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Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018

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Re: Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018

#211

Post by mr_luc »

Jach wrote: post #173
jplayer01 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought Quake Champions would be the best chance for the genre to be revived. With how popular LoL and DotA and Overwatch are, it seemed like a mix of the traditional arena shooter with special abilities/spells would be a good way to attract that audience. It hasn't. Maybe because Bethesda's efforts still lean too heavily on traditional Quake and they're unwilling to really embrace the RPG/ability aspect of MOBAs.…

There's a lot of game design baggage that big IP titles just can't resist including, I'd expect an arena revival to come from an indie shop trying new things and importantly leaving out a lot of other things. I wouldn't mind seeing Tribes sledding in more stuff though.

"Skiing" -- a physics bug that could cancel out friction with the ground, which (together with the game's wide open terrain and jetpacks) was so beloved by the community that it became the identifying movement mechanic of the franchise.

Re: Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018

#212

Post by merlincorey »

Rebelgecko wrote: post #188
kaoD wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to add gun mechanics. PUBG has the best gunplay I've ever played. For me PUBG fights are thrilling, like I was there getting shot at, while Fortnite's (or any other game for that matter) are plain old arcadey. I dislike the building mechanic too. I'd genuinely love for a developer to step up and do a better milsim BR but so far PUBG is king in that niche.

PUBG definitely took a lot of inspiration from Arma's gunplay, although for whatever reason the glitchy jankiness in Arma annoys me less than it does in PUBG. Maybe because the bugs in PUBG tend to have a greater impact on the outcome of fights.

Player Unknown (the PU in PUBG) was a well known Arma modder, so this is entirely unsurprising in that light.

Re: Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018

#213

Post by wnevets »

wnevets wrote: post #103
tudelo wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course there are games that already have proven this, most notably League of Legends (which is also mentioned in the article).

Don't you need to pay for "champs" in LoL? That sounds very P2W to me.

[flagged]

Re: Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018

#214

Post by TeMPOraL »

Felz wrote: post #170
Viker wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are just nit picking. He is talking about the closing circle game mechanics. Yes simple but yet genius.

Like almost all game mechanics, I'm fairly sure I saw this in a WC3 custom map half a decade ago.

Or even in a StarCraft (the first one) map. AFAIK, MOBAs were invented in SC/SCBW, and refined with the original DotA - the W3 map.

(Tangentially, I'm still amazed at the variety of gameplay ideas people were testing in SCBW and W3's UMS maps).

Re: Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018

#215

Post by thatoneuser »

lghh wrote: post #121
aphextron wrote: post #43

I don't really like Fortnite, but I'm really really happy for Epic's success. PUBG was a flaming dumpster heap that only caught on because the Battle Royale mechanic is naturally fun and people were clamoring for that type of game. But it was an unqualified mess from a subpar developer, and that always annoyed me because gamers deserved better. Now Epic has been rescued from sliding into obscurity and they've got mas…

While I agree that PUBG is a dumpster heap technically, it really is a legitimately fun game. I enjoy it much more than Fortnite, and if it performed halfway decently it would be one of my favorite games of all time. I think Fortnite's success is great and it is very clear why it is more popular than PUBG could have ever hoped to be, but I will always be partial to the slow, suffocating, horror of feeling alone in th…

PUBG was a truly unique gaming experience. It’s just a shame that they were so slow to rollout maps and make basic mechanical changes early enough. I got oversaturated and haven’t played it in about a year. Just can’t dedicate 15 mins on a single match to die from technical shortcomings.

Re: Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018

#216

Post by arkem »

usaphp wrote: post #6

What does HN people think on the whole idea of stealing concept from PUBG? I am kind of divided on this topic.

I don't think it's a problem at all except for the small issue that PUBG is an Unreal Engine game and there's a possibility that Epic's inside information about PUBG benefited their development of Fortnite. It's all just speculation (and a settled lawsuit?) but it's an awkward piece of the genre's history.

Re: Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018

#217

Post by kbenson »

AJ007 wrote: post #210
lotyrin wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really odd to watch people see them as "the Fortnite company" and ignore/discount the Unreal engine, etc.

I actually see them as the ZZT company.

Oh man, for some reason Epic Games and Epic MegaGames were distinct in my head. Two companies, one which made ZZT, Jill of the Jungle and Jazz Jackrabbit, and the other which starts with Unreal.

I loved ZZT back in the day.

Re: Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018

#218

Post by kbenson »

huhtenberg wrote: post #187
mtgx wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are talking about the Steam-competing store Epic launched recently: https://www.epicgames.com/store/ It's pretty empty now but I'll be shocked if it doesn't have thousands of games within the next 3 years.

The store is closely curated by Epic, and that - the quality of game selection - was their main pitch for the gamers. It's still possible that they will exhaust a pool of good games and start listing random junk for $100 like Steam does, but that's not likely to happen that quickly.

Seems like Steam could pretty much fix that problem if they changed the fee to $200, and doled out $@-$5 credits to random people that reviewed similarly tagged games along with a copy of the game that's good for 5-10 hours before needing to be purchased (or until a certain date), as long as they give a thorough review of what they were able to see.

Steam already tracks time played in the game, so it's not like they would have to add a bunch of mechanics to track extra stuff, and this would allow for some fairly good initial reviews to be seeded.

Re: Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018

#219

Post by Jach »

mr_luc wrote: post #211
Jach wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of game design baggage that big IP titles just can't resist including, I'd expect an arena revival to come from an indie shop trying new things and importantly leaving out a lot of other things. I wouldn't mind seeing Tribes sledding in more stuff though.

"Skiing" -- a physics bug that could cancel out friction with the ground, which (together with the game's wide open terrain and jetpacks) was so beloved by the community that it became the identifying movement mechanic of the franchise.

Whoops, embarrassing slip of the tongue with a different winter activity...

To make up for it here's an article for those interested in implementing Tribes physics with skiing. It's not really just some notion of "friction = 0". https://floodyberry.wordpress.com/2008/02/20/tribes-1-physic...

Re: Epic Games banked a $3B profit in 2018

#220

Post by [deleted] »

lghh wrote: post #121
aphextron wrote: post #43

I don't really like Fortnite, but I'm really really happy for Epic's success. PUBG was a flaming dumpster heap that only caught on because the Battle Royale mechanic is naturally fun and people were clamoring for that type of game. But it was an unqualified mess from a subpar developer, and that always annoyed me because gamers deserved better. Now Epic has been rescued from sliding into obscurity and they've got mas…

While I agree that PUBG is a dumpster heap technically, it really is a legitimately fun game. I enjoy it much more than Fortnite, and if it performed halfway decently it would be one of my favorite games of all time. I think Fortnite's success is great and it is very clear why it is more popular than PUBG could have ever hoped to be, but I will always be partial to the slow, suffocating, horror of feeling alone in th…

[deleted]
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