Q&A: September 9th, 2020

Ethan McArthur Asks
What is your opinion on Star Citizen? Do you think their vision is achievable? 

I've written about five different answers to this question and running into a dead end, so let's just say, I don't know what to think about Star Citizen. The only time I'll have any thoughts on its goals, ambitions, and execution, is when it properly releases. If it properly releases.

The Great Leveler Asks
What is your favorite type of game to play co-op? Ever since playing Divinity 2 I really want to start playing more RPGs with friends. 

Not sure if I have a particular preference, being that co-op games are hard to not be fun by the virtue of friends coming along for the ride. But I absolutely love silly over the top campaigns, in the same way I love watching silly over the top movies.

Only what's better about a game like Resident Evil 6 is that the absurdity is both planned by the authors and created by the players, which is something not nearly enough co-op games balance. They typically fall into one of two extremes.

DaCody Asks
With such a dry market and new consoles on the horizon... What do you think will be the next multiplayer shooter craze?

Impossible to predict, but can it please be Max Payne shooters?

Nah, that won't happen, but I suspect destruction tech, like what's seen in Teardown will be a part of it. Those are mechanics we've only scratched the surface of in Siege, Battlefield, and Red Faction. Giving players a mechanic that is simultaneously so creative, versatile, and agency driven, while also being so relatively accessible, is typically how the next big thing takes off.

But of course, it's probably something completely different, as nobody ever knows what the next big thing will be.

OzarkTempses Asks
Do you feel that overdramatic trailers, games as a service and day/week/month one patches have changed our expectation of what a finished product should be?

Yes and no.

It's true that the frequency of unfinished games being released has resulted in upset customers, far more often than the good old days. However, at the same time, I think we're also a lot more forgiving, being that Destiny, Siege, Fortnite, etc, were all games that released in questionable state, and are now dominating the industry.

So I think if anything, we're a lot more forgiving of game launches than we were before, or at the very least, we're more easily pulled to giving a game a second chance if its got a decent enough marketing campaign and feature set.

Sandraincloud90 Asks
Have you played either of Black Rock Studios racers? If so what are your thoughts on them?

I actually owned of the games they created before they were rebranded as Black Rock. Crash 'n' Burn for the PS2. Though admittedly, it seemed quite neutered compared to Burnout games of the time.

Pure & Split Second are games that I own, but have only played the demos for when I was a Teenager, so I can't comment on them too much, but are curious to see how they stack up, far removed from their original competition of Nail'd, and Blur.

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