Interesting read on ED, SC & difficulties of the space sim genre

Barking_Mad

Barking_Mad
I read that over the weekend after I saw it on the Star Citizen forums - needless to say he was ripped to shreds. I'm sure people better versed with me will comment on Derek Smart, he's well....divisive to say the least, but that said it maybe gives an interesting overview of how hard this sort of game is to do and do well. Perhaps worth a read for those who are unhappy with the game and feel Frontier are 'just after the cash' etc.

I'd love to see FDev actually explain some of the problems they face in getting ideas from the drawing board into the game. It doesn't have to be in great detail, just some layman's explanations would be useful for people to read before the launch a "This game is crap" tirade.

Edit: He made no mention of No Man's Sky, which I found curious as it seems they are going to be able to pull off (at least in some form) planetary landings - so his comment about not thinking Forntier will be able is a little curious.
 
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Tarman

Tarman
After actually giving Smart a chance in this article, it's exactly what I predicted; him talking himself up as the greatest spacegame maker in history, and that if he couldn't do it properly, then it can't be done by some mere mortal.

This reminds me SO MUCH of the time Ralph Bakshi was talking trash about Peter Jackson's then-upcoming LOTR project. If Ralph couldn't do it proper justice in animation, then ofc the live-action film would suck even harder.
 

mossfoot

mossfoot
I only glanced the article but it did seem to focus a lot on himself, didn't it?

Not mentioning No Man's Sky given the whole planetary landing issue seemed odd to say the least.
 

Balfuset790

Balfuset790
mossfoot said:
I only glanced the article but it did seem to focus a lot on himself, didn't it?

Not mentioning No Man's Sky given the whole planetary landing issue seemed odd to say the least.
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Yeah, I got to about the end of the first section and just thought, 'You're starting this out bigging up yourself and your self-professed 'less than successful' games, seems pretty biased to me.' Of course, he freely admits that it's an opinion piece but still...
 

Whiterose

Whiterose
He does have a point on a lot of issues, and does have ther right industry experience, unfortunately that is let down by the self centred nature of the post.
 

PavelKCZ

PavelKCZ
sonichi813 said:
Stumbled onto this blog by Derek Smart and thought it was an interesting read and wanted to share. It really put some things in perspective for me about the scope of ED an some of the other games on the horizon. Read and discuss:

http://www.reaxxion.com/10195/why-star-citizen-is-likely-going-to-be-a-complete-disaster

Fly safe commanders
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Ehm, Derek Smart ? The boy with ego 1000x bigger than M class star ? I did not know that he is in IT bussiness after the Battlecruiser 3000 AD disaster. :)
 

Cmdr Raz

Cmdr Raz
This does seem to be mostly Smart talking himself and his work up, but he did kinda capture my feelings on ED quite well:

"Despite the fact that ED was delivered late, mostly unfinished, very buggy (it still is), and for non-space sim fans is as boring as watching paint dry, they delivered as promised. In fact, they exceeded my expectations because I wasn’t expecting, nor wanting, more than that which they delivered. What most of us wanted was a bigger and better Elite, with modern day tech. And they delivered in spades."

I was never looking for anything more than an upgraded version of one of my favourite games of all time, so even if PP and other additions may not live up to the standards of some players, all that is just gravy to me :)
 
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Defacto

Defacto
I couldn't read all of this.

It starts out with him basically going on about how he has a right to talk too like he is some kind of repressed whistleblower. Then, for the next 2000 or so words, he details his entire legacy of games and all their significant features. After all of this, I think he goes on to talk about SC and ED, shares his subjective opinion as fact and doesn't really justify any of it.

He might actually even have a good point. I just don't know.
 

mossfoot

mossfoot
Heh, he just commented on No Man's Sky:

Hi, since NMS is not part of the all-encompassing genre, is a totally different sort of game, and which has 100% doable technologies, regardless of how the game turns out, I didn't mention it.
I believe that they can pull it off because they didn't bite off more than they could chew; and to me, if they succeed, it will be a Minecraft level of success.
I als o didn't mention other space combat games for the same reasons.
My article was purely about the crowd-funding scene, as it relates these sort of massive games.
 

zombieapocalypse

zombieapocalypse
Interesting piece. Despite the self-indulgence, I think he does make some valid points. Though I don't see why he thinks that FD will be unable to pull off planetary landings.
 

sonichi813

S
Whiterose said:
He does have a point on a lot of issues, and does have ther right industry experience, unfortunately that is let down by the self centred nature of the post.
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This. I basically skimmed the first half of the article where he's praising himself and felt the second half of the article where he speaks on the limitations of gaming engines, and the problems with crowd funding and expectations to be very informative and realistic. I believe it's very important to temper expectations for anything with the reality of the hear and now.
 

Rubbernuke

Rubbernuke
zombieapocalypse said:
Interesting piece. Despite the self-indulgence, I think he does make some valid points. Though I don't see why he thinks that FD will be unable to pull off planetary landings.
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Since DB did it ages ago, and.it.fitted onto a floppy disk I think it would be easy. It's what you do there that is the question, and.why NMS looks to be a.bit dull in this area.
 

Katkon

K
Interesting read, though ultimately not a lot of new info. Also, I viewed the article as a bit of a shameless plug for the author's own marginally successful game franchise. Still, I suspect he's not totally off base, which is why I'm not a SC backer.
 

Jigster

Jigster
sonichi813 said:
Stumbled onto this blog by Derek Smart and thought it was an interesting read and wanted to share. It really put some things in perspective for me about the scope of ED an some of the other games on the horizon. Read and discuss:
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I've a lot of respect for the guy and indeed have played his games but I wonder if one or more of the projects turned him down for a job?
 

bend_r

B
Reads to my like a pitch for LoD if anything else. And I also got the weird notion of 'I couldn’t do it, therefore, they can't do it'.
 

CmdrPSB

CmdrPSB
sonichi813 said:
Stumbled onto this blog by Derek Smart and thought it was an interesting read and wanted to share. It really put some things in perspective for me about the scope of ED an some of the other games on the horizon. Read and discuss:

http://www.reaxxion.com/10195/why-star-citizen-is-likely-going-to-be-a-complete-disaster

Fly safe commanders
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Ooh, the creator of the idea of Battlecruiser 3000AD telling us all why space sims don't work on Roosh the 's Gamergate website. Hold me back, I must read it immediately.
 

Janichsan

J
Let's be clear: Derek Smart is an pompous idiot with delusions of grandeur. But this actually only seems to strengthen the point he's trying to make: if he thinks that even he could not achieve what SC is trying to do, and that he had to scale back his ambitions due to technical limitations, I'm inclined to believe him…
 
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