With ROTF, the movie brought along a few (I stress few) non-fans to play the game, but it died shortly because of I guess lack of appeal (although online gameplay was great).

I'm a bit worried about non-fan involvement with WFC seeing how this is not based off of an enormously popular movie series, just a franchise that is mainly supported by long time fans and young children. Although Gears of War is a well known and well established game, the fact that it's similar to it may not be enough to draw people in.

For people who go tl;dr- Is anyone else worried that there isn't enough appeal to non Transformers fans that this game won't be succesful enough to have a long online life/DLC?

 

I feel there might not be enough drive behind it when it comes out, but a lot of games get these little cult followings. The average gamer nowadays only cares about his precious Call of Duty, so the only way I can see WFC suceeding is with our help and by spreading the news to non-fans who are hardcore gamers, you know, the ones who play something other than Call of Duty or Halo.

 

WFC won't last forever. so what?

i'm not being confrontational - i genuinely don't see why it would be a problem. buy it, play it, hopefully enjoy it. chances are multiplayer is not going to be the crowning jewel of WFC, and SP games with MP modes that endure are the exception rather than the rule.

TL;DR? i can't see how your enjoyment of WFC is going to be diminished in any way if only a handful of people are still playing it in 2 years time. hanging out on a TF forum you're ideally placed to play with them.

besides, any DLC they may or may not churn out (most likely: not) would be a bonus, but lets not forget that 2011 is going to see The Old Republic debut, so at that point all videogames not called 'The Old Republic' will cease to be for the next 6-12 months anyway.

 

I doubt it won't have any success problems because of ROTF. If anything, the movie is a gateway series that introduced a whole bunch of people to the franchise as a whole.

The reason few "non-fans" bothered playing the ROTF game is because, well, it's a movie based game, an attribute that's considered a turnoff for many gamers because of the bad quality and rushed production it's usually associated with.

From what I've seen so far, they definitely aren't half-assing WFC. Not saying that it is guaranteed to be the best game EVAR, just that with the effort High Moon studios is putting into the game, the chances of it being as bad as the Movie games are slim.

As for appealing the so called "non-fan"s, a good marketing campaign can do the trick. With the incredible cinematic trailers they made, putting together an eye-catching commercial shouldn't be much of a task.

 

Sadly, from personal experience the non-TF-fan game crowd isn't really giving two craps about this game.

Opinions vary from "looks alright" to "gonna suck like every licensed game"

Only way I see it gettin any attention is if it gets Arkham Asylum level of good critic

 

Agreed. The appeal to non-fans is in how good the game is. It doesn't have to be outstanding in all categories even - there's a lot of fun to be had, stomping around as a big robot beating up other robots. As long as the game is fun and has decent replay, and is good in all categories, I think it will find some mainstream attention.

 

Do non-fans buy games that aren't interested in? If you don't like GTA, you're probably not going to buy GTA. Fans of a game are going to buy the game. It would be foolish of the designers to make a game without heavy fan appeal, as they are your life and blood.

If War For Cybertron is any good, word of mouth will bring a few more (or a lot more) purchasers the games way.

There aren't a lot of robot games out there, so anyone not interested in Transformers, but robots might pick the game up just for that, but I figure those folks are seriously in the minority.

If the gameplay is good, the game will do the rest on its own.

 

As long as the game is good, then people will play it. I demo would be nice.

 

The appeal to the "non-fan" is god graphics, good story and good gameplay.

Just like any other game.

Here's a question: there's an upcoming HALO game. Where's the appeal to non-fans?

When Transformers '07 hit theaters, what was the appeal to non-fans?

Same question for Spider Man 1?

Same Question of issue #1 of the MArvel Transformers comic and the original cartoon?

 

Good points. Call of Duty and Halo had to start somewhere.... but the problem is, Transformers has already been around and most people have formed their opinions of it. How are they going to even give this game the time of day if they already think TFs are lame?

 

Megan Fox's tits. Duh.

 

Killer fucking gameplay. That's where you'll get your non-fans from. And good reviews. Just like my TFs, I fully research everything I'm going to buy before I part with any hard-earned cash for it. If the game gets rave reviews from players and critics, non-fans will come on board to check it out.

I have hopped onto the bandwagon of games I wasn't a fan of previously just because the games were awesome and full of WIN. I had never played a Halo game before Halo 3, which I bought because I played it at a friend's house and near about shit my pants with joy. Same with GTA: San Andreas. Now I have gone back and bought all the old ones and will probably check out the new ones.

And screw you Call of Duty haters. Really. If you call yourself a "hardcore gamer," you should really just get a life.

 

Well IGN did say it was the Arkham Asylum of 2010. Guess we can just wait and see.

 

If the online magazines do cover this game well, it will be well known to even those that aren't TF fans. Really, think about it, you're only aware of games because there are games magazines that are doing publicty of a game, isn't it that way?

BTW, I was atracted by the movie franchise. And here I am  

 

Simply if the game is good enough. It worked for Arkham Asylum, and that even though a lot of the preceding Batman games weren't any good, usually between 60% and 70% on metacritic. Only Lego Batman had a better score and before that you had to go back to NES and GB games. Pretty much anyone knew Batman games in the 3D era were crap until Arkham Asylum came out and proved differently.

And that was because AA "got" Batman, but, that's important, not just from the background angle. It made you get what's awesome about Batman through the way the gameplay works, so the gameplay's awesome even for people who don't know much about Batman, and gives them everything they really need to know about him.

That's the kind of stunt WfC needs to pull.

 

i'd be less concerned about what non-fans think of WFC than what the True Fans think.

all they have to do to appeal to normal gamers is to make a decent game, the Fans are going to trash it no matter what.

i've used my time machine to travel into the future and returned, not with the cure to cancer (or even GPS) but a selection of sample threads from right here on TFW2005.

"megatron's head: wrong shape. ruined forever."

"where are the goddamned dinobots?!"

"petition to have the entire vocal track re-recorded with G1 VAs"

"WFC isn't the same as beastwars. will be boycotting it."

etc.

 

If you get enough of those kinds of conversations happening throughout the net, and you can kiss any future non-movie-based games goodbye. And that's why the game needs to be solid, not just with graphics but the game itself.

For this game to succeed the developers need to appeal to the fans more than anyone else, they're the ones who'll make or break this game; it is their word of mouth that's going to spread like wildfire.

 

Didn't work that way for the movie. Rarely works that way with games. What's gonna be said on generic gaming sites is gonna have much more influence on sales than word of mouth. The games that meet success through word of mouth are small, unlicensed indie games that can afford not to sell much at first and let the word of mouth grow, and even then it's for gameplay reasons.

 

yes and no, franchise games come back time and time again irrespective of quality providing there is enough interest in the IP - just look at the Star Wars or Terminator games, the majority of those sucked massive donkey balls yet new titles have been rolled out with predictable frequency.

If Aaron Archer is to be believed, WFC isn't just some random speculative release, it's a carefully orchestrated part of the launch of a new TF continuity, and if ROTF being pretty terrible didn't stop it making shedloads of cash and spawning a toyline, the WFC being an mediocre game will not destroy a robust 25 year old multi-million dollar toy franchise.

the fans fall into two distinct categories - the fans who saw the movie and kinda liked the idea of of giant robots, and the fans who have obsessively horded boxed figures from every transformers toyline since the 80s. the latter are a very small group compared to the former, and are not generally the target demographic to the extent we might like to think we are.

It's cool that you're excited about the WFC game, i know i am, but realistically there is no real urgency for it to be The Best Thing Ever beyond our own desire for it to be.

 

judging from the ticket sales of rotf, enough people that aren't on these boards watched the movie, it's safe to assume at least some of those people are gamers, so they might not be "fans" but they will probably still play it