Dhruin
SasqWatch
Whether or not you planned to buy Arcania, there's a good chance that visitors to this site will have at least a passing interest in a new Gothic title. It's finally here for some territories and we geto assess the new developer and a new direction for the Gothic series - will JoWood bring the fans down this new path? Here's a sample:
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Read it all here."In the struggle to make games more accessible to larger audiences, it becomes a question of how much is too much to tone down and sometimes that can be too much".
That comment, also by ArcaniA's producer, Kamaal Anwar, sums up the issue that has been so hot on the RPGWatch forums. When does the compromise of making a game more accessible turn into "dumbing down"? We can look at any of the recent RPGs to make this point, including Dragon Age to Mass Effect 2, not just ArcaniA. Where ArcaniA stands out is that it is the first I can recall that openly set a design goal to attract the new and casual RPGers. Other than the name (which is a BIG marketing mistake in using the term "Gothic 4") ArcaniA never pretended to be a Classic RPG of the type most of us on RPGWatch seek and prefer. I would not be surprised, given our very high percentage of classic RPGers compared to most sites, if the reaction in the RPGWatch forums to ArcaniA was mostly negative.
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