If you haven't bought it yet... why not?
A lot of the people who visit this forum have probably already bought The Great Cow Race. (If you did, thanks! 
) Now, I'm curious to hear from those who haven't bought it yet. Why not? Do you have plans to buy it sometime in the future but haven't gotten around to it yet? Is there something holding you back?
There's no right or wrong answer to this question... we just want to understand who our customers are and what's on your minds. So it'll be interesting (and useful!) to hear what people have to say about this.
) Now, I'm curious to hear from those who haven't bought it yet. Why not? Do you have plans to buy it sometime in the future but haven't gotten around to it yet? Is there something holding you back?There's no right or wrong answer to this question... we just want to understand who our customers are and what's on your minds. So it'll be interesting (and useful!) to hear what people have to say about this.
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I will get around to buying it soon enough though
I don't have a credit card
I've read Bone since I was around 14 years old in the late 90's and first played Sam and Max even earlier then that so having one company making games for 2 of my most beloved "franchises" (I guess you could call them) is pretty awesome.
My fiance wants to play the bone games too. I made her play Curse of Monkey Island and she loved it and since then she's played MI1, MI2, Day of the Tentacle and tried Hit the Road but sadly she couldn't get into it..... it broke my heart.
Sure do.
xChri5x, sounds like the Bone games would make a good wedding present! You should add them to your registry.
Also, CitizenMarvel, you're not the only person who'd like a Mac port. A lot of Telltale employees are Mac users.
Yes, indeed. I don't want to see other AG companies going the way of TellTale with episodic approaches. This is the business model of the TV industry - break a story into a million episodes, make it popcorn-addictive, squeeze every penny out of the viewers [who pay delivery fees (i.e. monthly cable fees) and also pay for each episode by sitting through a ton of commercials]. I'd much rather pay $xx to buy a 2h movie on DVD and own it with (arguably) no string attached. Life is too short for sitting though endless sitcoms and such.
Second, I refuse to accept DRM as implemented by Steam and TellTale. It simply kills the whole experience (call it illusion, if you will) of owning a game product. By having a product which enforces activation, one becomes dependent on the publisher who may at his discretion pull the plug on your game at any point in the future. I don't want to be contemplating scenarios about my internet connection going down at the worst moment or TellTale going out of business and taking their DRM servers with them. Not that I can't take care of any DRM protection by finding an appropriate crack, but it's a hoop I don't have time to deal with. While I understand the need of encapsulating the games with DRM protection for online delivery, I don't see why activation would be required for CD/DVD distributions which already have copy protection in place (StarForce, etc).
Also, such activation schemes are a way of empowering the publisher to play price-fixing games. This is, because the consumers are not free to trade their copies of the games and sell them on E-bay. This goes against the principles of free market economy. Pirate-warding is a pointless argument - these folks can go around any protection and have ways of distributing their hacks around. It's the regular AG fan, who is happy to pay for his games, who gets punished here.
So, while I've bought and own almost every AG there is (DOTT, S&M, FT, GF, TLJ, Syberia 12, IP, BS 123, GK 123, MI 1234, MoS, TT, you name it...), I haven't purchased Bone 12 because I find TellTale's business model unhealthy for the AG community. You guys openly admit that you are trying hard to turn your products into a franchise much like a TV series. I don't agree that this is how Adventure Games should be. A good adventure game should be like a first class movie rather than a lengthy TV Series spanning multiple seasons. My thoughts are with the AVS folks, who are all about releasing a full-featured game the traditional way (albeit it may take some time and incur financial risk).
So, TellTale - want to get me and my $$ on your side? Well, here is the magic formula:
Package the Bone series on a DVD, apply any copy-protection you like (but not online activation), and put it out there priced competitively against other adventure games. Then I won't feel like I am getting something incomplete and leased out, but something I will actually own. Call me traditional, but it's the only way I'd invest in a game (even if it is S&M). :-)
All this criticism aside, I applaud you for getting rid of the middle man in the game distribution chain. Self-publishing game products is the way to go. I'd rather buy directly from the game studio than Amazon.com. You seem like a talented team which holds a lot of promise once you find the right business model.
Jeez. Next thing you know, you'll be demanding free copies of Sam & Max...
Hey even when I was offered free versions of the games I still bought them to support..support your own games..yes buy multiple copies to give you a false sense of achievement when you see those sales numbers B-)
(maybe I should be swearing to make sure I get their attention
I don't like the look of Bone, I didn't like the look of Grim Fandango or MI4 (not to mention the controls in MI4 - my god!)
I simply do not like the plastic coated look that has been dominating 3D AGs to date - and I really think it is too bad, because it really keeps me from seeing the charm and personality of the characters.
I think that even in the old days, which I know will never return, the very pixellized characters had more charm than now, because back then, the graphical representation of most AGs far exeeded the overall "realism" (or whatever) of other types of games (shoot-em-ups, sims, action, etc.).
Nowadays, the developers of AGs often have to slim down the game requirements (probably based on extensive market research - I hope). This means that they have to use basic shaders and that sort of stuff - Only, IMHO, maybe they shouldn't.
Many of you may not know the game "Sheep Dog 'n Wolf". When I tried this game back in 2001, I thought to myself: "Now there is a successful comic adaptation! Best ever, to be completely honest."
I think the engine concept (perhaps strongly updated and modified for the specific task) would be great for many of the future AGs of these times as it would allow the designers to REALLY bring back the charm to comic based AGs (non-human characters). The character animations are really funny and it is simply a great game! (although, by now maybe a bit out of date)
Take a look at this link (the actual game looks better than the screenshots) and this link.
If you are interrested in seeing the game in action, you can download it here .
I will never give up hoping.
For one, cell shading wouldn't even really reproduce the look of the comics; there's a lot more 3 dimensional looking shading in the coloured versions than in, for instance, traditional animation, and a major feature (to my eyes at least) of the comic's look is the careful use of differently weighted lines, something which cell shading's automatic outlining couldn't hope to replicate. The sort of "wriggliness" and squishiness of the characters (I can't think of a better way to describe it) is also something I can't imagine being translated effectively to 3D graphics, regardless of any shading effects. It's much better, I think, to try to adapt the general look of the comic, as Telltale seem to be doing, than get hung up on the specifics.
Your apparent belief that non-cell shaded 3D graphics can't posess charm is something I just can't understand. It's true of most, but you shouldn't let that blind you. If you play the demo of The Great Cow Race and still find the visuals charmless, I have sincere pity for you.
You're making me feel like some sort of shirker for not having bought The Great Cow Race (and the books) after I won it (them).
Can not wait for the next one!! Good work! Keep it up
Hey, look over there! A three-headed monkey!
EDIT: Oh, and welcome to the forum, Netrat! Thanks for sharing your thoughts about Cow Race.
The Amiga had USB ports?
Matt
Loom costs $170? It's only about three hours long. Clearly we are not charging enough for our products....
Maybe telltale could make a new loom...
The reason why I have not bought it yet is because of exactly what TellTale is pushing through: the episodic nature of the games.
I expect TellTale to do exactly what is done very frequently with media such as this. When the game is considered to be complete, there will probably be some über-deluxe package that will include all of the episodes, all of the comics, plus a ton of extras bundled into a "Collector's Edition" at a cost that is a much better value than the individual pieces. Additionally, unless it's something that I really, really must have now, I'm not a download guy. I want the media. So, if I buy each disc as it comes out and TTG does finally release some über-deluxe package, chances are it will include the game, which I would otherwise already own.
Look at what our good friend (*cough*) Lucas has done to milk the Star Wars franchise. Now that all of the episodes are on DVD, here comes yet another set that now has extras like the original, theatrical versions of 4, 5, and 6. So, anyone who buys that and already bought the "As I Still Claim I Meant Them To Be" DVD releases will now have two copies of the Special Editions just to gain access to the theatrical edition.
Now, I'm not saying that this is what TTG is going to do. I don't know. I don't work for them. (I'd love to, but being on the opposite coast sort of creates a commuting problem.) But since there are multiple comics and multiple episodes, I would not be surprised at all to hear that TTG plans on doing that in the future. Going on that assumption, I'd rather wait and buy the whole thing later.
Now, I know the whole "But you'll be supporting them NOW when they certainly could use sales and the capital to keep them going!" that I'm sure some of you are ready to throw at me. I understand that. But unless it's something that I really have to have NOW (like when The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy was being released), I can wait. And frankly Bone does not have enough of my interest to warrant me purchasing it as this moment. Put out a Collector's Edition if/when the series ends, and it's mine ... unless The Great Cow Race actually is the end and I missed that somewhere.
That being said, I put Sam and Max in the same "Must Have" category as The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Each episode will be mine as they're released. Bone just isn't in that category.
Anyway, Emily asked, I answered. Let the criticism begin.
Most likely, he's referring to Amiga-style joysticks that have a USB adapter or actual, Amiga joysticks that were retro-fitted or have a USB adapter to be used primarily with an Amiga emulator on a PC or a Mac. I see lots of those adapters on the Intar-web to let you attach Nintendo, Commodore/Atari, Colecovision, Intellivision, and other types of joysticks to your PC, which then work with an emulator.
Episodes suck. Complete full-length games rocks
Activation sucks. Nobody wants any umbilical cords with TellTale.
Until tese issues are addressed - I don't need no bones or cows
Amigas had specific joysticks?!?!
What the hell was I playing on from 88-93?!?!?
It had better not have been the Kelloggs variety packs!
Tricked again!
Though question... and it's not because I don't know why I haven't bought it yet, it's because I just don't know where to start. So many reasons.
I'll start with the game itself then. Let's talk without euphemisms: it's mediocre. I enjoyed combining rubber duckies with clotheslines and clamps in other games, but what am I doing in the demo of the episodes? Good question actually, is there even a puzzle? Well, I clicked to unfold a map from under a rock.
I won't complain about the graphics, since I enjoy even the oldest games. Also, now people with old computers have something as well.
As for the story, the demo doesn't give me a good enough impression of how the full game will be. Maybe that's a sign of the full game having not much to offer? I don't want my money wasted. And even if the full game had something to offer, my money would still be wasted, since there is a timebomb on the game, which leads me to the next point:
I don't want the games I bought to be on the servers of someone else, I want to own the game MYSELF. Not only will I be unable to play your game in the future when your company quits, but also when my, or even worse, YOUR internet is temporarily down.
And don't give me the tired old "piracy" reason either, Oblivion sold millions of copies and doesn't have a single piece of copy protection! nothing! Not even CD checks or so! sure it does get pirated, but so does your game!
Bottom line, if you want your game, you don't do that with intimidating copy protection schemes that pirates will get around with anyway, you do it by creating a good game!
But Lucasarts games are REALLY good so don't take offense
Speaking of S&M - I most sincerely hope that the product will stand up to the hype. Just look at Pirates of the Caribbean 2 for a case-in-point of how bad remakes/follow-ups can be. The offspring may be breaking the all-time opening weekend records (mostly due to the pop's legacy), but the series will crash and burn soon once the negative reviews start pouring in and people realize that it's a bore.
Though I hate to disappoint you, various interviews indicate otherwise.
Actually, I really enjoyed it
(etc)
Dude, how do you figure that - This is a thread where people where specifically asked why they didnt buy one of the Bone games - Most people just seem to want a Mac port? B-)
Don't forget 3D Realms, they are fond of including on line authentication in their games as well. They tried to do it in Prey, but had no time anymore before the release, fortunately.
It's safe to bet Duke Nukem Forever will have on line authentication
Bah! The internet will be long gone by the time Duke Nukem Forever is released
Did you try selecting different carriers from the drop-down menu? Sometimes a carrier like UPS or FedEx won't deliver to a PO Box, but USPS usually will....
Well I am located in the Middle East so the only 2 options I get with the drop-down when it comes to shipping is UPS Express and International Post. I don't get a USPS option.