Is this the end of role-playing games?

[Ssyleia]

Hi Folks,

As many of you D&D folks probably noticed, our computer role playing game manufacturer of choice, Interplay, is gone...

Interplay brought to us D&D players games such as "Baldur's Gate", "Icewind Dale", "Planescape: Torment", "Fallout", "Bard's Tale 3", and many more...

IMHO Interplay was another victim of the internet, especially p2p file sharing - last year 3DO (publisher of games such as "Might&Magic" and "Heroes of Might&Magic") shared the same fate...

In other posts on this board my concerns about file sharing have been titled as (quote) "manure" since the current intelectual property rights are sooooo evil as to justify any kind of counter-action...

Yet with Interplay we clearly see an Idol fall... Will D&D be next? Brand-new sourcebooks are available on the p2p networks within a couple of days of release...

Please state your opinion to the controversy title of the thread, I am eager to hear it.

 

[Gadodel]

What's stinks?

Grabs shovel and starts digging a hole.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

I think your assumption that Interplay died b/c of the internet is dead wrong. It probably died b/c half of the games you mentioned I never heard of - and I'm certain many others haven't either. Bard's Tale 3? I never knew about it.

Downloading games off the internet is a pain in the ass for the average joe. Sure, computer geeks can do it but that's a tiny fraction of the population.

If you have good product that appeals to the masses, and you have the proper business skills, you'll survive. If not, you won't. Don't try and blame it on P2P file sharing.

 

[Azazyll]

Well, seeing the company that made the famous baldur's gate go down is a shocker, but there's a huge difference between computer "RPGs" (and rarely is role-playing involved, but that's another rant) and pencil and paper RPGs. I'll admit it, I've got gigs of PDFs on my computer. But I've actually read almost nothing I didn't buy, and I only use those as references because I can't bring a hundred RPG books with me to college. I rarely read the stuff I download because it's such a pain to read on the screen. Nothing beats a book in your hand, frankly. And amazon has returned reasonable prices to the industry (unfortunately, not to fantasy flight). I buy less than a quarter of my books in stores now. If any industry is going to die, it's the hobby shop.

EDIT: I don't think I can not sound like a jerk by illegally downloading games, except to say that I also legally download games and I buy at least a book a month, usually more. I would never use a supplement in a game without buying the product. Nor would I buy most of the stuff I download. It started as a "you mean I can download stuff other than music I'll never listen to?" deal, and has become an obsession of pride. I don't share the files. I really can't say I feel that I'm putting third party publishers out of business, but then again, most thieves probably don't consider themselves menaces to society and the economy.

 

[Piratecat]

I'll move this to the computer forum.

 

[GralTok]

If you don't know Baldur's Gate - Icewind Dale - Fallout you missed some of teh greatest rpg released on cpu.

Bard tale 3 is an old classic prior to these (unless I am foraging in trash)

Planescape Torment is the greatest in it's genre ... Interplay died because they oculdn't promote a game and where to money hungry to make good decision ... Hoping the member of black isle will still make us great title.

 

[Roudi]

<sarcasm>

I love how file-sharing is the next big monster. "It will ruin us all! It will end the industry!"

</sarcasm>

I can think of several times when similar things were said about similarly finance-threatening phenomenon (you know that INTERPOL warning at the sart of VHS tapes came from somewhere). The foolish companies will fight this. THe smart companies will adapt to this. File-sharing will become something we got used to.

As for Interplay, I think a bit more evidence is needed before anyone proclaims that filesharing killed it. Filesharing can be thwarted in a large part by ensuring good piracy protection for one's products. It isn't perfect, but it does discourage a lot of people from pirating and sharing software. If Interplay was lax on piracy protection, and filesharing indeed killed them, then... it's like not locking your door in a bad neighbourhood.

So Interplay is dead. As long as BioWare exists, I'm not afraid of any lack of good RPG-style gaming. No software will ever replace true roleplaying for me, but as long as BioWare and the many other talented programmers continue to program, I couldn't care less about Interplay's demise

 

[woodelf]

I think your assumption that Interplay died b/c of the internet is dead wrong. It probably died b/c half of the games you mentioned I never heard of - and I'm certain many others haven't either. Bard's Tale 3? I never knew about it.

Huh? I've heard of every one of those, and i don't play computer games. Period. Don't even look at them in the store, or talk with my friends about them. I have no idea why i'd heard of all of those games, but i had. If someone like me, who has zero interest in computer games, and goes out of their way to avoid them, has heard of them, they can't be that obscure.

 

[EricNoah]

As far as I know, Interplay was only the publisher of the games. The best of the actual developers, Bioware, is still strong and healthy and produced the d20-based Star Wars game Knights of the Old Republic recently. Also, Interplay has churned out its share of crap D&D games -- anyone remember Undermountain? So it wasn't like the Interplay name was necessarily a sure sign of quality.

Plus Interplay lost the D&D license when Hasbro sold its electronics "division" (not sure if that's the exact term) to .... gosh, what is that company's name.... someone help me out here. So they couldn't publish more D&D titles even if they wanted to or were still around.

As far as the file-sharing argument ... in my opinion it's been done to death around here. I agree that it sucks but I don't think there's much the average person can do about it except police themselves.

Edit: (Moderator hat on) -- you know, we have a current thread going on about file sharing and its potential effects on the RPG publishing industry over in General ... so I think we'll say if you're going to be commenting on that you should do it in that thread. Here's a handy dandy link for you: http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=87794

If you want to talk about Interplay and D&D computer games, this thread is of course fine for that. (moderator hat off)

 

[satori01]

The margins on computer games,(and most electronic products) are wafer thin.
Many studios and distributers basicaly run their companies on the thinest of saftey nets, begging for destruction if a certain title fails.

Interplay was apparently one of those companies. If Baldur's Gate had not hit big, Interplay would have been dead then, having spent the majority of its financial reservers on releasing BG.

Frankly a game studio folding is not that uncommon of an event. Activision,(which I believe is almost solely a distributor now) and some of the various sport title studios have the longest track records.

p.s. Atari, under its french name owns D&D electronic license. Infrocom? or something of the sort.