CRPG booklet released.
Page 1 of 1
JBeckman
VIP Member



Posts: 34861
Location: Sweden
PostPosted: Mon, 5th Feb 2018 08:42    Post subject: CRPG booklet released.
https://crpgbook.wordpress.com/2018/02/05/update-19-crpg-book-released/

https://crpgbook.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/crpg_book_1-0.pdf

Quote:

Four years ago I began a journey.

On Feb 5 2014 I posted the results of the RPG Codex’s Top 70 poll, in which we elected the best CRPGs of all time. But I felt that a simple list was too dry… more than the ranking, I was interested in WHY these games were good. From there came the idea of asking people to write a short paragraph talking about each title.

This became a updated version of the Codex’s Top 70, now with screenshots and brief descriptions of each game. That’s my favorite piece of content I ever made, but I still wanted more – more games, more screenshots, longer reviews, tips on mods, fan-made patches, etc. So I made a list of all the RPGs I wanted to cover and began recruiting volunteers for the “CRPG Book Project”.

Having done the Top 70 list in 3 months, I thought I could do 300 games in about 10 months or so. Ha, it took me four years… but it is done!

Dear reader, I present you the full release of the CRPG BOOK PROJECT!





Across its 528 pages you’ll find information about over 400 RPGs, from the early PLATO games to modern AAA releases, as well as hidden gems, curiosities and even fan-translations. The reviews were written by a team of 112 volunteers from all around the globe – fans, modders, journalists, critics, indies and AAA developers.

Above all, this book is a passion project. Free, non-commercial, created by people who wanted to share their hobby and help others have fun. I’m very proud of what we achieved, and I would like to thank everyone who helped me on this journey.

I’ll also take this chance to address some criticism & future plans:

1) Physical Edition – This is the question I’m asked the most: “Will there be a physical edition?”. I would love to have one, but it’s something very complicated to produce – especially for a 528-page color book! Most on-demand printing services won’t do something this big, and even if I cut the book down to CreateSpace’s 480-page limit, it would be a VERY expensive book, costing over $60!

Crowdfunding is another alternative, but I’m a Brazilian immigrant living in Japan on a temporary visa – the legal procedures & taxes involved are kinda uncharted territory. There are book-oriented crowdfunding services like Unbound, but you’ll notice that even veterans like Hardcore Gaming 101 and Guru Larry are having difficulty reaching their goals. I’m looking for alternatives, so if you have any ideas please message me.

2) Proofreading – The book hasn’t been proofread. It’s something I want to do (and get a lot of messages about it), especially since many reviewers (myself included) aren’t native english speakers, but it’s not easy – the book has over 310,000 words, which is about 2/3 of the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy! Since we have no money and it’s something I can’t do myself, we depend on the work of volunteers.

3) Extra content – There’s still about 10 minor RPGs I want to add to the book in the future, but couldn’t do it yet for one reason or another. E.g., I wanted a SpellForce series review, but couldn’t find any volunteers and my computer can’t run SpellForce 3.

There’s also a few extra articles I would like to include, such as a timeline on MMORPGs & MUDs and short introductions to old home computers, such as the C64, Amiga, ZX Spectrum, TRS-80, etc, which I’m guessing many readers never saw and know little about. I had a draft for the latter, but unfortunately couldn’t find enough teach-savvy volunteers to write them.

I hope to add the extra content, proof-read everything and make a “Editor’s Cut” re-release & physical edition sometime in the future, but I can’t make any promises, as I now need to focus on important personal things – like getting a work visa.

Still, I truly believe that the book is a worthwhile read as it stands. It has its shortcomings and issues, but hopefully it’s a flawed gem – like all the best RPGs are.



I guess this fits here, sounds like a interesting read and a lengthy one too at that. Smile
Back to top
VonMisk




Posts: 9450
Location: Hatredland
PostPosted: Mon, 5th Feb 2018 09:29    Post subject:


EDIT: This bring my fondest memories how bugged this games were.
Back to top
JBeckman
VIP Member



Posts: 34861
Location: Sweden
PostPosted: Mon, 5th Feb 2018 12:11    Post subject:
Yeah, I only read a little bit so far and jumped around a bit over the different "eras" and it was a entertaining and very interesting read but yes some of these games were pretty buggy and others also suffered from executive meddling from publishers when things shifted over to larger scale development and bigger studios with a larger budget.

Stops in 2015 though it would have been interesting to have something for 2016 and the emergence of the "gaming as a service." model that has been building for a while now and the near death of traditional single player games even for the role-playing game genre although it's not gone completely yet.


I doubt there will be another collapse anytime soon, from what I know even if it was before my time by a few years things were kinda crazy for a while with certain games reaping profits that certain titles including giants like GTA V can't even approach and gaming is still growing in popularity whether on PC and console. Indie gaming is picking up a bit too but it's hard to match the big-budget publishers so a lot of devs try for something a bit more retro but there's been several success stories there too. Smile

(Space Invaders has a revenue somewhere around 14 billion for example.)
(And Pac-Man seems to be around 12 to 13 billion.)


Though nothing has really suggested another game crash like that either I suppose, it does get mentioned occasionally but I doubt it could happen although the shifting focus to gaming as a service and a continued stream of paid content or subscription models of various kinds might see a further rise, not that I'm a huge fan of the model itself.
(Or at least how it's been used such as the loot box practice.)

Anyways less of that and more retro goodness. Very Happy
Back to top
Bob Barnsen




Posts: 31974
Location: Germoney
PostPosted: Mon, 5th Feb 2018 17:03    Post subject:
A physical version of this would have been cool.
Though as they expect it would cost at least 60$ (=60€), i wouldn't have bought it anyways. Sad


Enthoo Evolv ATX TG // Asus Prime x370 // Ryzen 1700 // Gainward GTX 1080 // 16GB DDR4-3200
Back to top
TSR69
Banned



Posts: 14962
Location: Republic of the Seven United Provinces
PostPosted: Tue, 6th Feb 2018 01:20    Post subject:
*ignore me*
Back to top
ergo28




Posts: 583
Location: Italy
PostPosted: Tue, 6th Feb 2018 14:49    Post subject:
Smile


I'm sailing in the stormy seas of my mind
Back to top
Page 1 of 1 All times are GMT + 1 Hour
NFOHump.com Forum Index - Golden Oldies
Signature/Avatar nuking: none (can be changed in your profile)  


Display posts from previous:   

Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB 2.0.8 © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group