About the same in my experience – D&D clones are split roughly evenly between “D&D is too complicated” and “D&D isn’t complicated enough”.
so what’s the last 20%?
Everything that isn’t a D&D clone.
I think you need to drop your 40s to 35s, then, because D&D itself takes up about 10% of total gaming publication by volume.
Dungeons & Dragons is both less crunchy than Dungeons & Dragons and more crunchy than Dungeons & Dragons.
This is disturbingly, hilariously true, whether you look from 5th edition backwards, or from AD&D forwards. The relative crunchiness across the eras has been a swinging pendulum.
“From AD&D fowards”, hell – let’s not forget why the game’s first couple of numbered editions bore the “Advanced” tag in the first place!
(For the uninitiated, 1E and 2E were called Advanced Dungeons & Dragons because TSR Inc., the game’s then-publisher, proved its talent for exceedingly poor business decisions early on by deciding to produce two different versions of Dungeons & Dragons at the same time. Though the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set was originally intended as an introductory product, it was elaborated upon by a number of supplements, expansions, and revised editions over the course of the fifteen years following its debut, effectively becoming a separate and competing game-line whose rules were only partially compatible with those of AD&D proper. Ironically, in its final form the “basic” game was, in some respects, much more complicated than the “advanced” one – I still get chills thinking about the Rules Cyclopedia weapon mastery rules.)
I got a lot of questions asking for my opinions and explanations about the whole Activision Bungie Destiny thing, so I figured I’d post about it today. So what exactly is going on with Bungie, Destiny, and Activision? Here is some key information about the situation.
1. Bungie is an independent studio
Activision doesn’t own Bungie. Bungie operates on its own, answering only to its owners. They are not publicly traded and thus are not beholden to public shareholders. Bungie entered into a publishing partnership with Activision back in 2010, with Activision pledging to fund development and Bungie pledging to develop games and content on a schedule for Activision.
2. Bungie already owned the rights to the Destiny IP
As part of their contract with Activision back in 2010, Bungie secured the ownership rights of the project IP that Activision and Bungie were collaborating on. This is not the norm - most independent dev studios that work with publishers don’t get this option. What this means is that Bungie can leave Activision and still legally make another game set in the Destiny universe if they want without any interference from Activision. However, up until very recently, Activision did have a say in Destiny and Destiny 2 because they owned the publishing rights. This is what Bungie purchased from Activision.
3. Bungie bought the publishing rights for Destiny from Activision
Even though Bungie owned the Destiny IP, Activision still owned the rights to publish the existing games. Bungie’s leadership wanted to take over all aspects of the Destiny games, and that meant they needed those publishing rights. Thus, Bungie’s executive leadership started stockpiling funds through various means to buy those rights from Activision. It’s also important to note that Activision is happy about this. This separation is on good terms - Activision was paid enough that their leadership is satisfied with the deal.
4. This is a big deal
It’s super rare for a dev studio to buy out publishing rights from their publisher that isn’t going bankrupt. That generally requires access to a level of funding that most developers don’t have access to
- most dev studios aim towards growing into multiple simultaneous game projects in development at once since that directly increases their earning power. Bungie probably had to set aside a significant amount of money from their own earnings (or taken out enormous loans) in order to pay for this, and it likely won’t result in an immediate payday so much as buying a commitment to spend a lot more money on things like infrastructure. However, astute readers will realize that Bungie has done this sort of miracle buy before.
5. Bungie has done the impossible before
Back in 2000, Microsoft purchased Bungie and they developed Halo under the Microsoft umbrella. However, seven years later, Bungie stockpiled enough funding to buy themselves out from Microsoft, going independent once again. This means they had to resume handling all of the business and logistical aspects of running a company again, which can be a pretty huge feat for a company with hundreds of employees.
I can’t think of another studio that has bought itself out from a publisher like this, especially without the publisher being in dire financial straits. It requires a combination of financial success and studio executive leadership that really cares about the long term goals of the studio, all while managing to maintain its own growth and employee happiness. This is a storm of circumstances that I have yet to see another studio manage to circumnavigate.
6. Bungie really believes in Destiny
Bungie wouldn’t spend these tens (or maybe even hundreds) of millions of dollars to buy those publishing rights if they didn’t believe in the product. If they wanted to, they could finish out the contract with Activision and then go start a new project with a new IP elsewhere and be totally free and clear. But Bungie clearly believes in Destiny to the point that they are literally betting their future on it. As their own publisher, they are taking on all of the logistics and costs involved - marketing, customer support, handling financial transactions, distributing patches, database administration, and all of the million other little details that need to be taken care of to run a game service in addition to just building more game. Bungie’s leadership believes in Destiny so much that the control they get from owning the publishing rights is worth more to them than putting up with handling all of those little details.
The takeaway
Bungie is taking a huge risk, but they also have taken an enormous risk like this and succeeded in the past. Moving on into 2019, Destiny players will be able to see Bungie’s sole vision for the game and world, for whatever good or ill that entails. It also means that Bungie probably isn’t going to put out a new game or IP for a long while - they just put all of their eggs into the Destiny basket and is going to ride that train wherever it leads. But it’s very interesting to me as an industry observer because this is the second time that Bungie has pulled an incredibly difficult trick off.
The FANTa Project is currently on hiatus while I am crunching at work too busy.
Devblog #12 – Somewhere, Over the
Double Fucking Rainbow
Hello there! This is
Chris, hijacking the RoR2 devblog to share a few notes on music.
Tl;dr:
Yes, I am
writing the music for RoR2
No, there
won’t be a Coalescence 2
Chanson à nouveau..
The day I would start
composing for RoR2 was a day I looked forward to with equal amounts of excitement
and fear. The score to the original RoR is one I hold very dearly. It is music I
loved writing, created during a very special time of my life, infused by each
and every musical influence of my childhood and adulthood. It’s a perfect
capture of me at that particular space and time. It also happens to be my most
successful soundtrack to date, primarily because it’s part of a great game that
people love to play, but also—if people’s feedback is to be believed—because
it’s not too bad in its own right.
Now I find myself
exploring the musical world or RoR once again and I can assure you it’s an
awe-inspiring place! It’s also immense, savage and untrodden… You can witness
this for yourself in the wonderful images posted on this blog and all over the
internet, but let me tell you, it’s one thing looking at it and a whole
different thing experiencing it first-hand.
The move to 3D was a
bold one and I’m its biggest supporter. Honestly, even if it didn’t offer this
amazing opportunity to expand the game’s universe into this whole new level of
detail and immersion, I would still embrace it only because it gives me the perfect
excuse—the obligation, even—to avoid repeating myself. The thing I feared most
starting this project was writing the same music all over again. Not because I
don’t like the existing music (I love it) but because the existing music
already… exists. What would be the point of Coalescence 2 (some people have
actually asked for it)? If anyone wants to listen to Coalescence it’s right
there for the listening. The RoR OST is a product of very specific,
irreplicable circumstances. Even if I wanted to write sequels to these tracks,
I couldn’t. They would be mere parodies.
So, I’m writing new
music for a new game. Hopefully it will be better music for a better game, but
I’m going to be satisfied if turns out being good music for a good game. I know
many of you will not be happy reading this but I ask you to be open minded and
trust me. If you liked the music for the first game chances are, you’ll like
this one too. It’s the same person doing the writing (and performing, and
producing, and mixing, and mastering) after all. It will be different, but it
won’t be that different.
Paying my Dews
Let’s make sure we avoid
any misunderstanding here: I don’t take the RoR musical legacy lightly. Rest
assured that many things will carry over, not least of which the RoR motif. The
usual odd meter and various polyrhythms will be featured prominently too. There’s
drumming, lots of drumming, way too much drumming…. Several cameos of familiar
instruments and even entire sections that will sound very reminiscent to old
players. And then, there’s the unsung (pun intended) hero: form. Even though
you can’t literally hear it you can certainly feel it. Form is the glue holding the music together. Just like
with the first game, I’m working my ass off to fit these new tracks into
meticulously woven forms.
As such, all the above
elements that are part and parcel to the RoR sound will not be let behind. As previously
mentioned, this is terra incognita
we’re heading into and only a fool would go into the unknown without a
flashlight. I plan to use the original music to illuminate all the new one hidden
in the darkness beyond.
Forecast
It’s still too early
to tell what the new soundtrack will actually sound like. I guess it will sound
more like the original RoR than anything else—a definition as intentionally
vague as can be. A word I liked using to describe the first soundtrack was
“monolithic”. I feel the RoR2 OST will be even more so. To use a classical
music analogy, if RoR1 was a suite, RoR2 will be more like a symphony. Don’t
worry though, I’m still delivering discreet pieces of music that you will be
able to tell apart (and prefer over others). Let’s just say I’ve set up my
sessions like communication vessels of sorts.
For the time being, you
can sample some new music in the game’s teaser and this
SoundCloud playlist (which I plan to sparsely update). There’s a lot
of material already written but most of it is still being forged into shape.
There are also new things we’re testing to make the in-game music more dynamic
and meaningful to the player, which have directly impacted my workflow. For the
moment, all I can say I’m working on it steadily but slowly—slower than usual
(sorry, Duncan & Paul!). As I said, while I’m very excited I’m also quite fearful.
There’s plenty of pressure to satisfy the many fans of the music from the original
game (thank you all so much, btw!!!) and even more self-imposed pressure to
write music that I feel proud of and enjoy listening to for years to come. You
see, I’m trying to uncover music I’ve not written before and I need to make
sure my excavation brings to surface more than just petrified feces…
FAQ
When? When the great Magma Worm in the sky deems us worthy.
Where? All over the place, starting with Bandcamp.
Vinyl? Probably. Hopefully in a nice boxset with an RoR1 re-print.
Engineer Edition 2? Yes, but no sheet music this time around. Too
many arpeggiators and modular patches for it to make any sense.
DEADBOLT 2? I sure damn hope so!
“It Can’t Rain All the
Time”
That will be all for
now! If you made it this far, thank you for reading and see you next time! If
you want to keep the conversation going you can find me in the social media outlets
below, where I will post the occasional RoR2 update, answer all your questions and
share pictures of my cats:
I like how they’ve improved miku’s outfit design in every successive update yet all of us consistently choose to ignore this fact in favor of drawing more Grey Shirt Cone Sleeved mikus
Crypton: please,,,, we’ve given you a better designed, better illustrated, objectively sleeker miku, see?
-Fifth card copy “protection” for opening packs, you can’t open rare and mythics you already have four-of in packs
-If you have the full set or are getting the cards from a draft or something, converted into Gems, 20 for a rare, 40 for a mythic. Same rate if you get them as Card Rewards
-Ranked Best-of-Three is coming for January 31st and next season, on top of Bo1.
-A few changes to the reward system for events, no cuts on card rewards or gold, but changes on the progress rate.
