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Food For Thought
The_Grump
Member Posts: 331
This thread is an honest attempt to generate conversation about a particular point or question, it is not intended to start a flame war, kick a dead horse or whatever idiocy someone wants to come up with. The question is serious and concerns something I've noticed since getting back into PC gaming more seriously.
How many companies can you think of that have (1) released grossly unfinished and/or broken titles while claiming they are finished and (2) used the money of fans, not to mention their goodwill, while apologising and spending months to make legitimately playable and complete a title that was supposed to already be complete at launch?
The only other game and company that comes to mind is 'Elemental: War of Magic' by Stardock. Elemental is a turn-based strategy game that did not even have all of it's core game mechanics, ideas and functions included in the game at launch. I know because I bought the game on retail launch. I followed the developer blog and saw that the staff all but completely ignored beta-tester feedback and the head of the project had the thing in a vise grip so tight that he later admitted refusing to listen. Four months after launch the game seems to finally be in a state that is playable. The people that bought the game early and put up with all the nonsense are receiving, at least, the first 'expansion' to the game for free but that certainly doesn't compensate for the $50 spent on a game and having to wait months for it to even be legitimately playable. There is also the very reasonable question of the quality of the expansion after seeing the launch of the game itself.
The rub? This is the same company that authored the Gamers' Bill of Rights.
My experience with Square-Enix in mmorpgs from 2006 to present has demonstrated something worse than what I've seen with Elemental and Stardock. Sure, the subscription is currently $0 but should anyone be asked to stick around and stick with a team that, no questions about it, lied about the product they were offering? That isn't a product having problems and falling under an 'as is' agreement, that is false advertisement. But, again, this sort of thing is already something that isn't disputable.
I can think of plenty of games that are terribly bugged that go unfixed while the companies claim they are actually doing something to fix it while, instead, developing new content that shares the same (or intensifies!) the problems. BioWare's Dragon Age series and Valve's Left 4 Dead series come to mind. But those companies haven't done what the development team for FFXIV and Elemental have done.
A special note for the rabid fanboys: I make a distinction between Square-Enix and the development team for FFXIV. While the company as a whole bears the blame generally but it is the development team that bears the blame specifically. Square-Enix is a great company that makes great games, it just does very poorly with mmorpgs because it just can't get around co-operating with incredibly vital people: the mmorpg players who will, or would have been, playing their game for years to come.
(1)TL:DR must be your way of saying that thinking hurts. Then again, this may explain why it looks like you responded to the post without using your brain.
(2) It's not about community, is it? You just have nothing better to do.
Comments
Good post. Thank you. People need to hear this.
The ignorant only see black and white, and many will say that if it doesn't work at launch, it's not going to work ever.
Cell phones freeze up, cars get recalled, some game makers make a shitty game then lie to get sales up......it happens. there are more than a few companies that released less than stellar games on pc....console...or both and flat out lied or just thought thier vision was going to be something the masses loved, and as we know this is not the case in most instances.
now, to ask a question about your question, are you asking as a "name 5 companies OTHER than SE who've done this recently." or is it just a facetious question? i'm pretty sure it's the former, but either way...i'm sure the people who bought ABP where pissed about box prices....probably a few more names i could throw out, but i'm using that as a point. in a sense you're saying SE is the only game company that had a development team that either didn't listen or didn't care what they heard as of late, and we can all agree that wouldn't be the case.
i'm in no way defending the development team, they screwed up royaly, why even have a beta if you disregard the beta testers? they are guilty of that yes, but others are as well.....i'll say again it's not the fact that this happened...because if it was...NOBODY would still be on it as a topic.....most of the shelves in game stop are filled with shitty games that are released Ad infinitum, the only reason it's still a fact of topic, the fact that someone finds new reason to ask such questions....is the company that allowed this to happen in the first place......SE was a RPG powerhouse, they have recently come up way short....so just like people love to build up....they will tear down just the same. that's my 2 copper coins.
will this game improve, i hope so but at this point it's really to me a dead topic.....people who bash this game daily (not you because you're asking a valid question) and people who are still defending this game should all realize.....in a sense they are both right....most who bash it say it's lacking content, and it has no real endgame, not much in the way of monsters or a challenge or anything to make the game appealing....and as a person who's playing it.....they are right. the ones who defend it say you have to search for content and they are making improvments as we speak...the graphics are beautiful (which they are but that alone shouldn't be a defence point) and the game has it faults but shows potential if the devs get it together......and again.....as a person playing it...they are right. so am i pissed at the spending the money for a CE...i was until i saw i'm probably playing for free until next march at least.....so if we divide that time it's about 8 months....from the 70 the CE costs....8.75 a month.....i pay more for gas. the longer it's free...the less i'm angry.
Played:FFXI, WoW, LOTR,EQ. Playing:FFXIV.
Looking Forward To:DCU, SWTOR.
Uhm well the people that bought Elemental at the first palce, get asctually the first two expansions for free. Sorry to correct yiou tehr ebut I follow Elementals as well and sort of understand the problems that happened there from developers point of view and fin the case Elementals not that bad.
I guess I'm one of the only ones that takes Bata testers advice........Lets get smart already people !
Too many for comfort. The whole genre has become a cesspool of unfinished and broken releases. The sad part is, this extends to single player games as well. New Vegas, Oblivion etc. are good examples of how this cancer has spread. I don't really know what else to say, it is sad but it happens so often i don't really care anymore. I stick with whatever game i enjoy the most. Currently this is FF14. There are no real alternatives after all except going back to the highly polished FF11.
I am so looking forward to the release of GW2 and SWTOR. It will be no difference to whats happened until now. I wish one of them would proove me wrong, i seriously do. The chances of an MMO releasing:
1. With all the hyped features.
2. Fully playable without lag, crashes, server failures, bugs and performance issues.
Is just wishfull thinking at this point.
Anyway, here is a list since you asked for one:
FunCom
Age of Conan: None of the hyped features where in the game incl. features on the BOX. Most are still not in the game. Only polished finished part was Tortage. They mislead everyone by only giving access to Tortage in the Open Beta while the rest of the game is TOTALLLY different.
Anarchy online: see Age of Conan
Cryptic
STO: Hyped and failed. Most shallow and crappy MMO ever to be released. The amount of repetition is just mind blowing and promises of playing other factions fell short of the hype because you can't really play them like the rest.
Aventurine
Darkfall: Complete scam. Shady business practices. Website hyped features and information not in the released game. So many subscription, payment and distribution cockups it could fill a 200 page book. Can't really be mad though since it's an indie and it was obvious from the start.
SOE ~ do i really need to elaborate on that?
The list goes on...
As odd it may sound World of Warcraft from Blizzard?
Yes the game runs nice and people like it nothing wrong about this but tere are a lot of things tehy proomised years ago to impliment or not impliment but are still not around.
Like their special classes, an Addon every year, Houseing....
But well honestly my favorite in doomed games is Dark & Light.
APB felt rushed to production too with the whole "Please give us time to fix it..." post-launch blah blah.
SoE would've sunk had they tried to charge in the condition it was in. At least with a few K on the servers they can show the higher ups that people bought boxes and are interested in playing.
I've washed my hands of the game for now. If the 21st patch (Not sure on the actual date) gives a search function with price sorting and what not to the bazzar then I'm willing to give an honest couple of hours play to see if it interests me.
Honestly how not fun it is to grind out xp killing the same mobs over and over in an area is what I dislike the most. But apparently some work has been done on jazzing that up.
I'll try the game, and if they manage to keep my interest then I'll consider giving them a chance beyond my purchase of the box.
lol, my thoughts exactly.
I don't disagree that poor launching titles are a disaster in the making; all companies should be given a chance to right their wrong.