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Wurm Developers or Dictators?
Lyciss
Member Posts: 8
in Wurm Online
This game does not deserve it's current 7.0 rating. It's obvious to me that several players have lied about their rating giving it higher than it should be.
Dispite what the developers might say, the game is still in beta. It lacks sounds and music, animations and item graphics. The game play features are still being tweaked which leads to additional bugs.
It runs extremely slow even on a fast system with lag on top of that. It creates a very cludgy menu system that you find yourself constantly waiting to activate.
The game really is just a text based game with graphical navigation. The graphics are really only for navigating the world and your inventory, the rest is just selecting menu options. Then you rely on text statements in the event log to inform you of results to your menu commands just like a MUD (multi user dungeons or text game).
So when it comes down to doing things, you have to repeatedly select menu options over and over again which gets dull very quick.
There are no animations and all the players look exactly the same. You can't tell if they are wearing armor or carrying weapons, or if they are new or old. If it wasn't for the event text you would never know what someone else was doing since they just appear to be standing motionless.
Granted maybe these missing features will be added in the future but it could be years off. Since there are only two developers working on the game they claim they don't have enough time to work on the game. Even though they have had many offers from talented artists and programers they refuse to accept any additional help.
If you want to throw your money away and promote bad game development then by all means play this game.
Comments
Though the Wurm concept is a great one, the guys that are developing it are amateur programmers, and are unwilling to let anyone help them. All anyone has to do is sift through their forums for a bit to see just how bad their development practices are. It's a sad situation.
I really wish they would get some more coding talent, or get someone on board that knows how to do quality control. They don't even bother testing any of their code at this point. And when they break something, they are apparently unwilling or unable to do rollbacks... And they always seem to blame everyone or everything other than themselves when something goes wrong. Very sad situation.
Wurm went gold with an untested client. The client had a variety of issues including missing textures, missing models, dissappearing walls, etc. At one time, there were two versions of the client available... One was missing
tree models. The players with that version couldn't see the trees, and
players with the working trees client would see those players walking
right through the trees. I surmised that there is no server side cheat prevention in place, and that someone could easily hack the client to allow themselves to move faster, walk through walls, etc. I made mention of this in the bug reports section of the website. This issue resurfaces later...
Shortly after, a problem was found with the religion system. Players were gaining skill far too quickly. So the development team rolled everyone back to one number and fixed their mistake.
A couple of weeks later, a similar problem was found with the combat system. Players were gaining combat skill too quickly. So the developers allowed the people to keep their combat score, but made acquiring skill far too slow. You could play for 4-6 hours, die once, and lose all of your work for the day.
Oh. I forgot to mention the spiders... The spiders are everywhere. Very VERY few people can handle killing a spider alone. The spiders run faster than players and are not subject to the lag that the players have been seeing since the game went gold. Spiders can cripple you with one hit so that even if you get away, you will slowly die. On the first day, spiders were slaughtering anyone in and around the starting area. So... Couple the horribly slow skill gain with the spiders, and essentially, you don't end up walking around too much.
After a bit, the developers decided to FINALLY get rid of the popup windows. You see, the first version of the Gold client had new windows pop up whenever you had to make special dialog selections. (Maintaining your house, your deed, etc.) When they released the update that got rid of the popup windows, the new interface was missing a ton of options. It looked like it was completely untested. The developers would add in the missing interface options a few at a time in patches.
One of these patches caused players to immediately destroy their house upon opening the management window. A GM made a post on the forum, "Do not manage your house." GM's also were putting out global messages telling folks not to manage their house. However, no mention of the problem was on the website, and no mention was in the game's news interface. At times, there were no GM's online broadcasting the do not open message. Several players lost their houses.
On the forums, the lead GM told everyone, "We will not be reimbursing players for losing their houses, we made it very clear that there was a problem, so if you lost your house, it's your fault." Eventually, the developers changed their minds and gave paying subscribers a few days of extra access. At least they said they did. Later on, some folks claimed that they never received that time, though I obviously cannot confirm their claims.
The most recent debacle was a problem with cheaters. Someone apparently found a way to trick the client so as to allow themselves to move at a greatly increased speed. Unlike most MMO's there didn't appear to be any server side security. I first noticed this when the game first went gold, as explained above. In response to the speed hacking, the development team put in a fix to check for "speeding," on the server. This "fix," caused a great amount of lag in the game, and it caused several players to get a message telling them that they were moving too fast. This led to players being unable to play the game due to both lag, and due to getting killed constantly because they could no longer get away from critters.
The development staff, upon learning of this issue, blamed people's computers, and Microsoft. They refused to remove the patch which was causing the problems, but they said they were working on a fix. About a week later, they finally did release a fix for the problem. But they refused to give compensation, and put players on a guilt trip for complaining because they couldn't play the game. One of the dev quotes went something like, "It's not our fault that some of you have crappy systems or OS's."
After this most recent uproar from the community, the development staff decided to wipe out the forums and take a much more strict stance with regards to what is posted. The community was basically asking for a better way for the devs to convey information to them. The devs took it to mean that the community wanted less of a voice. The devs have stated on many occasions that they hate posting on the forums. However, they have started blogging.
That should pretty much get people current with what has happened since the game went gold. There may be some things missing, and the quotes are not exact as I no longer have the ability to reference the Wurm forums as they've been wiped out. But this summary is as accurate as I can make it. Other folks are welcome to add to it if they so desire.
There was an incident that happened when the home server crashed and was down for over 8 hours. None of the GMs had any way to contact either of the developers. A friend of mine actually found the head developer's phone number and called him. Notch was surprised to get the phone call and after a two minute conversation with him, the severs were back up 5 minutes later.
Had my friend not called Notch, how much longer would the servers had have been down? Probably several more hours.
Wouldn't you think a game developer who is charging it's players, to have a system in place so when the servers have problems there would be a way of resolving them?
You would also expect the GMs to have a level of professionalism as well however there have been many occasions where this simply is not the case. GMs who get to play the game for free are chasing away paying players with their stupidity.
I have been playing wurm for over two years and have put up with a lot of the arrogance that the developers have shown towards it's players. I have decided to quit, not because the game has problems but because of the fact that the developers are cheating the players any way they can.
If you don't think they are cheating the players, just go have a look at the developer's posted screen shots in the Screens section of this site and try to match them to how the game actually looks. You can't because those screen shots are fake...
I would have to agree with you on most points. The game does not deserve a 7.0 rating for sure.
As far as the dev's go, I haven't had any dealings with them but if they can get help to improve this game and turn it away...I'd have to say that they are hiding more than anyone suspects. There must be a reason(s) that they don't want anyone to see their work..........Hmmmmmmm...
Played Wow, D and L, AOC, GW, Eve, Rift and many more insignificant games.
Sounds like they recently fired an artist, not sure over the reasons but I find it interesting especially when he is requesting his art work in wurm to not be used.
It's cute how they are pretending to be a game developer.
Played Wow, D and L, AOC, GW, Eve, Rift and many more insignificant games.
You people are very strange. I love the game, its cheap to play and its very impressive what they have managed to achive so far. So what if the creatures slide around the landscape at the moment? - After a while you fail to notice any problem with that and it has ended up giving the game a unique feel anyway.
I think most of the people who are upset with the game are mostly upset that the beta came to an end along with the 'free ride'. But the whole thing is so damn cheap to play anyway that even that argument fails to hold much water.
Support the developers and help this game to grow. The lag problems have been resolved as far as I can see and the graphics can become very impressive on a good machine. Having said that my old laptop still manages to run this beautifully even if its using the medium graphics settings.
Its trying something different and more challenging than the usual and is a godsend for those of us who like a slower paced survival style game where you are free to make a home out in the wilds on your own or join a village and become part of a community either with pvp on the wild server or in a safer pve environment on the home server.
It's not easy to get started though, I don't think its supposed to be, but once you learn the basic survival skills required to keep yourself fed and watered and relitively safe from the wildlife you will be hooked.
Well I was anyway.
Played Wow, D and L, AOC, GW, Eve, Rift and many more insignificant games.
This development team, as it stands now, does not deserve the support that it has. They are putting forth an abysmal effort to give their customers a viable product. It shows in the number of concurrent players in Wurm. It goes WAY BEYOND the statement, "Wurm is not for everyone." I would very much like to play and PAY FOR a game like Wurm, without the lunacy being exhibited by Mojang. I know MANY people who have tried Wurm and have said as much.
The game is simply not worth the money they are asking. If they had asked for donations, I would have donated. But they didn't ask for donations. They asked for a monthly service fee if you wanted access to the FULL GAME. They now acknowledge that they have enough money to keep the game running for a year while they continue to work on it. Yet the monthly fee is still in place. They're not just looking for development support. They're selling their customers a broken product. Not cool on every level.
[quote]I think most of the people who are upset with the game are mostly upset
that the beta came to an end along with the 'free ride'. But the whole
thing is so damn cheap to play anyway that even that argument fails to
hold much water.[/quote]
I have no problem paying to play games, and would even have paid more to play wurm if it wasn't for the development team being the way they are. I can understand when things break or some cool new feature is introduced. But when the game is clearly a pay to play beta and the head developer kicks you out of IRC for saying that it only says to me that I'm right and they are trying to hide this fact as much as possible.
When a person with an economics degree gets told their degree does not make them right when it comes to pointing out game economy is horribly broken and will not work. It points out how arrogant Notch is that he refuses to accept when he is wrong.
So paying to play wurm is only supporting poor game development. The only way wurm will be successful is if they get rid of Notch, Rolf and the GMs.
Well I think the game is good fun and well worth the asking price. There are many things I don't think are worth paying for but I don't tend to waste my time trying to put other people off trying them.
In the end they have a product that is fun for some people and not so fun for others, like everything else.
Everyone who is remotely interested in this style of game should give it a try and ignore the strange complaints being banded around here as they are clearly by certain ex players who seem to have developed a 'grudge' against the developers or the game or something.
On my ratings comment I said that everyone should give it try once and see if they like it because the game has alot of good features. Myself and the others were discussing the devs. Unless you have a personal attachment to them I wouldn't think that that would upset you. The game does have some good qualities. That being said, I don't have a personal grudge against the devs. You like the game that's fine. Frankly, the negitive press on this forum has been very mild compared to many others. So take it easy man!
If you like the game so much then start a thread saying so. Arguing with us on this thread is counter productive.
Have a nice day.
Played Wow, D and L, AOC, GW, Eve, Rift and many more insignificant games.
""There are no animations and all the players look exactly the same. You can't tell if they are wearing armor or carrying weapons, or if they are new or old. If it wasn't for the event text you would never know what someone else was doing since they just appear to be standing motionless.""
there is a reason why no one can tell what items you have, because when you die you drop your gear and people can loot it. if someone ways wow that dude has nice armor! let me and my 6 friends gank him and steal it. it would make the game alot less safe.
Hiding all your items isn't a bad thing. Its smart. and even if the bodys don't move. its fine, what do you care what other people are doing? and besides i every person playing had more complext movments it would be more lag. and the lags not that bad, my comp is 4 years old and i can play without lag. you just don't know how to edit your options. The server is 16000 tiles by 16000 tiles,
its pretty damn big and its 2 people with normal jobs paying for the server. its not like blizzard is making the game. just 2 people.
I think the game itself is a placeholder for a game. This game had a cool idea poorly implimented and with greedy people behind it they are following any real cooporation only you get absolutly nothing in return.
Hello people, It is Rolf, one of the developers. Or dictators if you wish.
We are two guys who started out what is it? Four years ago. We thought other mmos had failed to deliver certain important aspects like a dynamical world, and a valid economy.
You may claim that the economy is broken. I will claim it isn't. People are purchasing silver coins on the website and use it to trade with in the game. People in the game want those coins. The currency works, which is the proof to me. Obviously that isn't enough for you.
I have said it before and I will say it again: If we didn't charge for the game in one way or another there would be no Wurm. Maybe the world would be better off without it. You sure sound as if that would desirable. I don't know, but I hope we put pressure on the industry to provide better virtual worlds that people can have real impact on and not just run around and watch what the developers create.
We do NOT claim that Wurm is final. We claim that Wurm is out there, that you may test it for free as long as you wish, and that you may also pay for it if you think that it is worth it. We are trying to improve the game as often as we can and have energy to. We do have other employment and I have a family so of course we have other priorities as well.
NOWHERE do we claim to be professional, providing a full time 24/7 service. We still have better uptime than many of our competitors. You may try the game out for as long as you wish. We provide no guarantees to paying players, except that we will try to give them a very good experience. Many seem to think that we do just that since they stay.
I will not say that Wurm is the best game in the world. Some of our players seem to think it is. They support us by paying for it. Lots of people pay for worse games than Wurm that you can't even try beforehand. I suggest you go complain on one of those games instead.
I understand if you are disappointed with the rate of development. But it does not mean that we don't improve the game or try to fool people.
I hope you can go out there and have a blast instead of being bitter about how Wurm has turned out compared to your expectations. Take it for what it is. An ongoing project, trying to improve the world of gaming. We are here to stay for a long time, and things are bound to happen for the better.
Sorry for becoming upset.
Rolf
http://www.wurmonline.com for gods sake!
.. a project like this of course has many goals. I wouldn't spend four years of my spare time solely to improve the quality of mmos. Making the best fantasy mmo out there, making a fortune, receiving glory, making people happy, giving people memories of a lifetime, paying taxes, etc etc. All are motives. One side effect of having a strong feature that other products lack is that it may put pressure on the competitors though, which is a good thing for the consumers, so that is why I chose to use that motive in the previous post.
Ya.
http://www.wurmonline.com for gods sake!
Will you just accept big gaming corporations ripping you off your money whilst they decide what the next kind of game is going to be like? Those big corporations have no heart, have no desire to better themselves in creating _new gaming experiences_ as they will rather go with a safe formula that'll work and bring in money. Do you really think that there are gamers that control EA for example?
Earth and Beyond was a favourite game amongst those who played it. Yet it was closed down because "it didn't show enough profit for upkeep costs".
Independent gaming developers are not afraid to try and tread new paths, they do what they have to do to survive and make their game survive.
I'd rather turn my back on those corporations and give money away to independent gaming developers in hopes for the off-chance they'll make a great game I'll enjoy.
And Hunter seems to enjoy nothing more than trolling around. Poor old chap. Have some tea and biscuits.
I must say when I first tried Wurm Online by myself I wasnt to impressed at first. The game doesnt give you any direction to head in like alot of MMORPG games. But that said I noticed right on the front page. This isnt a MMORPG.. Its a Fantasy Simulator game. With that in mind Wurm does an amazing job of trying to brign a Sandbox / Simulator game to the table. More so then alot of games. It wont be for everyone that is for sure.
Myself, My brother, and a group of our friends (all from World of Warcraft) find the game to be a fun experience. We all payed for premium accounts to help support the game because we enjoy playing it that much. You do NOT need to pay a single dollar to play and enjoy the game. You experience the same game as everyone else weather you go basic or premium with the exception that you cant go above 20 skill in any one skill. But the best part is you dont need to go above 20 skill to enjoy the game.
For those that say the economy is broke or doesnt work. I will say you are 100% wrong. The economy in Wurm is byfar more stable and realistic then any other commerical mmo out there. Most of your dealing in Wurm can and will be done simply by bartering with other players. You provide something they need and they provide something you need. It helps to create an amazing community of players. Yes you will encounter them players that try to ruin it for everyone else but most of the time you will see that we put them players in there place when the time is called for.
For a free sandbox game Wurm is a very solid open ended game. If you can name another Free game that allows you to (Have a vast viewing distance aka if you can see it you can go there, Deformable terrain that can be raised / lowered / changed in any realistic way, A living working Ecological Plant/Tree system - where trees live grow and die and different trees effect trees around them, where you can create a house / village / castle to look any way you want, FFA pvp outside towns (though its defently not encouaged because you will pay for actions you do in the end), a vast game world spanning over 8+ hours in each direction with alot of it never explored) I doubt you will ever find another game like Wurm. Its tred off the beaten path and does an amazing job at doing what it says it does. A Fantasy Simulator at its best.
I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.