.5e or PF) I don't really care for nu-DND anyway so the drought of games matters not.
 
Last edited:

ilitarist

Learned
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857
Let Beamdog do their thing. I'd prefer patches like these (KotOR2). Pretty sure they can still give a game a lot of new sales.
 

ilitarist

Learned
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Messages
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Let's imagine someone with access to the code adds support for widescreen and scaling and proper stability. Maybe adds some community patches. We have Drog Black Tooth outstanding work but it's not as stable as you might want. Then it's tested and packed on Steam as a working package. What else do you want? Someone to produce some additional content for the game?
 

Iznaliu

Arbiter
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Messages
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Then it kinda stopped and the one game (SCL) since then sucked.

That explains the situation perfectly; with the failure of SCL, WoTC has (incorrectly?) deduced that any more full-scale RPGs will be a black hole money-wise; WoTC doesn't have that much video game expertise, so their reasoning is unlikely to be any more sophisticated than that.
 

Mustawd

Guest
That explains the situation perfectly; with the failure of SCL, WoTC has (incorrectly?) deduced that any more full-scale RPGs will be a black hole money-wise;

Why would you assume that?

Isn't Beamdog working on a D&D game?
 

DemonKing

Arcane
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Dec 5, 2003
Messages
5,958
I think D&D crashed badly around the release of 4.0 and there probably wasn't much internet from publishers. Also the size of the D&D team and number of product releases has gone down significantly since they were sold to Hasbro by Wizards of the Coast after the 3rd Edition renaissance - they probably just don't have the manpower or expertise to properly manage licensing arrangements at the moment.

I'll be interested to see how the Pathfinder game goes because that system is basically a modified D&D.
 

Cael

Arcane
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Nov 1, 2017
Messages
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DnD in computer form died because of 4.0. The once per x unit time crap which was more or less derived from the cooldown found in console games. WotC also retardedly listened to the useless dramaqueens and basically gutted casters in an extreme swing away from the OP-ness of casters in 3.5.

As a result, 4.0 sold extremely poorly when compared to previous editions. WotC then added insult to injury by basically proclaiming that 3.x is dead and nothing is to be done that has the DnD logo on it unless it was 4th Ed. They even shut down the 3.5 forums at one stage. I recall a mad scramble by the Char Op guys to preserve the threads in that section, but they weren't 100% successful, IIRC. The WotC mods also interfered with the process (again, IIRC). So, it was basically shit pile on top of crap on top of multiple stabbings. People turned away from DnD en massed, particularly since 3.5 was OGL and Pathfinder took advantage of that and made their own closely parallel system and advertised it as completely compatible with 3.5. It was a brilliant marketing move (even though it is not 100% true, it was fairly close as advertising goes).

DnD in paper form didn't survive the hammering. Computer form was not even in the cards if the paper form doesn't survive. All we have left is a paper zombie lurching around calling itself Ed the 5th.
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Planescape: Torment sold poorly at release. It became popular in the very long run.
Yes, and it's a cult classic for more than a decade now, still no Planescape games.
How come generic shit like The Dark Eye has around 12 video games while Planescape has only 1?! It's not like the setting wasn't popular, there's like 30 published books...

Please tell me about these 12 games because all I know of are:
- the original Nordland-Trilogie (Blade of Destiny, Star Trail, Shadows over Riva)
- the Drakensang games (Drakensang and Drakensang: River of Time)
- the two adventure games made by Daedalic (Chains of Satinav and Memoria)

What are the others?
Mobile games don't count btw.
 

Arthandas

Liturgist
Joined
Apr 21, 2015
Messages
1,371
Planescape: Torment sold poorly at release. It became popular in the very long run.
Yes, and it's a cult classic for more than a decade now, still no Planescape games.
How come generic shit like The Dark Eye has around 12 video games while Planescape has only 1?! It's not like the setting wasn't popular, there's like 30 published books...

Please tell me about these 12 games because all I know of are:
- the original Nordland-Trilogie (Blade of Destiny, Star Trail, Shadows over Riva)
- the Drakensang games (Drakensang and Drakensang: River of Time)
- the two adventure games made by Daedalic (Chains of Satinav and Memoria)

What are the others?
Mobile games don't count btw.
From the top of my head: Blackguards 1 and 2, 2013 remake of Blade of Destiny and Demonicon.
 

Cael

Arcane
Joined
Nov 1, 2017
Messages
20,294
Really though, the bigger question is why nobody used Eberron beyond that shitty RTS and shitty MMO.
Eberron wasn't really that well received. The steampunk elements offended a lot of "purists", and people got comfortable with existing settings and didn't want to move. The haha-no response to the shitty RTS may also have played a factor.
 

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