MadDogX/Sandbox – User

Personal wish list for ARMA 2 or a future ARMA game

Object Oriented scripting

In addition to SQF, give us the ability to create object oriented scripts with a new set of OOP specific commands.

Weapon handling

Treat all weapons as objects and magazines as objects with their own attributes and methods, including the ability to add custom attributes and methods. When a weapon or magazine is dropped and picked up by someone else, it would of course keep any assigned attributes.

WIP forum thread - "Viability of a paid beta"

1.) Background

So let's look back a few years. Arma 2 was released in the summer of 2009, so this time two years ago most of us were eagerly looking forward to the release day. Particulary, I think most of us were hoping for a smoother and less buggy release than the one that plagued ArmA in 2006.

Now your mileage may vary, but looking back at Arma2's first few weeks I would say that it was a much better opening than that of its predecessor, but still not a great one. Players and reviewers alike complained about the game being put out in what felt like an "unfinished state". Having attempted to play the Harvest Red campaign in coop with a few friends and ultimately giving up, I can't say I could entirely disagree at the time.

But for those of us who have been around since OFP it's not so bad, right? We all know that BIS are dedicated to fixing their games, and Arma2 has definitely come a long way in the mean time. The trouble is, not everyone is willing to stick around that long, and many new guys - including the friends I tried to play the campaign with - were put off by the bugs and lack of polish of the initial release. Now I know that a portion of the core fan base doesn't care about that. We've got our game, BIS is still around supporting and improving it and just generally being awesome, and the quality of the community is inversely proportional to its size anyway, right?

2.) The Problem

BIS creates extraordinarily complex games with comparatively limited funds, leading to buggy releases. This is followed by mediocre to outright bad reviews and negative player experiences, which in turn surely hurts sales.

Game development costs money after all. The longer a game is in development, the more it costs. QA costs time and money too, especially with a game as huge and complex as Arma2. After giving it some thought, I think the following formula sums up the situation quite nicely:

Budget / Complexity = Quality*

(*: By quality I mean objective quality, e.g. polish.)

At first glance, it appears like there are two obvious solutions to this equation: either increase the budget or reduce the complexity. It's just that neither of these seems viable. Money doesn't grow on trees, and sacrificing complexity for a bit of polish... no. Let's not go down that road.

So what else could they do?

3.) Obvious solutions

- Make more money.

4.) My Suggestion

Long story short: Paid Beta.