Thief 4

[Arumakani]

At least it's been confirmed: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=214694

[Springheel]

The previous games introduced us to the ancient sect of The Keepers; the religious group known as The Order of the Hammer (The Hammerites): the Mechanists (The Order of the Gear) who were an offshoot of the Hammerites; and the nature-loving Pagans (The Order of the Vine).

 

We also enjoyed a host of main characters, creatures and entitities throughout the series.

 

Would you like to see any of these factions or characters return in T4? If so, who/what?

 

Questions like the above suggest either 1) they have no idea what they are going to do with the series, or 2) they already know what they're going to do but want to generate traffic on the forums and give the appearance of listening to fan input.

[Subjective Effect]

Well the poster is Victoria who is a long time TTLG member and gamer. She is only a moderator on the forum so we don't really know what the score is at EM central.

[Diego]

Who said anything about a new audience? The point of a sequel is to capitalise on the success of a title by selling the same thing again to an already-established fan base. Expanding the audience is nice, but not a necessity.

 

Tell that to whoever made t3, not me!

[Macsen]

Is it too late to change the title of this project to The D4rk M0d?

[Komag]

haha

[jdude]

www.thief4.com

Well it's nice they announced it but there's no pics or ANYTHING. They've stated that they've only just started conception and recruitment but it's an 'ambitious' project. I think we got a ton of time I wonder if they'll want to pick up on any of the dark moders wink wink

 

hehe

[demagogue]

I wonder if they'll want to take a few peeks at some Darkmod code after release to steal get some ideas for how to do some things.

[peakish]

According to Eurogamer:

 

We went through this a couple of years ago when we launched the Deus Ex 3 project, so we're pretty much in constant contact with a couple of people. We have people that have worked on the Rainbow Six series, on Prince of Persia, on the Splinter Cell games - the list is very long and we'll soon release the pedigree of the team, and you'll notice that these guys have a lot of credentials,

 

That's my dream team of Thief developers right there!

[Noisycricket]

I'd bet a good amount that the Thief 4 devs will be tuning into darkmod-FM every now and then...

[Fidcal]

Remember they've already been developing the basic story for 5 to 6 months so they won't be listening to any fan input on that. If it's not in the Garrett universe already then it won't be later. They don't need to listen to new input - popular views of hard core Thief fans have been discussed openly for years. I recall posting a list of all that was missing from TDS - they could start with that.

[OrbWeaver]

I wonder if they'll want to take a few peeks at some Darkmod code after release to steal get some ideas for how to do some things.

 

Not if their lawyers have any say in the matter they won't. Companies are generally very careful to avoid any accusations that they might have copied code, so they probably won't even let their development team anywhere near TDM or any similar project.

[Springheel]

Some quotes from Stéphane D'Astous, the general manager at Eidos-Montreal, that make me cringe:

 

our mandate is to bring this game to a new level, and it's a challenge to reassure the old fans, but we want to introduce this classic franchise to new fans, so that's going to be our challenge.

 

Read: We're trying to target non-stealth gamers.

 

we're trying our best to be very close to [the fans], so we've put a lot of social networking tools in place. We'll have a virtual boutique where you can buy merchandise from these two projects and this is something that we're really proud of. This should be up and running today or tomorrow -

 

Let's stay close to the fans by selling them things! That's something to be proud of. We can't reveal anything at all, but we will have things to sell you today or tomorrow.

 

The setting, the character, the story, the features – anything related to the actual content of the game, we cannot discuss for now. What I can say is that people are going to be very happily surprised and impressed

.

 

That sounds like 'marketing speech' to me. It's interesting that he's already convinced people will be "happily surprised and impressed", yet the Eidos forums are only just starting to ask questions like, "What factions do you want to see in the game?" Why bother asking questions like that if you already feel like you have something the fans will be impressed about? Seeing as just about every conceivable option for T4 has been debated to death on TTLG, what revelation could possibly "surprise" anyone?

 

Innovation and originality will be important, and I think it's going to serve this great franchise very well. Even though it's a franchise that we last saw five years ago, we're going to bring a fresh look and a fresh approach.

 

I think [whether a game is good or not is] mainly related to the fact that it's original, and original content always hits the spot.

 

It shook the ground a decade ago, and we're trying our best to bring it to market and break new ground.

 

This idea is repeated at least five or six times in the interview. Sounds like they definitely are planning on doing something different. Their focus seems to be on putting their own stamp on the franchise. By contrast, we never talk about "a fresh approach" when talking about TDM...our first line of description is always, "capturing the feel of T1/2".

 

Presently the only asset that we're able to release is the logo, which we're pretty proud of as it's very respectful of the franchise and you can recognise it very rapidly,

 

They're *proud* of that logo?? They think using ridiculous 12-yr old L33T speak is "very respectful of the fanchise"?? That speaks volumes.

[Fidcal]

They're proud of the logo? They said it was just a working title. Who cares about the friggin' logo. Unless they have a new logo for the real title 2 days later. And a 'virtual booteek to sell merchandise for a game that doesn't exist yet' Oooo! I want a thi4f t-shirt! As you say, it's all phoney marketing speech. What planet do these people come from? Do they have any idea what they sound like? He's just choking out words to try to hide the fact that he's not actually saying anything substantial at all. It seems more and more to me that Dark Mod will be carrying the true Thief flag alone so we need have no worries about competition. It might be a half-decent game but I'm doubtful it will reflect the spirit of the original Thief ones.

[New Horizon]

To me it sounds like the same dev speak we got with TDS. "Appealing to new gamers...yadda yadda yadda."

[Tushaar]

yeeeaaa dis wil be coolz, i haz can shoot many ppls in teh thi4f geim with uzis lol rofl wtf ftw.

[Diego]

yeeeaaa dis wil be coolz, i haz can shoot many ppls in teh thi4f geim with uzis lol rofl wtf ftw.

hahahah

 

I'm really happy there is gonna be a dark mod. Because I'm very pessimistic with this t4.

[Mortem Desino]

When the rights to Fallout were sold to Bethsoft, I just rationalized: "Okay, Bethesda is a great company, and they made OK choices for developers. I really shouldn't have to worry about the final product."

 

The same applies to me now that Thief is handed off to Eidos. I'll only start to worry as soon as I hear "bazooka."

[Subjective Effect]

Some quotes from Stéphane D'Astous, the general manager at Eidos-Montreal, that make me cringe:

 

 

Read: We're trying to target non-stealth gamers.

I think you are jumping to conclusions here.

[SneaksieDave]

Now that's funny: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/05/12...nam4s-rev4al4d/

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/05/12/thief-4-...production-pha/

(ganked from TTLG thread)

[Springheel]

I think you are jumping to conclusions here.

 

You can tell a lot about someone's priorities by paying attention to what they say. He repeated, over and over, the concepts of being "original", "breaking new ground" and a "fresh approach". The things he did NOT say were also telling. He rarely spoke about pleasing the fans of the previous games and when he did, it was to call it a "challenge" and to talk about how the fans are "vocal".

 

I don't think it's jumping to conclusions to assume his primary interest is creating his own version of the franchise, rather than staying true to the originals, and that pleasing the fans is a secondary concern. Of course, how much influence that will have over the end result is an open question.

[Diego]

Now that's funny: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/05/12...nam4s-rev4al4d/

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/05/12/thief-4-...production-pha/

(ganked from TTLG thread)

 

hahah

People are gonna mock this title so much that they aren't even gonna show a 4 in the title, anymore. It'll be only "thief: subtitle".

[Diego]

You can tell a lot about someone's priorities by paying attention to what they say. He repeated, over and over, the concepts of being "original", "breaking new ground" and a "fresh approach". The things he did NOT say were also telling. He rarely spoke about pleasing the fans of the previous games and when he did, it was to call it a "challenge" and to talk about how the fans are "vocal" and "hard to please".

 

That's probably true. But if you pay attention, every game that's under development will be "original" and will "break new grounds" and so forth. So it's hard to tell.

[Macsen]

I'm not going to worry about it. Thief and Thief II exist and no one is going to take that away from us. If we want Thief with better graphics we've got the Dark Mod.

 

Just let the developers do their own thing, even if they move away from the traditional thief gameplay and setting. It'll probably be a good but not fantastic game like DS was, but lightning rarely strikes twice, and when it does it usually doesn't return for a third and fourth helping.

 

If the game looks good prior to release I'll get excited, but wasting four years worrying about how much like Thief II it's going to be is a waste of anyone's time.

[HappyCheeze]

I wonder if Garret will be able to see loot sparkles through walls.