[Column] General: Why No HD Remakes?

SBFord

There are a lot of aging MMOs that are skipped over by many players simply because they lack a graphical look for today's world. In our latest Tingle's Touchy Subjects, we take a look at the need for HD remakes of some of the genre's classic titles. Read on before heading to the comments to leave your thoughts.

HD remakes, love them or loathe them, are coming thick and fast. Whether it is Nintendo repacking the pointy ears of a decade old game, or instead Sony pumping out 'collection' after 'collection', the revamp of old software is becoming quite the force.

Read more Tingle's Touchy Subjects: Why No HD Remakes?.

Pigglesworth

I would definitely play an updated and optimized vanilla EQ or WOW. Unfortunately EQNext will not be this and Blizzard is moving Titan to something comepletely different.

DocBrody

I'd play a HD remaster of StarWars Galaxies

flizzer

Id love trying some of these older games on here veteran players love.  The sticking point for me is the ugly graphics with these older games.  I would surely try Asheron's Call, Everquest, Ultima Online, and Vanguard if they had a HD remake. 

Kyleran

Help us old/less hip gamers out here, I had to Google "HD remake" to even know what this was talking about.

Was it that difficult to put High Definition in the opening paragraph before using the abbreviation?

 

aleos

still patiently waiting for Anarchy Online's update that i really don't ever expect to happen.

Mawnee

I've been saying this for YEARS! Give me AC, or EQ with modern graphics and I will go back today! I'll gladly pay for a double expansion and resub. Especially if they revert changes that have made the games too "casual friendly" over the years.  Old school servers would be perfect!

Graphics are the ONLY reason I cant stay for long when I revisit these games. I spend the whole time I'm back saying "If only they would redo this game with Cry Engine 3".

Raventree

I have long said that if they did an HD remake of DAoC and tweaked some of the things such as the UI, I would go back.  Right now it is just too old and clunky to stand next to the more modern MMOs. 

zepontiff

Originally posted by DocBrody
I'd play a HD remaster of StarWars Galaxies

The emulator has a project being worked on for that. There is already an updated texture pack you can install that replaces some textures.

You'd think if those fans can do it some of these companies should be able to.

Rockniss

I would be interested in mostly Rolemaster Magestorm. Probably not that many people know what Rolemaster Magestorm is (best thing is to just google search), but it was essentially a magic based pvp roleplaying game with 3 factions, and 4 different classes, maps where instanced, each class had specializations. Matches were structured like battlegrounds with a team domination format. I started playing it around 1995 I believe. I am surprised it never turned into anything larger. Probably because Mythic Entertainment got to greedy. 

 

DamonVile

Originally posted by Kyleran

Help us old/less hip gamers out here, I had to Google "HD remake" to even know what this was talking about.

Was it that difficult to put High Definition in the opening paragraph before using the abbreviation?

 

w...t...f

Xiaoki

Probably because doing an HD remake of an old console single player game is much easier task than doing an HD remake of an MMO.

Consider the size of the game world to Zelda: Wind Waker then consider the size of the game world to Ever Quest 1.

Craio

Isn't this one of the reasons EVE is still so popular? (graphics engine updates)

Oh and Neocron tried this (Neocron 2) but some some reason i considered it a step backwards...

 

Kyleran

Originally posted by DamonVile

Originally posted by Kyleran

Help us old/less hip gamers out here, I had to Google "HD remake" to even know what this was talking about.

Was it that difficult to put High Definition in the opening paragraph before using the abbreviation?

 

w...t...f

What? I've never seen that expression before, ever, anywhere, so had no frame of reference.

Never assume your audience knows what a specific abbreviation means, first rule of proper reporting at my firm.

SamuraiXIV

Final Fantasy 11 Online HD I will play it for 10+ years like I did with the original.

Sovrath

Originally posted by Kyleran

Originally posted by DamonVile

Originally posted by Kyleran

Help us old/less hip gamers out here, I had to Google "HD remake" to even know what this was talking about.

Was it that difficult to put High Definition in the opening paragraph before using the abbreviation?

 

w...t...f

What? I've never seen that expression before, ever, anywhere, so had no frame of reference.

Never assume your audience knows what a specific abbreviation means, first rule of proper reporting at my firm.

I"m with you, I had no idea what that meant. At least not in the context of a game. If I saw it in the context of a monitor or television it would have made sense.

The only thing that immediately came to mind was "Helm's Deep" and clearly there is only one I know about and it "just" came out.

No need for a remake.

DamonVile

Originally posted by Kyleran

Originally posted by DamonVile

Originally posted by Kyleran

Help us old/less hip gamers out here, I had to Google "HD remake" to even know what this was talking about.

Was it that difficult to put High Definition in the opening paragraph before using the abbreviation?

 

w...t...f

What? I've never seen that expression before, ever, anywhere, so had no frame of reference.

Never assume your audience knows what a specific abbreviation means, first rule of proper reporting at my firm.

18 THOUSAND posts, 7 years on this gaming forum...everything to do with movies and video for the last 10 years, you work at some type of news/reporting firm..and you've never seen the abbreviation HD before.

If you don't know what HD is by now....you're not their audience. [mod edit]

Rusque

Originally posted by Kyleran

Originally posted by DamonVile

Originally posted by Kyleran

Help us old/less hip gamers out here, I had to Google "HD remake" to even know what this was talking about.

Was it that difficult to put High Definition in the opening paragraph before using the abbreviation?

 

w...t...f

What? I've never seen that expression before, ever, anywhere, so had no frame of reference.

Never assume your audience knows what a specific abbreviation means, first rule of proper reporting at my firm.

This is impossible. I literally don't know a single person (regardless of age) who doesn't know what HD is. Everything is HD these days, mobile phone screens, movies, TV, video games, youtube . . . just literally anything that has a display has gone HD.

They're currently moving to Ultra HD (UHD)  just FYI. I mean, are you using a CRT monitor from the 90''s to browse MMORPG.com? I'm going to be confused for the rest of the day because of this, I just can't fathom it. Not even a little.

Sovrath

Originally posted by Rusque

 

This is impossible. I literally don't know a single person (regardless of age) who doesn't know what HD is.

lol. well now you know two. Well, we NOW know what it means.

But "yeah" never saw that in relation to video games before.

Though, come to think of it, someone to wipe the drool and replace my bib would probably makes sense.

monochrome19

Lmao @ Kyleran. Have you ever played a game before?

SnarlingWolf

I think this author (sadly like a certain other author on here who tried to say making dungeons and Raids were the cheapest part of an MMO) is way out of touch with the reality of costs.

 

Overall art is now the most expensive aspect of game creation, much like movie special effects. The quality level people expect is time intensive and takes lots of artists lots of time to pull off. Taking a 14 year old MMO and making the entire world modern high resolution, high poly count models would cost easily 50-100 million dollars to do. Then the entire engine would have to be overhauled to be able to handle this new art, adding millions more.

 

After all that, the game is exactly the same as it was before and isn't truly something new, so you won't get that 2 million player rush that brand new games get upon launch. This means the company would likely never, ever make their investment back let alone make a profit.

 

So then people would ask for new servers to start fresh since heaven forbid they comeback to a game where others have outleveled them. More costs. Then they would ask for all of the modern conventions/features to be added in, more cost. In the end you will have spent the 100-300 million to make an entire new MMO (where naturally those who were still playing at the time before the revamp started would be mad that their game was "ruined" and likely stop playing) and it would leave the company asking "Why didn't we simply make an actual new MMO?"

 

 

Overall the main point is if you are the type of person who won't play an older game because *GASP* the graphics aren't as nice, then you aren't going to want to play and older game that has all the issues that older games do, but that now has nicer graphics.

Tibernicuspa

There's a much MUCH larger issue here.

 

A big reason even veterans don't play those games anymore is because the core of what made them good is long gone.

If an HD remake came about, would it be the current live version of the game, but with better graphics? If so, I would NOT play.

I wouldn't play SWG, because we'd be playing the NGE version.

I wouldn't play DAoC, because that stopped being great in 2003.

I wouldn't play UO, because it barely resembles the game it used to be.

The only one I MIGHT play, is Asheron's Call.

Razeekster

Originally posted by Xiaoki

Probably because doing an HD remake of an old console single player game is much easier task than doing an HD remake of an MMO.

Consider the size of the game world to Zelda: Wind Waker then consider the size of the game world to Ever Quest 1.

Considering players themselves have made HD texture packs for MMOs like Mabinogi, that's not really an excuse.

kb4blu

I would not like to see a remake of EQ1 with modern graphics.  To me its part of the charm.  Also graphics are overated IMHO.

Giving EQ1 a graphics update would be colorizing the first part of the Wizard of OZ.

 

asmkm22

There are a few reasons...

1.  Graphics and animations are some of the most expensive parts of game development, and for many of these old games, that's essentially what you'd have to gut and start over with.  Why do a remake at 80% of the cost of a new project entirely?

2.  Remaking a game in "HD" or whatever, doesn't really do much more than attract previous players back to it for a little while.  Newer players will still be put off by the dated mechanics and quirks.

 

What's worse is that both of those reasons sort of reinforce why the other is a bad idea for most setups.

Tibernicuspa

Originally posted by asmkm22

There are a few reasons...

1.  Graphics and animations are some of the most expensive parts of game development, and for many of these old games, that's essentially what you'd have to gut and start over with.  Why do a remake at 80% of the cost of a new project entirely?

2.  Remaking a game in "HD" or whatever, doesn't really do much more than attract previous players back to it for a little while.  Newer players will still be put off by the dated mechanics and quirks.

 

What's worse is that both of those reasons sort of reinforce why the other is a bad idea for most setups.

The mechanics are generally the best part of older games.