I sort of collect "game genre names," partly because the meaning of genre for games isn't nailed down yet, and the fluidity is interesting; and partly because journalists and bloggers use all sorts of terms that clearly have meaning for some audiences but are fairly obscure for most. Like, say, "rail shooter"--essentially a digital version of the old-style arcade amusement in which things move past in the background and you blaze away at them with a BB gun. Of course, in a digital game they can
get much more elaborate.
So here's a new one for me:
Aufbaustrategiespiele (literally: "on-building strategy game") an RTS with the focus on making the economy function rather than on combat (not sure how this is different from the "city-builder game").
Per Jurie, these sell better in Germany than in the States, because (paraphrasing) German gamers are inherently pacific whereas American gamers want war. Which, ah... oh, never mind. Reading Churchill on the Munich conference at the moment, myself.
The occasion for the piece is Ubisoft's recent takeover of Sunflowers, a German developer that specializes in the genre (they created the
Anno series).
I suspect there's a bigger problem than disparity in market acceptance, though; like conventional RTS game,
Aufbaustrategiespieler are inherently PC-only--you need a pointing device to handle the many units involved in real-time, and (save perhaps for the Wii), consoles don't have 'em. Thus, you restrict your market to PC owners--and the recent
Anno games, at least, have been multi-million dollar development projects. It's very hard to make back that kind of investment with a PC-only game.
Hence, I suspect, Sunflowers' sale.
posted by Greg at 5:46 PM
28 comments
on-building strategy games -- I've been testing/playing a recreation of Syd Miers' Colonization (not a great seller), and most of it is economic, although it's supposed to set the stage for a late game colonial war. FreeCol just had a milestone release today (0.6.0) which is mostly playable. Is that too warlike, or is it an aufbaustrategiespiele?
"Up-building strategy game" would be a better literal translation for "Aufbaustrategiespiel", I think. An "on-building strategy game" would be an "Anbaustrategiespiel", which would either be about adding to an existing building or growing crops.
I'd agree with the "up-building" over "on-building." But from my knowledge of the genre, it might be better to take "Aufbau" as a single word, which my dictionary tells me translates as "construction, structure, organization."
To be clear on the terminology here, would the old PC game "Majesty" be considered part of this genre? (When it was released in the States, I believe it was referred to as a "Strategy Sim".)
This is one of the reasons why Germany accounts for roughly 1/3 of all aggregated European PC Game sales (while the UK is one of the European countries with the highest console penetration). If you are thinking about expanding Manifesto, Germany would probably an interesting market.
One caveat here: The genre "Aufbaustrategiespiele" has somehow weak boundaries in Germany, as most German gamers would probably mix it up with other RTS games. In AoE or WarCraft you still have to build your bases before going to combat, so many customers do not make that distinction.
I have fond memories of Colonization. I was just thinking about it this morning. With better graphics and sound I think it could be viable again.
I'll have a look at FreeCol.
(True story: I was at a trade show, in the Microprose booth. "Gee!" I say, admiring the preview demo of Colonization, "It looks like someone's trying to recreate Seven Cities of Gold!"
"You noticed!" says Sid Miers from behind me.)
Those German boardgames are OK but they do get a little carried away trying to avoid conflict. It's almost like the developers try to harness the energy associated with the frustration of not having conflict, to use in avoiding conflict.
I played two sessions of a Viking conquest came recently. Now, mind you the players are all Vikings and don't conflict with each other, (a hallmark of the German/Eurogame) but boy do the Vikings dish out the whup-arse on the rest of civilization.
Every entertainment genre has its taxonomists. But it's always the cheeseball indie bands that no one really listens to, that require the most complicated genre descriptions: "cowpunk indie rock," "psychobilly," "newgrass", etc. Cross-media hint: if you need a new genre name to describe it, no one really gives a shit about it.
I don't think that "Aufbaustrategiespiele" are only RTS games. Civilization is also a Aufbaustrategiespiel, because you build up a huge civilization.
Everything here is solely and entirely my personal opinion, and should not be construed as representing the
opinions of my employer, my ex, my cats, or any other person or entity in this universe or any other.
Any resemblance between my opinions and the opinions of others, living or dead, is purely
coincidental, unless it's the product of a vast, left- or right-wing conspiracy. Oh, and I'm not going to
bother with a Creative Commons thingie, but feel free to use anything here however you like, so long as
you ascribe my words to me. And a link would be nice.
