Blue Sky on 3/1/2011 at 11:56
I think EM are being very, very cautious on this front. And with good reason, to, I think!
ISA were amazing at letting us know what was going on with DS. They would post regularly on their specially set up forum, interact with us on a daily basis... They would answer questions, and tell us about what they were trying to achieve with the game. They would promise things like custom set difficulty and the like. We were all so pleased and excited and it was amazing!
And then... "We couldn't get rope arrows to work". "We didn't have time to do the custom difficulty settings". "We can't do this". "We can't do that". "That thing we promised...we can't do it."
So much negativity towards the game came from promises unkept. Which wasn't their fault... They needed more time, they needed more resources, they needed... Well, a better engine to start with would probably have helped.
And perhaps they needed to keep their mouths shut a bit and not raise expectations to the dizzying heights they did.
EM set up a forum to get fan wants. People have been posting their opinions in their for a year and a half. That's a hell of a lot of market research they've got, right there. They value the opinions of the fans enough to do that.
And now they're keeping coy. And it's frustrating and annoying, but it's probably for the best right now.
Remember that Thief 4 is still, at their last estimate (a couple of months ago), two years away from being released. There won't be a case of them releasing some screenshots three months in advance... If they release some concept art next August, say, the game will still be a year and a half away.
This has already proven to be...and will continue to be...a long, slow, haul.
But don't criticise their choices compared to what ISA did with Thief 3. Thief 3 didn't work out as well as we all hoped it would. If EM want to play their cards close to their chest with this one for the moment, let them. Unlike ISA they have not only two successful games, but also less-appreciated game to draw inspiration and ideas from. They can see the mistakes attributed to DS and learn from them.
Hopefully.
Queue on 3/1/2011 at 17:01
Quote Posted by Blue Sky
Thief 3 didn't work out as well as we all hoped it would.
Keeping in line with what you're saying, in a way it couldn't because--through their own over-marketing by keeping in constant touch with fans--expectations were so high.
When I played T3, I had no expectations because I'd never heard of Thief; and, for me, it was a wonderful game. So I wonder, considering some of the hatred that goes out toward follow-up projects when dealing with movies, games, etc., all that have a tremendous fan-following for the originals, if sometimes fans make it impossible to produce a well-done product because developers are somewhat hindered by the fans expectations instead of just moving forward.
But I don't know. Being a huge Thief fan, now, I'm torn. I want them to make a Thief 4 that, in my mind, is worthy of being a part of the franchise. And I worry that it won't because my own expectations are too high. So, a strange part of me somewhat wishes there wasn't going to be a Thief 4 at all because I'll just piss and disappointed, which is why I generally try not to be too big of a fan of anything--it allows me the potential to still enjoy what's to come.
That didn't happen with Thief, of course. It's too damn good.
Renault on 6/1/2011 at 05:57
Quote Posted by Digital Nightfall
I just hope they don't announce the game at E3.
Err, hasn't it already been "announced?" :confused:
TheCapedPillager on 6/1/2011 at 06:37
Quote Posted by Brethren
Err, hasn't it already been "announced?" :confused:
Maybe what Digi is saying is that it would be a pity if a big announcement or showing at E3 might detract from another, more long awaited sequel. Oh god I hope that's what he meant. :)
tarequeh on 6/1/2011 at 17:02
Oh no! I just noticed the most recent post on (
http://thief-thecircle.com/) and I can only think of Arx Fatalis 2?
:wot:
Well even if such a long awaited sequel is announced, we should have some Thief IV goodness to feast upon at E3 '11.
Bakerman on 9/1/2011 at 03:41
Quote Posted by lost_soul
The sad truth is though that if the devs were to continuously share details about decisions being made in the game's development, we would have tuns of old cranky folks like myself saying: "OMG Don't Destroy Thief for the console masses!!11one".
But as if that hasn't happened anyway :p. I feel like Eidos don't have much to lose in that area.
Captain Spandex on 23/1/2011 at 07:36
Quote Posted by Manwe
Right now I doubt they have anything to show.
The game was announced in May of 2009.
If they don't have anything to show right now... what have they been doing with their time? Fantasy Football?
ElizabethSterling on 23/1/2011 at 18:18
They've been... not making press statements all the time?
You know who constantly brags to the press about his projects? Peter Molyneux.
To the best of my recollection many of the best games I've played haven't constantly bragged about how far they are in development, and more, I suspect they're being media-managed as Eidos Montreal and Square Enix together are sitting on a fair few big name brands right now and they want to make sure each gets its time in the sun.
Oh, and I can think of another reason too...
...loath as I am to admit it us Thief gamers are pretty devoted to our series and that produces some fairly epic overreactions and over-analysis. Currently we have at best three minor pieces of information on Thief 4:
- The WIP title
- One picture of a hand
- Some spurious and unsupported claim about 10 hours of gameplay
Now, look at any given Thief forum and tell me how proportional the reactions are to that information.
Boxsmith on 23/1/2011 at 19:00
We also have a little bit of info on the direction Thief 4's sound is going, and we've been reasonably supportive of it. :erg:
jtr7 on 23/1/2011 at 20:29
Capt. Spandex wasn't here when LGS spoiled the hell out of us with information, not as much in quantity, as timeliness and quality. It wasn't ruined or blown out of proportion by marketing. It was raw and real. We had a Project Diary and Q&A's long before the games came out, not in the final crunch. We had behind-the-scenes video interviews. We were told of changes made before we found out for ourselves. The way LGS did it, there was relatively little backlash or anger, and they have our loyalty, because they didn't talk to us in just marketing-speak and BS hype, nor condescend to us.
