If immolation had a 1 billion dollar budget and was profitable/successful.

This thread asks, "what would you think the game be like if it had a 1 billion dollar budget and was successful and/or profitable", to each participant (poster) here, such that we might mutually amuse each other. The thread does not ask for thoughts on how the different development methods,marketing techniques,ETC, might be different, it just inquires about the content and form of the immolation under the influence of these resources.
But you can freely modify what the thread asks for if you want to.



My thoughts on what it will be like.

+------On the game

*NOTE
1. My ideas assume the game takes on a power if it's own and hires people to complete it.
2. My suggestions are a bit cynical, and suggest this game would be much like modern AAA games.
3. I know very little about how AAA games are handled
4. I assume the game goes commercial.
5. No offense intended, (well maybe except to those who lock content whose key comes in the form of money)

To start I'll give my suggestion. Taking a note from other high-budget FPS games and high-budget FPS games in general, I'd say that the game would become incredibly user friendly, in that everything would be obvious (intuit-able?) and everybody would figure out most of the functionality of a ability or weapon by using it about a dozen times, thus eliminating the need for tutorials (and perhaps descriptions). Additionally, there will be no complicated features that veer too far from the FPS formula (no coordinate sniper, no pony dual health, no reconnaissance sphere (see my suggestions for contexts))
I feel somewhat nostalgically "shocked" by the probable removal of tutorials, but I don't trust my sentiments.

The game will also probably be quite easy, being comparable to bioshock 2, halo 3, dead space, RAGE in that an experienced FPS player will have little difficulty beating the campaign, but the game would feature gameplay depth that those games have (I don't fully understand depth).

A game this large would probably have a multiplayer component (which I feel the game doesn't benefit from) which will probably take the form of some variant of "cops and robbers" or something akin to Splinter cell: Double agent's multiplayer. There will be a progression system featuring unlocks, which will be applied to perks,weapons,abilities,
etc. The multiplayer community will diminish by 30% or so every month.

The game will feature a TON of polish, easily comparable to diablo 3, halo 3, dead space 3, in that there will be things like multiplatform support, generally impressive graphics, celebrity voice actors, very clean HUDs, those 3D "pop out" hud elements. Although, there won't be small yet important customizing options (like rearranging the hud elements as if your view was a screen) because these features are too complicated or inconvenient for the average gamer to utilize. The game will be released for all major gaming consoles (Xbox-360, PS3, Wii).

There will be a lot of DRM softwares for the game that thoroughly discourage (but not prevent) players from pirating the game, this would have the unfortunate effect of suppressing a modding community.

+-------On the development

The game (as if it were a force of it's own) will "fire" everybody on the team currently (even piedoom) and replace it with top tier talent, likely binding some or most of those employees under some kind of contract (since huge budget games take about a year to make).


+-------On marketing

The game as expected, the game's release will be preceded by tons of ads on youtube, TV commercials, and will be advertized as a "top notch" stealth-survival game featuring a deep story (which I will not get at all), tactical combat, resource management, which then crescendos into scenes of ponies blasting each other apart with weapons (which goes against the stealth-survival themes of the game). This game will probably be featured on equestria daily at least 14 times and will have at least 200 comments on each feature.

The game will feature purchasable DLC content that unlocks features already in the game (which happened in Deus ex:HR) or DLC that adds new maps, or expands existing content, but the DLC content won't consist of stuff like horse recolorings, weapon paintjobs, new X-box 360 avatars.

The marketing department would also try and (successfully) bribe IGN so that their ratings will then be a couple of points higher that what the game would have normally gotten.

+--------On the future

The game will (inevitably) be successful due to the large marketing budget, and AAA appearance and gameplay, and several sequels will be made, each raking in greater sales than the last. However, each game will take 3 years to develop, so sequels will be reasonably infrequent.

The game's sequals will increasingly action packed eventually reaching the point that the game won't be classified as a stealth game anymore. (like what happened to dead space) (but the reverse happened in serious sam and doom)

This thread confuses me.
Are you complaining about how the modern gaming industry? What is your point here?

Maybe I posted this in too great a haste.

What the thread asks each participant of the thread this question "what would you think the game would be like if it were exposed to these resources/successes, and was suddenly commercial" so that we could create humorous nonsense, from which we could use to mutually amuse ourselves (taking a note from my vicious habits on the diablo 3 forums.)

My suggestion above is not so much a criticism of the current gaming industry it is just my attempts at creating entertaining "junk" derived from "emotions" of games under the influence of such resources and aspirations (although I can see how I might be reduced to a whining troll by what I have posted above, I hoped that beginning the thread with the phrase "in the interests of entertainment" would permit such behaviors).

Welp. It is for most of the reasons you have listed there that I'm quite glad Immolation is free and independent.

I'm concerned that this thread could all to easily appeal to our worst tenancies, (which is something we could get our fill from other sources (diabo 3 forums, planetside's forum archives)) and due to the metaphors (associations) of the word "brony" (love and tolerance) has, and my value of those metaphors, I will permit any single objector to type is this code "521ERP" without quotations into any one of their comments of this thread, and when I see that, I will delete the thread at the my first convenience.

I do this instead of simply deleting the thread due to the possibility that somebody would actually like this thread, and that it might fulfill it's intended purpose (entertainment) and it may lead to many wonderful conversations and comments (and it may get piedoom thinking), if that occurs, (the goodness) the code will be revoked, and this thread will continue it's existence here.

If things get really bad I'll just delete it regardless of the code due to concerns about our mental health.

Do not fear. If things get bad we'll delete this ourselves. You make some nice observations of the trends of so called AAA games in recent years. Some of the ones I dislike the most. The reason I seem to be reacting poorly to this thread is that you point out many things that I don't like about modern gaming. In fact, many of the things you mention we have mentioned specifically that we don't want to be in the game at all.
They miss the purpose.
Once again, a common trend in modern gaming. A place that I hope that Immolation doesn't go.

But for the sake of re-railing this thread, I'll try to come up with something funnylike...
I'll probably edit it in later when I'm feeling more funnylike