Brief Rantz comment

[jscott991]

No, I won't disagree with you. I'll congratulate and thank you for finally releasing the game. As a gaming consumer, I should be happy to receive whatever crumbs IG and QS decide to throw at me.

And incidentally, I would love to see some facts that state that Titanic, the most expensive movie ever made, was supposed to release during the slowest movie watching period of the year, late August/early September.

[Rantz]

Originally posted by jscott991
And incidentally, I would love to see some facts that state that Titanic, the most expensive movie ever made, was supposed to release during the slowest movie watching period of the year, late August/early September.

July. Not Aug or Sept. Poster for the July release were up in theatres, and had to be taken down.

Friend of mine worked on it. He (at the time) said 'you are SO lucky you are not working on this!' Reason for delay were problems that were unforseen with FX. The delay and cost increase (at the time) had everyone stating that cameron was done for in Hollywood, that he had bitten off more than he could chew, and that it would make waterworld seem like a success story.

Of course all of these trades (Variety, Hollywood Reporter, etc.) changed their tune when it came out and folks went by the boatload (pun intended) to see it.

[jscott991]

I do remember all the pre-release buzz about Titanic being mostly negative and comparing it to Waterworld, but I didn't remember that the movie was ever planned for a July release. I had always assumed that it was supposed to be an "Oscar" type release for the late fall, early winter part of the year. In a way Cameron is probably glad he did have all the problems with it, because as Moulin Rouge demonstrated, it is very hard for a summer movie to keep Academy voter interest and win awards.

Anyway, I stand corrected. I can only imagine that from a finacial standpoint, QS and IG are hoping that MOO3 mirrors Titanic.

To Seldon: The delays don't seem to over quite yet, since the release date remains the end of February. This and all the adoring fan letters on this board are why I am upset. The game probably will be great and it probably will be the best space strategy game since MOO1, but that is no reason for fans to forget everything that has happened and behave like bootlicks.

[Harry Seldon]

Originally posted by jscott991
No, I won't disagree with you. I'll congratulate and thank you for finally releasing the game. As a gaming consumer, I should be happy to receive whatever crumbs IG and QS decide to throw at me.

Why are you so angry, man? I don't like being jerked around either but the game is coming out now and the delays are (*should be*) over. I wholeheartedly agree that software companies should take a more consumer-oriented approach, but don't you think making a quality title in this dark age of computer gaming is consumer oriented? I'm willing to wait for MOO3 to come out to make that call. Think of the Duke Nuke'em Forever fans that are being teased with screenshots for a game that's sitting in the sh***er and all they'll say is "it'll be out whenever."

QS at least gave us something definitive to b**ch about...

[raghar]

Originally posted by Rantz




Case in point Harry Potter. Or Donna Tartt's last book.

Publisher and writer are two different things. And I didn't talk about corector or any other person from publisher group. I know writer could pretty precisely say when his book will be done. You could ignore persons that are rewriting books third time and says no good again.
You could get little experience before you speak.

[viciouscycle]

@jscott991:

Do you honestly expect any human endeavor to go completely as planned without any problems or complications? I think you are being unrealistic in your expectations and overly critical of QS/IG.

The big delay last year was because the developers determined that the game wasn't good enough and needed to be changed (IIRC). Would you rather have had QS/IG just say "screw it" and release the game or go back to overhaul the game to make it better? I said it before and I'll say it again that I think QS/IG showed some huge balls by not releasing the game as planned and going back to the drawing board. The amount of criticism this move has generated is enormous and, apparently, still going strong. Was it worth it? Is it really that much better now? Only the beta testers will know for sure because no one else would have had the opportunity to play both the original and the final production versions.

Yes, the delay is very frustrating but that's life. Things go wrong... people deal with it, learn, and move on.

I think it is unfair to compare the development of a computer game with the production of a movie, an album, or a book. Movies, albums, and books are one-way tickets... computer games are interactive. Huge difference. The QA/QC processes involved with software in general and computer games specifically are mountainous compared to those for movies, albums, and books.

I'm not saying MOO3 is a great game because I haven't played it yet. I don't think I'm jumping on any bandwagon here because I may end up hating the game in the end (hopefully not!). I was very excited by the development of Civ3 but after playing it a couple dozen times I finally had to say that I was disappointed.

From the beginning QS/IG wanted the fans to be well informed of the development of MOO3. QS/IG opened up to suggestions and made an effort to please the fans. Sounded great at the time, didn't it? Well, QS/IG have learned a lesson... no good deed goes unpunished.

[Hrett]

[SIZE=1]

QS and IG shouldn't be thanked for finishing, they should be condemned for the delays. Only in the software industry are clients and customers so forgiving. I wish people in the legal industry were so naive.

Have you never filed a motion for continuance, pushed a deadline, cancelled a deposition or hearing for one reason or other? I would bet you have. Things dont always go as planned. We all do it in all professions. QS and IG just have to deal with more unhappy clients than we lawyers do.

Condem them if you want, but be careful that you aren't calling the kettle black.

[Arnelos]

This thread has grown increasingly silly... and not in a good way.

Patience, people... I know that's annoying (I've been annoyed myself), but I've been through this enough times (anyone remember the annoying wait for Moo2 or have you guys not been around that long?), but we really don't have a whole lot of choice...

You can either waste your time whining about it or take care of whatever is left of your real lives in the next few weeks before MoO3 likely ruins them anyhow

Seriously... there's nothing we can do, so why waste our time getting all worked up over it? The game will eventually come out (eventually... we hope).

In the meantime, there are plenty of good games to distract yourself with. I've been having a lot of fun in the Inter-Team PTW Game here along with playing other stuff single-player with spare time (I've gotten hooked on the PC version of Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind... it's a good distraction before MoO3 comes out).

[Craig P.]

Originally posted by jscott991
I wish people in the legal industry were so naive.

I tend to think that legal work doesn't have the same kind of issues that software work has.

I've done some software work where I didn't even know for sure if I could do it when I started and a certainly didn't know how long it would take. And then, I was convinced it was ready to go out the door, only to find that it hadn't been tested thoroughly enough and it needed another week of work. Some of my experience is inadequate project management and inadequate personnel, but it also reflects the inherent uncertainties in software development.

For sure, in comparison to legal work, it's a lot harder to tell when you'll be done. Legal work doesn't require you to have page 1 completely proofread and edited before you can even look for grammar/spelling and other problems on page 2.

[Craig P.]

Originally posted by Rantz
I am reminded of the internet sequence in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back for some reason.

Very apt...

[RealTimestopper]

Originally posted by Rantz

it can be writers block,

Writer's block?

What's that?


LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Grumbold]

People who think the games industry has issues should read up more on the huge public sector contracts (not just IT) that fail badly despite having highly experienced personnel involved. On time and on budget is practically unheard of.

[Jamski]

Millennium "Tent" anyone ?

-Jam

[Rantz]

edit: screwed up and double posted...

[Rantz]

Originally posted by raghar



Publisher and writer are two different things. And I didn't talk about corector or any other person from publisher group. I know writer could pretty precisely say when his book will be done. You could ignore persons that are rewriting books third time and says no good again.
You could get little experience before you speak.

Check the credits at the end of Neil Gaiman's American Gods. I have a little experience... I know the difference between writer's co-creators and publishers and any one of them is perfectly capable of bollocksing up a announced delivery date.