Topic documentaires / making-of

Docu - Reprise du sujet

https://x.com/SandyofCthulhu/status/1902050680292176022

In 1999, I was assigned to design the expansion pack to Age of Empires 2. I chose The Conquerors as the theme, and wishing to have 4 civs (as we had on Rise of Rome), I chose the Spanish, the Aztecs, the Huns, and the Mayans.

The project went ahead extremely well. We were almost completely finished, 5 weeks ahead of schedule as of January 2000. I was excited to move onto Age of Empires 3.

Then Microsoft called and we had an important conference call.
Microsoft said, « We want you to add Koreans to The Conquerors pack. »

I said, « Koreans, greatly to their credit, were not conquerors. They stayed in their lane. While they’re cool, they don’t fit the Conquerors theme. »

Here was Microsoft’s argument: « Starcraft sold 3 million copies in Korea. »

Here was my counter-argument, which seemed pretty valid to me. « Starcraft doesn’t have any Koreans in it, so those sales had zero to do with a Korean civ. »

Microsoft: « But … Starcraft sold 3 million copies in Korea. »

I could see where this was going. Once someone simply repeats a previous argument, it’s clear they are no longer functioning from logic or intelligence.

So I went ahead and we crammed in the Korean civ in the last 5 weeks we had. No Microsoft didn’t give us any extra time. We made what apparently were three mistakes. We used the wrong art for the turtle ships (we used a legitimate source, but apparently Koreans didn’t like that source), we named the Sea of Japan « the Sea of Japan » (it’s called that in every nation except one. Yup.), and we said there was a Japanese invasion of Korea from 1592-98 which for some reason in 2000 was controversial. A Microsoft representative in Korea actually got arrested and detained for a while.

And in the end, we didn’t sell 3 million copies of Age of Empires 2 in Korea after all. Don’t get me wrong, Age of Empires 2 sold super-well, and so did The Conquerors expansion. But Starcraft was impossible to topple from its Korean throne.

Mais :ptdrmdr:

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:mdr:

lunaire :mdr:

:mdr:

Ça ne m’étonne pas de MS. :mdr:

Ça résume bien le monde actuel mine de rien.

Interview de 2 level designer chez Arkane :

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Merci :jap:

Excellente découverte. :memepouce: