What is Lucasarts' problem?

Nikioko · Post by **Nikioko** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 10:44 am

SuperDre wrote:
Nikioko wrote:
SuperDre wrote: Destination treasure island isn't an adventure for me, I don't like the firstperson variants a lot, I'd rather order someone around
By that definiton, Myst isn't an adventure game either.
With "isn't an adventure for me" I meant "I don't like adventures like that" LOL..

OK, I got it.In that case, you must have big trouble with games like Agatha Christie, Sinking Island, or Reprobates.

Longcat · Post by **Longcat** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 11:33 am

But those games are not first person?

At least Sinking Island and Agatha Christie isn't.

Nikioko · Post by **Nikioko** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 12:08 pm

Jonatan wrote:But those games are not first person?

At least Sinking Island and Agatha Christie isn't.

Wasn't? I had it in my mind. At least for AC: And Then There Was None.

Longcat · Post by **Longcat** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 1:37 pm

That might be, I only played Murder on the Orient Express, which bored the crap out of me.
Sinking Island is most definitely 3d person though. I kinda liked this game even though it has it's flaws.

natlinxz · Post by **natlinxz** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 2:26 am

cyonge · Post by **cyonge** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 9:33 pm

fingolfin wrote:
Retrog33k wrote:What I meant to say is, why is lucasarts still holding onto the rights? Do they have anything planned for Monkey Island? Right now, it looks like nothing's being planned, so why hold onto the rights?
Because in the future, they *might* do something. Or not. You have to view it this way: Those assets have a *potential* worth. If they retain them, there is a chance (no matter how small it might be) that they might earn money with it again in the future. OTOH, if they release the rights, the chance is 0. So, from an economical point of view, it makes absolute sense for them to keep it. It's that simple.

So only reason for them to release those rights would be if there was money in it: Somebody buying the rights, or the hope that they get valuable positive PR out of it. IMO that was a motivating factor for Revolution Software -- they released Lure and BASS for free, and let us add support for Broken Sword 1 & 2, which in turn probably helped sales of Broken Sword 1 - 4, by means of (indirect) advertising, and good PR.

But LucasArts has currently no plans (AFAIK) to make new point & click adventures (or any non-Star Wars games). Hence it makes no sense to try to get good PR / advertisement in this area. I.e. the reason it makes no sense for them to release the rights to those adventures is *precisely* because they have no plans for new ones.

Monkey Island 4 isnt a point and click game. in fact, you dont even use a mouse in that game, and i actually like it better that way so it doesnt take forever and a day to walk guybrush back and forth...you can speed his walking with an easy shift key

Nikioko · Post by **Nikioko** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 5:34 pm

cyonge wrote: Monkey Island 4 isnt a point and click game. in fact, you dont even use a mouse in that game, and i actually like it better that way so it doesnt take forever and a day to walk guybrush back and forth...you can speed his walking with an easy shift key

That you can do by double clicking the spot you want to run to in other games. Or double click on an exit leavesthe screen immediately.

Longcat · Post by **Longcat** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 7:26 pm

Nikioko wrote:
cyonge wrote: Monkey Island 4 isnt a point and click game. in fact, you dont even use a mouse in that game, and i actually like it better that way so it doesnt take forever and a day to walk guybrush back and forth...you can speed his walking with an easy shift key
That you can do by double clicking the spot you want to run to in other games. Or double click on an exit leavesthe screen immediately.

This is most certainly not true for a lot of games.

ancalimonungol · Post by **ancalimonungol** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 12:20 am

They made Monkey Island games a cash cow. They will always sell in small numbers and yield steady income. This is not the right thing to do for a company.

SuperDre · Post by **SuperDre** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 5:42 pm

ancalimonungol wrote:They made Monkey Island games a cash cow. They will always sell in small numbers and yield steady income. This is not the right thing to do for a company.

The right thing to do for a company is make money... that's it.. You forget that an adventure game these days just doesn't sell enough to propably get the whole budget back.. It's much more expensive to create a commercial viable adventure these days then it was in the hightide of adventure games.. You like the games, I like the games, but the masses just don't like those games.. Also the 'vampire' game made by ex-lucasarts employee's (so it's kind of a lucasarts adventure) doesn't really sell well..
And when talking about cashcows, how about the new Sam&max games, the episodic gaming isn't something for me, I want a game that I can finish immediatly and not have to wait a while to be able to play the next level..
A company has only one obligation toward somebody and that's to the owners/shareholders, and the obligation is to make money, and sadly adventure games just don't make enough money.. and another thing, let's not forget the expectation people will have for monkey island 5, it will be so high that it will propably be impossible to achieve and surpass that expectation..

Nikioko · Post by **Nikioko** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 11:04 pm

Jonatan wrote:
That you can do by double clicking the spot you want to run to in other games. Or double click on an exit leavesthe screen immediately.

This is most certainly not true for a lot of games.[/quote]

Maybe, but this applies to the same amount of keyboard driven games. I just wanted to point out that the fact that you can run over the screen doesn't have anything to do with the device you use for navigation.

relapse808 · Post by **relapse808** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 4:39 pm

a 5th monkey island I think would suck. MI4 was already bad enough.

Nikioko · Post by **Nikioko** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 9:46 am

relapse808 wrote:a 5th monkey island I think would suck. MI4 was already bad enough.

That's what I said. LucasArts doesn't have the staff for making a graphic adventure any more, even if they wanted to.

SuperDre · Post by **SuperDre** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 9:51 am

Nikioko wrote:
relapse808 wrote:a 5th monkey island I think would suck. MI4 was already bad enough.
That's what I said. LucasArts doesn't have the staff for making a graphic adventure any more, even if they wanted to.

Remember, it's not like LucasArts makes all games themselves, most StarWars games haven't been made by LucasArts themselves for a long time.. So it wouldn't be hard for them (except maybe for pride reasons) to hire the team behind 'vampire story' which are mostly ex-lucasarts employees, or any other team..

bobdevis · Post by **bobdevis** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 10:44 pm

You know what's hilarious?
ftp://ftp.lucasarts.com/demos/
NOT selling Monkey Island (and other classics) but keeping the demo files online after all these years.. It is adding insult to injury.

"Here is the demo, now go deal hunting on Ebay if you want to play the rest of it..."

What is Lucasarts' problem?

Re: What is Lucasarts' problem?