In this month's developer round table, we talked about investments, development, and marketing with chairman/CEO Chris Rowan and Director of Communications/Project Producer Ben Dean.
I liked how when they were talking about a possible Trailer for Pantheon and Ben Dean brought up how he was reading some comments on Trailers released at the latest games-con and people were saying things like "Cutscenes look great but what is the actual game like". I totally agree and have been saying it for years; If you don't show me actual in game footage so I can tell what it would actually be like to play the game I'm not going to be interested in your flashy trailer. And putting in hyper-speed half second glimpses of gameplay footage doesn't cut it. I would rather a Trailer actually show me 60 seconds of somebody actually playing the game rather than 5 minutes of Flashy cutscene CGI.
GoofyWarriorGuy said:I liked how when they were talking about a possible Trailer for Pantheon and Ben Dean brought up how he was reading some comments on Trailers released at the latest games-con and people were saying things like "Cutscenes look great but what is the actual game like". I totally agree and have been saying it for years; If you don't show me actual in game footage so I can tell what it would actually be like to play the game I'm not going to be interested in your flashy trailer. And putting in hyper-speed half second glimpses of gameplay footage doesn't cut it. I would rather a Trailer actually show me 60 seconds of somebody actually playing the game rather than 5 minutes of Flashy cutscene CGI.
I could not agree more.
A flashy trailer instead of game footage tells me they arent proud of their game footage, and thats not real promising.
I like the idea of using the gameplay to supplement a narrator, like a person in a bar telling a story to the people around him, flashing to in game footage as his voiceover continues and he describes the action, or varitions of that theme. That allows the writers and artists to embellish the characters in the "live" portions while showing off the real game in the flashbacks. Or like in heist movies when they explain their plan while you get cuts of them performing each task.
I 100% agree that trailers that are nothing but prerendered video are useless to me as a consumer.
I still get chills when I watch EQs original trailer. It wasnt gameplayfootage but it sure as heck spoke to my soul. Though I do agree gameplay footage is a must, having something that showcases things in a dynamic way to give the viewer a sensational excitement about what the game brings and its "draw" is equally important.
Agree but for slightly different reasons. CGI cut scenes cost money. Spend that $ on gameplay and in game resources. Blizzard spends god knows how much on their cool little movies that we watch once... Not worth it imo.
GoofyWarriorGuy said:I liked how when they were talking about a possible Trailer for Pantheon and Ben Dean brought up how he was reading some comments on Trailers released at the latest games-con and people were saying things like "Cutscenes look great but what is the actual game like". I totally agree and have been saying it for years; If you don't show me actual in game footage so I can tell what it would actually be like to play the game I'm not going to be interested in your flashy trailer. And putting in hyper-speed half second glimpses of gameplay footage doesn't cut it. I would rather a Trailer actually show me 60 seconds of somebody actually playing the game rather than 5 minutes of Flashy cutscene CGI.
At first glance it feels like it may not be worth the money. But a good cgi/animated trailer can really bring a world and it's characters/lore to life. In a game where lore and story driven progression/immersion is the brand, I think a CGI could go a lot further than people think. This is a vast, beautiful world that one can hopefully easily get lost in and engrossed. If it's a reasonable price, I am all for CGI to help set or showcase Pantheon apart from others.
I think any MMO with just in game footage looks underwhelming. It's just the nature of the beast whether it's WoW or anything; the combat doesnt look thrilling or graphically impressive for any MMO in my experience. When it comes to in game footage you'd want to show the huge gaping canyons and sprawling landscapes/mountains per their scale, and show some footage of some cool AoEs from bosses or some cool abilities from classes (the ranger flying up to ledges with his bird, or the rogue dropping a huge rope down for friends to climb up comes to mind). Basically showcase what's different and enthralling about Terminus (ie what makes it different from other MMOs and what will get people wanting to explore it).