[0rph3u5]

Hey,

who will be in Colonge next week to look at some marketing? - I will be there for the weekdays (I got a trade visitor-pass, so I can dodge the crowds at the weekend)

Anyone else going?

[Phantom Hoover]

make sure you visit the star citizen booth for the world's largest display of **** all

[The E]

I'll be there on Thursday.

[crizza]

Was at Gamescom 2012... was disappointed, hoped to get to talk to some storyboard writers, but nope...

[0rph3u5]

make sure you visit the star citizen booth for the world's largest display of **** all

I almost posted a pic of their buisness area (a plain white cube) as response ... but Im not getting into that argument


Just out of the SW Battlefront VR-Demo; only thing that would have made that cooler would have been an actualy flight stick

[Det. Bullock]

Just out of the SW Battlefront VR-Demo; only thing that would have made that cooler would have been an actualy flight stick

You know that will never happen, right?
Flightsticks have effectively been erased from history, remember when they were more common than arcade sticks?

The base battlefront game refused anything that wasn't a bloody 360 gamepad, I sincerely doubt they'll add support.

Yeah, I'm feeling a bit depressed today.

[0rph3u5]

You know that will never happen, right?

I know, of course
But it should also illustrate to you how powerful an experience this was (esspecially if you consider I'm still in the "VR is just a hype fad"-camp)

[Phantom Hoover]

The period immediately after the initial Early Access release of House of the Dying Sun was a pretty good insight into what an endless pain in the arse it is for developers to support the million billion different incompatible varieties of flight stick.

[FrikgFeek]

The base battlefront game refused anything that wasn't a bloody 360 gamepad, I sincerely doubt they'll add support.

It's a relatively common problem with modern PC games not supporting dinput devices. So you either need a gamepad that supports xinput(the 360 gamepad is one of them obviously) or an emulator like x360ce that can translate a dinput device into something the game can use(you might have to tweak it a bit to get the right axis and button layout). Games for Windows Live did it 9 years ago and it's been very common in console ports since about that time.

That's why I like having a gamepad that can switch between dinput and xinput on the fly. Pretty much all joysticks are and will be dinput for the foreseeable future because xinput is limited to the amount of buttons and axes of the 360 gamepad which just isn't enough for most proper joysticks(especially if you also want rudder pedals).

[JCDNWarrior]

I had the pleasure to go to Gamescom this year, only for a Saturday though. Going to have to plan it better, get tickets and hotel/other accomodations early, that sort of thing. Not surprisingly, everything was sold out long ago.

I felt it was great, well organized, friendly and open despite all the trouble in Cologne lately (No removal of bottle caps or worse, having to throw away/consume any food and drink before entrance, plenty of bathrooms and places to refill bottles of water, no ID checking after entrance, etc.) and even could get in earlier than expected, at the North entrance. First booth I found was THQ-NordicGames, they have some really interesting games on there. A police chief simulator, a very pretty looking point-and-click called Silence, a turn-based strategy Vikings RTS, Spellforce 3 (to my happy surprise, also got myself a T-shirt) and a city builder 'The Guild 3" I believe it's translated. Had a conversation with one of the devs for Spellforce 3, turned out to be a fellow Dutchman halfway into the English conversation.

Another great thing was seeing Farming Simulator 2017 having center stage (literally) with plenty of people hanging around it with great interest. Seemed so out of place but very glad for the devs and fans. Another thing I liked was seeing a sequel to Vikings: Battle of Asgard called Wolves of Midgard, which played well so far in my opinion.

Overall there's way too much to see in a time span of eight or so hours, I've probably only seen 30% of it all, at best. Seems every publisher had at least a few interesting or even unique games on display and it seems like there's a rise of tiny publishers who are also bringing forth some pretty interesting games. Lots of indies too. Sad I didn't have the time to look into the Retro and more indies' area, last year that was really great to visit too.

Definitely been worth the cost since travelling to and from sure isn't cheap this time for me. I envy Germans who live nearby the Koelnmesse for this kind of event.

[Klaustrophobia]

I will NEVER understand how games like farming simulator are popular.  Is it really about addiction like it's mobile/facebook cousins?

[Phantom Hoover]

No, not in the slightest.

[JCDNWarrior]

I will NEVER understand how games like farming simulator are popular.  Is it really about addiction like it's mobile/facebook cousins?

Hard to say for sure, but what I can gather so far is that it fills a gap in the market, it's 'fun for the whole family' and has a tint of education to it while it brings back the good old Simulators era from around 1994-2000.

When Farming Simulator 2014 and/or 2015 came around, a lot of Youtube people started playing it too, to mess around in particular, try to break the game or do otherwise unexpected things which led to their unexpected popularity and financial success. I remember reading a surprised developer's thoughts on the Steam page for the 2015 version at the very least, promising to reinvest the success into making a much higher quality game with the 2016 version. Judging the interest in the 2017 version, it looks like they're doing a lot of things right for themselves and fans.

It might also just be that it's something entirely different from the things we've gotten used to in the mainstream.
After all, for years it seemed like there was very little space for anything that didn't mimic the biggest financial successes of their times, so there ought to be some factor of consumer fatigue and the search for something entirely new and different, which would also explain the growth of indies, small publishers and the revival of many genres and gameplay types/combinations.

It's not a big surprise to me that Germans/Europeans in particular are all about simulators though. I can't stop finding Railroad Tycoon, Theme Park, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Sims, Simcity and the like in the second hand bins for a euro each or even still on sale for several euros new in stores near where I live, even after basically clearing the bin of said titles myself as backup.

[Det. Bullock]

I will NEVER understand how games like farming simulator are popular.  Is it really about addiction like it's mobile/facebook cousins?

Hard to say for sure, but what I can gather so far is that it fills a gap in the market, it's 'fun for the whole family' and has a tint of education to it while it brings back the good old Simulators era from around 1994-2000.

When Farming Simulator 2014 and/or 2015 came around, a lot of Youtube people started playing it too, to mess around in particular, try to break the game or do otherwise unexpected things which led to their unexpected popularity and financial success. I remember reading a surprised developer's thoughts on the Steam page for the 2015 version at the very least, promising to reinvest the success into making a much higher quality game with the 2016 version. Judging the interest in the 2017 version, it looks like they're doing a lot of things right for themselves and fans.

It might also just be that it's something entirely different from the things we've gotten used to in the mainstream.
After all, for years it seemed like there was very little space for anything that didn't mimic the biggest financial successes of their times, so there ought to be some factor of consumer fatigue and the search for something entirely new and different, which would also explain the growth of indies, small publishers and the revival of many genres and gameplay types/combinations.

It's not a big surprise to me that Germans/Europeans in particular are all about simulators though. I can't stop finding Railroad Tycoon, Theme Park, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Sims, Simcity and the like in the second hand bins for a euro each or even still on sale for several euros new in stores near where I live, even after basically clearing the bin of said titles myself as backup.

European were also still way more into graphic adventures than the americans when the genere fell outof fashion in the US, it's almost like the triple A marketing industry being mostly geared towards american males doesn't take into account european tastes so they tend to be a bit less influenced by such trends.

[Klaustrophobia]

It's just that if I'm going to play a video game, it's not going to be about simulating tedious labor.

[The E]

I'm guessing you're not much of a Minecraft fan then.

[Det. Bullock]

It's just that if I'm going to play a video game, it's not going to be about simulating tedious labor.

Depends on what they simulate of the tedious labor, from what I've seen it's a lot about driving farming machines rather than use a pitchfork or other manual implements (which isn't that much fun really) and driving a vehicle is often fun on its own depending on personal taste.

I mean, even in Elite I mostly do space truckin', isn't that about simulating tedious labor albeit with a sci-fi slant?

[0rph3u5]

I will NEVER understand how games like farming simulator are popular.  Is it really about addiction like it's mobile/facebook cousins?

Not really, it is more about finding serenity in the predictable as far as I can see. Of course there is a stange sense of discovery about these games as well because it features depictions of details you usually gloss over when thinking of the subject matter. Last but not least, there is finding a challange in depictions of a complexity which usually out of view.

[Mongoose]

Honestly I think some of the appeal is getting an in-depth glimpse of an entire lifestyle that is largely out of the view of the majority of people today, yet is literally necessary to keep us all alive.  Plus I can easily see it being the sort of game where you can get in a zen state and just chill while you play it.  Digging huge amounts of blocks in Minecraft does the exact same thing for me.

[Klaustrophobia]

I'm guessing you're not much of a Minecraft fan then.

Never played it.