Did 3DO go bankrupt in the worst possible moment?

[Xfing]

I mean from the perspective of the potential story of Might and Magic.

These thoughts have been tormenting me, I can't shake the feeling that we've only scratched the surface of the true immersion, and that in the games that will never be made, the story would have become more and more central to the great conflict with every passing title, with more and more plot-heavy characters interacting and more cross-references to the original titles.

Even that likely fake interview stating that X was supposed to have a group of Ancients awaken and go on an endeavor to restore Enroth, with Archibald allied with some undisclosed evil out to thwart them, sounded very, very exciting.

So, do you think what we've lost with NWC's MM X-XIII would have been better, more exciting, climactic and rewarding than what we've got with I-IX?

[skinothetis1]

You can't compare UBI to NWC, it's like comparing the atomic bomb with a water pistol.

[jeff]

Unfortunately it is never as simple as UBI sucks and NWC rocked. I do not think UBI has represented the MM moniker well at all. MMX legacy was a small step in the right direction. If they continue there may be hope.

NWC's advantage would have been there ability to quickly release new products. (At least quickly in game development time). They had a Heroes V in development. When sequels are delayed for whatever reason for an extended time; you lose fans. They get older and real world issues become difficult to avoid. That is part of what has happened. The today's game player has different expectations than those when NWC was making games. I am not convinced if UBI gave JVC the reigns and an unlimited budget; that his game would make a huge profit. It might rock from the original fan's view, but would enough of the new players jump on board. I suspect unless a lot of pointless eye candy was thrown in; the new younger player would lose interest.

So to answer your question; it would depend on how NWC proceeded and how fast they got the sequels released with few or no bugs

[Logscale]

Here's the big problem: Video games have gone too mainstream, the dumbed-down masses demand ever-more graphics at the expense of everything else, and big publishers want to make everything compatible with both PC and console so they can double dip on their products.

I've been looking for more party-based combat-oriented non-online games with a real-time option similar to Might and Magic 6-8. It's almost like no one makes them anymore. Most party-based games these days are MMOs or online (I blame WoW for that). The most recent single-player party-based role-playing game with real-time combat I can think of is Mass Effect 3 (which isn't even close to MM6-8 style).

The main problem is that Might and Magic 6-8 just wouldn't work anymore.
-Can you envision MM6-8 on a console? I can't, which means that no big publisher (90% of the video game industry by assets) would spend significant resources making anything remotely resembling MM6-8.
-Video games have gone too mainstream and their intended audience has become too dumbed down, these days most people wouldn't be able to handle controlling 4 characters at once in real time.
-Might and Magic was never about graphics. Premium games these days are required to have the latest graphics or get downvoted by idiotic rating lists and stooges who can't look past inferior graphics and enjoy an otherwise well-made game.
-I have also been looking for fan projects inspired by MM6-8, MM6-8 mod projects, etc. A few are successful but most simply collapse over time. This shows an unfortunate lack of interest among everyone except a relatively few fans who enjoy and remember the classics.

No one would seriously make anything similar to MM6-8 these days because most people would have no clue how to appreciate it (and that would generate little or no revenue). It would make about as much sense as cooking sophisticated fine dining cuisine for a crowd that has no taste buds.

When I was a lot younger I used to want to develop video games for a career. Over the decade 2003-2012 I watched video games go increasingly mainstream, big publishers eating all the small business-type developers, originality going extinct, graphics over everything else, the video game industry becoming more like the movie industry, the dumbing down of video gamers in general, and the online account-based DRM model where there are no refunds (except in Australia and some nations in Europe). When I look back at it, I'm happy that I didn't end up working in the video game industry - because very few people would appreciate anything that I envision. With a few big publishers owning most of the assets in the industry, it's little wonder that there's almost no originality anymore.

There are plenty of indie games but those have their own share of problems: usually lack of content or lack of quality. The existing video game industry has likely become corrupted beyond repair - I can't think of anything short of another complete video game industry crash (similar to what happened after the Commodore 64 era) that could fix its problems.

tl;dr; the old way of video game design has gone extinct due to big publishing and the dumbed-down masses, and the classics likely aren't returning for a while.

[GreatEmerald]

I don't really agree. When it comes to graphics, that's first impression and it's true that you generally expect games that are out in 2014 to have graphics fit for 2014. That means high resolution textures, particle effects, lighting and material effects. But that's not even hard to do these days! Unreal Engine 4, for instance, allows making maps that look decent for today's standards in a week (see Unreal Tournament 4 DM-Spacer, for instance). For high-budget games some extra graphics capabilities are expected (hence why DM-Spacer will have to go through several more phases of refinement: UT has always been the ones to push visual boundaries and that's expected by now). But if the game has good gameplay and content, than anything decent will do.

Another thing you're underestimating is the indie scene. It has seen a huge resurgence and I don't see it stopping any time soon. It also brought in a huge paradigm change. First all of the indie devs used the Unity3D engine because it was the affordable way to get said decent graphics. In turn, Unreal Engine and CryEngine have both become much more affordable, and UT4 is now developed to be a completely free game, with direct input from the community. That's a huge paradigm shift, it shows that even the big publishers are getting affected by this.

In the end I believe that we are already undergoing a change in the market. Old leviathans like EA and Ubisoft will have to adapt or die. If they end up going the 3DO way of releasing more often but more crappy games with known titles, they'll certainly die. If they learn from the indie scene and take up their strengths: listening to the community, no DRM, cross-platform PC support and modding support, then they'll be able to thrive once more.

[the beavers1]

-Can you envision MM6-8 on a console? I can't, which means that no big publisher (90% of the video game industry by assets) would spend significant resources making anything remotely resembling MM6-8.

Actually I can, because Might and Magic 8 was released on the PS2 in Japan

[Xfing]

Well yeah, the observations about the state of the gamemaking industry and the player base are quite accurate. Games these days are all package but no content. Flashy, graphically beautiful, but boring. Even the kids who play it admit it freely - you simply do not play any game that has appeared later than say, 2005 for longer than a few months tops. You get a sequel then - and you play it for another few months before it's not "in" anymore, and you have to play another sequel. Or, if there is no sequel, you simply stop playing the game and never get back to it anyway.

But look at MM7 - people still play it 15 years after it was made and love it. People still play Doom, and keep making lots of levels for it. Descent too has a small but faithful and proactive fanbase. Plenty other games are like that.

But what do you think about the topic of this thread? I mean the lost storytelling potential.

[GreatEmerald]

Who knows! It's true that they could have gone to interesting places. The world of Axeoth is certainly interesting, and in the Might and Magic series they could have delved more into the whole Ancients thing.

Then again, I also had the feeling that even starting with MM6:MoH, they started losing focus in that regard. In the previous games we had a much more direct involvement of Corak and whatnot. HoMM4 did have some interesting tidbits here and there, and in general the writers seemed to be hell-bent on subverting tropes, but there was little backstory overall. Maybe not surprising after the Forge fiasco. But then MM9:WoF didn't seem to be going in quite the direction, either.

So the potential was, and still is, there. All we need is someone to actually make a game while listening to the direct input from the community. We definitely know more about the story and where it could go than the game designers could, at this point.

[Xfing]

I believe the games set on Enroth were but a respite from the primary plotline, which would have picked up full-force by MMX or XI... we'll never know I guess.

I started playing MM3, btw. I got used to it surprisingly quickly and so far I'm really liking it. It's challenging and fun, if slightly bit unpolished. I can't help but notice how much MM6 was inspired by these games. MM7 was another deal altogether - much easier and less elaborate. But still, MM3 rocks. I finally have something to play, haha.