What Sonalyst Got Wrong

[LoBlo]

I had a discussion on a newer game about DLC and it sparked a discussion about DW and what they got wrong.

The game probably didn't come close to the expectations of SCS. They had plans for frequent DLC to introducing new ships and models at time intervals for profit. Their plans however required them to stifle the mod community and forbid modding of the game in any meaningful way.

The game's persistent shortcomings were then compounded by the mod community's inability to freely improve the game experience. Those combined stifled enthusiasm and the player base fizzled out. There were some mods did develop but they were limited hack/slash jobs, or black market mods band from the forums.

Here's what SCS got wrong about modern gaming customers.

1. Your mod community is your *base*.
They are your most die-hard customers and have the most enthusiasm for your product. Their enthusiasm will last the longest and will continue to bring new customers more effectively than your DLC. Alienate them and you cut off your most loyal fans.

2. Some of the most successful games started out as mods.
Counter-strike's is one of the most successful games published and has its origins as a mod of Half-Life 2. It brought a whole new community to the original product and CS's developers were able to recognize and capitalize on. Unlike SCS

3. Mods are like a free focus group
Mods reveal what the fanbase really want. The mods that become popular tell the developers what direction to go and where the best return on investment for the future is. Its best if a developer to pay attention and then repackage what the mod community has done in official, professionally made products that mimic the mod's focus. The existence of the mod doesn't detract from future sales. The community will always prefer an official game development and a refined product over a mod and will still pay money for it. Its the responsibility of the developers to make sure their product is refined professional work to overshadow the mods hack and slash approaches.

In the end, SCS greediness and inability to see the advantages of an actively engaged community lead to their failure.

Odds are they didn't really even see their mistakes and missed opportunities. They don't understand the market and their customer base. They at one point could have cornered the market on modern sub sims reliably. It doubtful SCS will return to the gaming world as they've demonstrated that its a market they don't understand or can capitalize on.

What a shame.

[Stewy1]

Interesting points - I think another issue was that they realised that government/military work was more stable and lucrative than making commercial computer games (treading those lines between fun, simulation, technical detail (and the security issues!) and popular appeal (50 year-olds to 14 year-olds can play it)


I think Chazly posted a picture of updated models for the DDG (and a few others?) from their Facebook - for a possible 'DW2' - before it was shut down...

I see the company is still up and running - and they're hiring! (looking for engineers and also an 'ASW Expert' - start polishing your resumes fellas! )

https://careers-sonalysts.icims.com/...hed=-626006150

[Kapitan]

There's definitely quite a few points they got wrong no doubt about that, I think one of the biggest flaws of the game was using the same engine as their previous work Sub command.

Lets face it Dangerous Waters is effectively sub command but with some added playable like a Frigate P3 and Helo.

The game engine wasn't future proof and while in 2005 the graphics were close to top of the line that quickly faded with the onset of more powerful graphics cards and computers and the game engine just couldn't keep up.

On top of that if you over loaded the game with units for example if you wanted 3 high end carrier groups to go to war this would over load the game engine and crash it so it did really limit game play in some ways especially for large complex missions.

The gaming community IE those like me that were seawolves / Silent sharks and part of a group that played online the direct IP could be a massive head ache, you could spend hours sorting it all out just to get into game.

When the Mod community became active this had the result of splitting up the groups into smaller groups and eventually it died out.
There were loads of player for DW and SC and would run multiple games every evening and be full but when the mods started people went different ways.

Those mods would also cause problems as you had to play with the same mod as the others so in the end you had maybe 2 or 3 installs for the game for all the different mods and so became a quagmire.

Right now though it still is a good but dated game and the RA mod is doing good too.