Comments on: Develop ‘09: VG247 Vs Mr Jones On APB

By: Eisenhorne

Eisenhorne — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:12:37 +0000

They can run multiple instances of “100 man servers” on one physical box to justify the cost especially if the “server” is your competed and their server is only doing matchmaking and item management. This would justify their pricing model. Beware – your computer may be acting as a server for them.

By: DMJ

DMJ — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 11:29:32 +0000

For some reason I can’t remember why my excite-O-meter tops out whenever I hear of APB. But it does.

By: Andy

Andy — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 21:36:52 +0000

Interesting game, but whats this about virtual ta-tas not being the same again?

By: Jetsetlemming

Jetsetlemming — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 13:09:20 +0000

million plus initial players expected, but 100 man servers? How are you supposed to pick out individual cities for that “Oh, the cops are ruling this town, lets go back it up” thing with 10k servers? And more, they expect the population to just grow from there.
The game sounds really interesting, and I plan on buying it so far, but I’m not sold on the server thing yet.

By: Bluto

Bluto — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 10:43:50 +0000

Zoiks! erm… APB even :-/

By: Bluto

Bluto — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 10:42:31 +0000

Sounds like sound chap, I’m really looking forward to ABP – I just hope that on 100 man servers there will be room* for the casual gamer (me) to drop in only a couple of times a week, I don’t really have the time to for more than a couple of hours a week…

* I mean, I hope the hardcore won’t be terrifically annoyed that one of the characters on a size limited server is only on a couple of hours a week…

By: Lewis

Lewis — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:42:10 +0000

Man, those boob physics were awesome.

I heard some idiot did a hastily (un)prepared rant about some games-journalism buzzword too. What the fuck was that all about?

By: Noc

Noc — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:11:07 +0000

I am gratified to see a “developer interview” video that is actually an interview with a developer rather than a bunch of guys standing around spouting back-of-the-box points between segments of trailer footage.

By: Broken Tooth Koi

Broken Tooth Koi — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:43:20 +0000

There’s no point to a turf war on shifting sands.

By: little grilly

little grilly — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:23:34 +0000

is this the online necromunda game we’ve all been waiting for?

By: Motherpuncher

Motherpuncher — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:37:22 +0000

So far I will be very happy to buy this when it comes out. Hopefully it will be very different from what the mmo market is offering and will have a strong player base. I like what he said about GTA.

By: cyrenic

cyrenic — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:25:19 +0000

I am very interested to see what exact business model they’re going to use for APB.

To clarify things a bit, while they aren’t going the monthly subscription route, they are going to have to support server maintenance and customer support with something other than just box sales. So I think saying it’s a “One-off” payment is inaccurate.

They’ve thrown the word “microtransactions” around, but with all the content creation tools they already have they might be able to actually do something novel with microtransactions. One route I could maybe see them going would be for players to be able to sell created content (logos, clothing, whatever) to other players and then Real Time Worlds would take a portion of that payment. Copyright concerns and how much income that would actually make would be obvious issues.

I think in game advertising will be likely. It fits the setting just fine and I don’t mind it as long as they’re not obnoxious.

All that said the game sounds interesting and I’m really looking forward to checking it out. They keep reiterating the concept of players as content, which I’m all for. And using asymmetrical matchmaking to compensate for player skill/advancement sounds like a great idea.