PLEASE, say they won't! The ONLY reason why I never bought DTR was because
of the lack of variation in the tracks. Yeah, the racing could be tight, and
I'm not claiming that pack racing on ovals is easy, but I have come to the
realisation that oval racing is not really my favourite pasttime. Others, I
gather, may feel differently . . .
I couldn't find this kind of information on the Ratbag site (although what I
did see looked rather "ovalish").
Ryan
As far as I'm aware, Sprint cars are designed to only corner (at speed)
in one direction, which would make it damned hard to race on anything but
an oval.
Cheers,
Rod.
how about a square then?
oz
Because the publisher WizardWorks is under contract to ONLY sell games
in the budget price range (they deal mostly with outlets like Wal-Mart,
K-Mart, etc) you will see in Sprints a new approach to make money:
massive advertising within the game.
A while back I read that they were even selling advertising space in
the setup menu screens! (I think it cost more if you wanted an ad that
blinked off and on.) There was also advertising space for sale on the
cars and on the billboards.. and I dont know if there is a airplane
flying overhead that is trailing one of those long advertising banners
behind it, but thats something they might want to look into. I'm not
aware of this in game advertising ever being done in a game before on
this scale. Ratbags Leadfoot game is another one that could have hit
the retail market long ago except for them negotiating sponsorship
and 'side-money' deals. A certain amount of real world advertising on
cars and billboards looks good in a game, but when it starts to leak
into the in game menus then I could see it getting annoying. Whats
next?? Pauses between races for commercial breaks!?
MR
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
>PLEASE, say they won't! The ONLY reason why I never bought DTR was because
>of the lack of variation in the tracks. Yeah, the racing could be tight,
and
>I'm not claiming that pack racing on ovals is easy, but I have come to the
>realisation that oval racing is not really my favourite pasttime. Others, I
>gather, may feel differently . . .
>I couldn't find this kind of information on the Ratbag site (although what
I
>did see looked rather "ovalish").
>Ryan
DTR did not contain only ovals, but also had figure eights, which by
definition have and equal amount of right and left turning.
Sprint cars don't race on figure eights.
Well there go my hopes for that one . . . :-(
Ryan
<SNIP>
Hey, Mark -- didn't realize that post came from you! Long time no
communicate with! <G>
Regarding the negotiations on Leadfoot, there are hopes for a game
sponsor, but nothing solid has been established yet -- so if you have
any contacts at Toyota, send 'em our way!
;-)
I personally think the advertising in the in-game menus shouldn't be
any more intrusive than the graphics in the menus themselves. Imagine
something like the graphics that appear on the sponsorship menu screens
in DTR, when a sponsor makes you an offer in career mode -- the in-game
ads elsewhere shouldn't be any more intrusive than that, and they will
be pertinent, hopefully. For example, if you buy a suspension upgrade,
you will see a shock/spring manufacturer's name displayed on that
screen (possibly more than one, in a "Goodyear/Firestone" sort of
manner where possible). The idea is to make the in-game graphics no
more intrusive than the trackside billboards, if possible. Is someone
gets used to buying a certain product in DTR for their Late Model in
the game, there's a fair chance that they will think of that product
when it comes time to buy similar items for their own car in real life,
and that's where the value comes in. You want to hook the player
without kicking them out of the game -- not poke them in the eye and
make it an annoying experience! <G>
suck.
When they did DTR, Ratbag had not yet achieved their current level of
notoriety and their reputation for their ability to develop a solid sim
product when they signed on with WizardWorks, so their return on
investment was definitely smaller than what Papy makes off of their
NASCAR titles, I would guess. Also, the DTR concept seemed to be VERY
much a "niche" title, which made it the kind of risk that larger
publishers most were unwilling to speculate on, which made it an ideal
title for WizardWorks. And, actually, I believe the WizardWorks tie-in
came from the fact that WW is (was?) a subsidiary of GT Interactive
(before they were both absorbed by Infogrames, I believe), and since GT
published Ratbag's Powerslide, I believe that it was GT's decision to
publish DTR as a budget WW title, in order to reach the dirt track fans
at Wal-Marts across the country. Ratbag may not have gotten as good of
a deal as they would have with a NASCAR license, I don't think, but on
the other hand, I don't think they necessarily got "screwed" in the
deal, either.
Anyway, that's my addition $0.02! <G>
-- John Bodin
VP Communications, Games-Advertising
http://www.games-advertising.com/
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
>> DTR did not contain only ovals, but also had figure eights, which by
>> definition have and equal amount of right and left turning.
>> Sprint cars don't race on figure eights.
>Well there go my hopes for that one . . . :-(
>Ryan
