Seriously, Hitzel, just get a bunch of people together and start making games already. You obviously think about it enough XD
Anyways, I agree and disagree with the Arcade game idea. The reason why H3 has so many "competitive" players is because it has a massive player-base to draw from, many of whom were hooked by H1 and H2. Likewise, Shadowrun has fewer "competitive" players because it has smaller player-base. This is for three main reasons, IMO. First, Shadowrun has no single player, which cuts the number of potential players in half from the get-go because users without XBL simply had no reason to buy the game. Second, Shadowrun differentiated far too much from its concept source (the SR PnP). I was surprised to find how many people were turned off by this; it's really unfortunate. And third, because Shadowrun is a "thinking man's game" by nature in comparison with other shooters. Games based around thought processes are much harder to get into, and, very inacessible to a large number of would-be "competitive" gamers. Once again, unfortunate. My point here is this: the main obstacle you will face in the development of a competitive Arcade game is gaining an adequate level of popularity for the game to lure in the audiences and competitive gamers required for the game to be successful. There two things you MUST do in order to accomplish this. First, market. I'm talking viral marketing, word-of-mouth, legit ads, and everything else. For a game like this, you could build alot of hype "underground", but you'd still have to make a considerable effort to do so successfully. Second, make the game fun to watch. Most games (read: FPS games) simply aren't that fun to watch. Yes, there are MOMENTS that are fun to watch, but as a whole they tend to get boring. If you can keep gameplay away from that, then you'll have a much better chance of success within the competitive community.
BTW, it is probably possible to create a game like this with the user-created content tools that MS has provided for the underground/hobbyist game developers out there. I can't remember the name at the moment, but I think I have a trial on my comp somewhere.
There was something else I had to say, but I can't remember what it was XD So I'll end this WoT right here.
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"This city deserves a better class of criminal." Waiting for APB |