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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

#271

Post by chillacy »

munchbunny wrote: post #42
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 didn't even blink, there's tons of precedent everywhere for copying the concept and doing it better than the first person. Minecraft wasn't the first to do what it did (commonly Infiniminer gets that credit), neither was Unreal Tournament (Quake), neither was Starcraft (commonly Dune 2 gets the credit, but also Age of Empires came out, did well, but didn't become more or less an official South Korean sport), nor Wo…

I tend to agree but at the same time it’s hard to square that with the theory of IP (vs it’s implementation where the game mechanics can’t be patented), which says that nobody will be incentivized to develop new things if there is no state protection against copying.

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

#272

Post by flor1s »

zanny wrote: post #198
cheeseomlit wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You still need to have the raw mechanical aim skill Not even close to the extent you need to have it for a fast-paced AFPS. Watch some top-level quake gameplay and compare it to top-level Overwatch gameplay, it's night and day. Hell, some OW characters even aim for you or don't need to aim at all to be effective (Winston for example) >but now there are a host of other mechanical, tactical and cooperative skills to m…

It also doesn't help that almost all arena shooters support cooperative team deathmatch, capture the flag, etc. The only difference is a lack of role specialization between teammates. But the scene isn't as big for those as it is for 1v1, because its already overwhelming trying to track two people operating at peak performance, let alone 8 or 12. Its a niche of a niche.

The gameplay of games such as Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Quake 3 Fortress and Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory was very satisfying because they felt like arena shooters (due to their use of the Quake 3 engine) but were early examples of games having role specialization.

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

#274

Post by munchbunny »

chillacy wrote: post #271
munchbunny wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't even blink, there's tons of precedent everywhere for copying the concept and doing it better than the first person. Minecraft wasn't the first to do what it did (commonly Infiniminer gets that credit), neither was Unreal Tournament (Quake), neither was Starcraft (commonly Dune 2 gets the credit, but also Age of Empires came out, did well, but didn't become more or less an official South Korean sport), nor Wo…

I tend to agree but at the same time it’s hard to square that with the theory of IP (vs it’s implementation where the game mechanics can’t be patented), which says that nobody will be incentivized to develop new things if there is no state protection against copying.

I agree that the line is blurry, but I think there's a workable line.

1. You are still given a monopoly over selling your game, and someone else can't just make the same game using your assets, so at least you get to make money from your work via copyright.

2. It's a game, so I would argue that it's not worth as much to society to let you monopolize selling of a game mechanic as opposed to, say, a mechanical design. (I'm fully aware of patent controversies, but we're talking about games so I'm staying at broad strokes.)

3. I think there's an argument to be made that games are more like art than machines, and thus they count enough as speech that over-protecting IP rights in games would have a chilling effect.

Just some thoughts.

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

#275

Post by techsin101 »

joejerryronnie wrote: post #228
user5994461 wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meaning they will be provided with free beverages.

And my favorite perk - “unlimited vacation”. Nevermind the social stigma is so strong against taking vacation that employees use far less than if they were just given a certain number of vacation days.

True story .. took 1 PTO per month.. took total of 3 in 4 months I was told I'm abusing it and no longer available to me

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

#276

Post by techsin101 »

lanevorockz wrote: post #190

All gaming companies could have made huge profits. Most game companies opted to be condescending and preach personal politics into peoples hobbies. It's not about fun but it's about education.

Instead of working on a game for few years and releasing something innovative they want to release new but really 1.2 version every year with 20 dlcs in between. We Map editor - nope

Lan gameplay - nope

In a way counter strike is better

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

#277

Post by alan_wade »

disposedtrolley wrote: post #248
makewavesnotwar wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're missing a lot of what contributed to Fortnite's success. Namely their ripping off of pretty much every one of Valve's most lucrative decisions of the past 10 years and in principle - Free to play. Fortnite was pretty much a failure when it first launched. Sure they copied PUBG's last-man-standing game mode, but what really made it take off was that you didn't have to pay for the game. You could get it,…

Not even a desktop; a phone, tablet, console, and god knows what else they release it on. I think another major contributor to Fortnite’s success is the scale of cross-platform play that we’ve rarely seen before. Chances are if you have a thing that can connect to the internet, that thing is capable of running Fortnite. They’re like Facebook not just because they have the money to steal any concept and build it in ho…

Anything except Linux apparently.

Unreal Engine works on linux, and Fortnite used to work through wine, but because of their anti-cheating system it's broken now, and their CEO doesnt seem to have any plans for the linux version, he has some weird stance [1] on that.

Such a bummer, I really wanted to play it.

[1] https://twitter.com/timsweeneyepic/status/964284402741149698

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

#278

Post by daneyh »

lwansbrough wrote: post #266
gameswithgo wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fortnite is free, pubg isn’t. Keep that in mind when comparing.

Tell that to anyone who has a kid playing Fortnite. They're either spending money or declining to spend money constantly. Fortnite is free in the sense that it's free to walk into a bar.

I've really enjoyed my 20hrs+ playing fortnite without spending any money through the platform. I'm happy for other people to pay for useless items and subsidise my experience.

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

#279

Post by daneyh »

Waterluvian wrote: post #163

Fortnite's pivot from failed co-op zombie game to... well, this ... is incredible. I would love to have experienced that office environment over that year. I can only imagine that the pivot was a "well, we already have most of the game. What can do we do with it?" hail Mary as they considered what to do short of closure. I may also be misremembering how dire their situation was. But I thought it was quite dire.

After Unreal Tournament 3 and Unreal Tournament 4 ( still pre-alpha) you could probably extend that 'dire' 'office environment..' to quite a few years.

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

#280

Post by alan_wade »

makewavesnotwar wrote: post #246
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…

I think you're missing a lot of what contributed to Fortnite's success. Namely their ripping off of pretty much every one of Valve's most lucrative decisions of the past 10 years and in principle - Free to play. Fortnite was pretty much a failure when it first launched. Sure they copied PUBG's last-man-standing game mode, but what really made it take off was that you didn't have to pay for the game. You could get it,…

Awesome comment! One thing I have problem with is that you keep saying "ripping off" or "steal". There really shouldn't be any shame in taking 2 existing good ideas and using them to make something better, something widely successful.

TF2 or PUBG could've done this but didn't, fortnite did, and nailed it, and now we all get to benefit.

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