Matthew on 19/11/2011 at 01:20

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Oh well, this thread sure has a top-notch set of posters now

heywood on 21/11/2011 at 06:11

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Two things prompted me to create this poll.

The first was the Nov 6 announcement of sales figures. I was curious to compare the popular success of Human Revolution (as measured by sales) against the TTLG opinion. The reason for making it a poll was so people could express their opinion without being challenged to justify it.

Human Revolution sold 2.2M copies in its first 2 months.
Bioshock sold 1.5M in its first month and took 10 months to hit the 2.2M mark.
Invisible War sold 1.2M total and Deus Ex sold just over 1M total.
I don't have numbers for Deadly Shadows but from memory I think it sold less than the above.

The second thing that prompted me to create this poll was seeing a (http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77035) similar old poll of Invisible War which came out shortly after its release. I wanted to compare TTLG reactions to both games in the same post-release context.

After seeing the results, I'm surprised at the relative lack of activity here compared to Bioshock, even though HR is selling better and seems to be more highly regarded by TTLG-ers in the poll. Bioshock generated hundreds of threads, over 100 in just the first month after release. And it sustained one of the busiest TTLG forums for over a year. In contrast, the release of Human Revolution generated 20 or so threads and most people are already done talking about it. Even IW and DS generated more discussion after release. I know that TTLG isn't as active as it was in 2007-2008, but that's not enough to explain it since there was just as much forum activity pre-release for HR as there was for Bioshock and IW.

Also, it was surprising to go back and read the posts right after IW was released and see that opinion was more divided and overall not as negative back then. The balance of positive & negative posts following the IW release looks similar to the posts about Human Revolution here now.

DDL on 21/11/2011 at 12:07

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If HR had been really, really bad...I imagine the forums would be much more active. As it is, it's a pretty decent game, and certainly a step in the right direction, but that's about it. It's not a massive disappointment, so we can't be all OMG OMG E:M KILLED MY CHILDHOOD or whatever, and that doesn't leave a lot to discuss. People are generally most vocal about things they DON'T like.

Sulphur on 21/11/2011 at 20:36

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Also, we're older(ish) and less liable to gush about conspiracy theories noodled into the gameplay and blah de blah.

HR is a nicely executed game, finely crafted in most respects, and with much reverence for its source material. It is, though, ultimately a game that doesn't push the envelope too far. There's some great ideas working their way through the over-arching narrative, and they should've done more with them. How about that line in that live action trailer -- 'they have the power to turn your eyes off.' Well, perhaps they should have. EM's writers and gameplay designers could have worked that, and the implications of it, into the game in a more twisted and far-reaching fashion.

At best, DE:HR's going to get a bunch of paragraphs from us. At worst, we'll soak up the feelgood afterglow after we're done and not talk about it and promptly forget about it a day later.

Have we just damned it with faint praise? Well, that's TTLG. We're fucking fuddy duddies.

june gloom on 22/11/2011 at 01:42

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Was referring to Thief. I'm not completely fucking insane. I should have been more clear, my bad.