Interview Another Troika interview

[errorcode]

Troika has been around for several years, and had three good titles under its belt. Why do you think you weren't able to secure funding for your next project?

I'm not sure, you'd have to ask the publishers.

would those be the publishers you publicly pointed the finger at for failing to adequately test your "complex systems" in your buggy games?

I'm sorry, i can't muster a whole lot of sympathy. It's sad that an RPG studio has closed down, but it's there own fucking fault.

Piss poor management - Check
Lack of personal accountability - Check
bad financial decisions - Check

 

[Jed]

weird, thats what bloodlines was. pretty, shallow, and action-y combat (especially the last third of the game).

I haven't played Vampire, so I can only speak for Aracanum & ToEE. And if this is the case -- though I have heard to the contrary in regards to the shallow -- then go back to the previous page and read the post I wrote regarding this.

I gotta ask though -- if you like NWN enough to reference it in your name, do you see the irony in criticizing a game for being pretty, shallow, and filled with crappy action-y combat?

 

[NeverwinterKnight]

I haven't played Vampire, so I can only speak for Aracanum & ToEE. And if this is the case -- though I have heard to the contrary in regards to the shallow -- then go back to the previous page and read the post I wrote regarding this.

I gotta ask though -- if you like NWN enough to reference it in your name, do you see the irony in criticizing a game for being pretty, shallow, and filled with crappy action-y combat?

i chose my name because, originally, i had only planned on posting on the obsidian nwn2 boards, and while admittedly cheesey, i chose the name because of that. but since i actually stuck around and started posting on other boards, i kept the name for simplicity sake in terms of conversing with posters id been posting with.

and either case, i wasnt critisizing any game, i enjoyed bloodlines. i was just quoting you saying those games are pretty, shallow and action-y, and pointing out that troika made that kind of game as well.

 

[Volourn]

"gotta ask though -- if you like NWN enough to reference it in your name, do you see the irony in criticizing a game for being pretty, shallow, and filled with crappy action-y combat?"

NWN is neither shallow or crappy action-y combat. Nice try though. If you had played the OC you would know that it has some pretty damn anti shallow scenarios going on. All I gots to say is the following: MOTHER. And, its combat has no peer as far as RPGs are concern in depth and tatic/strategt other than TOEE. But, hey, keep being a delinx.

 

[Trash]

No matter what, this sucks. Big time. Another develloper gone that at least aspired to creating quality rpg's.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Are you saying Final Fantasy series isn't mainstream? Gain a clue.

Are you aware of the differences between console and pc market and between north american and japanese publishers/developers/markets?

That's right. Ignore all the rules that were changed or aborted in the game.

Comparing to Bio RT crap, ToEE was the most faithful adaptation ever.

A. I only repeat that line because moronic fanboys like yourself continue to blame EVERYONE but Troika for their fall. Stop doing that, and I'll stop pointing out the fact, Idiot.

Keep arguing, saying, bitching, whining, whatever. Just change the fucking words into something less boring. Dumbass.

B. You can come kick my ass at 644 Lakeshore Dr Unit 36, North Bay, Ontario, Kanada. I'll be waiting; but I won't be holding my breath.

Noooooo! Not the stupid address thing again. For fuck's sake, can't you think of another line?

C. Ahh.. Is that a threat of banning or post editing or better yet the 'dumbfuck' title?

Uh, no? You are annoying, but not THAT annoying. Besides, I don't do that, and you know it.

D. As for looking retarded. I may look retarded; but it sure beats BEING retarded for blindly defending your god by blaming everyone BUT them.

lol. Jealous much? I'm not defending anyone blindly or for the fuck of it. I simply don't care enough, but there are some idiotic conclusions that many people are jumping at and that stupidity really pisses me off. I'm sure that they feel the same way about me, so the balance is maintained.

As for you, Volly, if you enjoyed 2 out of 3 games like you say, then kindly shut the fuck up about whose fault it is. It is irrelevant at this point, and you just look like an ass.

"post editing"

I win.

I hope you don't think that I touched your stupid post?

Hahahah.. TOOL.

Cunt.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Bloodlines was as mainstream as it gets, unless for some reason you think it had deep, challenging tactical combat, which it clearly didn't.

It hadn't. However, it wasn't a shooter, so the game can't be defined by the combat alone.

TOEE may have been a faithful implementation of the D&D combat rules but it wasn't a faithful implementation of D&D's role-playing structure. Like Saint Proverbius, I took the game for what it was: a dungeon crawler. Dungeon crawlers are as 'mainstream' as any RPG can get when you consider the successes of Diablo, Diablo 2 and the success of Divine Divinity in Europe.

True, but with one major exception: it was a turn-based crawler with complicated, for many, rules. Silent Storm, a great TB crawler, didn't do so well either. I'm sure you'd agree that Diablo and Divine Divinity had much simpler gameplay: click, click, right-click, click.

Troika had a chance to make a good RPG but they blew it.

Troika's never had a chance to make a good RPG in the time Atari gave them. They could have made a better game out of ToEE, but not a good Fallout-like RPG.

Do you know what Troika's biggest problem is? The lack of leadership in every single one of their projects. Hiring someone to take care of the business side of things would have allowed Tim and Leon to focus their efforts on developing the game.

You are too eager to jump at that comment Leon made. Troika's biggest problem was making games that didn't have a chance to sell well. Even Fallout wasn't a bestseller, if you recall.

 

[Mr. Teatime]

B. You can come kick my ass at 644 Lakeshore Dr Unit 36, North Bay, Ontario, Kanada. I'll be waiting; but I won't be holding my breath.

Noooooo! Not the stupid address thing again. For fuck's sake, can't you think of another line?

I've said it before. post your phone number as freely as you post your address, Volourn, and someone might actually start to harass you.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Well, Fallout was a 'bestseller' for its time, back when 300,000 sales were considered the same way 1,000,000 hits are these days. Production costs were a lot lower, then, too, so Interplay made quite a bit of money with Fallout or they wouldn't have made a Fallout 2, or a FalloutTactics, or even FOBOS if it wasn't for the success of the two original games.

True, but with one major exception: it was a turn-based crawler with complicated, for many, rules. Silent Storm, a great TB crawler, didn't do so well either. I'm sure you'd agree that Diablo and Divine Divinity had much simpler gameplay: click, click, right-click, click.

Silent Storm sold EXTREMELY well in Europe, though. TOEE on the other hand only got a lukewarm reception because of the bugs.

 

[Sarkile]

I would call Volourn if he posted his number! :twisted:

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

would those be the publishers you publicly pointed the finger at for failing to adequately test your "complex systems" in your buggy games?

I'm sorry, i can't muster a whole lot of sympathy. It's sad that an RPG studio has closed down, but it's there own fucking fault.

Piss poor management - Check
Lack of personal accountability - Check
bad financial decisions - Check

You're an imbecile, son. If publishers actually gave a shit about publishing buggy games, they wouldn't be releasing so many of them. The fact is, publishers don't care a lick about releasing buggy games at all, which is why they never support tham after a month or so.

The only thing a publisher cares about is if a game sells millions of copies these days. Making a profit isn't enough nor is getting back double or tripple the cost of development. Publishers do only care about making mainstream games for the most part, because the more mainstream the game, they think the more likely it is they'll get five or six times the cost of making the game and publishing it.

 

[Fez]

If I ever remembered to get around to it, I'd post Volourn something, just for the fun of it.

 

[Kuato]

You're an imbecile, son. If publishers actually gave a shit about publishing buggy games, they wouldn't be releasing so many of them. The fact is, publishers don't care a lick about releasing buggy games at all, which is why they never support tham after a month or so.

The only thing a publisher cares about is if a game sells millions of copies these days. Making a profit isn't enough nor is getting back double or tripple the cost of development. Publishers do only care about making mainstream games for the most part, because the more mainstream the game, they think the more likely it is they'll get five or six times the cost of making the game and publishing it.

I believe the situation is more grave than that, some of the very human people that work for the publishers are in unique positions of power, power over all sorts of spending, contracts that involve enormous amounts of money, this attracts healthy and unhealthy competition alike and sometimes some questionable elements can enter the frey. Im not saying things like kickbacks happen all the time.
http://www.wnbc.com/money/4188234/detail.html
In most cases the payoff for helping a big deal go through is completely legit. its just part of the process. At the point that you have made a fortune of money before a product even goes into development much less ships, theres not much motivation left to really care how well some product turns out a year and half later, but there is plenty of motivation to edge closer to a fast easy early retirement by pushing as many costly deals through as you can before things start to go bad.

 

[Volourn]

"I've said it before. post your phone number as freely as you post your address, Volourn, and someone might actually start to harass you."

And, I'll say it as before, I ahve posted my number. Then again, no one says they'll harass me; just that they'll beat me up. You cna't beat someone up over a phone so the address gets the calling.


"You're an imbecile, son. If publishers actually gave a shit about publishing buggy games, they wouldn't be releasing so many of them. The fact is, publishers don't care a lick about releasing buggy games at all, which is why they never support tham after a month or so."

Pot. kettle. Black. If developers actually gave a shit about developing buggy games, they wouldn't be releasing so many of them. The fact is, dveeloeprs don't care a lick about releasing buggy games at all, which is why they never support them after a month or so. Stupid moronic fanboy.


"Are you aware of the differences between console and pc market and between north american and japanese publishers/developers/markets?"

The real question is are you? Apparantly not.


"Comparing to Bio RT crap, ToEE was the most faithful adaptation ever."

No. TOEE wasn't even faithful enough to allow players to be DMs. Talk about being an unfaithful adapation of D&D. Dumbass.


"Keep arguing, saying, bitching, whining, whatever. Just change the fucking words into something less boring. Dumbass."

Not 'til you Troika fanboys admit that Troika is 100% at fault for their failure.


"As for you, Volly, if you enjoyed 2 out of 3 games like you say, then kindly shut the fuck up about whose fault it is. It is irrelevant at this point, and you just look like an ass"

Whether I enjoyed their games or not is irrelevant. That doesn't change the fact it's their fualt and only tools like you and SP pretend otherwise. And, no, I'm not being an ass. Asses are those who make shit up like you do. Ass.


"lol. Jealous much? I'm not defending anyone blindly or for the fuck of it. I simply don't care enough, but there are some idiotic conclusions that many people are jumping at and that stupidity really pisses me off."

Waaa.. Big Bad Volourn tm is being mean and blaming Troika for making mistakes that they amde that led to their crash. Whine all you want; it won't change the fact that TROIKA screwed Troika.


"I hope you don't think that I touched your stupid post?"

Someone did. I don't care who did. Either way, I win.

 

[NeutralMilkHotel]

These arguments are too damn funny. I love how each side is just so fucking sure of themselves and that their opinions are fact, so that no amount of logic or reason could ever sway them.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Such is the life of fanboys and anti-fanboys.

Me? I'm sad to see Troika go. But I'm sure someone else will take their place as the next big innovator in RPGs. And I am sure they will have learned from Troika's demise as well.

 

[EEVIAC]

But I'm sure someone else will take their place as the next big innovator in RPGs. And I am sure they will have learned from Troika's demise as well.

What's there to learn? Did Lucastarts/Delphine/Sierra adventure divisions learn anything from the closure of Infocom? If they did, it didn't help them stay alive.

 

[HanoverF]

Thats kinda a catch 22, If they learned from Troikas demise, they learned not to make innovative RPGs

 

[Naked_Lunch]

Or to hire some fucking management.

 

[crakkie]

These arguments are too damn funny. I love how each side is just so fucking sure of themselves and that their opinions are fact, so that no amount of logic or reason could ever sway them.

Shhhhhhh!! You'll ruin the codex!

 

[Naked_Lunch]

NOT JUST THE CODEX! BUT THE INTERNET! QUCK! RUN FOR YOUR PITIFUL LIVES! FLEE YOU FUCKERS! FLEE!

 

[Fez]

Logic has no place in internet arguments.

 

[Calis]

Pot. kettle. Black. If developers actually gave a shit about developing buggy games, they wouldn't be releasing so many of them. The fact is, developers don't care a lick about releasing buggy games at all, which is why they never support them after a month or so. Stupid moronic fanboy.

Since Best Buy disavows all responsibility for game bugs, next in line is the publisher, selling it to you. It's the consumer's job to blame the publisher. It's the publisher's job to get the developer to fix them. Developer != holy, but as a consumer, the publisher is the only logical party to blame. They packed the game up and sold it to you, not the developer.

Let me put it a different way. I have a part-time jobbie as a programmer hack for a small internet firm. We sometimes to subcontracting for, say, a design firm that sells a website design and then needs to have it all PHP'd up. If I screw up, and their customer complains, do you think they'll tell them to come talk to me? Hell no. They take responsibility, say they're sorry, and then call me up and call me an asshole. In fact, mostly when we do subcontracting, the design firm calls me up and calls me a moron *before* showing it to the customer. See how that works?

No. TOEE wasn't even faithful enough to allow players to be DMs. Talk about being an unfaithful adapation of D&D. Dumbass.

In that case, IRC D&D games are the only true computer adaptations of D&D.

 

[Country_Gravy]

No. TOEE wasn't even faithful enough to allow players to be DMs. Talk about being an unfaithful adapation of D&D. Dumbass.

In that case, IRC D&D games are the only true computer adaptations of D&D.

Game. Set. Match.

You don't know shit about shat, Volourn. Go fuck yourself.

 

[Jed]

In that case, IRC D&D games are the only true computer adaptations of D&D.

Game. Set. Match. You don't know shit about shat, Volourn. Go fuck yourself.

CRITICAL HIT!