DB Target audience

#1

Removed

(Rex) #2

That’s a difficult question.
From SD’s view I would say it’s mainly new players who aren’t familiar with former SD games, but also their hardcore fans.
They key sentence in this case is probably the attempt to “try to please everyone”. New players, but also old ones.

It has to be more noob friendly than their past games. You can easily see that the game has already taken this way, if you start comparing.

#3

Removed

(Kl3ppy) #4

DB has a serious intendity crisis. It doesnt know what it want to be. I hope SD does know what they want to create. If they follow the way they are currently walking, DB will be a mixture of ET/ETQW/CoD/BF/TF. I dont know if this is a good mixture. I doubt that there will be a solid player base because everything you will have in DB is already on the market. There is a reason why BF is BF and CoD is CoD. Not sure if there is a market for a CoD/BF Hybrid.

(Silvanoshi) #5

Good question JBRAA,

With Dirty Bomb, we’re looking to target a relatively hardcore segment of the PC FPS playerbase. We fully recognise, accept, and embrace the fact that Dirty Bomb won’t be a game for everyone (few are). If you compare DB to AAA blockbuster shooters, our learning curve is quite a bit steeper, and it wouldn’t be too hard to argue that the skill ceiling is higher(obviously we’re going to try and make that introductory experience as pain-free as possible, but the very nature of the game means that it’ll be more difficult). DB is a game that will appeal to competitive FPS players who’re looking for a shooter in which they can really feel the benefits of investing time into growing their own level of skill and knowledge of the game.

We’re not targeting demographics for specific games, however it’ll appeal more to open-minded CS players than the casual element of the CoD community, and we’re fine with that :).

(stealth6) #6

[Serious] What is hardcore about DB?

Tracking is harder than the average game, since the speed has been increased, but apart from that?

[Rant] Every suggestion made by a hardcore fan has been dismissed as being archaic “stuck in the old times” and now you make a statement like this. Got a laugh out of me at least.

(Mustang) #7

What developers think learning curve is like: /
What it’s actually like: _

(Silvanoshi) #8

[QUOTE=stealth6;509939][Serious] What is hardcore about DB?

Tracking is harder than the average game, since the speed has been increased, but apart from that?

[Rant] Every suggestion made by a hardcore fan has been dismissed as being archaic “stuck in the old times” and now you make a statement like this. Got a laugh out of me at least.[/QUOTE]

There will always be someone who’s “more hardcore than you”. Hardcore is a relative term, hence I said “relatively hardcore”. If you take a look at the FPS market as a whole, Dirty Bomb falls closer toward the “hardcore” end of the scale than the majority.

[QUOTE=Mustang;509941]What developers think learning curve is like: /
What it’s actually like: _[/QUOTE]
You just underestimate how good you guys are, and how bad such a large portion of FPS players are ;).

(Mustang) #9

Learning curve doesn’t talk about how good or not a players are, it’s about adding things that take time to master, and I don’t mean a couple of weeks.

(stealth6) #10

Ah a true wordsmith. Serves me right for trying to find a straight answer, got to leave enough room to deviate in any direction.

I think the target demographic can be summed up as any PC(Windows) FPS player.

(Silvanoshi) #11

When you become good at something and go on to be for quite some time, it’s extremely easy to overlook what was actually required to get to that point.

(PixelTwitch) #12

lol the closest I came to feeling a learning curve was with Rhino, Sparks, Phantom and Aimme.
They where all unique in many ways and horrible in the hands of the untrained.

Then you gave Rhino a shotgun and nerfed his medics and removed the other 3 >.<
I am guessing they where removed so you could remove the things that made them unique, after all… the message was “removing them to bring them more inline with the other mercs” or something like that :frowning:

More abilities, weapons and variation please :smiley: <3

(Mustang) #13

Okay I shall be more specific, I can understand that the gamemode takes a bit of getting used to and each individual merc has a unique set of skills required that take time to develop, but what I’m specifically interested in is seeing improved is movement (see signature).

(Sun_Sheng) #14

[QUOTE=Silvanoshi;509942]There will always be someone who’s “more hardcore than you”. Hardcore is a relative term, hence I said “relatively hardcore”. If you take a look at the FPS market as a whole, Dirty Bomb falls closer toward the “hardcore” end of the scale than the majority.

You just underestimate how good you guys are, and how bad such a large portion of FPS players are ;).[/QUOTE]

Very true. I class myself as low/mid skill based on the number of players i come across who i think of as being “more skilled” than me. Having said that, I know I can cause problems if i put my mind to it, and on COD i was surprised at the noob level that was such that I ended up basing my level as being “if i don’t get accused of hacking at least twice in a night, I must be playing badly”. DB and/or ET levels are at least +1 to other FPS skill levels it seems

(Glottis-3D) #15

i hope, that i am the target audience. :slight_smile:

(tokamak) #16

Most of those sentiments are based in nostalgia though. Games can be ‘hardcore’ without going backwards in time. Shattered Horizon has shown that much.

(RasteRayzeR) #17

Overall I agree with the others. If you have a good tracking already there is no need to learn anything else to be successful in DB. Stick with a good merc like Sawbones or Fragger and just frag everything that moves (pretty much what I’m doing right now because there isn’t much other things to do). No real need for extended movement, no importance on mercs like medics or engies anymore.

Somehow I also feel the game is not as hardcore as it could be action-wise. Was part of the fun to know that as the engi defusing you were a #1 priority for both cover from your team and attacks from the offense. This lead to vivid and intense action which is somehow lacking currently in DB. For example in QW when you were repairing the objective and that you had people shooting everywhere around you, airstrikes falling, tanks firing just next to you you had that war-like feel. DB feels like golf somehow.

(warbie) #18

Speaking purely as a long term RTCW and ET fan - the only games i’m really passionate about - DB doesn’t do it for me. There are plenty of similarities, but too much of what made those games stand out is missing. I doubt I’ll be moving over on release and suspect the way I feel will be shared by most ex RTCW and ET players. There’s plenty of good to be found in DB, though, and i’m honestly hoping this whole moba meets ET meets CoD hybrid comes together and works out well. It’s certainly different and may well attract a whole bunch of new players - i’m just too close to RTCW/ET to judge objectively. One thing - the more SD embrace that this is a PC game, with all that comes with it, the better. Pretty much every major PC shooter these days is multi-platform and and such hampered by having to work with a joypad. DB isn’t and it’s a golden opportunity to do something special.

#19

Removed

(Erkin31) #20

If you take a look at the FPS market as a whole,

The current AAA market is bad so of course if you look the worst of the learning curve in FPS, DB can have some advantages.
But when I want to play to a new FPS, I compare it with other good titles, not the bad.
DB has a low learning curve in comparison of Tribes Ascend, ETQW, ET, QuakeLive, Shootmania, etc… (and, I imagine, the next Unreal Tournament).

So if the players of this kind of FPS (arcade/hardcore) don’t find the good learning curve that they want in DB, what will be the real audience which will play to DB ?