Another review

[Oleg Mastruko]

My COTA review is up on my magazine's site:

http://www.bug.hr/

or directly to the review:

http://www.bug.hr/master/rec/index.asp?id=74070&page=1

You won't understand it since it's in Croatian. Anyway, it's just a shortened and web-icized version of the longer and more detailed review from the paper edition of our magazine. We put some articles from paper magazine on the web as "teaser", not as "main course", which explains the lack of in-depth sidebars, more pictures etc. (they are present in paper mag review)

[AlexB]

I'm guessing one of the minuses is the lack of a campaign [:)]
And what is "ograničeno područje pokrivanja"?

[MarkShot]

Oleg, where have you been? Haven't seen you around for a while.

[Oleg Mastruko]

ORIGINAL: AlexB

I'm guessing one of the minuses is the lack of a campaign [:)]
And what is "ogranièeno podruèje pokrivanja"?

Limited area (or "scope") of operations - meaning, only Greece (+ Malta to be correct), and only 1941. I know it's something readers of this forum already know and take as "given" but I think it should be noted in a review anyway, especially so, since Operation Marita involved attack on Yugoslavia, something that, had it been included in the game, would stir additional interest among our readers (Croatia + ex Yugoslavia where our magazine is being read).

Alex are you "artist formerly known as Final Drive"? LOL

[Oleg Mastruko]

ORIGINAL: MarkShot

Oleg, where have you been? Haven't seen you around for a while.

Been traveling on business, among other places to Normandy (where business got mixed with pleasure, in as much as visiting old war relics and battlefields is a pleasure - for us grogs it certainly is [;)])

[Oleg Mastruko]

Thats me on the photo, forgive me for not looking exactly as on my avatar pic LOL!! [:D]

[GoodGuy]

ORIGINAL: Oleg Mastruko

Been traveling on business, among other places to Normandy ....... visiting old war relics and battlefields..........

Ahhh german concrete/bunkers. Well, good thing that these shady german comforts didn't keep the AEF from storming the continent .

[GoodGuy]

Ah one more thing..... what's the Croatian market like? Is everyone heading for commercial hits (let's say FPS, MMORPGs, etc), or do other games have a chance?

An example comes to my mind: Operation Flashpoint was pretty popular in Czech for years, although you could rarely find ppl from other European countries playing it online, or on leagues/ladders. Is there something like this in Croatia?
And how many copies of a game have to be sold to consider it being a top-seller?

[Arjuna]

Oleg,
 
I think the above picture and your avatar are grounds for "misleading conduct", don't you?[;)]
 
I must say I am a little envious. One day I would like to tour the Normandy and Bulge and East Front and Italian.....etc.etc... battlefields. Oh well the lot of a poor developer.

[Oleg Mastruko]

ORIGINAL: GoodGuy
Ah one more thing..... what's the Croatian market like? Is everyone heading for commercial hits (let's say FPS, MMORPGs, etc), or do other games have a chance?

Croatia is very small and up to 8-10 years ago was infested with pirated software. Now, thanks to evangelists and trendsetters like myself [:D] the situation with piracy is much better, but except for AAA titles like World of Warcraft, it's hard for any game to sell 1000+ copies here because we're simply too small. Perhaps only WoW, Doom 3, Battlefield 2, Half Life 2 or Quake 4 ever sold that much (1000+). No statistics exist, but that is understandable, as more and more people buy games over the Internet, using direct download, Euro distribution channels etc. so it's hard to trace who bought what, where etc.

My mag is being sold in neighboring ex-Yugo countries as well, but frankly those are pirate stinkholes, many years if not decades behind even Croatia, and it would take years of evangelism and education to make them Balkan thiefs realise good software products should be legally bought not stolen (still we try). My magazine is not a game magazine BTW, it's mainstream "all round" PC magazine. In fact we publish several magazines, but.... well nevermind.

Operation Flashpoint was produced by Czech team which can help explain part of it's popularity in CR. Serious Sam (infinitely more stupid as a game, but no less successful commercially) was done by Croat development team although I wouldn't know how much it helped it being popular here [:'(] LOL

Some games are popular on small markets for no visible reason. Some are not. America's Army is relatively very popular, but that's in part because it's free [;)] BF2 is also very popular, even if it's not free (and not easily pirated either), as are many variants od Call of Duty series.

Smaller games DO have a chance, usually if they have some local evangelist behind them. This year I managed to stir relatively significant interest (by local standards) in Red Orchestra, almost singlehandedly.

As for COTA.... my guesstimate..... is that Panther could hope to legally sell 15-50 copies all around the area my mag is being sold and read, plus, up to 400-2000 people will "try" the pirated version of the game (95% of them eventually realising it's too hard for them). That's just my guesstimate which may be waaaay off [:D] Without my article though, both of those numbers (legal and pirated) would be 10x smaller. So...... one does what he can in a given situation......

[GoodGuy]

Thanks for the detailed reply, appreciated.

ORIGINAL: Oleg Mastruko

.......... it's hard for any game to sell 1000+ copies here because we're simply too small. Perhaps only WoW, Doom 3, Battlefield 2, Half Life 2 or Quake 4 ever sold that much (1000+).

Wow, well I knew that Croatia's market wouldn't be a match for the 2nd biggest software market (used to be Germany.... hmm wonder if China passed us (they might still pirate stuff [;)] ), my info might be outdated [:D]), and I knew that Balkan/East European countries are still pretty much behind regarding market/sales (and that the majority copies/pirates stuff), but I wouldn't have guessed this sales number, 1000+ ....yikes.

Operation Flashpoint was produced by Czech team which can help explain part of it's popularity in CR.

Yeh well, the fact that BI developed it doesn't explain it all . These Czech die-hards still played this game (which didn't focus on Multiplayer-team combat initially, since the dedicated server was missing for quite some time - it got delivered in addition later on. The focus was on Co-Op with ppl hosting games on their own machines, first) in MP until all through 2004 and even 2005 halfway, with BF2 on the shelf, along with products from other copycats (OFP and maybe Tribes influenced Battlefield pretty much).

Smaller games DO have a chance, usually if they have some local evangelist behind them.

Well, advocates may help to acquire a taste for a game, but a game has to have some of the ingredients that attract a given (local) game community.