_Sinue_
Oct 29, 2003, 01:23 PM
What is it these days that drives a company to take their most loved and cherished series and mangle it to the point where you can almost phystically see them humping it's rotting corpse for spare cash? Games that built the foundations of the very multi-million dollar dollar corperations with hard earned money of it's fans, are systematically defiled and mutilated to the point where fans reject it - new comers will not buy it - and the once profitable series is laid to waste as a "A Dead Licence". Don't these companies see what they are doing? WTF?!?
Granted, what was said above can be said for many games and many companies.. but this rant is about the King Rat of them all (Just behind EA), Sierra. One of the first series they created, Leisure Suit Larry, was initially sold as a Text Adventure titled Soft Porn Adventure. Even in it's early roots, the game sold astoundingly well - and suprisingly - the hint-book sold even better.. indicating that it's presence as pirated software reached nearly 300% of it's actual sales. Al Lowe commented on TechTV's ScreenSavers, that the game had nearly 100% penetration of the market in it's time.
So when Sierra lost their licence with Disney to create games for them.. they transfered over Al Lowe to do a remake of SoftPorn Adventure with their new AGI Interpreter. What resulted, was one of the most memorable and humourous game series in PC history. Leisure Suit Larry, which is currently in it's 7th incarnation (6th acutally, they never made LSL 4). Al Lowe created, with his unique brand of whit and innuendo, the character of Larry Laffer - 30 year old balding virgin in a leisure suit trying to score in today's modern world. In many ways, Al Lowe IS Leisure Suit Larry.. and longtime fans of the series are just as much fans of his as they are of Larry.
Everything changes though. Sierra sold to Credant, who screwed them.., was sold to Havas and then again to Vivendi/Universal. Many of the old greats who long time fans had respected and amired were lost in the corperate quagmire of mergers and buyouts... screw the fans, axe the developers they love, and tighten the bottom line. Adventure gaming, for the leader of the Adventure gaming industry, was dead.
Yet, just as with Quest for Glory 5, fans have been clamoring world-wide for a new Leisure Suit Larry game - that the upper management has taken notice. They've recently announced that they've contracted High Voltage Games, Inc to produce the next Leisure Suit Larry game. This might seem like good news.. but it's not.
Instead of giving the fans what they want, they're going to make an entirely new product to sell to people who don't know who Leisure Suit Larry is.. and probably don't care... all the while ignoring the pleas of the fanbase who built the series - who are at least guanteed to buy the game.
Here's the jist of it. High Voltage Games, Inc, is developing the title for the PC, Xbox, and PS2. Since Sierra is contracting an outside developer, rather than producing it internally, Al Lowe has not been included in the development team. The very heart and soul of LSL is lost already.
To make matters worse, they are shifting focus away from LSL being an Adventure game - into an Action/Adventure... complete with *shudder* "Levels" and "Bosses". This is a compelete opposite spectrum of what Leisure Suit Larry have come to expect from the series, and is nothing more than an incompetant ploy to bring in more "Twitch" gamers.
Another mistake is that.. despite the title.. Leisure Suit Larry (Larry Laffer) does not make an apperance in this new title. Instead, the story focuses around his nephew, Larry Lovage. WTF? How can you have a LSL game without LSL? Why not just make it an RTS with the cast of Half-Life (Hey, they sell right? - oh wait.. that was Counter Strike that sold Half-Life) and slap the LSL title on that pile of dog ****! Ugh. The entire reason this game is even being made is to ride the back of popular films like "American Pie" and "Something About Mary", which "Inspired" them in the creation process. Not only does that confirm that Al Lowe's unique blend of humor is GONE, but that LSL8 will be nothing more than a "Me-Too" game to generate (loose) quick cash.
The game takes place at a university filled with gorgeous young collage girls - this actually does sound like a move Larry Laffer would make, joining collage just to get at the hot chicks... but it's ruined by everything that follows the premice. You'd think Sierra would have learned from King's Quest 8 that...
1. Turning an Adventure Game into and Action game will not make it sell better - you'll just piss off fans.
2. Taking focus away from the traditional cast of characters will not sell the game to a new audience.. it just pisses off fans.
King's Quest 8, at least, had Roberta Williams at the helm... so you could at least tell there was an inkling of her inspiration in there (however reserved) as you traveled through the game. Without Al Lowe on the team, Sierra has already gotten vows (and threats) from thousands of long time fans who will not buy this game... just a mere 2 days after it's offical announcement. Way to go A-holes..
They should know that it costs 10x as much to gain a new fan, than it takes to keep an existing fan. But hey.. I guess that's why they're in the financial ****ter now isn't it? They should take a note from Brian Moriarti's book (Monkey Island series) and learn that -yes- Adventure games CAN be profitable.. so long as you stay true to your roots and don't alienate your core fanbase... who, really, are your most POWERFUL form of advertising.
Leisure Suit Larry 8: Magna Cum Laude is slated for release on PC, PS2, and Xbox in Q4 of 2004.
(I guess maybe you'd just have to be a fan back in the old days to understand the frustration. Sierra really was a company like no other.. the only one I've ever known where they encouraged their employees to keep correspondance with their fans.. to include bits of their personal lives and inside jokes with their games and publications. To chat and game with their customers on TSN (Sierra's online gaming network). Maybe this is just a rant about the end of an era.. as I should have known that Sierra died in 1998 with the closing of Oakhurst.. it still, actually hurts, to see a company I once admired and aspire to work for, rape a series I grew up with for nothing more than a half-assed attempt to vaccum up a few loose dollars by imitating pop-culture trends.)
*Sigh*
BTW: Since this game is comming to consoles, I wouldn't expect too much of good stuff and raunchier humor found in the previous titles. Say good bye to Easter Eggs like looking through the peephole in the girls locker room in LSL6, Where's Dildo in LSL7, or the infamous "Give the Bouncer a BJ" while playing Patti in LSL 3. (You didn't actually see anything, just the Bouncer getting a HUGE smile) You wouldn't want to offend the parents after all. That might make them loose sales. = /
http://www.high-voltage.com/
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031028/latu030_1.html
http://www.sierra.com/product.do?gamePlatformId=607
Granted, what was said above can be said for many games and many companies.. but this rant is about the King Rat of them all (Just behind EA), Sierra. One of the first series they created, Leisure Suit Larry, was initially sold as a Text Adventure titled Soft Porn Adventure. Even in it's early roots, the game sold astoundingly well - and suprisingly - the hint-book sold even better.. indicating that it's presence as pirated software reached nearly 300% of it's actual sales. Al Lowe commented on TechTV's ScreenSavers, that the game had nearly 100% penetration of the market in it's time.
So when Sierra lost their licence with Disney to create games for them.. they transfered over Al Lowe to do a remake of SoftPorn Adventure with their new AGI Interpreter. What resulted, was one of the most memorable and humourous game series in PC history. Leisure Suit Larry, which is currently in it's 7th incarnation (6th acutally, they never made LSL 4). Al Lowe created, with his unique brand of whit and innuendo, the character of Larry Laffer - 30 year old balding virgin in a leisure suit trying to score in today's modern world. In many ways, Al Lowe IS Leisure Suit Larry.. and longtime fans of the series are just as much fans of his as they are of Larry.
Everything changes though. Sierra sold to Credant, who screwed them.., was sold to Havas and then again to Vivendi/Universal. Many of the old greats who long time fans had respected and amired were lost in the corperate quagmire of mergers and buyouts... screw the fans, axe the developers they love, and tighten the bottom line. Adventure gaming, for the leader of the Adventure gaming industry, was dead.
Yet, just as with Quest for Glory 5, fans have been clamoring world-wide for a new Leisure Suit Larry game - that the upper management has taken notice. They've recently announced that they've contracted High Voltage Games, Inc to produce the next Leisure Suit Larry game. This might seem like good news.. but it's not.
Instead of giving the fans what they want, they're going to make an entirely new product to sell to people who don't know who Leisure Suit Larry is.. and probably don't care... all the while ignoring the pleas of the fanbase who built the series - who are at least guanteed to buy the game.
Here's the jist of it. High Voltage Games, Inc, is developing the title for the PC, Xbox, and PS2. Since Sierra is contracting an outside developer, rather than producing it internally, Al Lowe has not been included in the development team. The very heart and soul of LSL is lost already.
To make matters worse, they are shifting focus away from LSL being an Adventure game - into an Action/Adventure... complete with *shudder* "Levels" and "Bosses". This is a compelete opposite spectrum of what Leisure Suit Larry have come to expect from the series, and is nothing more than an incompetant ploy to bring in more "Twitch" gamers.
Another mistake is that.. despite the title.. Leisure Suit Larry (Larry Laffer) does not make an apperance in this new title. Instead, the story focuses around his nephew, Larry Lovage. WTF? How can you have a LSL game without LSL? Why not just make it an RTS with the cast of Half-Life (Hey, they sell right? - oh wait.. that was Counter Strike that sold Half-Life) and slap the LSL title on that pile of dog ****! Ugh. The entire reason this game is even being made is to ride the back of popular films like "American Pie" and "Something About Mary", which "Inspired" them in the creation process. Not only does that confirm that Al Lowe's unique blend of humor is GONE, but that LSL8 will be nothing more than a "Me-Too" game to generate (loose) quick cash.
The game takes place at a university filled with gorgeous young collage girls - this actually does sound like a move Larry Laffer would make, joining collage just to get at the hot chicks... but it's ruined by everything that follows the premice. You'd think Sierra would have learned from King's Quest 8 that...
1. Turning an Adventure Game into and Action game will not make it sell better - you'll just piss off fans.
2. Taking focus away from the traditional cast of characters will not sell the game to a new audience.. it just pisses off fans.
King's Quest 8, at least, had Roberta Williams at the helm... so you could at least tell there was an inkling of her inspiration in there (however reserved) as you traveled through the game. Without Al Lowe on the team, Sierra has already gotten vows (and threats) from thousands of long time fans who will not buy this game... just a mere 2 days after it's offical announcement. Way to go A-holes..
They should know that it costs 10x as much to gain a new fan, than it takes to keep an existing fan. But hey.. I guess that's why they're in the financial ****ter now isn't it? They should take a note from Brian Moriarti's book (Monkey Island series) and learn that -yes- Adventure games CAN be profitable.. so long as you stay true to your roots and don't alienate your core fanbase... who, really, are your most POWERFUL form of advertising.
Leisure Suit Larry 8: Magna Cum Laude is slated for release on PC, PS2, and Xbox in Q4 of 2004.
(I guess maybe you'd just have to be a fan back in the old days to understand the frustration. Sierra really was a company like no other.. the only one I've ever known where they encouraged their employees to keep correspondance with their fans.. to include bits of their personal lives and inside jokes with their games and publications. To chat and game with their customers on TSN (Sierra's online gaming network). Maybe this is just a rant about the end of an era.. as I should have known that Sierra died in 1998 with the closing of Oakhurst.. it still, actually hurts, to see a company I once admired and aspire to work for, rape a series I grew up with for nothing more than a half-assed attempt to vaccum up a few loose dollars by imitating pop-culture trends.)
*Sigh*
BTW: Since this game is comming to consoles, I wouldn't expect too much of good stuff and raunchier humor found in the previous titles. Say good bye to Easter Eggs like looking through the peephole in the girls locker room in LSL6, Where's Dildo in LSL7, or the infamous "Give the Bouncer a BJ" while playing Patti in LSL 3. (You didn't actually see anything, just the Bouncer getting a HUGE smile) You wouldn't want to offend the parents after all. That might make them loose sales. = /
http://www.high-voltage.com/
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031028/latu030_1.html
http://www.sierra.com/product.do?gamePlatformId=607