Publishers are eying Thief again...

Gambit on 20/9/2007 at 00:22

But we must give them at least a chance.
Otherwise it´s nihilism: "We can´t let anyone make Thief 4 because it will never be as good as Thief 1 and 2"

jtr7 on 20/9/2007 at 01:25

Give them a chance? Money and the promise of more is the only reason they would go ahead with it, or a philanthropic gift, from an outside source, which completely erases any money worries and will pay all the employees and overhead, etc.

Peanuckle on 20/9/2007 at 02:25

I would rather enjoy a new thief. Sure, it may suck, it may not be up to par, or it may just be too different for some people's liking. However, if we, the arguably single largest collection of Thief fans out there don't like it, we could simply ignore it as canon and continue with our lives. When games get as famous and well loved as Thief, they live in the fans. Just look at all the FM's and projects. Why should we let a developer with an official title tell us what the next story is when we could produce something better. (Given the same time and equipment, of course...)

Gambit on 20/9/2007 at 14:45

Let´s put it in a stoic way...

If Thief 4 flops and sucks then we will just ignore it, and keep with Thief 1 and 2. Therefore no real damage for us.

But if it is awesome then it will be excellent for us because:

-There will be new thief fans that will also discover the awesomeness of the first games.
-The comunity will grow and there will be hopefully more people engaged in creating new maps.
-If it´s an insane success it can even try some new medias like novels/films.

Let´s hope it´s like the Batman films.
Batman is a classic.
Batman 2 is a classic.
Batman 3 and 4 are a mental suicide.
Batman Returns is awesomeness and saved the Batman movies.

qolelis on 21/9/2007 at 08:15

Quote Posted by Gambit

If Thief 4 flops and sucks then we will just ignore it, and keep with Thief 1 and 2. Therefore no real damage for us.

Yes, we (as in "the old fans") can always keep to what we already have and love, but a bad sequel could scare off potential new fans and we will eventually need new recruits, but, on the other hand, an official game could of course also "lure them in".

The problem with a commercial Thief is that it will most likely never be as good as it could be if made by long-time dedicated loving fans who can take all the time they want and need, in order to finish their project. A sequel needs to be made by someone who knows what Thief is really all about. All the money in the world cannot change that fact.

Maybe if game-publishers could finally realize that they cannot rush a work of art (yes, I consider a game as much a work of art as any movie or novel). No one would release a movie that was half-done and patch it later, but that's what often happens in the gaming industry today. Sure, every once in a while a game gets released that really is as good as it could be, but that's the exception.

So, it's not only up to the developers, but it's also up to the publishers to allow the developers to create a great game.

I say no to any commercial sequel/prequel or whatever in my own and very humble way:

[CENTER]NO SEQUEL![/CENTER]

[SPOILER]But at the same time I cannot stop myself from hoping that a commercial Thief would be everything that even the most long-time dedicated loving fans could ever dream of and even be better than the first two games. Yeah... [/SPOILER]

Maladict on 21/9/2007 at 18:27

When and if the idea for Thief 4 seeps into people's minds they promptly need to separate it from TDS, especially, and the first two Thief games. It cannot and will not be anything like them and it's unfair to judge a new thief game based off what happened with TDS. This time around it's a new developer who will be taking it on. We also can't judge Bethesda based on their other games because frankly they have nothing to do with the Thief universe and I think each one of their games has captured their own unique feel, as I'm sure they will do with Thief too. I think Bethesda is a great choice, I mean they have enjoyed alot of success with their games and I tend to think that it would be the same for any game they get their hands on. But that happens to be my judgement based on their past games and I'm going to keep an open mind for the future of Thief. Come What May.

New Horizon on 21/9/2007 at 20:03

Quote Posted by Maladict

If it's nothing like the previous games, then what's the point of making it. ? LOL

Maladict on 21/9/2007 at 20:59

Well, sure it needs to be an official Thief sequel but I think in order to be great it needs to stand on it's own two feet and separate itself from the other games. It's kind of hard to explain what I'm getting at but I believe that's what has to happen.

Thief 2 was different than Thief 1 and did quite well commercially. Thief 3 was different than the other two and it didn't do quite so well. I don't think that we can judge whether a new game will flop like TDS or be as good as T1 and T2. This is a new developer afterall. I hope that helps a little bit more to understand where I'm coming from.

Opal-Eyed Fan on 23/9/2007 at 02:55

A fourth Thief game would be nice. I pretty much disliked TDS and it never felt like real "Thief" to me, but if the next Thief will take place in a modern setting as I believe was the plan before IonStorm went bellly-up then it won't remind me much of TDS, and it could turn out to be as good as T1 or T2. Nobody knows that yet, but I'd sure buy the game and give it a chance before I made up my mind. Like I did with TDS.
(http://aigamedev.com/reviews/thief-ai) has a list of things game devs need to concider in order to make a good stealthgame, if Bethesda wants to make T4 they probably should use a similar list.

Gambit on 23/9/2007 at 17:43

It´s also a case of looking what went wrong with TDS and see if Bethesda dev could eliminate that.

Loading zones during missions (Can be easily eliminated now. Even if Bethesda makes a Thief for both Console and PC - the new generation consoles can pump a lot of memory now)
No rope-arrows (Can be added.)
Small City (Heck these guys create giant maps - look at Cyrodill !)
Bad leaning (Can be fixed)
Smart AI (Ok. This is tricky. I remember Bethesta said their Oblivion AI would be ultra smart. They had a demo of a woman drinking a potion to shoot arrows better and etc. But it was such a complex AI that it risked to start killing each other.)