12 replies to this topic

[S3dition]

I was just reviewing the Starcraft 2/Diablo 3 cinematics. Don't get me wrong, those are awful games with dated mechanics and sloppy designs. But the cinematics and storytelling are top notch.

Given the amount of games with good cinematics (like Dawn of War 1/2 and recent Blizzard games), I'd like to see a push for a quality Battletech series (at the same level as an HBO/Cinemax series) but using crowd funding and tied to MWO to kill the IP trolls.

Basically, a series (even if shown only through this site/youtube) that is played off as promotional material would cut the red tape and finally allow Battletech to play out for the masses. The kicker is that pre-renders of existing MWO mechs could be used for the special effects, greatly reducing the development costs.

This isn't a call for a movie, but a running series to coincide with Mechwarrior Online. I know it's doable. I just wonder if there is fan support for it.

[FromHell2k]

S3dition, on 02 April 2013 - 11:51 PM, said:

I was just reviewing the Starcraft 2/Diablo 3 cinematics. Don't get me wrong, those are awful games with dated mechanics and sloppy designs. But the cinematics and storytelling are top notch.

Given the amount of games with good cinematics (like Dawn of War 1/2 and recent Blizzard games), I'd like to see a push for a quality Battletech series (at the same level as an HBO/Cinemax series) but using crowd funding and tied to MWO to kill the IP trolls.

Basically, a series (even if shown only through this site/youtube) that is played off as promotional material would cut the red tape and finally allow Battletech to play out for the masses. The kicker is that pre-renders of existing MWO mechs could be used for the special effects, greatly reducing the development costs.

This isn't a call for a movie, but a running series to coincide with Mechwarrior Online. I know it's doable. I just wonder if there is fan support for it.

One of the best ideas so far. Would support it with all with all available means.

[Tahribator]

S3dition, on 02 April 2013 - 11:51 PM, said:

I was just reviewing the Starcraft 2/Diablo 3 cinematics. Don't get me wrong, those are awful games with dated mechanics and sloppy designs.

Would you kindly step out of the door please.

[Jack Lowe]

Very good idea, in fact if u go digging a little bit you'll find a few very nice quality u tube vids out there as promotionials for different merc units. The Remenant comes to mind. I was thinking in fact after CW hits and is fleshed out a bit that if players frapped a bunch of footage and a few dedicated people put it together you could probably get enough to make a short vid that would make sense. Of course that assumes a few things like control over what maps one drops on and a few other features.It would be time consuming to get all the footage,but a dedicated group of guys into roleplaying a story line could probably do it.Then get someone with some expertise in films and CGI together to clean it up a bit it'd work. The base graphics for MWO are pretty good quality as is and if someone could sharpen them a bit further I think a person would be hard pressed to tell the difference between the game and walking down a street on certain maps. It's definately an great idea.

[dal10]

Tahribator, on 03 April 2013 - 09:22 AM, said:

Would you kindly step out of the door please.

no he is right, diablo 3 in particular was awful. SC 2 was meh.

[FupDup]

S3dition, on 02 April 2013 - 11:51 PM, said:

I was just reviewing the Starcraft 2 cinematics. Don't get me wrong, those are awful games with dated mechanics and sloppy designs.

Did we play the same Starcraft 2?

(I didn't play Diablo so I can't comment on that one).

Edited by FupDup, 03 April 2013 - 11:34 AM.

[S3dition]

Tahribator, on 03 April 2013 - 09:22 AM, said:

Would you kindly step out of the door please.

Note the user scores:

http://www.metacriti...e/pc/diablo-iii
http://www.metacriti...rt-of-the-swarm

Blizzard has officially recognized that they screwed up Diablo 3. They're even pulling the AH system from the Playstation release.

Jack Lowe, on 03 April 2013 - 11:17 AM, said:

Very good idea, in fact if u go digging a little bit you'll find a few very nice quality u tube vids out there as promotionials for different merc units. The Remenant comes to mind. I was thinking in fact after CW hits and is fleshed out a bit that if players frapped a bunch of footage and a few dedicated people put it together you could probably get enough to make a short vid that would make sense. Of course that assumes a few things like control over what maps one drops on and a few other features.It would be time consuming to get all the footage,but a dedicated group of guys into roleplaying a story line could probably do it.Then get someone with some expertise in films and CGI together to clean it up a bit it'd work. The base graphics for MWO are pretty good quality as is and if someone could sharpen them a bit further I think a person would be hard pressed to tell the difference between the game and walking down a street on certain maps. It's definately an great idea.

Those models are already good enough. They just need to use the higher poly models from the parallax/normal mapping process and pre-render the scenes. They would look like completely different mechs and incredibly detailed.

[Pht]

S3dition, on 02 April 2013 - 11:51 PM, said:

I was just reviewing the Starcraft 2/Diablo 3 cinematics. Don't get me wrong, those are awful games with dated mechanics and sloppy designs. But the cinematics and storytelling are top notch.

Given the amount of games with good cinematics (like Dawn of War 1/2 and recent Blizzard games), I'd like to see a push for a quality Battletech series (at the same level as an HBO/Cinemax series) but using crowd funding and tied to MWO to kill the IP trolls.

Basically, a series (even if shown only through this site/youtube) that is played off as promotional material would cut the red tape and finally allow Battletech to play out for the masses. The kicker is that pre-renders of existing MWO mechs could be used for the special effects, greatly reducing the development costs.

This isn't a call for a movie, but a running series to coincide with Mechwarrior Online. I know it's doable. I just wonder if there is fan support for it.

It's an interesting idea... but pulling from MWO wouldn't get around the IP restrictions.

In this case, you'd have to deal with Topps and Catalyst, because it would be Topps' IP and catalyst are the current license holders of that IP.

MS only holds the video game rights to MW, not the story rights, and PGI is using the license from MS, so they coudln't cover any use of the story/lore for any for-profit tv series.

Maybe not even a not-for-profit series.

[S3dition]

Pht, on 03 April 2013 - 12:11 PM, said:

It's an interesting idea... but pulling from MWO wouldn't get around the IP restrictions.

In this case, you'd have to deal with Topps and Catalyst, because it would be Topps' IP and catalyst are the current license holders of that IP.

MS only holds the video game rights to MW, not the story rights, and PGI is using the license from MS, so they coudln't cover any use of the story/lore for any for-profit tv series.

Maybe not even a not-for-profit series.

I bet they could if it's considered promotional material.

Relic doesn't have the rights to a 40k movie, but they have produced fully cinematic intro movies and promotional videos.

[Pht]

It would have to be directly a part of the game, methinks, and available only in the game, notwithstanding the inevitable youtube posting of the cinematics.

[S3dition]

Pht, on 03 April 2013 - 06:03 PM, said:

It would have to be directly a part of the game, methinks, and available only in the game, notwithstanding the inevitable youtube posting of the cinematics.

That defeats the purpose of promotional material. How about the 2009 video? That wasn't part of any game and it was most certainly a cinematic.

Though PGI could add it to the client as a streamable media file in the client. When someone clicks to watch, it downloads to their machine and plays through the UI.

Edited by S3dition, 06 April 2013 - 11:27 PM.

[Sentinel373]

Arent they already telling a story through the isn news flashes? I would think if it was promotional material that they could go right ahead and make it story driven.

[Pht]

S3dition, on 06 April 2013 - 09:22 PM, said:

That defeats the purpose of promotional material. How about the 2009 video? That wasn't part of any game and it was most certainly a cinematic.

Though PGI could add it to the client as a streamable media file in the client. When someone clicks to watch, it downloads to their machine and plays through the UI.

It was probably only legally justifiable because it was putatively from "inside of the video game."

Probably the best fix would be a machinimania fan made series... now that, I bet would be kosher.