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Ninja Theory hiring a game analytics person, sounds potentially Games as a Service-y
- Thread starter Nirolak
- Start date
Can we have a sticky post or something that says: "GaaS does NOT mean MTX, or online only games?"
To be fair, Forza Horizon is a super GaaS. That doesn't mean it's a bad game. GaaS shouldn't even be a bad word to be honest. Some of them are great and some of them are bad.
Playground does this between games, they take all the data from the previous game. What events they completed, success rate, map traversal data, car purchases, playtime, order of completion etc and they use that to inform the design of the next game. A few of MS's studios do it like 343, Coalition, Rare etc I wouldn't assume it's GAAS related, just a valuable tool for future games. For example in Hellblade heatmap data for how the player moved around the environment in puzzle sections is very useful or the average time to complete a puzzle, at what point did players drop off due to pacing, repetition or difficulty. It's a very handy tool, I assume a lot of other studios use it. Then again I wouldn't be surprised if one of Ninja Theory's current projects was online like the cancelled Razer project, but this job posting doesn't lead us to believe they are making an online or gaas game. There aren't any other job postings that would lead us to think that, with them hiring quite regularly recently you would expect it to come up if that was the case.
How do you go from Hellblade to GAAS? I refuse to believe this is a GAAS title. There's simply no way they've departed from a narrative focus for GAAS, not when they've been talking up narrative for the past 3 years. And celebrated it with the release and success of HB.
The AAA industry wants to GaaS the shit out of single player games too.
+1000.
Game analytics has existed for years, predating GaaS, to examine player behaviour and adapt game design cater to every player type.
Just an example (from TR:Underworld, a 2008 game) : https://youtu.be/A89ZDjF51Nk
So there's no direct link between analytics and GaaS. Thread title extremely reaching and alarmist.
OP
OP
While it's true that even singleplayer games that are one-and-done use analytics and telemetry, it's not super common to do "daily KPI reports" to "drive improvements for the project" (which sounds like the same project that just got launched) on a wholly traditional game.
It's also relatively rare to call out that you need to be adaptive to a highly changing business while making a one and done traditional game.
some people wonder why some people get annoyed at microsoft buying up developers
well, this is why, lol
well, this is why, lol
Aye, because we've had this before in previous Microsoft First Party games, right?
Because of a job listening we have minimal context for? lol?
because of the fear of microtransactions and GaaS
it may be unfounded, of course; we can't know until the game launches
Isn't this sort of job common in the industry even for non-GaaS type games?
I know for years game developers have had a bunch of staff dedicated to monitor and react to how people play their games pre-release, it only makes sense that they'd like to analyze this data post-release
I know for years game developers have had a bunch of staff dedicated to monitor and react to how people play their games pre-release, it only makes sense that they'd like to analyze this data post-release
Congrats to the OP jumping to a conclusion knowing what the result would be. The title was successful, and somehow not only jumped to a conclusion but is trying to make GaaS into something bad...
Isn't there a post somewhere about Ninja Theory having creative control over their games? This could literally just be a multiplayer game they're developing, or a multiplayer component in one of their games.
As someone else said very early on the first page, Ninja Theory is more than one team of developers.
Edit: Sorry for the double post, should have edited my first comment.
Not at all. Experience boosts is something I haven't seen in a Microsoft First party game. Unless you mean VIP pass for Forza?
Yep. Analytics are basically the norm for all kinds of software. The existence of them says next to nothing about what type of games they'll be making.
Forza absolutely counts. Crimson Dragon does it in a roundabout way. The vast majority of Microsoft published games this gen have some kind of GaaS hooks, even if it's not specifically an XP boost.
OP
OP
Yes, my grand history of playing and posting about Games as a Service games and modern business trends definitely shows my strong bias against Games as a Service titles, along with my well defined history of painting Microsoft as cartoon villains.
There's definitely no way I just happen to look at tons of job postings and notice specific trends about this stuff emerging. For example, I was super far reaching with all my early Bethesda job postings from 2-3 years ago suggesting that almost all the ZeniMax studios would be transitioning to online and/or Games as a Service titles. As we all know, they're singleplayer and singleplayer only from each and every one of them.
NT are great devs... but, so were Lionhead. Im just hoping, despite what Phil Spencer has stated, they give these guys creative freedom and it doesn't turn into a game where they forced them to make Gaas... and it underperforms and get punished for it.
Its my same fear with Bioware
The age of GaaS legs scare me, its so easy for publishers to say Game A or B isnt performing to our expectations, shut it down, you're all fired. Its easy for them to forget the human element, that is to say people with families work in studios.
Its my same fear with Bioware
The age of GaaS legs scare me, its so easy for publishers to say Game A or B isnt performing to our expectations, shut it down, you're all fired. Its easy for them to forget the human element, that is to say people with families work in studios.
Man, I almost want to apply for this. I would love to work in this field. I'm an analyst in a director-level role in a very different industry. I think about switching to the games industry because it has always been my dream. However, I almost certainly couldn't do it without starting at the bottom and I wouldn't want to turn my wife's world upside down.
Lets be honest, we all knew how this thread would turn out, and id be surprised if you didnt think it would. You saw a job posting, came to a conclusion, and you chose to title it something that would induce immediate reactions.
And you would have gotten away with it too! If it wasn't for some clever posters in this thread.
We've gotten to the point where GaaS basically just means "it's a video game" so I'll reserve judgement to the game(s) is actually announced.
Yeah. Most everyone on here selectively uses the term to fit their biases.
Yeah. Most everyone on here selectively uses the term to fit their biases.
Youd think the people who talk about games all the time would know about what they mean at least.
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.
No. Nirolak pretty clearly spreads whatever news they find in my experience. The people that are defensive about this are coming to their own conclusions.
No. Nirolak pretty clearly spreads whatever news they find in my experience. The people that are defensive about this are coming to their own conclusions.
c'mon son
OP is one of the most knowledgeable people on this board
publishers always say this stuff, even EA. you can say "our developers is free to do what they want" and then simultaneously design bonus schemes and studio targets in a way to very clearly incentivizes certain business models
take those comments from publishers for what they are, PR bullshit
Between console warriors and chicken littles on this forum this thread never had a chance.