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6/25/2011 10:10:23 AM
100
Bungie Aerospace: Indie Game Developer Stats Integration!
Turns out Aerospace is a [url=http://www.bungie.net/projects/aerospace/]Indie Game Developer 1-Up program, intended to help Indie Game Developers integrate their game statistics with the Bungie.net platform.[/url]
Not as fancy or shiny as I was hoping, but maybe they plan to expand on it.
(It's in the dropdown now)
[quote][Original thread:][/quote]
(Please note that I'm not a part of Bungie, so all of this is purely my own thinkin')
[b]Updated: June 26th 2010[/b]
[quote][url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=62232410]Detailed update on a bunch of things. Important read![/url][/quote]
So to add to a bunch of theories and ideas flying around about what Aerospace might or will be, I've posted my thoughts before on what I think it will end up being.
I've previously said this regarding what I believe Bungie Aerospace is:
[quote][url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=61582390&postRepeater1-p=1#61597052][b]Posted by:[/b] SonicJohn[/url]
Calling it:
I think Bungie Aerospace will be Bungie's own Social Network, complete with clan-support for the new-IP, cross-platform statistics, new-IP-related news, community-content spotlight, interviews, ViDocs, and perhaps even downloadable/purchasable old Bungie games like Gnop!, Myth and Marathon.
I just think it will be the central hub network for Bungie's next game, and I think it will have a heavy focus on community content.
I'm not sure what this would mean for Bungie.net as far as its function goes, but I definitely feel like the plan is to have all of their future games' content offsite so that it doesn't clutter Bnet.
So yeah, them's my thoughts.[/quote]
There was one core thing that was bugging me about this idea, and that was that it didn't really offer anything that Bnet didn't already have or could do.
Then ingenuity struck.
[quote][b]Bungie Aerospace could connect the players of the new multi-platform IP together. From Xbox gamers, to PS3, PC and iPhone gamers, or even Facebook gamers.[/b][/quote]
Here's how:
[b]Step 1.[/b]
[quote]Think big. What's the next logical step for the games industry? Well, there's social-gaming on Facebook. There's the hugely successful SmartPhone market. There's the [i]hugely[/i] successful World of Warcraft MMO. And then there's the past 10 years of experience developing the FPS "Halo". Valve has also released Steam on Playstation 3, allowing PS3 and PC gamers to play together.
Bungie are also now independent from Microsoft: a 3rd-party developer. They can do what they want. Then there's step 7: World Domination.
How can you dominate the world in this current game climate? You connect everyone together through a singular hub.
[url=http://mmohuts.com/editorials/console-mmorpgs-never-make-sense]It's been reported previously[/url] that the entire gaming population of the Xbox and PS3 online markets is around 65 million, whereas PC gamers have over 100 million users worldwide. What if you were to combine those numbers together? You'd make quite a hefty number, that's for sure.
That's where Bungie Aerospace comes in.
"Aerospace" gives connotations of a world in the clouds and above. The idea of an untainted area of the world as-yet unclaimed. A place that covers the planet. Globally dominating, you might say.
So there's the big idea. Makes games for as absolutely many markets as possible and connect them all to Aerospace.
Also expand on Player Investment (as seen in Reach's Armoury) to the extent of having affordable and attractive micro-transactions payments for content like costumes, weapons, quests, etc, as opposed to monthly payments. Keeps everyone happy!
I'm sure you can see where they could go with this.[/quote]
[b]Step 2.[/b]
[quote]Convince major publisher, Activision, of multi-platform games of a new business venture that could revolutionize how games and gamers connect together over each platform. Sign 10-year contract.[/quote]
[b]Step 3.[/b]
[quote]Hire! Hire! Hire! This is no easy task. Developing for multiple platforms is something that Bungie is yet to do, and specifically the Playstation. They're familiar with iOS, PC and Xbox development, so that's all in the bag, and Android/Blackberry development isn't too difficult to pick up and learn (if you're familiar with their codebase already, that is). But the PS3 devkit? Yeah, that's some superbly complicated stuff right there. Not to mention expensive. You'll want the absolute best and most experienced people to ensure success.[/quote]
[b]Step 4.[/b]
[quote]Start getting servers set up and internally test connections via each platform you're going to be connecting. It's been said before (and I've personally had it explained to me before) that is it entirely possible to connect Xbox and Playstation gamers together, and it has been done before, but never commercially, and that's all down directly to Sony and Microsoft: they'd never allow direct connections. So what do you do? You make a proxy server.[/quote]
[b]Step 5.[/b]
[quote]Why not also make that a social-network to boot? Bungie have said that they are moving away from weekly updates and the Comm Chatter, so it can be assumed that news will come from Aerospace in the future. Feeding gamers news directly to their games? We've seen Bungie do that with the notifications that pop up in Reach occasionally, so why not make room for that as a full feature?[/quote]
[b]Step 6.[/b]
[quote]Blister ahead with developing both the game, and Bungie Aerospace. Both would be completely essentially for eachother to survive and be successful.[/quote]
[b]Step 7.[/b]
[quote]Release game. Be super awesome and successful. Win over entire gaming population of the planet. Die happy.[/quote]
[quote][/quote]
[b]Additional Reading:[/b]
1.
[url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=62158426&viewreplies=true&postRepeater1-p=2]*Mouse/Keyboard VS Controller Solutions
*Bungie.net's WLID-requirement Login Concerns
*Microsoft & Sony's disagreements?
*Social Interaction (same functionality as Raptr)
*Musing over comparable UNSC, Covenant, Flood, Forerunner Factions for new IP[/url]
2.
[url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=62158426&viewreplies=true&postRepeater1-p=3]*Migrate Bungie.net WLID userbase to automatic Aerospace account?
*Aerospace not the same functionality as Steam.[/url]
[quote][/quote]
I've spent some good few months thinking about this, and I believe this is my final conclusion on the matter.
I look forward to July 7th to see how close I am to the target. Should be interesting!
What are your thoughts?
[Edited on 06.30.2011 4:57 PM PDT]
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[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] MURDUR 587 [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] SonicJohn (mouse/keyboard versus controller = imbalance)[/quote] Well I guess you could put a heavy degree on auto-aim on the console version to make things easier, or remove all forms of auto-aim on the PC version. Unless those things already exist then I'm stumped. Obviously you can't force PC gamers to use a controller (without them hacking a way around it and being majorly pissed off) and you can't lauch a keyboard/mouse peripheral for consoles because not everyone will buy them, thats not the way console gamers "roll" and having to buy a peripheral to play a game the best of your ability is annoying. The problem with adding heavy auto-aim on the console version it'll remove a lot of the aiming skill required and if you remove all auto-aim on the PC version the players can still kick ass. It is a pickle.[/quote]A possible solution is thus: Don't make it a hardcore competitive shooter. I see it working in a couple possible ways: [b]Solution A:[/b] Have the core missions and gameplay surround AI enemies, rather than PvP. You can go it alone or team up with a party of various Xbox, PS3, PC, iOS gamers (I'm still wondering whether they'll put the full game on the iPhone or iPad. I've seen MMOs done on those platforms before, so it's not impossible). This lowers the chance of anyone noticing or caring about the differences in peripherals and makes it generally fair for all players. [b]Solution B:[/b] For any PvP missions, match only console gamers against console gamers, PC/iOS gamers against PC/iOS gamers, SmartPhone versus SmartPhone, etc. This way, the imbalance is reduced and nobody cares/notices once again. [b]Solution C:[/b] Have separate "Console", "PC" and "Mixed" World Servers that split up the gamers, [i]if they so choose to be[/i]. That way, if anyone complains about the differences or unfairness, then they know that they have options. [b]Solution D:[/b] Any combination of A, B or C. [b]Solution F:[/b] Make the fighting gameplay turn-based. Not ideal, since it lowers immersion, but it removes the mouse/keyboard advantage. I'd personally opt for Solution D, with a focus on A and C. Makes it cleaner. I certainly don't mind PvP stuff with Solution C in mind. [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] aku This is a bit similar to my own half-formed opinion. And since I haven't agreed with any other guesses, I'm going to go ahead and say I think you're right -- or close enough, at least. Couple of things, though: First, I don't think it's strictly necessary for bungieaerospace.com to be the permanent address for the Aerospace "product". This is something I started thinking about when Apoc posted his opinion on ba.com being fake (which we now know it isn't as urk has linked it directly): It's possible that ba.com will be used as a promotional site to advertise, explain, and show off the new Aerospace features while the actual product will be incorporated into bungie.net. The main benefit I see to this would be to keep Aerospace news, game project news, and company news all in one place. Otherwise we might be looking at a situation where you go one place to hear about the game and other place to hear about Aerospace; this feels silly to me, but obviously they'll handle it how they want to.[/quote] I had originally thought that Aerospace would be separate from Bnet, but what I'm implying regarding Aerospace is that it is the name of the service and a hub network and series of servers that will host the future IP. Whether or not it's on another website doesn't matter at this point, and I agree it would be awkward considering that, but I did read somewhere that Aerospace is a separate company. Also remember my previous discussion with you (in another thread) about WLID's current integration into Bungie.net accounts. Having the entire system be offsite would be hugely beneficial for Bungie in order to appeal to a wider audience as they can make it so you can set up an Aerospace account and then simply link your other accounts to it. [quote]Second, while the proxy server idea is interesting, I've heard somewhere that the reason PS3 and XBL players have never been able to game together is that MS or Sony simply won't allow it. Now, would Bungie -- as one of the highest profile game developers around, with the backing of the largest publisher -- be able to look MS in the eye and say "You'll make an exception or Sony's going to get one hell of an exclusive"? Maybe. Personally I wouldn't count on this particular feature, though. [/quote]I don't think either Sony or Microsoft are stupid and naive enough to think that this sort of venture wouldn't spark a huge amount of interest and money for them. I think Activision could (and perhaps already have) pitch it to them in ways that benefit them. [quote]Something else I was just thinking about is the social aspect. I actually do think that Bungie is going to be taking this social somehow. I wonder if part of that would be hooking into facebook and letting you post status updates directly (even automatically) from bungie.net or in game. The advantage I see here is the fact that you could constantly be advertising to all of your friends that you are playing, and enjoying, one of Bungie's titles. [/quote]That sort of thing seems pretty likely. It's part of Raptr's major success, and they've already done something similar with the social-integration buttons in the Reach files and the Bungie Blog (share buttons, etc). Edit: Slightly aside the point of Aerospace: I was just thinking about the new IP having factions (think UNSC, Covenant, Flood, Forerunner sort of thing...or Terran/Zerg/Protoss if you like). What if you were given missions/commendations to assassinate players from other factions. I can just imagine going prone on a hill, getting out a sniper rifle and picking off people from opposing factions from a distance. In a FPSMMO. Man that sounds awesome. [Edited on 06.25.2011 4:53 AM PDT]
