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Unread 04-02-2009, 02:08 AM
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Default Here's BFC's Real Problem...

Currently the final post (and I hope it stays that way) in a very long thread as GS:

Well, dang. This thread has to have set some kind of record for "Longest Thread in Which the Starter of the Thread Has Not Posted Again in the Thread After His Initial Post." Although I just invalidated the record with this post... Anyway, 330 replies and 5000+ odd views later (that puts a POS tournament thread to shame), I'm not sure if we're any closer to nailing down BFC's real problem.

So, instead of further comment, I shall leave you with a parable. I trust it is not too subtle...

One day, a small group of filmmakers sets off to make a movie. They have a small budget and are using relatively cheap equipment. Yet the filmmakers have a certain undeniable natural talent. The film they make (lets say it's a documentary about butterflies, just for the sake of argument), while clearly low-budget (think Blair Witch Project) is nevertheless a work of film making genius (stop thinking Blair Witch Project). The project is clearly a labor of love, and the filmmakers have painstaking captured the life-cycles of monarchs, yellow swallow-tails, green veined whites, and xerces blues in breath taking detail never before seen. It is a triumph of film making at levels the Lepidopteran world has never before dreamed of, much less seen.

Butterfly fans the world over rejoice. Finally, someone has made a movie that captures their interests! The rush out and see it over and over, and gush wildly about it. Sure, the production values are a bit toward the bottom of the barrel, but they hardly notice, transfixed as they are by the never before seen close up images of butterflies in action. Finally, someone has done justice to their passion. The butterfly community (assuming there is one) the world over sings the praises of the film makers. "These guys are geniuses," they shout to anyone who will listen. The film creates such a stir among butterfly aficionados that other (normal) people start to take notice. The film is given several awards. Critics love the film and wonder aloud why more such quality films aren't being made. The film is hailed as a ground breaking example of what a movie should be. People are happy.

Meanwhile, the film makers start talking amongst themselves. "Dang, we're geniuses. Isn't that what everyone is saying?" they think, managing to not entirely notice the fact that 90% of the people saying it are butterfly people. "Here we are, a few guys with not much of a budget and crude equipment, doing the final editing on our daughter's Speak 'n' Spell, and still we manage to make a film everyone says is one of the best in years. We rock. We're making better movies than these big studios with $100 million dollar budgets and such." Then they notice something - while their film was widely hailed as an amazing piece of film making, they didn't make a whole lot of money off it, being that most of the people who paid to see it were butterfly enthusiasts (which may not, technically, exist). "We make a great film, but don't make hardly a cent on it - that doesn't seem right," the film makers muse. "What we need to do is make a film that appeals to a broader market. But we need to stick to what we know. Let's make a mass-market butterfly film - then we can really cash in on our skillz. Think of how much we can make if a wider audience came to see our movie." There are high-fives all around.

The butterfly community is excited - finally, their passion is getting the treatment it deserves. "I can't wait to see what these guys do next," they think. "The best butterfly movie makers ever are going to go for round 2. It'll be just like the first one, only better and cooler and super neato and I JUST CAN'T WAIT!!!" they say to each other while skipping around and clapping their hands and twirling their butterfly nets in such joy and anticipation that they almost hop right out of their plaid pants. Meanwhile, the rest of the world (the normal part) looks on with mild interest. "These guys made a good movie, even if it was about butterflies. Maybe their second one will be cool enough to go see, especially if they drop some of the geekier butterfly commentary and make it a little more accessible".

After months of anticipation and wrangling with the Speak 'n' Spell, the film makers are finally ready to release their new movie. It is with pride and anticipation that they unveil their second masterpiece: Hairy Caterpillar and the Chrysalis of Fire. The initial reaction is a bit mixed. "That sounds...um...different," people say.

"Trust us," the film makers respond. "It's a great movie - go see it".

So people go see it. And are not happy.

The butterfly people can't believe they wasted their money on it. "That was nothing like your first movie," they say. "Your first movie was a marvel of detailed film work, exposing the hidden world of the butterfly. This one was some strange fantasy/action movie that featured a magic spell slinging butterfly fighting some sort of other-worldly red syntax challenged beast and his pet bonobo. It was nothing like the first one at all, except for the incidental (and somewhat odd) inclusion of a butterfly as a main character."

The film makers are incredulous. "Well," they say "clearly you butterfly wonks know nothing about the world of film making. To make big money you can't make documentaries, you have to make action flicks. But it's still a butterfly movie, which we know you like. So you must like this one. Anyway, we're not making any more butterfly documentaries, just butterfly action flicks. So start liking this one, or you won't get any sort of butterfly movies at all. Besides, we know films, and this is a good one. If you keep watching it, you'll eventually realize that this is the kind of movie you really like, and forget all about that documentary, which really wasn't that good anyway."

"But this movie was stupid," the butterfly people respond.

"Don't you remember how you said we were geniuses?" the film makers ask. "We know movies better than you. We're telling you this one is better. If you claim you like the first one better, you must be lying, because we, as the geniuses, say the second one is better. Who are you going to believe? A genius or a stupid butterfly collector?"

Meanwhile, some normal (non-butterfly) people go see the movie. "That was pretty dumb," is the consensus. "It was basically a low-budget action movie. All the special effects were pretty lame. And it looks like they did the final editing on my sister's Speak 'n' Spell or something. If I want to see an action flick, I want it to look good - you just can't pull that off on the budget they're operating with. And what's with the butterfly as a main character? That was just weird."

"You just don't get it," the film makers protest. "We are geniuses. You want to see realistic car crashes and explosions? It just can't be done. All this film making is hard stuff, what with all the cameras and wires and temperamental Speak 'n' Spells and such. Sure the end product might look a bit sloppier than you're used to, but you got to admit, we're genius film makers. And look, this movie has a butterfly in it."

"We don't care if you're geniuses or not," the normal people reply. "We just like cool special effects in our action movies, and you don't have that. We don't really care about butterflies. And if we do want to see a butterfly movie, Dreamworks is coming out with a butterfly war movie (Full Metalmark Jacket) with a $200 million dollar budget that I'm sure will be a lot more to our tastes."

And so both crowds walk away dissatisfied, the butterfly people longing for a return to serious butterfly movies, the normal people uninterested in low budget films when there are plenty of big-budget options around them.

Meanwhile the film makers begin planning to shoot their next hit, Hairy Caterpillar and the Order of the Lepidoptera. "People are really going to go for this one," they think to themselves, "after all, we are geniuses".

Link to post #332:

http://forums.gamesquad.com/showthre...30#post1142430
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Unread 04-09-2009, 01:34 PM
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The Coil's little parable has been picked up on both the Usenet (first) and (later) Battlefront forums. On the latter, it certainly has Steve (and a few others) jumping around like they had just sat on fire ant mound.

Perhaps more interesting and enlightening is this from Steve:

"From a business perspective, we don't care if anybody plays a single game purchase of ours after... oh... I dunno... 6 months or so. Anything beyond that is a freebie since even at 6 months the price paid is ridiculously low compared to other forms of entertainment, especially movies and run-of-the-mill games. Which means we have absolutely no concern for people who expect to play the game for year after year. If they do, great, if they don't we have no motivation to do more. Nor should any reasonable person expect us to do more. Slavery and indentured servitude is illegal where we live, not to mention immoral."

Link:

http://www.battlefront.com/community...2&postcount=37


Now that BF games/modules come wrapped in DRM, will they remain playable years down the line?
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Unread 04-10-2009, 03:54 PM
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What a great way to treat your customers- Steve's going nuts & losing his base quickly.
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Unread 04-11-2009, 01:50 PM
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That's not all of it. Steve has just compared Battlefront, CM x 2 and CMSF critics at Game Squad (including yours truly) to neo-Nazis:

"[hirr]Leto, Quote:
I don't see what all the fuss is about. If the opinion is so out in space, then ignoring it is a much better strategy than denigrating it openly... in a professional sense.

No, I think the best thing to do is to challenge extremists to make sure their warped concepts get kept in their places. Wacked out wargamers, neo-Nazis, the local anti-tax movement (i.e. we want services, but no taxes), religious fanatics, etc. all fall into the same category. Challenging them makes them even worse, which ensures that their true colors are seen by the most amount of people possible and therefore keeps their numbers and influence as small as possible. The worst thing to do is let extremists pretend to be more moderate than they really are. Politics have endless examples of where that leads to."

Steve's post #51 at the top of this page:

http://www.battlefront.com/community...t=86780&page=6


This is probably the first time in U.S. business history that a retailer has deemed it a good idea to publicly describe some of his customers as comparable to neo-Nazis.

It is both brilliant and based on such a compelling set of facts!
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