I agree with Morgan that DB SHOULD have been a kind of addon or expansion pack to BB.
Indeed, back in April I made a post(the only post I ever made) on the BB forums suggesting that a DB addon might be a good idea for future development of the game.
As forum posts go, it wasn't a terribly popular viewpoint and one or two users took the opportunity to trash the newbie for making such a ridiculous comment.
So imagine my astonishment when, 3 months later, Cyanide announce they've gone and released a Dungeonbowl game.
Really? I asked myself... but I thought I'm the only person in the world who doesn't think it's a terrible idea! It's certainly the impression I'd received from the responses I got.
So of course, I guess I should be phenomenally grateful to Cyanide for spending millions of dollars developing a game that, according to the reactions I got in April, only yours truly actually wants.
I am honoured.
Ok, but sarcasm aside, I will not be buying DB, even with 30% knocked off the price, and why?
No single player mode. Pure and simple.
Now I have no desire to offend anyone who enjoys multiplayer, nor would I wish to suggest that my refusal to lock horns with other real people is due to any lack of faith in the good nature of my fellow human beings.
But purely and simply, it's not for me. I CAN'T guarantee that I'd be able to devote my time to a game without having to break off... and indeed I suspect this is true of many potential players who have RLs - kids, spouses etc. - that must take precedence.
Back in the day, when I had fewer commitments and more free time, I did my share of World of Warcraft raiding, and it's frankly one MAJOR headache when a 25-man raid is left in limbo because one user hasn't sorted their life out sufficiently to make sure their time and commitment is solid... and keeps dashing off to make a sandwich, take a dump, walk the dog, phone a girlfriend or whatever... leaving the other players twiddling their thumbs irritably. It's frankly selfish, disrespectful and irresponsible to do that to one's guildmates, just as it would be if one kept nipping off in the middle of an amateur 5-a-side football match that your mates have trained prepared for, par example. Wouldn't you agree?
And so it is with ANY multiplayer game.
Multiplayer requires a commitment to one's fellow player(s), whereas single player does not.
And there may well be other people, such as myself, who are sufficiently self-aware of what time they can and can't commit to other people, and who therefore don't wish to let other people down by starting games they can't guarantee to finish.
And if so, perhaps such people, who've enjoyed single player BB just as they enjoy other single-player PC games, are looking at DB and saying to themselves, "I'd buy it if it had a single player mode".
Perhaps that's just me being utopian and idealistic? Who knows.
In any event, I concur with the post above that suggested that a poor AI is better than NO AI. I have to say I agree 100%, and if DB had one, I'd buy it.
It strikes me that, if the number of online players is, as some of you suggest, very small, then few people are buying and playing this game... and that might account for Cyanide's desperate attempt to sell more copies by offering a 30% off deal this weekend?
Who knows?
But one thing is for sure... adding an AI, even a poor one, certainly won't REDUCE Dungeonbowl's potential market. At the VERY LEAST it will increase it by a total of ONE customer - me.
Possibly more?
I guess we'll never know, unless they code it in.
Sat Jul 14, 2012 5:00 pm