Dear Master Malstrom,
As soon as I saw your first post about Star Citizen, I thought to
myself “hmmm I wonder if he knows this is a crowdfunded game”, since
you have openly expressed your hate for that phenomenon. And then I
saw your follow-up post…
What I’m wondering is WHY. Why, beyond your (albeit valid) philosophy
of trusting the market to decide which games do and do not get made,
why is it such a bad thing this game is being made via crowdfunding?
Isn’t a good thing that it is being made at all?
Full disclosure: I kickstarted several PC games such as Wasteland 2,
Shadowrun, and Project Obsidian. Did I do it for the “bonuses” and all
that? No. I did it because I’ve been desperate for these sort of games
to be made at all. Whether it is done the traditional way or through
crowdfunding, I was willing (and perhaps enough of a sucker) to put my
money down. Why is it so bad that Star Citizen is going the
crowdfunding route? As long as the game gets made, isn’t that what
matters?
I wrote a long post and in it I said that the only reason to do crowd sourcing is as a step to get investors (i.e. show investors the interest). I now find out that Chris Roberts didn’t put Star Citizen on Kickstarter because the plan is to raise a few million through crowd funding where Roberts has investors willing to pledge 10 million.
If that’s the case, I’m OK with it. Good for Chris Roberts. I thought this was some sleazy attempt to get money while being lazy and not trying to get investors. With Chris Roberts previous games, he wouldn’t have a problem getting investor interest.
“Are you going to pledge, Malstrom?”
Nah. It’s bad enough that I waste money on video games, it’d be worse if I waste money on video games that haven’t been made yet. It’s funny reading some people saying, “There, I pledged $10,000.” Oh you game developers and your disposable income.
Let me explain to young people why this game is a big deal. Origin is probably the most innovative game company ever made. Their games are the reason why many people went into game development. Wing Commander was an extraordinary game. It changed how games were seen in that games became more production focused than design focused. We don’t complain that Chris Roberts explored making the Wing Commander games more into a ‘movie’ because he was really the first to do it. No one had pushed gaming that far.
When Chris Roberts made his pitch, I found myself agreeing with much of what he said. I was very impressed with the game’s ambition and this ambition is how Origin games all used to be. Yes, you’d have to buy a new computer just play that Origin game. I remember someone joking that Ultima used to be like the Crytek games in that you had to buy a brand new computer for each one. So I laughed when Roberts said that Crytek Engine 3 would be used for Star Citizen.
I think it was around 1992 when Origin was bought by EA. Here’s a question I present to the glorious reader: “What would be the market impact if an Origin quality game was released in today’s market?” Today’s market has many more PCs out there today as well as a more global market. “Why wasn’t there a global market back in the 80s, Malstrom?” Well, there was this thing called the Soviet Union and the Cold War. There was a Berlin Wall that divided Germany in half. In 1992, global trade hadn’t really taken off just yet. The Internet hadn’t taken off either. But then again, Origin was utilizing the Internet in some of their games as far back as 1989.
“What is the experience of buying an Origin game when it was current?” Oh reader, you ask that golden question.
It’s like being enthralled and completely absorbed by a really good book.
“But I’m a young gamer who grew up with the Internet. I don’t know what books are.”
Of course… How silly of me! Alas, I do not know my audience.
Chris Roberts emphasized the word ‘universe’. The company mission of Origin was ‘We create worlds’. You’re not really buying a game. You’re buying a world. A universe. This means as soon as you open up the box, you are drawn inside the universe and not taken out. Wing Commander came with blue prints of the ships you fly and a fictional Tigers Claw officer book.
“Those are gimmicks in collector’s edition boxes today. Get to the good stuff, Malstrom. What is the difference between a game and a universe?”
Roberts mentioned the level of detail to everything. But since many PC game companies were trying to create immersion, one thing they did was to present the game in a first person perspective.
“Like a first person shooter?”
No, I’m using a book term. Today’s games have you watch and play someone else’s character. With a universe game, you play yourself. Even with the movies in Wing Commander of live actors, you played the Luke Skywalker actor and could choose things to say, where to go, and so on. Chris Roberts didn’t say if we’d be a character or not, but since the game is mass multiplayer, I assume we won’t be playing a ‘particular person’.
A Universe game has a history in the game universe that stretches on the past. It goes into details of the NPCs who you may never talk to. One very important part of Wing Commander games were how well fleshed out the characters and personalities of the other pilots.
The way how a good fiction writer approaches a book is to start, months ahead, creating the universe. After a long time (from months to years), the writer then may start with the book. The book and its events only take one small spot in that fictional universe. In order to create a strong novel, a strong fictional world, you need to spend time carving out things that the reader may never see. It’s often the reader will only see 5% of that universe directly. Logical consequences create immersion and the writer would need to know the logical consequences in the universe. If you don’t do this and just try to make up the universe as you go along, you end up with mistakes that shatter the immersion.
The Universe is the content I keep referencing at. I was always frustrated at using the word content since it was so slippery, so imprecise. The readers knew what I was saying. “Where is the new content in NSMB 2? Where are the new worlds?” I mean expanding the universe of the Mushroom Kingdom like how Super Mario Brothers 3 and World did to SMB 1.
It is extremely difficult to create a fictional universe. Chris Roberts has the advantage that he can clone Wing Commander’s universe (which is a pseudo World War 2 in space).
Watch this reader. What the video shows is showing the Roland MT-32 sound with Wing Commander as he plays through the game a little. What you should notice is…
-No menu once you start. The barracks are the menu. The airlock goes to DOS, each sleeping person is a saved game file, etc. In the bar, the simulator is exactly that. It lets you practice your dogfighting skills as a type of space simulator inside a space simulator.
-You talk to the people in first person view. They look at you, the player. You rarely see yourself.
-In the spaceship, you can talk to other ships, including enemy ones, but it is mainly used to give commands to your wing man. Looking back at it, I’m amazed that Origin wrote the AI of a buddy pilot with all the other stuff the game was pioneering.
-The famous asteroid scene. Everyone remembers the asteroids because their graphics were so impressive then. Also, many people blew up by hitting the asteroids. Chris Roberts deliberately showed off a similar scene in his trailer.
-You can actually look through different windows of your ship as the game maintains the ‘first person perspective’ to complete total immersion. Sometimes if I didn’t know where I was being shot at, I would look over my shoulder by pressing F4 which I would be looking through the rear window.
-Notice how mature the music is. This game caused gamers to buy sound cards. “But there is no voice acting? Har har har. Stupid game.” Stupid reader. Voice acting was added by the speech pack.
-Note how the music tracks are dynamic. If you enter combat, the music gets tense. When you blow up a ship, you get a triumphant tune. When you complete all your mission objectives, a sweet victory music plays. If your ship starts taking a heavy beating, the music reflects your dark situation.
“I don’t get it,” says a stupid reader. “What’s so amazing?”
What is so amazing is that we were playing this game in 1990 while you console kiddies were first playing Super Mario Brothers 3. SMB 3 is awesome, but the NES was reaching its best years. Go from the NES to THIS and there is no contest. This game was so far ahead of its time.
So good luck to Roberts with Star Citizen. The only thing I suggest (which I might as well talk to myself since no one there will read it) is to focus on the sound and music. Wing Commander was brilliant in its music. Remember that it made us buy Sound Blaster cards.
For the young kids who weren’t born when Wing Commander came out (boy I’m old), here is a tribute. Ignore the Last of the Mohicans music:
Malstrom's Articles News 