So? I'm not arguing the quality of the work here but simply assuming that because it has been done in Vietnam ( correct spelling ) it can only be poor quality is just extremely ignorant.
Vietnam today is just one of the upcoming Asian economies, if you just lazily assume these cockpits were constructed in some underground tunnel by the Vietcong ( which you make it sound like ) then you may wish to read up on worldwide economic, political and cultural developments of, say, the last 20 years at least which don't cover the USA solely.
There is a whole world out there which does not fit easily within long held stereotypes if you care to actually do some research before stating something that is.
The biggest risk however is that it might actually change a longheld perception or worldview and therefore it might take you out of the comfort zone of blissful ignorance, be sure you are ready or willing to take that gamble.
Have relatives there?
I was thinking of cutting out the significant parts, but its all just so eloquent and persuasive. Or something. But you might be surprised to note that I'm up on the geopolitical scene. I'm not shocked that Vietnam - my spell checker insists it's still Viet Nam, but then, this is Microsoft - or Burma have electricity and running water, or that Indonesia is flying the latest Russian Su-27 and 30 fighters, or that India is threatening China's economic dominance in the region. If you really want a headache, try studying Japan's Sengoku Jidai.
Now, I know Vietnam has video game companies, because PC game piracy is rampant all through the region, and there are some original products coming out, though most seem to be web browser games. But you might be surprised to know that I just went to a website dedicated to promoting Vietnam's business community, and not
one video game company came up.
Having a tech base, and having an
advanced tech base are two different things. And maybe this is a news flash to you but I'm unaware of any big banks or Dubai oil magnates running to invest in Vietnamese companies or pharmaceuticals. And while you might be all giddy and ready to hire the services of a company in Vietnam to do high tech work for you... well, that's you. Doesn't seem to be a broad base of appeal for that sort of thing. Sorry if that offends you.
And yes, I do see this as a big red flag when I see the shoddy unfixed work put out by Turn 10 and Microsoft themselves. Heck, it's taken three years and threats of class action suits to get them off their duffs to finally make the 360 fairly reliable. After
several revisions. And Forza is little different. There are three games which all have rather substantial issues. Admittedly the file handling horror of Forza 3 may be due to the 360's poorly thought out architecture, but that's hardly the only matter. The car models still have wildly inconsistent flaws and bugs themselves, with body parts sometimes mismatching poorly or even missing, surface issues making the placement of decals and vinyls a pain, and models just ported from Forza 1's library with minor touch ups. Seriously, it's like the quality assurance department is perpetually out to lunch or on something.
It's fine if T10 gets a basic, buggy car model from a shop in Vietnam. But they have to fix it, not shovel it out the door with half a look at it. That's two fails in one.
And this is what I'm trying to get you "all things being equal" politically correct gamers to see. And then there are the folk who insist that "Turn 10 modeled 500 cars in two years! Why can't PD?" Well, because they
didn't model 500 cars in two years. They recycled the Forza 1 and 2 library, which most likely was also farmed out to shops around the globe to get as far as they did, and did some basic polishing. But heck, even the bugs from F1 are still there in many models, unfixed.
Also, there's a little matter of cost involved. You have to hire a company you want to farm out work to with a contract price, before you even get around to cost per job stuff, which gets hammered out in negotiations. But it's not small. They have to make payroll, invest in computers, pay rent and taxes just like we do, and there's also a certain amount of price gouging to wrangle too. So if you model 10 cars or 1000 cars, there's going to be a minimum price you have to pay for their services. Considering that GT5 cost $60 million just at the 2008 point, and many speculate quite reasonably that the final price is around
$80 million, do you really think SONY would take kindly to throwing tens of millions
more on top for a handful more Premium cars that some will likely
still have to be worked over by PD?
And here's the kicker. Turn 10 and friends most likely modeled about the same number of cars than Polyphony did in the past two or three years, or less. Did they get their money's worth? You be the judge.
He's so cool it makes me smile.
's cars had, but I would ignore that.
