Make the game alive again!

[haenry]

Gamers seem to be very sensitive with updates/DLC or additional content that you have to pay for. A few companies overdid it with DLCs in the past and now everyone thinks bad about DLCs in the first place.
Three seperate environments are similar to the DLC idea, although they are not exactly the same, as each is independently playable.
But by buying an extra envi it feels like as if you got additional content for a game you already own. I know those envis are independent, but who thinks of those 3 envis as separate games? Everyone wants one game with everything in it. Thus the concept of buying the next envis separately feels like buying DLC.
And now it becomes even more weird because the second envi you buy costs as much as the original game you already own. Who would want to buy a DLC that costs as much as the original game?


In United it was easy. You payed once and had UNLIMITED fun. In Maniaplanet everything is a bit more complicated and thus less attractive

[pprzemo77]

If this game with all environemnts will be in shops in boxes it'll give it much more popularity. No one can afford to buy a digital version and not everyone know about it.

Secondly, return of updated envis from previous games will be good thing because those envis were extremely fun and had massive audience and a lot of fans. Valley is the worst environemnt up to date and have small amount of players just because it isn't fun as previous TM's. No doubt, it's the most modern environment and have more advanced physics but both blocks and gameplay feels boring, it have very specific blocks and stops the creativity of the players and feels more like NFS and many many other games than TM in its gold era.

TM was great and original game with powerful editor since first game in series, this type of games don't need any huge revolution, but only evolution. And ManiaPlanet is that evolution. It gives TM many new and great features and that's what it should be.

The problem is with going digital and splitting community into titles/episodes that in result no one plays and no one wants to play. Even demos isn't enough to resolve it. Additional problem is finishing with old envis beacuse they were fun and popular.

[haenry]

Does anyone remember "generation digitales" the documentation by Benjisite?
It's about players making friends online via trackmania. It really shows how their social contacts keep them playing and staying active because it's more than just a game. They meet the other players online over and over again by just connecting to servers and thus get to know each other better. It is easy to find players again because there is one serverlist and one central place for everyone to go and meet each other. That's how friendships are created easily.

In Maniaplanet it is very difficult to meet the same players again and again because there is a lot of separation.

I still have my copy of Generation Digitales in on my shelf, although the DVD doesn't work anymore
http://www.tm-tube.com/video/17013/Gene ... 3A+Trailer

[Demented]

If this game with all environemnts will be in shops in boxes it'll give it much more popularity.

I agree. If TM² Stadium was in a store, in a box I would already have it but I'm not a fan of risking my credit card information for a $10 add on, thus I'll likely wait for the next environment and buy them both at the same time.
I've been playing TM for 10 years now but still, the only time I've ever heard about it or seen it is when I specifically searched for a driving game with editors, and I did buy it in a box from a store.

[Wormii]

Steam is extremely secure place to use credit card though.

[Demented]

Nothing is as secure as handing someone cash over a counter and nothing online is as safe as people want to believe. Also, I've had way too many issues with steam and will never use them again. Honestly, if steam was the only option available I would sadly never buy a future version of MP.
I'm not trying to sway anyone here from using steam, just saying it's not for me, I never will and I know I'm not the only one.

[D1visor]

I discovered Trackmania in 2007 or around that with Trackmania Nations ESWC, I played it pretty much every day after school and have then later bought Trackmania United Forever and played that a ton as well, joined a bunch of different teams and participated in a comp or two. Now though, I moved onto simracing, I still love Trackmania but not a fan of their latest business model (each environment separate, even if they already tried changing it and are waiting for Valve to approve it). Also, since i'm a pretty old player I mainly like Tech and Speed Tech as well as just Speed and there just aren't many server or players who play these tracks. I don't care if the game has 1 million players or 500 as long as I can find a populated server with tracks and game modes I like. Still agree with you Wormii. TM2 is an amazing and fun game with all the tools you would ever want and a nice community, but that doesn't help if the business model is bad. I've seen plenty of great F2P or P2P games fail because of bad business model.

[Zooz]

It's a pity, Nadeo simply hasn't made enough improvements or new content that people are actually interested in since about 2008. Canyon and Valley were clearly moves in the wrong direction with their strange handling (though it surprised me how unpopular Valley was), and for the other old envs not much has happened, only for Stadium (which is why that is still somewhat successful).

Too bad, it is very hard to stay motivated this way...