Posted by Badoek on 2015-06-16 12:33:08

Good read, quite the story. Staggering amount of sales (although not sure how many unique customers...) indeed.

Now if only I could get my money back for the DS version >(

I'm very curious how BB2 will turn out.

Posted by gjopie on 2015-06-16 12:33:33

"Games Workshop were less concerned about the direction Cyanide might take with Blood Bowl’s rules."

You can say that again.

Posted by Macabeo on 2015-06-16 12:57:49

Wow, very very interesting article for once, thanks for sharing. A bit of self criticism and some numbers on Cyanide's first BB game, neat. Two things that caught my eye:

"An out-of-print game, kept just barely alive by hobbyists playing via javascript, has been adopted by a new generation." -> This is a clear call out to FUMBBL! Erroneous, as the client is implemented in Java and not javascript, and also the TT scene is alive and kicking too, but at least they acknowledge FUMBBL's existence.

“In board gaming you release a rulebook every five years and there are a couple of changes,” said the designer. “In video games, you see something that is wrong, patch one of the rules, see how the game reacts to it and push out another fix.” -> Rule changes in the mid-term, maybe??

Posted by koadah on 2015-06-16 13:13:18

If you bought one version you could buy subsequent versions very cheaply. so yeah, a lot of people will be counted two or three times.

Also, from our point of view, how many of them ever played online or continue to play online.

It does look as though they are making a real effort this time to bring in PS/XBox users. The last effort was pitiful.

If he's telling it true this effort should be better in terms of bugs. But will they be able to create decent public divisions? Will they have decent disconnection management?

Some images from the game show a human catcher with AV8. I'm wondering if rule changes are already in there. It has been pointed out elsewhere that the AV8 is part Plasmoids CRP+. ;)
Of course that could just be an incorrect image but it produces a nice bit of FUD. :)
It interests me anyway. ;)

A lot of people who have been programming for years don't know that javascript has nothing to do with java.

Posted by harvestmouse on 2015-06-16 13:52:37

Several inaccuracies too in that report. Bretonnians aren't a new release for BB, but a release.

I'm not sure javascript kept an 'ailing' game alive either, in that it wasn't really ailing. Are there more people playing BB now than in 2008? Between TT, here, France BB, OBBLM, PBeM and Da Leeg more games were played than they're getting now.

The AV8 catcher is not an incorrect image. I think more of that story will come to light in the next couple of months.

Posted by koadah on 2015-06-16 13:57:34

Are you allowed to say whether you are a beta tester or not Mouse? ;)

Posted by harvestmouse on 2015-06-16 14:02:48

They wouldn't have me, I'm too problematic. I have no involvement in the project, but I'm good at snooping.

Posted by MattDakka on 2015-06-16 14:43:36

Honestly a slight buff to the Human Catcher can't hurt anybody, it's not they turned the Human team into a Clawpomb galore team.

Posted by koadah on 2015-06-16 14:49:06

So, you can freely give your opinion then. :)

Do you think that this is a Plasmoid gig?
[quote]with reference to a fan-developed rulebook[/quote]

Following on from our last discussion if it is CRP+ I could live with that. Though I think that they should dump the Bank.
If they go full NTBB that could be a real dogs breakfast. (I haven't read the latest one.)

But if they want to an e-sport there is argument for trying to balance the races in the public divisions and official tournaments (if any).

If they allow private leagues to play vanilla CRP or even better Fumbbl style options it could be interesting.

Or they could just say "Screw you old fogies. If you want CRP play BB1 or Fumbbl. We're the brave new world".
I think that would be the VoodooMike approach and I think there is some logic to it. ;)

How's that for speculation & FUD. ;)

Posted by koadah on 2015-06-16 14:51:00

@Matt: I think the +AV is nice. But if you were going to start changing things would you really stop there?

Posted by MattDakka on 2015-06-16 15:46:35

I wouldn't stop there because BB needs to improve its balance, even small changes would be better than the stagnation we have now with CRP since this ruleset has proven to be unfit for perpetual leagues.
Staticity is associated to death, progress is associated to life.
Competitive online e-sport games have patches and constant changes.
One of the great positive aspects of an online game is it can fix unbalances through patching and nothing forbids to have a classic CRP BB and a Cyanide evolving BB.

Posted by pythrr on 2015-06-16 16:06:35

"Staticity is associated to death, progress is associated to life."

What a load of meaningless crap.

Go spout your inaninties elsewhere.

Posted by the_Sage on 2015-06-16 16:16:52

over a million, to less than 200.000 customers, I would guess. =)

Posted by koadah on 2015-06-16 16:35:32

Once a game hits a certain price people will buy it even though they know there is a fair chance that they won't spend more than four or five hours total playing it.

Did someone pee in your cornflakes Pythrr? ;)

Posted by sann0638 on 2015-06-16 16:47:22

200,000 is still a good number.

Posted by akaRenton on 2015-06-16 20:08:37

It sounds like they're actually fans of the game. They've made mistakes, but at least someone is making the game and bringing it to the attention of younger generations.

Will be interesting to see the rules variants that crop up both there, and more interestingly (to me anyway) here once full custom leagues arrives on FUMBBL. Could be the future of the rules will play out there, as with so many petri dishes of rules variants being tried sooner or later someone will find bits that work better. Although thinking about it perhaps the infiite number of monkeys bashing at typewriters is closer :D

Would love to see FUMBBL more actively promoted. It's a bit like having a restaurant that serves great food for free, but nobody knows it is open.

Posted by garyt1 on 2015-06-17 05:22:13

Some people still believe if you want good dice rolls FUMBBL is not free :D
Good article. Hopefully they will make a decent job of any rule changes, having canvassed experienced players. CRP+ would be ok I guess.

Posted by Tantibus on 2015-06-17 10:00:08

slightly worried what races they come up with, their Khorne team was not good.