GameSpot's most disapointing game

[Yolky]

Originally posted by Madcaptn
I really don't care about what reviews or all the pools and crap that other sites do or cry about. Me and a friend are on a 11 hours game right now on Regent with 6 AIs and are just having a little lag. All these stupid reviews and stuff should just wait till PTW has better patches. I'll just laugh at them for now since it seems that I'm one of the few that is having an hell of a good time with PTW, maybe these guys are just having crappy connections and aren't running 1.14F yet. The game is awesome and I'm sure that the next patches will make it even better.

Every online games are getting patched all the time so these reviews are coming in a little too fast imo.

In my opnion you are wrong, since we buy the game and not the patch. Yes I know same old story but will you pay $45 000 for a car with no tires, and then get them in the mail a month or two later?

Gamespot tried the game they released. It got judged on the game released. Why do we have to wait for patches?

Let the game get judged on for what is released and not patched. Hell any game can be good if\when patched.

Again old argument but you can say now that
Call to Power 2 is a great game now that it is patched and modded. Wich I do.

Davor

[Inverse Icarus]

note: being disappointing != the worst game of the year.

it doesn't mean it's a bad game. it means it had potential that hasn't be recognized.

and unless firaxis releases another AMAZING patch this year, theres no way to debate the other side.

[Stuie]

Age of Wonders 2 was the biggest disappointment for me. Just didn't bring enough new to the table to warrant the "2". Nice to look at I suppose, but the original was much more fun. I stopped playing it after only a couple weeks.

As for PTW, itdid exactly what I needed it to do out of the box, but then I'm not a MP fan.

Now that I think about it, I only bought three games this year. That's one less than last year; either I'm getting too picky or the games coming out just aren't worth it.

[Velociryx]

What...are you guys NUTS?!

You mean....you actually want it to work as advertised (or sorta close to it) out of the box???

Who the heck do you think you are, demanding such things of this poor, misunderstood, demonized industry, and why on EARTH should out-of-box functionality even be a consideration? *TOTALLY* irrelevant. I believe a recently-heard phrase was....rubbish. Complete nonsense.

Stuff like that doesn't matter....this is the software biz....remember? It's only games, anyway, so whatcha complaining about?

[Yolky]

Originally posted by Velociryx


What...are you guys NUTS?!

You mean....you actually want it to work as advertised (or sorta close to it) out of the box???

Who the heck do you think you are, demanding such things of this poor, misunderstood, demonized industry, and why on EARTH should out-of-box functionality even be a consideration? *TOTALLY* irrelevant. I believe a recently-heard phrase was....rubbish. Complete nonsense.

Stuff like that doesn't matter....this is the software biz....remember? It's only games, anyway, so whatcha complaining about?

what was I thinking of. You explained it perfectly.



Davor

[ACooper]

God am I tired of people complaining about how the game don't work.

GS had the wrong info and wrote a very negatively biased article. Case closed.

I have yet to see (serious) lags in the online games I have played. Just be choosy about who you play with and make sure your computer is in order.

Yes, PTW has warts. Yes, you have to get patches. The Firaxis team has done a good job with providing patches and assistance.

Give it up you purvayors of negativity. Who you crappin'?

[Velociryx]

Well said, ACooper!

And on a totally unrelated note, I've got a used, low-mileage Ford Pinto Station Wagon (bright red), for sale....cheap!

Don't worry about that whole exploding engine thing....it's a myth....mostly.

And....and....the times it does happen....well....see....that's ummm....that's a feature, actually.

Call it a high-powered cigarette lighter.

Or something.



-=Vel=-

[notyoueither]

More auto analogies. Great. That's helpful. Yay.

[Velociryx]

Hey, believe me bro....nobody wishes PTW had been a smashing success and a clean release more than me (well, that's prolly overstated, but the essence is certainly true!) I am probably the MOST reluctant detractor the game has.

Truth is...I could give a rat's a$$ about the MP side of Civ3, because taking a game like Civ3 and making it MP reduces it to it's lowest common denominator. You almost can't escape the rush-beast. In SP, you're not so much competing against the AI, you're competing against yourself, and therein lies the greatest challenge.

My beef isn't, and never has been, with the game taken as a whole, nor with Firaxis (excellent, by the way) post-sales support.

My beef has been, and remains, that I'm not a smoke and mirrors kinda guy. When I buy something, I want what I buy to pretty much resemble what the product description SAYS I'm buying, and I don't wanna be made to jump thru a lot of hoops for it. Nor am I overly interested in hearing some jive along the lines of "oh, it's okay....really....go ahead and give us your money, and we'll maybe fix the obvious problems."

I understand that others might not care, but it's an issue with me, and apparently I'm not the only one at that particular party.

-=Vel=-

[notyoueither]

... and you will run into this repeatedly in the future with software. The power of the Internet to enable the release and patch model is too great for publishers to pass up; except for a few who will diminish rapidly in numbers as time goes on.

Oh, and btw... we had all these arguments a year ago with Civ3 1.07 (or very close). Many people expressed their pleasure that they got it early and had some input into the patching process. So you don't like it, many others do. Who do you think the publishers will want to please?

[Velociryx]

Well.....if enough of us who don't like it decide to vote with our wallets (as I did), then long-term, they'll start giving us what we want, or they'll go out of business.

Economics is pretty simple that way, and I'd say, based on the plethora (and growing) number of poorly recieved reviews that PTW got out the gate, it's a fair bet that there are some fairly disgruntled consumers out there.

-=Vel=-

[Velociryx]

No...there's more to be said on that topic, and you raise a good point.

The rise of the internet, and more specifically, broadband capabilities, HAS in turn, given rise to a new mindset where software is concerned.

Release something that barely passes muster, and fix it later.

And if you're cool with that, by all means, spend your money how you wanna!

But IMO, there's a better USE for that new technology. The model they're using is fundamentally flawed in that it creates disgruntled customers, and as anybody in retail can tell you, negative word of mouth advertising can be hurtful in the extreme to business.

But....they could tweak the model slightly, and have legions of happy customers.

Release something that's more or less complete, charge a nominal (10-12 bucks a year) fee to allow users to log into a private website (hosted on a server farm anywhere in the world), to recieve the latest *upgrades* (not patches to bring the game to full functionality, but genuine *upgrades* to performance and game play), and have a place to meet others for MP.

THAT's the future of the model. Companies are enjoying a period of release-crap-fix-later now, but I do not see that trend continuing in the long term. If it does, I predict you'll see a new renaissance of startups doing it a better way, and the old guard will either change with them, or go out of business trying to sell unfinished goods.
-=Vel=-

[notyoueither]

Actually, they will save money in the development process. They will garner some additional hard core fans who get to see their own, personal influence in the final product. They will lose a few sales, you are correct. However, they will gain elsewhere.

[notyoueither]

Darn X-Posts.

Originally posted by Velociryx
Release something that's more or less complete, charge a nominal (10-12 bucks a year) fee to allow users to log into a private website (hosted on a server farm anywhere in the world), to recieve the latest *upgrades* (not patches to bring the game to full functionality, but genuine *upgrades* to performance and game play), and have a place to meet others for MP.

THAT's the future of the model. Companies are enjoying a period of release-crap-fix-later now, but I do not see that trend continuing in the long term. If it does, I predict you'll see a new renaissance of startups doing it a better way, and the old guard will either change with them, or go out of business trying to sell unfinished goods.
-=Vel=-

I agree with you 100% on this. There are better ways to use the release and patch/update model.

Unfortunately, when you are dealing with a cash strapped publisher who needs results this XMas quarter to stay alive (like it sounds Infog. is) you are not likely to see such foresight.

[Velociryx]

Ahhhh, but that's the crux of the matter....businesses don't *stay* in business by saving money. They stay in business by MAKING money.

Long term, the only way to continue making money is by producing quality stuff. Doesn't matter what it is.

Sure, you'll always have low-end products in every industry, but almost nobody WANTS to be known as a low-end producer.

Doing it the way briefly outlined above will MAKE the company money....not just save some pennies here and there, AND they'll still realize savings on dev costs because the users logging into that aforementioned private website now have a vested interest in the software's continued development. It's a natural extension that their voices be heard (and their advice heeded).

So....said company gets a lot of eyeballs looking hard at the game to recommend tweaks and improvements, AND the company gets a continuous income stream that's no longer so tied to Q4 sales.

50,000 players paying a buck a month for the latest upgrades is....a pretty sweet haul.

-=Vel=-