Originally Posted by
Funderbunk
While I agree that the fanbase is important, I think following the fanbase exactly isn't the best idea. Maybe it's because I've been part of the Blizzard fanbase for so long, but with listening to the fanbase you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. What most fans want, basically, is to have the same experience they had the first time around. That's why they hold on to things very strongly. Especially the vocal minority. What they don't get is that you can't have the same experience you had before by keeping things the same, because you can't have that same sense of discovery, amusement with new things, and challenge by learning curve.
I mean, I hope I don't offend people here by saying this, because I know the Blizzard fanbase has a terrible reputation (deservedly so), but I've seen traces of this behaviour on this board. For example, I read a discussion about picking up and dropping creatures, where many people wanted to have it the same as DK1 where you could only hold 8 creatures at a time, because that's how it was in DK1 and it was balanced better than unlimited picking up. This is exactly the same as StarCraft fans in the Blizzard fanbase crying foul when they found out you could select more units. Instead of calling for a new solution to the balance problems this creates, they called for a return of a technological engine limitation instead.
The problem here is that fans are not game designers. I'm sure you guys have more than enough talent to design a game for DK1 fans without making it exactly like DK1.
Just to clarify, this board is one of the smartest game communities I've come across so far and I'm definitely not trying to compare you guys to the Blizzard fanbase, and if I did, you guys would come out on top any day of the week.
I see your point, but I don't think you're right in using it as reasoning for this particular decision. The problem with DK2 was not that they had axed so many creatures from DK1, it was that they had been replaced with creatures that were not as interesting. I have no problem with the Goblin replacing the boring Beetle, especially since the Goblin fits the basic Dungeon Keeper premise of the Standard Dungeon Crawl from the Dungeon's Point of View, but I do have a problem with losing the Dragon (iconic dungeon creature) to the dull and far too hero-like Dark Knight. Same with the Rogue, why is it there? Isn't a rogue a staple of a dungeon crawling adventurer party? I feel like I should be killing him. His presence in my dungeon goes completely against the basic premise of the game. And that's the big hole in Dungeon Keeper 2 and the part where you can see they made a big mistake in their design philosophy. They kept most iconic things from Dungeon Keeper 1 (I feel they did a decent job picking out what HAD to stay, although axing the Dragon was pretty dumb), but the things they added just weren't very interesting, and that's mostly because they lost sight of the basic premise and core value of the Dungeon Keeper franchise.
I've said before, I'm seeing some extraordinary talent working on this project. I'm sure if you keep the core values of Dungeon Keeper, and things that are truly iconic, whatever else you do will be well received by the fanbase.
Of course, there's always going to be some fans that won't be pleased, but there's no avoiding that. Ever. It's the risk of franchise work. Unpleasable Fanbase is it's own trope for a reason. Or maybe it's just my own jaded nature, or that I'm looking at this from under the guise of too much theoretical game design (as a game design student, I have plenty of my own biases).
Still, it's cool that there will still be fresh cool stuff and gameplay elements. Like I said, I really like this project. It's awesome. I think it's almost everything a hardcore Dungeon Keeper fan could ask for. But I see the potential for it to be everything a Dungeon Keeper fan didn't know they wanted.