Blizzard 'confused' why other devs abandoning PC

[kiwi_2005]

Blizzard 'confused' why other devs abandoning PC; says MP experience is piracy solution.

Couple of kiwi journalists went to Blizzcon (jealous yes i am!) where ive been following their progress on NZ's main gaming forums. While wishing I was there.

full interview: http://tinyurl.com/lgmpn8

Blizzard still has plenty of faith in the PC gaming market, said Pardo, and "it sometimes confuses me why some developers have abandoned PC, because if you do a great PC game, it actually financially makes a lot more sense," because there are no license fees to pay to Microsoft or Sony as there are with console titles. "So I don't know why everyone's leaving it to us and Valve and a few others!"

However he conceded that it tends to be primarily multiplayer games that are successful on the PC platform now, because of piracy. Pardo does not expect Battle.net to completely stop piracy - "pirates are pretty clever guys, so I'm sure there'll be certain things they can do." He said this was why Blizzard has put such a lot of effort into Battle.net 2 - to "incentivise everyone ... to want to play on Battle.net." By making the multiplayer experience better on Battle.net, Blizzard hopes to discourage people from wanting to pirate their games.

Slowing piracy would work one way if devs aim for online activation like steam etc., I think its more the devs would rather not go there instead lets just move to consoles. Multi player focus games whether online shooters or mmorpgs is a better solution against piracy than just the straight out single player.
Example: Few weeks ago i put back on Teamfortress 2 did the bad thing of forgetting my login/pw so thought I would just create a new one thats when everything turned to mud. But after a couple of emails and proof - send image of actual key off the card to Valve plus the secret question which i had to search threw a zillion txts files on my hdd knowing i typed it down somewhere, they then enabled my game. That would make any pirate run away aiming instead for some game thats non activation required.

[Task Force]

Hmm... I hope that they dont go 100% multiplayer... Cause Some people like I never play mp... (well, other than IL2.)

[Zachstar]

If a dev does not exclusively go steam it is pointless to try in my view. Rampant piracy his done serious damage to the sim industry. And more people like me are going online to get things that can work on multiple computers with just a moving of a folder.

[donut]

nattydread
I suggest this with each release of SH...Persistent Online Campaign!
It can be a UBisoft server, or it can be player hosted campaign servers...i dont really care.

The idea is that the server runs 24/7. It creates dynamic convoys and patrols over the course of a campaign(maybe 3 months). Players log in progress through the campaign just like the single player campaign...but not you have the opportunity to run into other players at sea.

Wrinkles to iron out: Maintaining flexibility of time so players can accelerate time as need.

I propose that time be accelerated on a sector by sector basis. That time acceleration be set to the lowest time multiple of any person within the sector. That convoys, patrols and task forces be stratigically placed/spawned in sectors of ocean in relative close proximity to where players are activly patroling(that doesnt mean you'll have convoys dropped in your lap, you will still need to patrol and cover lots of ocean to find, stumble or be vectored to contacts). All spawned convoys, task forces, patrols will be spawned outside of sensory range of any player in the sector(to prevent "drop-ins" of visible or auditory/sonar or radar contacts out of no where).

Time acceleration will cause some anamolies in day/night cycles and plotting. I suggest that all time be server based and all plottings and time marks be elapsed time...so even if you accelarate for 18hrs elapsed, if only 3hrs of game time based, thats what your clocks will show, thats what the day/night cycle will show, but your timers will still show the 18hrs passed...mainly for accurate plotting of targets and such.
Not intended to be off topic, but players need to know/understand advantages.

[nattydread]

Ha, thx for dragging my post over . Ive been adding more to that thread. That particular post and a second as been added and/or edited in the thread. Its pretty quiet now, only Donut responded.

Multiplayer is where its at. Its the sure fire away of maintaining interest and viability of the game because human interaction always creates a dynamic a single player game never could.

The human condition of man vs man is surptisngly resilient and compelling. Provide a well designed medium for it to flourish and it will all but perpetuate itself...that could also perpetual income for those who step up to the plate a deliver such a well designed game.

My current favorite game of all time is a multiplayer WWII sim(air, ground, limited...very limited naval) all in a persistent 1/2 scale campaign area....Ive been on it for 8yrs, some of that time with two accounts, paying $13-15 a month.

There are a few of us who are SH fans, weither they show up here on the forum is another question, but if they are here, they know what I speak of without even naming it(in fact I learned of SH5 today from our Harbour forum...S!).

[kiwi_2005]

Originally Posted by donut

nattydread
I suggest this with each release of SH...Persistent Online Campaign!
It can be a UBisoft server, or it can be player hosted campaign servers...i dont really care.

The idea is that the server runs 24/7. It creates dynamic convoys and patrols over the course of a campaign(maybe 3 months). Players log in progress through the campaign just like the single player campaign...but not you have the opportunity to run into other players at sea.

Wrinkles to iron out: Maintaining flexibility of time so players can accelerate time as need.

I propose that time be accelerated on a sector by sector basis. That time acceleration be set to the lowest time multiple of any person within the sector. That convoys, patrols and task forces be stratigically placed/spawned in sectors of ocean in relative close proximity to where players are activly patroling(that doesnt mean you'll have convoys dropped in your lap, you will still need to patrol and cover lots of ocean to find, stumble or be vectored to contacts). All spawned convoys, task forces, patrols will be spawned outside of sensory range of any player in the sector(to prevent "drop-ins" of visible or auditory/sonar or radar contacts out of no where).

Time acceleration will cause some anamolies in day/night cycles and plotting. I suggest that all time be server based and all plottings and time marks be elapsed time...so even if you accelarate for 18hrs elapsed, if only 3hrs of game time based, thats what your clocks will show, thats what the day/night cycle will show, but your timers will still show the 18hrs passed...mainly for accurate plotting of targets and such.
Not intended to be off topic, but players need to know/understand advantages.

Sounds like a great idea I for one would be playing this if it ever took off.

Im thinking more MMO here: 'World of Silent Hunter' (WOSH)

Start off as beginner you work your way up - like the single campaign but your playing the campaign online, starts of easy and gradually gets harder as the years go by. Once you reach peak lvl or completed say 80 missions on your own you are then given the choice of a new boat to keep as your own with its own unique name you get to choose.
With your new boat and reaching elite status you then have to upgrade your boat by doing the elite campaign where everything is set on high realism with the AI permanently on highly aggressive. It wont be easy - attacking convoys / taskforces can only be delt too in groups (player wolvepacks). Rewards will be earning yourself medals & reputation points you can spend for upgrading the best of the best gear. Once you get a certain amount of medals & done a hell of a lot of oceanic grinding (missions) you level up to the XXI boat where you can carry on doing Random generated missions helping guildies in wolvepacks your have the XXI so they will want you to join their group to sink that taskforce they been trying to sink for the past week now or you can re-roll and start a new career from scratch.

And if Silent Hunter MMO worked no doubt Ubisoft will put out update patches with new missions for the elite players with options of making your boat better etc., Of course as i said before being a MMO to get the gear you will have to grind for months out at sea aiming for the tonnage/rep score needed. To kill the grinding out at sea where it becomes to tediously-boring gameplay, random stuff needs to happen while on patrol - Enemy AI submarines attack, Air-strikes on your boat, new orders - spy missions, infiltrate bay etc., ???

Yeah i know sounds a bit to wracked but probably be amazed at how many players would become addicted to this gameplay - I know i would.