Some questions about Mount and Blade

[Jarold]

Why are games like chivalry and war of the roses so much more successful then mount and blade? Why do they get more players?

Mount and blade is obviously not on par graphics wise, but everything else about it is better. Is mount and blade warband not very popular because it doesn't have a well known game producer and developer? Is it not as successful as those other games because of bad advertising?

Is it hard to get into? I told my friend to get Mount and Blade Warband, he started playing the native singleplayer the next day. He was having a rough start and to my misfortune, he was using manual block. Which felt like to me was a death sentence to his enjoyment. He really sucked at the game he couldn't even hit a guy, but something in him made him want to keep playing. He still sin't that great at the game, but he is definitely better and is now addicted. Maybe in the future I can train him and introduce him hear since he seems very determined with this game.

I was hooked instantly when I played it because I thought it was cool to command a lot of men on a battlefield without It having to be a strategy game. It felt like oblivion with way better combat and bigger battles.



Or am I, and other others who have the same questions, just blind to the truth that mount and blade isn't as good as chivalry or war of the roses and only a select few people like us can play this game.

[Umbra]

Because it is a niche game, it is repulsive to the xbox easymode generation. It doesent have graphics that make their primitive brain go: ooooo shiny!

Also, it is old and badly marketed

[Armpit_Sweat]

Hmm... It might be like asking why Justin Bieber is so good, that millions world-wide are going crazy over him, while some really good local bands are largely unknown outside of your city/country. It is hard to make something for everyone, so games like WoW and CoD have to compromise, in order to satisfy an average player.
 
Another example from my personal experience - there are around 10 kebab/pizza places, in a 5 minute walking distance from my home. I know what place serves best pizza, best kebab, best burger, etc., but someone who never been to Valby, might go for Burger King or Dominos. Not because they like Burgers from BK above any other burger, but because its easy, cheap and you know 100% what you are getting. What i mean, is when someone has only 2-3 hours a week to play video games, he will not bother with Mount and Blade, he will go after a well known, well marketed product because it is convenient. And big companies give good polishing to their games, so even if the gameplay is nothing special, it will still satisfy your basic "gaming needs" without having to endure a year long patching, and all the "raw edges" that will never be fixed in a low budget game.
 
And some games are just great from the day 1 - think about the first Left For Dead Huge success because it was both polished, original and correctly presented to the public. 
 
Since I wrote all this, i will also use an opportunity to "promote" this great band:
 

*had to fix the link, as it was cutting out on 1:04 :(

[Vibe]

because people are fucking dumb

[zagibu]

This is one of the rare occasions when a member like Vibe, a mere mortal, creates a post that has more truth in it than a post of Armpit_Sweat.

Thanks for the song, though, it's pretty good.

[Vibe]

This is one of the rare occasions when a member like Vibe, a mere mortal, creates a post that has more truth in it than a post of Armpit_Sweat.

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[Gravoth_iii]

Its not very casual friendly, and it was only by luck i found crpg, without crpg i would not have more than 10hrs played compared to my 2000+ right now.

[Christo]

because people are fucking dumb

And they don't deserve Taleworlds' awesomeness

[Wolfsblood]

cuase this is the red orchestra (i think thats the game im looking for, never played it but heard about how hard it is because of its realism) of medieval games.


chivalry is the CoD of medieval games.

WoTR could have been up to par with MnB except for the fact that bugs ruined a lot of it.

basically 12 year old would rather have an easy to learn flashy graphics game Vs the in depth combat system that is MnB

[Tibe]

Not enough marketing is the main concern imo. Its graphics are dated and its just not everybodies cup of tea are the second and third reasons.

I can sorta understand why the playerbase for Chivalry is bigger then Warbands. Its simpler, it started out as a HL mod(more people knew about it at its birth and backed it up) and its still slightly a different experience from Warband. So I can sorta see that. Why people like WotR over Warband is a thing I will never understand thou. Are people fucking retarded. When getting WotR costumers basically buy the base game and then spend like 20 bucks more on some crappy dlcs that add a few more armors and weapons and mybe even spend some more for the same fucking game in the later date(vikings) that is basically the same shit retextured and with few new minor features. I mean common!!! WTF? You buy Warband once and you get basically the whole package of moddingcommunities finest for free. Bloody single and multiplayer mods starting from Rome all the way till modern zombie apocalypse and even further then that. For a single person to even get remotely this much from WotR one has to wait decades for them to finish and spend asston of money. Chivalry does have few things here and there that make special, WotR doesnt have shit.

[Prpavi]

Because these games are new and fresh and most of the people playing them probably think the medieval melee games started with these two. Warband came out in march 2010, nobody is checking for the 3 year old games to play, people mostly play new games, they are advertised on Steam and you automatically get a huge market just by showing them in a big window in Steam Store, while you have an occasional Warband sale but it's not marketed nearly as aggresive. Hell I even say WotR on Machinima, think of them what you want but they are a huge outlet so they got gouple of hundred players just there if not thousands.
Bottom line: this is an obscure game and an even more obscure mod with a very steep learning curve and it takes a special kind of gamer to play it.

[cmp]

Why are games like chivalry and war of the roses so much more successful then mount and blade? Why do they get more players?

They don't. According to Steam Stats Warband has 2-3x more players than Chivalry, and WotR has so few that it's not even on the list.

[Sir_Hans]

Why are games like chivalry and war of the roses so much more successful then mount and blade? Why do they get more players?

Mount and blade is obviously not on par graphics wise, but everything else about it is better. Is mount and blade warband not very popular because it doesn't have a well known game producer and developer? Is it not as successful as those other games because of bad advertising?

Is it hard to get into? I told my friend to get Mount and Blade Warband, he started playing the native singleplayer the next day. He was having a rough start and to my misfortune, he was using manual block. Which felt like to me was a death sentence to his enjoyment. He really sucked at the game he couldn't even hit a guy, but something in him made him want to keep playing. He still sin't that great at the game, but he is definitely better and is now addicted. Maybe in the future I can train him and introduce him hear since he seems very determined with this game.

I was hooked instantly when I played it because I thought it was cool to command a lot of men on a battlefield without It having to be a strategy game. It felt like oblivion with way better combat and bigger battles.



Or am I, and other others who have the same questions, just blind to the truth that mount and blade isn't as good as chivalry or war of the roses and only a select few people like us can play this game.

Enjoyment is in the mind of the beholder.

That said, I think the main reason not as many people get into a game like mount & blade is because they don't see how it can be fun swinging swords at enemies again and again because they haven't played and loved a game like it in the past... they don't see themselves being hooked and for many people they think, without trying this game, "how could it possibly be funner than jumping into an attack chopper or tank in BF3 and blasting buildings/enemies to bits?". A lot of time when I discuss PC games with peers they ask me what I play, and I tell them I play an old medieval game called mount and blade, they kind of cock their head in confusion and ask if it's like World of Warcraft. 

Imho (and I know many people completely disagree with me on this) the one thing I want to see in this game or in the sequel is gore. There is absolutely no reason not to include gore in a game like this because the majority of players are 18+ and the ones who aren't are all going to get next Grand Theft Auto when it comes out anyways. If I'm swinging a heavy sword or a freaking battle axe, I want to see it chop flesh, I want to see arms flying and heads roll... but why stop at just limb decapitation... add hand and even finger decapitations or have a grazing blow slice off a big chunk of flesh and have it hang there with blood squirting out the artery... add brutal death animations like twitching bodies, blood curdling death screams, and seizures brought on by blunt trauma. How about executions after disarming an opponent? etc... To be honest, half the reason I bought the newer chivalry was because the gore looked so nice, the other half of the reason was because I played the old chivalry mod (long before I got M&B, and enjoyed it a lot).

The game is definitely lacking in the advertisement department, and similarly the developer is lacking in the reputation/renown department which really doesn't help bring in new players... but I think one of the main reasons people don't try the game out, after watching trailers/gameplay footage, is because they have no fond experiences to compare it to which makes them think "I would enjoy a game like this". When you tell people its a swords/armor medieval game most people think Skyrim or World of Warcraft... which is just not comparable and does this game no justice.

[Osiris]

They don't. According to Steam Stats Warband has 2-3x more players than Chivalry, and WotR has so few that it's not even on the list.

not to mention crpg doesn't show up on steam

[Prpavi]

not to mention crpg doesn't show up on steam

Tought the OP was about M&B in general not cRPG  :