this website makes me wish i never threw out some of the boxes away for some of my games . . .sometimes i buy games BECAUSE of the boxes (rarely). . . recent one i bought for the box was NOLF. . . Cate Archer is a hotty!

also, the guys "get back to" list resembles mine!!!

etc

http://www.theunderdogs.org/featured.php

I'll see your Queen and raise you a King.

wumpus http://www.gamebasement.com

Heh -- I've been to the Underdogs site quite a few times, but I never noticed that page before. I guess I was always just searching for a particular game.

Cool stuff. Seeing the game boxes makes me feel happy.

I've been keeping all of my boxes around. I was thinking of cutting out front panels and framing them, but I'm still hesitant to actually put them under the knife.

Personally, I like the CD's that have artwork on them. With the thinner jewel cases, I think they'd make for better artwork.

The industry may be moving towards DVD style boxes and away from the big boxes. At least in Europe they are packaging more and more games in DVD boxes, from what I've heard.

Yeah I posted a news article about this. Check out my grey market copy of Colin McRae Rally 2.0 (great game btw)!

http://www.gamebasement.com/files/0101/colin_back.jpg
http://www.gamebasement.com/files/0101/colin_front.jpg
http://www.gamebasement.com/files/0101/colin_open.jpg

I love that packaging! What a surprise when I opened the box to find this cool little case, which I had never even heard of. That made me realize how stupid the cardboard boxes really are.

wumpus http://www.gamebasement.com

Interplay has been sending out press betas in the DVD case. I really like them too. They're smaller and more durable.

Also, Sid Meier's Antietam was packaged like this.

"Interplay has been sending out press betas in the DVD case. I really like them too. They're smaller and more durable. "

Psaw, Mark, we need bigger, shiner boxes. Preferably with flashing, rotating lights and neon artwork.

Everyone knows that consumers enter a store and immediately buy the box that catches their eye with no regard for what's inside.

Clearly.

wumpus http://www.gamebasement.com

"Psaw, Mark, we need bigger, shiner boxes. Preferably with flashing, rotating lights and neon artwork."

Actually, I had some lame game with a flashing light on the box that blinked at me for months from a stack in corner of the room. I was like, "Fuck, what kind of alien battery powers that thing? Why the hell does it flash 24/7 month after month and never go out?"

"Everyone knows that consumers enter a store and immediately buy the box that catches their eye with no regard for what's inside."

That's actually the argument that a lot of game marketing people make. They feel that the box does a very important part of the marketing still.

"That's actually the argument that a lot of game marketing people make. They feel that the box does a very important part of the marketing still."

Seems about right to me- I've seen the EverQuest box(es). :)

I'd say about 1/2 of the people I know that play or have played EverQuest bought the game due to the box.. and probably 1/3 of those people still play it. The rest of the original 1/2 bought it because they knew what it was going into the decision.. RPG types, etc.. a good number of them are still playing it, but some have gotten bored and sold out.. before they weren't allowed to.

-Mike Latinovich .. stuck in east-central Illinois-

The EQ boxes are nice looking, colorful and generic fantasy. . . ppl can identify with that. plus the barely nude high elf helps sell to the teen boy crowd. btw, whats with the Iksar chaining the High Elf chick in the Kunark box?!?

Then you look at the Asherons Call box, brown muddy box with no color with some insect looking thing (olthoi). I might be stretching a bit, but the look of the AC package might have drew ppl away from trying the game. . . just a guess.

i still have an AC account. . . can be fun to roam arnd exploring places havent been to every once in awhile. . . i actually ran from Qalabar all the way to Glendenwood (south to north) one night, took about 5 hours i think, was very cool to see all the sites and check out some dungeons on the way.

etc

These DVD cases... can you get decent-sized manuals into them, or will there be a larger format for games that need room for real documentation?

"whats with the Iksar chaining the High Elf chick in the Kunark box?!?"

A little implied S&M I guess.

In Soul Caliber the big-breasted women actually have breasts that bounce when they jump. That's damned impressive. I wish EverQuest had that. Heh.

"whats with the Iksar chaining the High Elf chick in the Kunark box?!?"

My EQ-Geekdom is showing through a little bit here. :)

Verant's story about how Kunark was rediscovered is that the Iksar (the lizard guy on the box) decided it was time to start taking over the world again. They kidnapped the princess of the High Elves and brought her back to Cabilis in chains. The High Elves sent an expedition to Kunark to attempt to find her and ended up setting up and outpost there that shares her name.

"In Soul Caliber the big-breasted women actually have breasts that bounce when they jump."

Between this and DOA2, I really need to buy a Dreamcast. Ugh. I'd have to keep those games hidden in a sock drawer so that I didn't get the inevitable "Is this the kind of woman you want? Am I not good enough for you?" kind of questions.

"Then you look at the Asherons Call box, brown muddy box with no color with some insect looking thing (olthoi). I might be stretching a bit, but the look of the AC package might have drew ppl away from trying the game. . . just a guess."

Had I not been a beta tester for AC to begin with, I would have overlooked the box on the shelf.. To add further insult, the artwork on the retail CD pales in comparison to the artwork that they put onto the BETA-0 cd. Go figure.

-Mike Latinovich .. stuck in east-central Illinois-

I know that Turbine was quite proud of the unique fantasy world they created, but my god, those drudges were some of the lamest fantasy monsters ever. They really did look like several pillows stitched together.

I do like the way Turbine has supported the game with new content. That's really cool.

"I know that Turbine was quite proud of the unique fantasy world they created, but my god, those drudges were some of the lamest fantasy monsters ever. They really did look like several pillows stitched together."

*shrug* drudges are critters you only really pay attention to when you are a n00b character and then later on perhaps when you've amassed a decent level character.. the look doesn't much change, but the textures do, and the higher-level ones will surely whip your ass, regardless of whether you think they look like pillows or not.

"I do like the way Turbine has supported the game with new content. That's really cool."

It's also quite a shame- They spend all their time working on new content, and not fixing any bugs. There's been several downtimes over this past month due to bugs that've been in the game since beta, and they are JUST NOW getting to them.
New content is great- keeps the game fresh, but if there's bugs/exploits in the game that are just being overlooked because not everyone has figured them out yet, then maybe they need to hire some more people to maintain it.

I'd bet that Verant/Sony with their EQ support team has at least 2 to 3 times as many 'coders' working on the game at any time. Please keep in mind, however, that Turbine/MS have stated there is only *1* coder in the AC group to maintain/support them, so maybe I'm lowballing EQ's support coder numbers. :)

-Mike Latinovich .. stuck in east-central Illinois-

the newer creatures in AC are pretty cool looking, though they look even more alien from fantasy then the original AC creatures.

AC has something that EQ never had imo, theres the solo play factor i love in AC (its bane as well). soloing in AC is the only reason i still play it, and plus the monthly seasonal changes go accordingly with the crappy friggin Chicago weather i have to deal with in RL!

anyway, im not too keen on the AC bugs since i have like 30k pyreals and think im a rich badass (far from it hehe). . . so as you probably already know im a noobie in AC still (currently level 22).

btw mike what server are you on in AC?

I play Leafcull.. ah, Leafcull.. the original beta server. :) Never could get away from it, really. My 'main' there is named 'Aten', level 48 currently- sword/staff/melee spec'd, blah blah blah.

I entirely agree that hunting solo is one of the things that keeps people involved- A good majority of the monarchy I'm in.. or, at least the branch I'm in.. are pretty well independent people who on occasion get together and hunt or quest or bullshit or whatever. It's more of an 'extended family' sort of thing.

If you are bored, stop by LC and gimme a holler.. usually hanging out in Holt{burg} next to the cow when I'm not busy. :)

-Mike Latinovich .. stuck in east-central Illinois-

uhm, you leave that cow alone! too much Delieverance i tell ya!

anyway, why the sword AND staff? has that worked out for you? im UA/Bow/MeleeD spec'd and recently item trained (for ports) though my item skills severely LOW (arnd 40).

and do you primraily hunt in the dires? im afraid to go there! i just hang at the lugian qalabar area these days on harvestgain.

etc

sword has no bludgeon, and bugs(olthoi) (not to mention a majority of golems) are vuln to bludgeon, so staff works out well. i didn't really work much on staff skill til about lvl40, and almost gave up playing the game until i started messing with it more, building it up, and whooping some olthoi ass. :)

as far as hunting the dires... hardly. i go there once in a while, but not too often. i mainly 'hunt' (camp, really) the lugian excavation. all Gigas and Extas lugians.. Extas == 9.5kxp each kill, so it's a great place to camp if olthoi and tuskers are too much for ya (like they are for me).

-Mike Latinovich .. stuck in east-central Illinois-