As I am trying to figure out yet another work around to deal with a bug I have to say the detail on weapons and armor is excellent. It isn’t fair for the game artists who create such intricate designs on building pieces just to have them priced outrageously. I am playing still because I do like the game but I can’t say I love it since the new updates have happened. FOMO pricing and non-communication with players except when promoting something new for us to buy isn’t sustainable. So I guess I’ll kill time until 7 days to die 1.0 comes to console…. Happy hunting exiles.
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Here we go again. Well, the usual suspects haven’t dogpiled on you yet, so let’s try to have a reasonable discussion before they do.
Your topic title is that “game artists need some love”. There are several ways they could receive that. One is to be praised by players who enjoy their work, like you did here. Another is to receive an industry award. Yet another is to get paid better and/or get promoted at work.
But you know what isn’t a way for them to get some love? This:
Game artists don’t get paid proportionally for each individual sale of Bazaar item. It doesn’t work that way.
The pricing Funcom sets might be fair or unfair to customers, but there’s no aspect here that involves fairness towards artists.
Similarly, predatory monetization practices, inconsistent quality, lack of transparency, buyer beware policies, and similar problems are anti-consumer, but they have nothing to do with artists getting love or not.
So please don’t take this as an attack on you, but rather a friendly suggestion: feel free to praise artists as much as you think they deserve and feel free to complain about Funcom’s monetization practices, but consider doing so in separate posts.
I’m saying this because your topic won’t achieve what its title claims it’s trying to do. Instead of praising the artists, the rest of the discussion will devolve into bickering about monetization.
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However I think the amount of time in design playing into the whole price point they develop. There are some very high detail things that are awesome to look at and then you look at the price and go…it’s freaking food for a table that I can’t even eat. It’s Ikea plastic food.
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How much does an artist make at FC vs other game companies that have shops?
It depends on the artist’s role. I know Blizzard retains a couple of artists that just draw the old fashioned way. Without a computer. Here’s a good example- the Snyderverse batmobile was originally drawn up on a napkin
The artists are, with only a few exceptions very good at what they do.
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People cant really understand that work is paid by the money that is paid. If no money is paid, work is not paid.
I can guarantee you the price is set in a way it has the most revenue possible to the cent. IT is not hard.
We often have those tables in college when we study accounting and economics, and they are based in something people often talk about in games, but seem to be clueless when it is money and work instead of “mana” and “DPS”.
There is a point in which dropping price just makes you earn less. There is a point in which the number of people buying does not justify a lower price. There is the cost of making things available, because contrary to what people clueless think, it is not just making meshes and putting them to sell ad eternum and simply counting money.
Everything you add in the game means more work, more support, more people who needs to integrate, evaluate and have to care about the customer. Etc, Etc etc …
If it was the “wonderful Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory”, maybe it would be that since “magically” no expenses are involved, you could sell any digital work for 1 cent. That is not the case. It costs. And like anything that costs, if it does not pay its costs, BETTER NOT SELL AT ALL.
That is the lower part of the table when there is a fine print for the people who understand the field that says: “If the only price that it sells is this one, better not sell it at all”.
There is also a top point on that table that means “priced over this and you are earning actually less”.
A computer can make tables like that in real time over data they gather while sales are made. So you can be sure of one thing if anything:
PRICES ARE DEFINED AS THEY ARE SO THE MOST PROFIT IS EARNED.
No matter if you as a sole individual, mostly not much in the ways of business, think otherwise.
What always puzzles me is: People love to say things like FOMO, or other crap they have no idea about, but when they are talking about actual knowledge on how to maximize profit, they always say the most stupid stuff about it. As if there were no professional around equipped with software and hardware for that end making the real time assessment and control of anything.
I think these people think a business is a bunch of people that laugh when someone says “money” like a certain demographic laughs when they hear “boobs”.
That is funny AF from this side of the question. Really.
artist are absolutely amazing, funcom has always had the strenght of having glorious artists, back from the OLD Age of conan, the game, the places, the dungeons, they were always top notch and they still are in conan exiles.
sadly thats where the praise stops. following @CodeMage points, i will not turn it into something else, and yes i agree they deserve the recognition of eveyrone here! thier work is just breathtakingly good!
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I do have to play devil’s advocate here. Items in the first Battlepass for example… the Theurgical Aegis Armor set. Are not available to someone who purchases Conan Exiles, today. I don’t exactly see how FC is making money off of that person who wants said item, and cannot purchase said item.
If I make an item for purchase, and someone says, “I’d like to buy that.” And I say, “No.” There is no transaction made, no revenue earned. It doesn’t take a degree in microeconomics to understand there’s something off about that.
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Yeah, hopefully it’s a factor.
I’m not sure I understand the point you’re making. Should they charge less because it’s not functional? Should they make it functional? Should they make it less detailed so it costs less?
Charging less just because it’s not functional seems contrary to the idea that they’re charging based on the amount of time that went into the design. Conversely, making it functional would probably raise the price. Making it less detailed means lowering the quality further.
I get what you’re saying about being disappointed in the pricing of a non-functional item, I just don’t get how it relates to the art quality.
you hit the nail. but i think we should not use this thread for it.
the current System is not New user friendly, or returned player friendly…
unless they plan to make large bundles and keep them available in the form DLC model, i cant see a reason as to why both system cant live together.
i would be extremely dissapointed if i join the game and all of those shinnies are not obtainable.
stopping derailing the thread.
No offense, but everything I said was on topic to the OP. I didn’t use the same terminology, but everyone knows what I am talking about. The topic I was mentioning was brought up in the OP:
Telling players they cannot buy something today, and they should have bought it last year is not sustainable.
apologies, i was just trying to keep this post positive for the artists, i know he brought some other issues, but was following what codemage said, (it made sense to me) .
but rest assure that i am in total agreement with your statements there.
I get what you mean. On the topic of how the artists feel, @darthphysicist has posed an interesting question considering how they are being treated.
lol refreshing page, fingers hovering over keyboard, waiting for the opportunity to impress with intellect. God bless America and free speech.
Music: 10
Items design: 10
Background art from the Battle Pass or actually anywhere: 10
VA: 10 (volume could be higher)
Building pieces: 9
Map: 8 (feast to the eye, but empty in general)
Programming: 1 (Sorry, them are just the facts)
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Not just the weapons and armor though, even you pointed out the building pieces are also top notch but even many of the “smaller” things are far beyond any of their competitors in the survival genera.
Absolutely agree, and this has been a trend with Funcom. When Age of Conan came out it was by and far the best looking MMO on the market, and it remained that way for many years after. When Conan Exiles came out it was by and far the best looking survival game on the market, and it has remained that way for years as well. Hell, Age of Conan had one of the best soundtracks out there. In fact:
Knut Avenstroup Haugen won the IFMCA award for Best Original Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media for his score
So from an artistic side of things there is much to praise Fucom for, they really do go all out in this regard.
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But are the details in some items modeled in or are they using normal maps?
If it’s texture generated detail it’s easier to redo the the details; filigrees, raised prints on clothing.
Always loved texturing.
some of the armors have very detailed “fringe” of little skulls and shit hanging off of them, so it’s a mix of both but mostly modeling I think.
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