Larian's unfair advantage
Larian's unfair advantage
credistick.com
Larian's unfair advantage - Credistick
This post was inspired by two things I saw recently: The connection between these two items is not obvious, but it is interesting. The lemon problem WeFunder, for the uninitiated, is a crowdfunding platform for (primarily) technology companies. It allows community-oriented startups to sell a small % of ownership to their users and supporters.
All of that, except maybe the supportive community, are traits which the huge gamestudios/publishers like EA and Ubisoft also have. I'm pretty sure it would be hard for ubisoft to claim inexperience when developing the next assassins creed for example.
I think the main difference, as mentioned in the article, is the vision. Ubisoft wants to make the next games in their money making franchises. Larian wanted to make a good game.
The gaming industry is designed to fail in this economy. The objectives of "maximize return" and "make something fun" rarely overlap. Best they can do is trick people into habitual play and hope they can't distinguish between an occasional dopamine drip and fun.
Games with narratives, no financial gimmicks, and good old-fashioned fun mechanics (subjective) will always get my attention. Fuck EA, Activision, ubisoft, Bethesda. Got too big. Priorities got twisted. I pity the designers and creators with passion there.
The saddest one to fall was definitely BioWare. Larian stands on the shoulders of a giant but that giant is currently a shell of its former self.
I agree 100% with you! Just a tiny thing I'd like to add: Ubi does, aside from some shitty practices, microtransactions and a ton of stupid money grabbing games, actually makes also a lot of good games. Their "Indie" games series form a couple of years ago had some games where you could feel the love the people making them put in. Valiant Hearts will forever be one of my favorite gaming experiences be!
I would say CD Projekt is somewhat similar to Larian. Or maybe I should have written was in the time of Witcher 3. Although I find Cyberpunk very nice and unique game, the hype and broken promises + state of game during release was more like Ubisoft or any other big game cashgrab company. Unfortunately. I sincerely hope Larian won't repeat CDP's mistakes.