Re: Why KoDP is not popular?

From: Short, David <david.short_at_...>
Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 10:01:17 -0500


>This is my first post here.

Welcome.

>I've been playing KoDP only a month, and this is the second time I am
shocked
>by a PC game intelligence ( Brian Reynlods' Alpha Centuari is the only
game of
>this class I can think of). In fact I think KoDP is the first fresh idea in
>gaming since Civ. However, unlike Civ, SMAC etc, KoDP remains largely
unknown.
>My quesiton is :why? What happened? There aren't even reviews or any info on
>large gaming sites like Gamespot, Avault etc. I myself accidentally found
out
>about it on EU forum (http://www.europa-universalis.com/forum/index.php ).
AC is a fine game. EU is a much better game than it has any right to be, but I still don't find it enjoyable to play.

>Although EU is a great game on its own, I find KoDP much more involving and
>non-trivial experience. And now compare their forum and this board: 13,400
>members vs. 222. Another example is Apolyton.net site. They had great
>influence on Civ gaming in general. (Yes,I understand direct comparison
>is not quite smart thing to do, but it does provide general picture).

>Anyway, I do think KoDP can be as popular as Civ, provided better
>'advertising',better website and appropriate forum. That could make
>KoDP2 reality..

There is a lot to chew on here and I'm not sure where to start.

The model A# used for the game was not one of several guys around a table pushing cardboard counters around a hexmap or gathered around pizza to play a rpg or a backyard capture the flag game. They set up a framework to tell a random interactive story. It's not a puzzle game where parts of the story unlock when you align the switchs in just the right way, it is something different.

I genuinely admire KODP, but what they did was so far outside the normal experience of computer games that it missed regular computer gamers.

Several magazines reviewed it. They didn't have a category to put it in. They didn't know what to do with it, so the mocked the graphics.

Since the game was outside regular categories, publishers were not interested and A# had to go it alone.

If David D. wants to he'll tell you about the experience of getting a computer game on store shelves. It boils down to major retailers want a significant chunk of change in order to stock a game, and A# didn't have the money.

The randomness and lack of determination and the lack of feedback turned off some members of the buying public.

I think Glorantha turned off several people. There is a significant investment in learning the legends and the culture and that turned some people away. Just learning the rythem of the clan year is something outside our regular experience and then there are all the hero-quests you must largely memorize.

So it doesn't appear in stores and it doesn't appeal to the regular audiance of on-line computer gamers, who are you going to sell to?

As I said I genuinely admire KODP. I would very much like to see what A# could do with a subject like running a fur trading post in Alaska or a treasure hunting expedition in Africa, something that could be marketed to schools along the line of the old Oregon Trail games.

One of my goals in life is to complete a hard/long game without reloading once. In several years of trying I've not managed it yet.

dfs

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