I really don't see how anyone can call this "just a reskin," for the many reasons I have already covered.
Except that the actual act of writing it is only one part of the design process. Coming up with the ideas, editing, testing, editing again, testing again, QA testing etc.
In my view there's no need to paint CA in a sympathetic light with this. I really don't see any negative to what CA is doing, and I think the amount of content we're getting in Empire Divided, and getting for nothing in Power & Politics, really speaks positively for itself.
Inflation (not to mention the damage Brexit has already done to the British Economy and value of the Pound) is a basic fact of the world we live in.
I appreciate you're "very weary of any game released these days," but I'm equally weary of the predictable negative response to pretty much everything that CA, or other companies for that matter, do, no matter what it is and how much effort has gone into it. They're still people, just like you or I, and yet the way some treat them is deplorable.
It's easy to say "Doesnt take long to write this type of stuff" or "effectively just a reskin," but it's quite another to actually be able to do it, work through the whole process from start to finish with all the challenges, difficulties and constraints.
And as for "Who knows what goes on behind closed doors?", it applies just as much to those criticising CA. But doesn't stop them making all sorts of claims.
You buy a game for a price and get exactly what you paid for (and knew you would receive because it was laid out in detail before hand,) you don't have any right to expect to receive any other content that may be made at some point before or after release, because you simply haven't paid for it's creation. Most if not all DLC isn't cut content, and the sooner people stop acting like it is the better.
I also think claiming we get less content for more money with Total War games isn't supported by the facts. Rome 2 has more playable factions for your original purchase (14) than any other Total War game except Medieval 2 (17.) Also more units and more campaigns for that matter. Meanwhile prices had stayed level at around £30 for years, only going up to £40 with the Warhammer games, which have a whole host of additional costs involved, from licensing to a much greater number of unique skeletons, models and animations.
DLC the way CA is doing it keeps overall content up, while keeping the initial cost to the player down. People have the option to buy additional content through DLC, but it's by no means essential unless someone chooses to make it so. If you are going to include it, then you also need to factor in that the games with all the DLC are bigger than the games we had in the past. And even if you never buy a DLC, you get a bigger and better game with the FLC.
And as
Daruwind has already highlighted, savings created by advances in technology are balanced (and quite possibly wiped out) by increases in costs created by the ever increasing expectations of gamers.
(This
article from the Econmist nicely lays out various factors that mean game budgets keep increasing, one of which is Moore's Law.)
Plus there's inflation and rising cost of living and utilities, which I highlighted before and you so easily dismissed. Doubt the people at CA, or the utilities companies, or the people they rent office space from/pay their mortgage to or the places they buy their groceries from are going to get paid less "because we're working on an older game."
And a lot of titles don't get new engines. Look at the number of games made with the same Unreal Engine for example. Also the TW3 engine (Warscape is only one part of it) is modular, meaning in many ways it is new with each game. That's not to say that TW3 doesn't have issues, but a brand new engine may well have just as many issues, and won't have had the years of development that TW3 has.
*
Anyway, in conclusion I appreciate that value is all a matter of personal perspective. If people don't think Empire Divided is worth the asking price then I respect that and by all means wait for it to come down to a price you do feel happy with or not buy it at all.
I just don't think there's any need to overly criticise, complain about everything and quite frankly be rude about the people making it. Maybe consider how you would feel if you'd spent months on something, only for people to call it "cut content" or "just a reskin."
All the Best,
Welsh Dragon.
Re: Total War: ROME II - Empire Divided
Originally Posted by Welsh Dragon
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Re: Total War: ROME II - Empire Divided
