Tim Cain appointed designer director of Carbine Studios

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Another "where are they now" update: Tim Cain joined Carbine Studios a while ago. There were some concerns Carbina Studios might be hit by the post-Tabula Rasa chaos in the North-America branch of NCSoft, but this does not seem to be the case as NCSoft sent out this press release:<blockquote>NCsoft's Carbine Studios Names Tim Cain Design Director

Fallout producer and designer now becomes design director for unannounced Carbine Studios project

ALISO VIEJO, Calif., Oct. 7, 2008-Computer game developer Carbine Studios™ today announced the promotion of industry veteran Tim Cain to design director of the studio's unannounced massively multiplayer online (MMO) game. Located in Orange County, Calif., Carbine Studios is part of NCsoft, the world's premier publisher and developer of MMO games.

Cain, a 25-year veteran of the game industry, has been with Carbine since its inception in 2005 and has held the position of programming director. He is best known for his work as producer and designer on the highly successful computer role-playing games Fallout and Fallout 2. In 1998 he left Interplay and co-founded Troika Games, where he helped to design and program the award winning titles Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, The Temple of Elemental Evil and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines.

"I couldn't be more pleased," said Cain. "The team at Carbine is one of the most talented and experienced groups I've ever worked with. I'm happy to be a part of it and we're looking forward to the day when we can unveil this incredibly exciting project to the world."

"It's great to have Tim Cain heading up design at Carbine," said Jeremy Gaffney, executive producer at Carbine Studios. "Tim is one of the most respected guys in the business and his track record of creating hit products is well documented. Having Tim at the helm as design director makes an already strong team that much better."

For more information on Carbine Studios and current job openings there, go to http://www.carbinestudios.com.

About NCsoft
NCsoft, headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, is the world's premier publisher and developer of massively multiplayer online games, including the critically acclaimed Lineage®, Guild Wars® and City of Heroes® franchises. NCsoft's NC West division holds operating responsibilities for North America, Europe, South America and Australia/New Zealand. More information can be found at http://www.PlayNC.com.</blockquote>
 
It's great to hear Tim doing well at this job, he has certainly proved himself with amazing games in the past.

Still, I can't help myself but wishing that we'd get a classic single player RPG with Tim designing it. :P

Congratulations Tim!
 
I still can not get over the fact that all those brilliant people are making MMOs. And Boyarsky makes Diablo. I like Diablo, but I don't want Fallout and Bloodlines designer making it :(.
 
Disclaimer: I don't play MMOs. Between the monthly fees, the addictive nature, the stupid people online, and mostly the grind, I just don't have any desire to start playing an MMO. I do follow their progress in the industry (or lack thereof).

If any company is going to change MMOs for the better it might just be NCsoft. It is probably the most promising creative position he could get within an MMO company. Lineage was a grind, but crazy popular among South Korea. City of Heroes broadened the setting possibilities for non-niche MMOs. Guild Wars, though not technically a MMO, showed that money could be made by targeting those who hate the monthly fee. And while Tabula Rasa failed somewhat in its final implementation, at least it aspired to be different.
 
It never really seems positive when a hasbeen goes off on their own and makes some new RPG or whatever. Things that come to mind are Dungeon Siege (well I didn't like it but apparently it has a decent fanbase since they actually made a 2nd one) and Hellgate: London. If I'm not mistaken isn't the Hellgate MMO having some problems and on the verge of closing down?

However, a decent company like Blizzard acquiring someone like Leonard seems like a good thing to me, considering the bad art direction of Diablo 2 in comparison to the original.

I'll believe these "hasbeens starting a new company" can actually accomplish something when I see it. :P So where's this Wasteland 2 sequel I was hearing about a year ago? Hmm?
 
All well and good for Tim. I wish him well.

Despite the criticism developers like Bethesda, Obsidian and Bioware are getting for dumbing down RPGs, I think the biggest factor in the RPG decline is MMORPGs. Anybody and everybody that might make an RPG is making MMORPGs instead. So, its a shame to see Tim going down that road too.

I haven't even tried an MMO since 2004, and the only one I've ever really enjoyed was Ultima Online...and that only for it's first couple months before it became regulated. Maybe this will be a good one, but I won't play it. With my current situation and young kids, I'm probably a good 10 years away from ever even trying another MMO again (and that's assuming there's ever one that I want to try).
 
I don't like MMOs, but if he is smart, he could design a MMO for a smaller and more mature audience, where wowers can't stand for a minute without complaining about that they don't level up as fast as in other MMO-"RPG"s...
 
dirtbag said:
I don't like MMOs, but if he is smart, he could design a MMO for a smaller and more mature audience, where wowers can't stand for a minute without complaining about that they don't level up as fast as in other MMO-"RPG"s...
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Nah. The Majority, and complainers, always eventually get their way in MMORPGs. That's one of the big reasons they suck. Once you have people paying monthly subscriptions for your game, you change it to keep them p(L)aying
 
Hey now, I think modern MMO's have skewed our opinions of what an MMO can actually do. I think in the right hands, a cleverly designed MMO can be an excellent role playing experience.

I'm definitely not a fan of current MMO's, but I believe they're just breaching the surface of what can actually be done. They're getting stuck in a mold and simply need to break out.

I'd play a MMO made by Tim Cain, sure as shit would. Though there goes my fantasy dream team over at Interplay with making FOOL. :?
 
Good to see Tim Cain doing well! I hope that he does something inovative with MMORPGs and breaks the boring circle of the MMORPGs today.

There goes my hopes to see developing FOOL, though.
 
dirtbag said:
I don't like MMOs, but if he is smart, he could design a MMO for a smaller and more mature audience
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There is no place for small in massive.

Why are MMO's the future of gaming? I wish games would devolve back to 90s :lol:
 
taag said:
Why are MMO's the future of gaming? I wish games would devolve back to 90s :lol:
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They're a continuing source of revenue. Why sell the game once when you can sell it every month to the same people?
 
Yeah. I don't like MMO's... I mean what's the point when you're forced to play with others to even get anywhere? I've read things about people having to do a 40 man raid on WoW. Seems to me that any part you might play in such a group would seem largely insignificant.

I think a game is flawed if you can't play it all the way through by yourself, because otherwise it's forcing you to play with other, real people.. and you can't really depend on others.

I still don't understand why they don't also have a rebalanced single player version of each MMO that is released. Are they that afraid of losing money? People who want to play with others will do so, while the single player crowd likely wouldn't have gave them the monthly payment anyway, and if they did, then they are hugely disappointed when they reach that certain level where you're forced to play with a group or, well, get killed every time you try that next quest...
 
mandrake776 said:
taag said:
Why are MMO's the future of gaming? I wish games would devolve back to 90s :lol:
Click to expand...
They're a continuing source of revenue. Why sell the game once when you can sell it every month to the same people?
Click to expand...

It's a closed circle. To produce a game by today's standards you don't need a team, you need an army. In order to pay them, you have to earn some serious money. So, it seems there is no escape.

MMOs are definitively part of that Web 2.0 mumbojumbo, they have all the flaws of it so far.
 
PaladinHeart said:
I still don't understand why they don't also have a rebalanced single player version of each MMO that is released.
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Honestly, they don't do this because it would only serve to show their customers just how boring and repetative the games are.

The world of MMOs doesn't, and really can't, respond at all to your actions. All of them are just fetchquest, spawning mob, itemdrop, leveling treadmill, chatrooms, to varying degrees, with a few other features thrown into different settings.

An MMO can't respond to you personally. The moment one paying customer is given a unique and personal experience, is the moment 999,999 other paying customers cancel their subscriptions in disgust with some profanity laced comments to customer service.

A developer can make you king of the world in a single player game, but you can never be anything more than one of the mindless masses in an MMO. In an MMO, eventually even the highest level, most powerful, most unique character is going to just be a carbon copy of thousands of others.

In order to release single player versions of their MMO's, they would have to add a lot of life to them. They'd have to add a lot of personalized response and game-world changing events. And yes, they'd lose many subscription-paying customers if they did that, because it would make it a better (and cheaper) game and many people would not go back to the MMO version.
 
taag said:
I wish games would devolve back to 90s :lol:
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me too ...

Well, imo, with people like Tim Cain working on (designing) mmo games, there may be light in a tunnel for this type of games (dim and distant, but still;) - i dont think there will be anything worth playing in MMOs for a couple of years though (or ever ...) as far as rpg elements go ...
 
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