AAARHG!!!! Fuck you, Mickey Mouse!

[jorgebonafe]

I feel my childhood finally completely broken by this news....
I hate you, Disney.
I hate you.

http://youtu.be/46xR70X21YY?t=29s

[Azdoine]

I sense a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced...

[FlowerChild]

Honestly though: has Lucasarts made a good game in the past decade? I may be wrong, but I can't remember any.

[Wafflewaffle]

Well 1313 looked cool. I would love to play as a gunslinger in a jedi world. If done right of coarse.

[jorgebonafe]

Honestly though: has Lucasarts made a good game in the past decade? I may be wrong, but I can't remember any.

That's true... But it still makes me sad. I guess only time will tell if this was a good thing or not...

[FlowerChild]

That's true... But it still makes me sad. I guess only time will tell if this was a good thing or not...

I guess part of my ambivalence towards this is that the word was in the game industry that Lucasarts was one of the worst possible places for a developer to work. Supposedly they treated their devs like shit.

I have fond memories of some of their games from back in the XWing days, but that's a very long time ago. Anyways, I can't really escape the feeling that Disney made the right move here.

[Haidaes]

Hmm the linked video already tells the story pretty well imho. There was like 1 kinda ok game in the last decade they made themself (if you like paying 12 bucks per hour of entertainment), all the others were outsorced. Their logo showing up on alot of star wars games is what makes people believe they made these games, but across the board they are at best consulting. Their glory days of old school adventures are long gone and given their track record they would probably never return anyway.

[Solymr]

It's been a very long time since I saw a LucasArts game, even more for a good game.
They had some of the best adventure games out there, Grim Fandango and the Monkey Island. Then they went to shit.
I miss those games like I miss Sierra's games.

[FlowerChild]

I miss those games like I miss Sierra's games.

Ah...now Vivendi I can get behind in the hate department :)

They killed so many awesome studios when they bought them.

[Solymr]

It's too bad that making CoD games and expanding WoW isn't going to make them realize that they're not catering for the real gamers out there.
At least they aren't royally screwing their own customers over like EA. Or everyone involved for that matter.

[Lars]

I miss those games like I miss Sierra's games.

Ah...now Vivendi I can get behind in the hate department :)

They killed so many awesome studios when they bought them.

At least Vivendi seemed to have the decency to let Blizzard do it's thing before they merged with Activision. Bobby Kotick seems to have only money on his mind, and it's showing.

[FlowerChild]

At least Vivendi seemed to have the decency to let Blizzard do it's thing before they merged with Activision. Bobby Kotick seems to have only money on his mind, and it's showing.

Not so sure about that man. When Vivendi bought Blizzard, most of their key people left. I think that shows in the difference with their recent games, as some of the magic has definitely been lost.

Blizzard games used to be absolute must-plays. Now they're still good, but not quite the same thing, and I haven't even been tempted to buy their last two as they just strike me as more of the same.

All I really see Blizzard doing now is milking their old designs rather than innovating in any real way, whereas their games used to basically set the standard within the industry.

[FaceFoiled]

I've been in love with Blizzard since Diablo 1, but yeah - not really any "new" stuff and mainly updates/adds to their existing IP's. Let's hope we see some cool new stuff from Blizzard at the next Blizzcon. =D

[PatriotBob]

I've played Blizzard games since the original warcraft and I love them.
But I'm going to have to agree with FC on this one, lately their games are just missing the depth or something. Magic may be the best term.
While their recent games are polished, detailed and have plenty of depth and style. They just are missing something that makes me want to play them continually.

Most people will claim that it's nostalgia, but I somewhat inclined to say it something more than that. It's like with all the modern technology available, the games don't show any of it. They flashier, their faster and look amazing. But none of that makes a game.

[FaceFoiled]

It's like with all the modern technology available, the games don't show any of it. They flashier, their faster and look amazing. But none of that makes a game.

I don't know about that though. Take WoW as an example, playing on a a specific realm or server does not mean anything anymore due to Cross realm play. You can simply party up with a buddy and play together on either realm. This is also automatically done for most of the zones that you play in, to get more activity in zones.

The whole cross server intergration is pretty new-gen in my book. :P (granted, I don't code, but to me it seems data is stored on a specific server for a reason. Having it move between servers constantly is mind boggling to me).

Another feature that I love, is the dynamic questing. You go through a story line, and the environment changes around you as you do. The whole phasing of zones and area's really adds to the story line. "blowing up an enemy camp? It's actually gone now :D". The whole phasing aspect again, layer upon layer of environment.. sexy stuff. :P

[Lars]

At least Vivendi seemed to have the decency to let Blizzard do it's thing before they merged with Activision. Bobby Kotick seems to have only money on his mind, and it's showing.

Not so sure about that man. When Vivendi bought Blizzard, most of their key people left. I think that shows in the difference with their recent games, as some of the magic has definitely been lost.

Blizzard games used to be absolute must-plays. Now they're still good, but not quite the same thing, and I haven't even been tempted to buy their last two as they just strike me as more of the same.

All I really see Blizzard doing now is milking their old designs rather than innovating in any real way, whereas their games used to basically set the standard within the industry.

I can't say I'm really familiar with what happened when Vivendi bought Blizzard, but is that what caused Bill Roper amongst others to leave and form Flagship? The whole Blizzard North exodus definitely damaged Blizzard. And their current games are indeed a lot less appealing. I've played Diablo 3, but not for long. I found it extremely disapointing, because it did not at all top it's predecessor in any way. I'm not sure about Starcraft II, but I don't think it's that much different from SC1 either. A shame really, If there ever was a company I'd hate to see go to hell, it would be Blizzard. Unfortunatly it seems to already have been mangled beyond recognition by money hungry publishers.

[FlowerChild]

I can't say I'm really familiar with what happened when Vivendi bought Blizzard, but is that what caused Bill Roper amongst others to leave and form Flagship?

Yup.

There was a period there about a decade ago where Vivendi was gobbling up studios and killing them left and right. I don't know if they've gotten their house in order since, but they seriously had no idea what the fuck they were doing when it came to games.

[TheGatesofLogic]

Speaking of blizzard, they may be only okay game designers(their only recent success IMO was StarCraft 2, and that in particular because I'm an RTS maniac), but they are genius when it comes to marketing and player action-reward ratios. Look at WoW and tell me you dont see some incredible abuse of the effects of gaming on the human mind to incite addiction.

Basically WoW is voodoo (and about as addictive as nicotine)

[FlowerChild]

Yeah...I've always had the good sense to stay away from WoW entirely. It will probably surprise many to know I've never even tried it...not for a minute...and my policy is pretty much the same on it as using any drug that involves using needles :)

[FaceFoiled]

I'm tempted to hook you up with a new account, just to see what it would do to you now. :D

[FlowerChild]

I'm tempted to hook you up with a new account, just to see what it would do to you now. :D

Hehe...no...fuck that man. I've managed to avoid it all this time (smack too), so no way I'm going to go chasing the dragon at this late date ;)

[FaceFoiled]

Slightly more ontopic, but in line with the recent discussion:

Any Magic The Gathering fans out there? (or even Yu-gi-yoh/pokemon..?). The card game that is. :) Blizzards new free to play game: Hearthstone is similar to the WoW cardgame, yet simplified for online play. One the one hand, it's yet another usage for their IP (WoW/card game), so not really anything new. On the other hand, it looks addictive :(

[TheGatesofLogic]

Yeah...I've always had the good sense to stay away from WoW entirely. It will probably surprise many to know I've never even tried it...not for a minute...and my policy is pretty much the same on it as using any drug that involves using needles :)

Yes, I totally understand. In fact the only reason i ever played it was because I needed to see how their reward system worked in such a way that promoted its sale and the pleasure of playing the game. I played about 4 hours of game time total and damn it is a good game! Luckily I actually have a life so I immediately stopped playing because I was worried...

[JiiKoo]

Any Magic The Gathering fans out there?

*raises hand*
Though I wouldn't necessarily call myself a fan, that communicates a much greater dedication than mine. Haven't bought new cards in a year or two, it got kinda expensive... I'm still perfectly happy to play and stuff, though. Also played Pokemon back in the day and some games of YuGiOh, too. As for the WoW card game, I've played a game, I think? I'll have to look up that Hearthstone thing and see what it's like, though I'll have to try and avoid actually playing it. I'm sure it would be pretty addictive and "Free to Plays" usually end up being quite expensive in the end :P

I can see why they'd do that, though. Since Duels of the Planeswalkers has done at least quite good (don't know actual sales), and since Blizzard has a card game backed by a strong IP of their own, it's easy to see why they'd want a slice of that cake, too.

[Solymr]

I might be a strange person but I played WoW for a time and I didn't feel it addicting at all. In fact I got bored of it and stopped playing.