Kingdoms of Amalur studio lays off entire workforce

Fighting Farmer · May 25, 2012, 06:48:20 PM

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/05/25/kingdoms-of-amalur-devs-lay-off-entire-workforce/

I had a bunch of comments floating inside of my head about this situation but after spending all day outside doing yard work I'm too tired to comment.

I will say I think the good people of Rhode Island should ask why their state government made a $75 million dollar start up loan to the unproven developers of Kingdoms of Amalur?

Nefaro · May 25, 2012, 07:36:24 PM

Quote from: Fighting Farmer on May 25, 2012, 06:48:20 PM

I will say I think the good people of Rhode Island should ask why their state government made a $75 million dollar start up loan to the unproven developers of Kingdoms of Amalur?

It's all about having connections with various politicians.

I did a little research on the game, and the FOV is a screwy close-up and very narrow view that gives some people, like me, a severe headache and nausea. Part of that problem was also made worse by the camera being directly behind the character's body, so your view to the front is blocked. Poor camera work. So I passed.

Staggerwing · May 25, 2012, 07:45:30 PM

I just caught a bit about this on NPR's Marketplace. Hopefully MMP was not financially connected to this sad turn of events. Word has it that Kurt Shilling may have lost a bucket full of his own money as well.

Nefaro · May 26, 2012, 09:19:27 AM

I read a few impromptu reviews that said the gameplay was fun but that the little things like my aforementioned camera issues really killed the fun factor.

I wonder why they never fixed such things that were so complained about?

jjdenver · May 26, 2012, 01:46:23 PM

I played it and liked it a lot. The only problem that I had with it is that if you do the side quests you sort of get ahead of the right level and it becomes too easy. But really fun game with great combat, character building, etc. There aren't many console RPG's that are even close to this - Skyrim comes to mind but in some ways this is slicker than Skyrim - the combat is really fun.

Fighting Farmer · May 26, 2012, 02:48:41 PM

I did a little research on the game, and the FOV is a screwy close-up and very narrow view that gives some people, like me, a severe headache and nausea. Part of that problem was also made worse by the camera being directly behind the character's body, so your view to the front is blocked. Poor camera work. So I passed.
[/quote]

I have the game and the default camera view is not my favorite. There is a key stroke that changes the camera to a behind the shoulder view which is preferable but the view does not stay in this position it always resets to the default view. Its not my favorite view but you get used to it.

I enjoy the game because I have to be the most uncoordinated gamer with the worst reflexes (Fallout 3 combat kicks my butt - thats how bad I am) but this game's simple combat makes me look and play like a real bada..

Overall, the game is a lot of fun but I put it down for a while because its a very long game if you do side quests (I have at least 50 hours into it with probably another 100 hours or more to go) and I was worried I would get burned out on it.

I guess that if you are skilled action computer game player the program would be way to easy for you but if you suck like me its very enjoyable.

Nefaro · May 26, 2012, 02:53:16 PM

So.. they never fixed the over-the-shoulder camera position? It's still directly behind the character, blocking sight (and too close)?

The videos I saw didn't look too bad, but they pointed out the terribly low FOV and camera location. Those were deal breakers for me.

eyebiter · May 26, 2012, 07:06:39 PM

.

Nefaro · May 27, 2012, 01:37:04 PM

Wasn't this game originally supposed to be an MMO?

Sounds like there was a lot of developmental changes and issues which always raises the costs and time. Poor sods.

Staggerwing · May 27, 2012, 01:59:22 PM

Quote from: Nefaro on May 27, 2012, 01:37:04 PM
Wasn't this game originally supposed to be an MMO?

Sounds like there was a lot of developmental changes and issues which always raises the costs and time. Poor sods.

I think that the MMO (different game) was still to come. They had another year or so of development time left.

Fighting Farmer · May 27, 2012, 06:15:27 PM

Quote from: Staggerwing on May 27, 2012, 01:59:22 PM
Quote from: Nefaro on May 27, 2012, 01:37:04 PM
Wasn't this game originally supposed to be an MMO?

Sounds like there was a lot of developmental changes and issues which always raises the costs and time. Poor sods.

I think that the MMO (different game) was still to come. They had another year or so of development time left.

There was to be a MMO to come. In fact the main project of the company was to develop and run the MMO. This link is a pretty good article about them that was published around two years ago:

http://www.wpri.com/dpp/news/long-odds-for-ri-backed-schilling-game

The rights to the MMO will become the property of Rhode Island if the company folds but its worth would not nearly cover the 75 to 120+- million the state is on the hook for. I read a article yesterday (could not find the link today) that said the current market for MMOs is very poor as evidenced by the Warhammer MMO being cancelled and converted to a single player game and that the Star Wars MMO has thus far performed well below expectations. The article estimated the rights to the 38 Studios MMO to be worth around 20 million.

son_of_montfort · May 27, 2012, 07:49:31 PM

This is said news. KoA isn't a bad game, it just didn't have the certain "je ne sais quoi" to make it compelling. Now it looks like we won't see some of its remaining bugs squashed. Also, I like Curt Schilling and I'm said to see his venture did not succeed.

Nefaro · May 27, 2012, 09:57:27 PM

Quote from: Fighting Farmer on May 27, 2012, 06:15:27 PM

The rights to the MMO will become the property of Rhode Island if the company folds but its worth would not nearly cover the 75 to 120+- million the state is on the hook for. I read a article yesterday (could not find the link today) that said the current market for MMOs is very poor as evidenced by the Warhammer MMO being cancelled and converted to a single player game and that the Star Wars MMO has thus far performed well below expectations. The article estimated the rights to the 38 Studios MMO to be worth around 20 million.

I went :o when I read the Warhammer MMO was cancelled. Then I realized you were talking about the WH40K one that isn't out yet. Hahah!

I had just been thinking of firing up Warhammer Online again, for some fun open world PvP sometime soon. I'll probably mess around in the free-to-play Tier 1 for a bit to see if I still got the itch. I read that they're adding the big strongholds back into Tier 4 along with some other open pvp additions so it got me wondering. And then you posted that right as I had started downloading the client, and I got alarmed. :P

Tpek · May 28, 2012, 11:17:08 AM

Quote from: Nefaro on May 27, 2012, 09:57:27 PM
Quote from: Fighting Farmer on May 27, 2012, 06:15:27 PM

The rights to the MMO will become the property of Rhode Island if the company folds but its worth would not nearly cover the 75 to 120+- million the state is on the hook for. I read a article yesterday (could not find the link today) that said the current market for MMOs is very poor as evidenced by the Warhammer MMO being cancelled and converted to a single player game and that the Star Wars MMO has thus far performed well below expectations. The article estimated the rights to the 38 Studios MMO to be worth around 20 million.

I went :o when I read the Warhammer MMO was cancelled. Then I realized you were talking about the WH40K one that isn't out yet. Hahah!

I had just been thinking of firing up Warhammer Online again, for some fun open world PvP sometime soon. I'll probably mess around in the free-to-play Tier 1 for a bit to see if I still got the itch. I read that they're adding the big strongholds back into Tier 4 along with some other open pvp additions so it got me wondering. And then you posted that right as I had started downloading the client, and I got alarmed. :P

I thought of coming back to WOAR as well, except I can't remember my password and the password reset ability doesn't work properly anymore :P

Nefaro · May 28, 2012, 07:08:41 PM

Quote from: Tpek on May 28, 2012, 11:17:08 AM

I thought of coming back to WOAR as well, except I can't remember my password and the password reset ability doesn't work properly anymore :P

Since Bioware & EA took over, I had to attach my Mythic account to my EA Bioware Account. Oddly, my old Mythic password was buggered and I had to have it reset via email before getting all that worked out.

So, yeah, I'd been kinda checking in on WHO to see if they've managed to reverse their buggering of the end-game open PvP, and having the big strongholds put back in is probably a plus. They're also reducing the PvP scenario tiers to three so that you still get some action in the (current) tier 2 & 3, much of which is being bolstered to Tier 4. Sounds like you'd get slaughtered by the difference in gear but there's supposedly extra boost for those on the lower side. *shrug* Can only be a good thing, anyway.

I really miss playing my gobbos. Warhammer has always had loads of style, huh? 8)