That’s encouraging, since I just purchased a Liteon DVD-ROM. ;)
Arrrg. DVD is way over due. I should have expected 10+gb what with voice acting, high resolution textures, and the content of an mmorpg, but I didn’t.
Oh and Sony seems to be very serious still about EQ. They are flying 10 people out to their headquarters for a sit down with the devs and a baseball game. My guild is currently arguing with each other over who gets to go, though being mostly comprised of shut ins and introverts (i kid, i kid) it’s more over who has to go rather than who gets to go =)
Depending on who we send the dev team is in for an earful. This could turn out to be a great idea since the dev team will have to listen with no distractions like a con.
I agree stuff should come on DVDs now. I dont own a drive but I would buy one if there was a gaming related use for it. More than 2 CDs is annoying, 5+ is just crazy.
olaf
I’m not sure why you’re using the average number of CDs as the determining factor for when the DVD switch occurs, unless you’re saying that producing 20 CDs is financially the same as producing 3 or 4 DVDs, which I find hard to believe.
What companies SHOULD be looking at is the number of consumers who have DVD ROM drives.
Hell, if you want to get picky, moving to DVDs means less wear and tear on the consumer’s drive (less ejecting and insterting of discs), the ability to store more games on a shelf (both a consumer’s shelf AND the retailer’s), among other benefits.
I think you’ll find that many consumers might just balk at the idea of installing a 20-CD game.
10 CDs is absolutely ridiculous. Not only that, but 10 CDs that will undoubtedly come in paper sleeves. :evil:
As both a developer and a consumer, I look forward to the changeover to DVDs for PC games…
10 CDs doesn’t bother me in the least. I don’t see the big deal. Yes, I have a DVD drive (sitting in my closet) but why should SOE limit the game’s audience. If you want to play EQ2, you will install 20 CDs.
Forget polls. People lie in polls. People who want to play EQ2 or any other game will shell out $20 to buy a DVD drive. I’m sure there were people back in the day that said they wouldn’t buy a CD-ROM to play Myst or whatever. Guess what. they did. DVD-ROMs can be put right next to your CD burner or whatever. At the very least, all games larger than 600MBs should ship a DVD version for those of us who have real PCs.
i had a dvd drive. it got kinda clunky. i dumped it, and my 24x cd-rw has sufficed ever since (1.5 years). i’ll get a DVD drive the first time i find a product i want that’s DVD-only.
For me at least, its not so much the installation. Its the storage. With multiple cd games you have to store the discs all in one place. And when you want to do a reinstall you have to make sure you have all the discs.
With one or two disc games is much easier to store and retrieve the discs for later usage. DVDs are a must for future games. Image if game copanies keep using CDs and the trend continues. Those discs will add up. Imagine buying 5 games in 2005 and having to deal with storing 40+ discs. It needs to stop. The line must be drawn somewhere.
If past is prologue, you can put the EQ data on DVDs yourself for storage. EQ had little to no registry crap to worry about.
Ok, put aside for an instant the issue about the 10 CDs:
HOW DAMN YOU’LL BE ABLE TO PATCH THIS MONSTROSITY?
Why does this post not surprise me?
WHAT YOU SAY !!
Somebody setup us the bomb!!!
Considering most of the patches from EQ are tiny little executables and config files I am not really concerned. Of course this means they won’t be releasing much free content but they never did that much to begin with. That’s what expansion packs are for, milking your customer for another $30.
Having seen some videos EQ2 is looking incredible. The ocean scene with waves was jaw dropping though most of the art direction is lacking any sense of direction unlike WoW. Of course I am feeling a little concern because I can visibly see the camera chop as they pan around and that’s on a demo video. I can’t imagine what it will run like under most conditions.
Of course I am feeling a little concern because I can visibly see the camera chop as they pan around and that’s on a demo video. I can’t imagine what it will run like under most conditions.
Well they admitted in this month’s PC Gamer that there isn’t a computer that exists yet that will run it with all the bells and whistles turned on.
The problem is that there isn’t a compelling reason to upgrade to DVD for most people. With CD drives, we needed those to get games that could only play on CD, like the Wing Commander games with cinematics. Inconvienent software installation is hardly a strong argument for upgrading.
The game industry needs to come up with some games that require a DVD to play. Something like that will spur upgrading.
Yes, in the case of EQ2 the problem isn’t the Dvd drive, but all the rest of your pc to let run the game (hard disk included).
I’m not sure how many will be able to overcome this significant accessibility problem. Success like EQ, FFXI and UO are what they are now exactly because they are accessible.
No is correct. There was a footprint in registry that had the singular purpose of uninstall through add/remove programs. Otherwise, copy/pasting the folder is the only thing you needed to do. Why more programs don’t do this is beyond me.
Gendal:
Do you run a fansite, or does your guild run a fansite? The scuttlebut on the Fires of Heaven board is that they aren’t actually inviting any players of guilds that know what they are talking about… just fanboy fansite operators.
envy rears its ugly head!