Main Menu

Lucas Arts vs. Sierra

Started by stika, April 23, 2013, 01:19:41 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Pick your poison

I wanna be a Pirate with Guybrush and Lucas Arts
7 (63.6%)
My dream is to be a space janitor with Sierra
4 (36.4%)

Total Members Voted: 11

stika

I'm surprised there hasn't been more mud slinging, son, I am disappoint! ((just joking))

As for for monkey island 4, I don't know, I like the whole "Tourists are visiting the pirate islands" at first, but then the joke got really old

darthkiwi

MI4 was the first MI game I played, and I thought it was great. So, my opinion on it is probably rose-tinted. But, I did have a blast playing it, and I think that most of the stuff that happens before the final act (when you get Monkey Kombat and that weird... robot... thing... which I won't spoil...) is actually pretty funny.

For me, the Lucasarts design philosophy is so much better formulated. By ensuring there were no dead ends and players couldn't die, they allowed their players to explore, immerse themselves in the world and not be too anxious about having missed something.

Sierra, on the other hand, loved having dead-ends, sudden deaths and stuff that could be considered "unfair". I don't think this philosophy is worse than Lucasarts', though! The effect you got was very different, but still valid: instead of experiencing the game as an immersive story, you experienced the game as a complex system of puzzles that had to be solved over multiple playthroughs (because you'd have to restart to avoid dead-ends). Put simply, in a Sierra game, the "save game" feature becomes part of the gameplay.

My problem with that is that Sierra games weren't very clever about this. Rather than use this philosophy to make games in a setting that benefits from this philosophy, maybe making a science fiction game about parallel universes, where the save game feature is part of the lore because you have a time machine/universe hopping machine and are able to manipulate time/reality to solve these puzzles, they used it to make games about stereotypical characters in stereotypical settings. (Fantasy mashups ala KQ or Mixed up Mother Goose, generic scifi jokes in SQ, the Arthurian archetype stuff in Conquests of the Longbow.) I enjoyed these games (especially Longbow) but I think I enjoyed them in spite of Sierra's design philosophy.

And it's not coincidence that my favourite Sierra games, the GK games, had no dead-ends (I think) and fewer arbitrary deaths. In other words, they aligned closer to Lucasarts' philosophy.
Prince of the Aquitaine. Duke of York.

Knight errant and consort to Her Grace the Empress Deloria of the Holy Roman Empire, Queene of all Albion and Princess Palatine.

GrahamRocks!

Actually, there IS at least one dead end in GK1 that I know of: Put the tracker in the coffin at the museum... but don't leave a message to Dr.John on Marie Laveau's tomb. Therefore, when you go to the bayou, the tracker blip doesn't come up on the radar which means that Dr. John didn't take it with him.

Sir Perceval of Daventry

It's kinda sad that Sierra is losing against LucasArts on a forum that's technically a Sierra fan forum. Combined with nearly 100,000 people watching Retsupurae basically gutting KQV and KQVI, it's depressing. Thanks to Retsupurae, thousands of people will think the KQ series was utter crap on par with Dark Seed without ever having played it.

Numbers

Well...the KQ series IS crap. :suffer: But we all had fun playing (some of) it, and that's what matters.
I have no mouth, and I must scream.

stika

Quote from: Sir Perceval of Daventry on April 25, 2013, 02:06:24 PM
It's kinda sad that Sierra is losing against LucasArts on a forum that's technically a Sierra fan forum. Combined with nearly 100,000 people watching Retsupurae basically gutting KQV and KQVI, it's depressing. Thanks to Retsupurae, thousands of people will think the KQ series was utter crap on par with Dark Seed without ever having played it.
Who's Retsupurae? Also, I think people are most likely to remember Pawdugan's videos

Blackthorne

Hahah, who gives a Rat's ass what someone says about King's Quest on YouTube?  Really.  Heh.



Bt
"You've got to keep one eye looking over your shoulder
you know it's going to get harder and harder as you
get older - but in the end you'll pack up, fly down south, hide your head in the sand.  Just another sad old man, all alone and dying of cancer." - Dogs, Pink Floyd.

Lambonius

Quote from: Blackthorne on April 25, 2013, 03:54:37 PM
Hahah, who gives a Rat's ass what someone says about King's Quest on YouTube?  Really.  Heh.



Bt

f*** YOU, STEVE.  I need my opinions validated CONSTANTLY or I will sink into a bottomless pit of depression!!

Numbers

Here, Stika, this will explain everything...*head explodes*

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WebVideo/Retsupurae?from=Main.Retsupurae

Retsupurae is the only reason anybody knows about Mike Dawson, which means that I'll give them a pass on their King's Quest criticisms.
I have no mouth, and I must scream.

Sir Perceval of Daventry

It's more that thousands of people are getting their opinions on a classic series from dumbed down satire...Which is sad. Some do let stuff on youtube and other places effect their opinions. I am of the opinion that there are very few fantasy computer games on par with KQ--including 7 and 8-- and very few adventure games on per with Sierra's best.

Bludshot

#30
Again, I have no idea who you are talking about. King's Quest is cute and all, but Lucasarts simply made much smarter games.

EDIT: Also paw is dragging his feet with Trial by Fire.  The saga of Sneakyfeet, official S.L.U.T., must continue!
Deep Thoughts with Connor Mac Lyrr
"Alack! The heads do not die!"

KatieHal

Oh man, you're right! I forgot all about Sneakyfeet.

Katie Hallahan
~Designer, PR Director~

"Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix." Christina Baldwin

I have a blog!

GrahamRocks!


Blackthorne

Nothing is above satire.  Sacred Cows make especially good targets.  Again, I say, I don't care that thousands of people only know KQ from something like Retsuprae.  You know, many of them just don't have the same golden experience in the past with such games as we did - and they never will.  That's fine - KQ has it's fans, and they are vast.  Whining about people taking the piss out of something is just wasted time.


Bt
"You've got to keep one eye looking over your shoulder
you know it's going to get harder and harder as you
get older - but in the end you'll pack up, fly down south, hide your head in the sand.  Just another sad old man, all alone and dying of cancer." - Dogs, Pink Floyd.

KatieHal

Yeah, you really can't lament people having different opinions or experiences from you so much--it'll drive you nuts with frustration. Not everyone's going to love things the way you do, and really, there are a LOT of people in the world who DO love KQ, so you certainly aren't alone in that.

Katie Hallahan
~Designer, PR Director~

"Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix." Christina Baldwin

I have a blog!

stika

Quote from: Blackthorne on April 25, 2013, 03:54:37 PM
Hahah, who gives a Rat's ass what someone says about King's Quest on YouTube?  Really.  Heh.



Bt

considering how webshows like Screwattack, Classic Game room and others have impacted Ebay prices? I'd say a lot of people do

Quote from: 929572 on April 25, 2013, 03:58:08 PM
Here, Stika, this will explain everything...*head explodes*

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WebVideo/Retsupurae?from=Main.Retsupurae

Retsupurae is the only reason anybody knows about Mike Dawson, which means that I'll give them a pass on their King's Quest criticisms.

actually I can think of another reason why people might know who Mike Dawson is:




Numbers

Quote from: stika on April 26, 2013, 07:24:53 PM

Quote from: 929572 on April 25, 2013, 03:58:08 PM
Here, Stika, this will explain everything...*head explodes*

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WebVideo/Retsupurae?from=Main.Retsupurae

Retsupurae is the only reason anybody knows about Mike Dawson, which means that I'll give them a pass on their King's Quest criticisms.

actually I can think of another reason why people might know who Mike Dawson is:





Well sure, but you have to watch Retsupurae's commentary on the entire game walkthrough to appreciate how truly idiotic Darkseed 2 is. And get all of the inside jokes.
I have no mouth, and I must scream.

stika

Quote from: 929572 on April 26, 2013, 08:29:35 PM

Well sure, but you have to watch Retsupurae's commentary on the entire game walkthrough to appreciate how truly idiotic Darkseed 2 is. And get all of the inside jokes.

I've only actually played the first Darkseed so I can't comment on the sequel.

The first one is a little below average imo

Numbers

When you've got the time, check out this commentary for a Darkseed 2 longplay. It's lengthy--all 5 of the videos in this series come out at around 7 1/2 hours--but it's one of the funniest damn things I've ever seen.

I have no mouth, and I must scream.

Lambonius

My God.  It's almost as bad as Gabriel Knight 2.