User information for Brandon Reinhart

Real Name
Brandon Reinhart
Nickname
GreenMarine
Email
Concealed by request
Description

Supporter

Signed On
August 20, 1999
Total Posts
71 (Suspect)
User ID
289
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71 Comments. 4 pages. Viewing page 1.
Newer [  1  2  3  4  ] Older
35.
 
Re: Voyager
Feb 24, 2004, 17:04
35.
Re: Voyager Feb 24, 2004, 17:04
Feb 24, 2004, 17:04
 
Woot! I didn't know that. I just picked up Season 7 of DS9. My respect for DS9 has grown significantly...its quite good. Thanks for the heads up.

28.
 
Dice
Feb 24, 2004, 16:10
28.
Dice Feb 24, 2004, 16:10
Feb 24, 2004, 16:10
 
Dice isn't owned by EA. They do, however, have a publishing agreement with EA. If you look at their site, you'll see they have a long history of working with various publishers. Just because they choose to continue working with EA doesn't necessarily mean that EA has more control over the production of future Battlefield series game properties.

This is a common confusion with the game industry. Publishers tend to have bigger visual billing on games than the actual developer. Just because a game has EA on the box, doesn't mean EA wrote any of the code, or even took a particular role in the production or direction of the project.

Example: I've seen sites refer to Unreal Tournament 2K4 as an "Atari" game. That's not really true. Atari as a company doesn't exist. It's just a label that Infogrames owns. Infogrames is publishing the game. However, its the publisher who generally spearheads marketing and its the publisher who sells units to distributors. They take a lot of risk by putting money up front for marketing on unfinished projects.

Small independent companies tend to fold into the large publishers because they don't have a lot of negotiating leverage. A contract might give away a portion of the company if they miss milestones, because thats the only way they could get the publishing deal. Yes, these are very bad deals, but the vast majority (90%) of game startups fail so the contracts are tilted in favor of the financiers. After all, if you had a couple million dollars would you really want to invest it into a company that probably won't succeed, without some kind of exit strategy?

Fortunately, many developers are finding more experienced developers that are willing to help them formulate publishing contracts that are safer or are willing to give them angel funding. Example: 3D Realms helped pay for the development of their Max Payne property by Remedy. While 3DR owned Max Payne (until they sold it to Take Two), Remedy benefited by having 3DR act as a shield of security against the publisher.

Often, the only way a small self funded developer can stay alive is by selling out to a publisher. For the devs involved in a situation like that, it often means a decent increase in pay and more job security.

Sometimes those studios suffer in the transition to big corporate life. Merging corporate cultures is hard and underestimated. People leave. New people come in. Things change...and as a result the unique environment that makes certain games possible goes away. (Games that come from one studio tend to have a consistent feel...that feel is the result of the individuals at the company. Change the individuals, you change the feel.)

EA is a very shrewd company. Their goals aren't centered around any one game title. As a company, they are more concerned about their long term viability than the ideological integrity of a game property they own (like Ultima). As a public company, that's part of their purpose: to make profit for shareholders by being shrewd in their chosen market.

There is a concept of not throwing good money after bad. Which is to say, if you invest in something like a new game studio and you aren't getting the return you expected, you stop investing more money into that studio. Nobody wants to think of their game studio as bad money, but the truth is not all studios remain capable of producing top notch titles after the transition to the big corporate world. EA acquires a lot of studios, some will turn out to fail. The ones that succeed are usually the ones you don't hear much about while the failures are publicized.

It definitely sucks if this all means the death of Ultima games, but maybe the damage was already done. Many of the people who were responsible for Ultima had already moved on. Origin was already integrated into EA as an operation, all that remained was a label and an identity. The unique environment that created the feel of those old Origin titles no longer existed. So merging the remaining identity of Origin into the EA master entity isn't the final nail in any coffins. Those coffins were probably already closed.

This comment was edited on Feb 24, 16:12.
51.
 
Claw tank.
Feb 11, 2004, 17:06
51.
Claw tank. Feb 11, 2004, 17:06
Feb 11, 2004, 17:06
 
The tank with the fucking claws that come out of the side owns.

31.
 
hmm
Sep 29, 2003, 23:17
31.
hmm Sep 29, 2003, 23:17
Sep 29, 2003, 23:17
 
Viet Cong was a pretty good shooter. A little strange, but with some interesting gameplay. It was full of racism...but I know I can enjoy it and come away without being a racist. The "racism" in war is NOT always the child of hatred. Racism leads to dehumanization and sometimes thats a coping mechanism for the violence. If you were in a squad that had to take out a bunker and you saw up close what your grenades did to those people inside, it might become easier for you to start to think of them as less than you are. To cover up the pain with jokes and slurs. Maybe that isn't right, but that's how the human mind works sometimes. It works to protect itself, even if that means contorting reality.

4.
 
Re: SWG
Aug 28, 2003, 11:43
4.
Re: SWG Aug 28, 2003, 11:43
Aug 28, 2003, 11:43
 
> I'm guessing it's not.

You'd guess quite wrong.

3.
 
Re: Everquest
Aug 28, 2003, 11:42
3.
Re: Everquest Aug 28, 2003, 11:42
Aug 28, 2003, 11:42
 
I'd argue that addiction has nothing to do with it. The article says the parent was not paying attention for 2 hours...that's about the length of a movie.

Assuming "addiction" is making a judgemental and loaded statement (both on your part and the media) without any kind of factual basis. If you have facts and evidence, back it up, but otherwise you can only judge the incident on the facts.

The facts are a parent wasn't paying attention to a child for a span of 2 hours. If you don't know where your child is and the child dies, regardless as to what you are doing, you are at fault.

22.
 
No subject
Aug 6, 2003, 14:24
22.
No subject Aug 6, 2003, 14:24
Aug 6, 2003, 14:24
 
Some of you people are dumb as rocks. You always think there is some sort of conspiracy going on, yet your only evidence comes from your pathetic ability to reason.

As a game dev, I love reading the conspiracy theories people post. As if game dev companies were so organized and nefarious. Usually a fuckup is just a fuckup and usually a bug that turns out easy to fix is just a bug that turns out easy to fix. But it certainly makes the whole thing a lot more exiting when its a corporate conspiracy.


This comment was edited on Aug 6, 14:24.
11.
 
No subject
Aug 5, 2003, 15:44
11.
No subject Aug 5, 2003, 15:44
Aug 5, 2003, 15:44
 
hehe John Sheridan kicks some ass.

1.
 
No subject
Jul 31, 2003, 16:52
1.
No subject Jul 31, 2003, 16:52
Jul 31, 2003, 16:52
 
Actually, you can get Gothic 2 in the states at Fry's. Fry's for whatever reason sells a large number of import games and Gothic 2 has been out overseas for a while.


9.
 
Re: No subject
Jun 13, 2003, 15:25
9.
Re: No subject Jun 13, 2003, 15:25
Jun 13, 2003, 15:25
 
What do you mean, Bunko? Tons of people are still playing the game and want more content. Why is that a problem?

8.
 
Magic Missile
May 15, 2003, 14:25
8.
Magic Missile May 15, 2003, 14:25
May 15, 2003, 14:25
 
Does it support casting magic missile at the darkness?

4.
 
LOL
Apr 21, 2003, 17:13
4.
LOL Apr 21, 2003, 17:13
Apr 21, 2003, 17:13
 
I forgot how much Gordon Freeman looks like Blue!

3.
 
Who are you....
Apr 10, 2003, 16:05
3.
Who are you.... Apr 10, 2003, 16:05
Apr 10, 2003, 16:05
 
No, he's probably just an informed reader of the reviews that have more or less demonstrated the game's lack of quality.

1.
 
This game rocks.
Apr 1, 2003, 20:37
1.
This game rocks. Apr 1, 2003, 20:37
Apr 1, 2003, 20:37
 
This is a great game. A mix of Civ and MOO. Get it, especially if you were disappointed with MOO3.

The best thing: you can download it right from their site after you order the boxed version.

This comment was edited on Apr 1, 20:37.
10.
 
No subject
Dec 3, 2002, 14:51
10.
No subject Dec 3, 2002, 14:51
Dec 3, 2002, 14:51
 
> Thanks for refraining from making vast generalizations.

Replace "all" with "most" if that will better fit your sensibilities. My point was clear.


4.
 
Lag vs Framerate
Dec 3, 2002, 12:25
4.
Lag vs Framerate Dec 3, 2002, 12:25
Dec 3, 2002, 12:25
 
In my experience all MMRPG gamers know nothing about game tech and attribute any pauses to "lag." So for an MMRPGer if you make the game run faster you are fixing "lag."

:/

3.
 
reed sharks
Nov 20, 2002, 11:46
3.
reed sharks Nov 20, 2002, 11:46
Nov 20, 2002, 11:46
 
every time you put eq2 next to red shark i think "reed sharks" and have flashbacks to deep ocean corpse recovery.

shudder

13.
 
Ray...
Nov 12, 2002, 23:39
13.
Ray... Nov 12, 2002, 23:39
Nov 12, 2002, 23:39
 
Ray, I was just responding to someone below calling it Deus Ex online. From my experience, it isn't that.

DS9? Bah. Try the '24' series DVDs. That series is GODLIKE. Better than Sopranos.

13.
 
DAoC
Nov 12, 2002, 23:36
13.
DAoC Nov 12, 2002, 23:36
Nov 12, 2002, 23:36
 
I had a lot of fun with this game's quests. If the game had a mission/quest system to carry you through 50% of your exp (the other 50% being monster bashing) it would be great. Unfortunately, quests seem few and far between above level 20.

11.
 
Deus Ex Online
Nov 12, 2002, 23:25
11.
Deus Ex Online Nov 12, 2002, 23:25
Nov 12, 2002, 23:25
 
Deus Ex online? The only thing this game seems to have in common with Deus Ex is a somewhat similar interface.

71 Comments. 4 pages. Viewing page 1.
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