In-House Preview Online: Part 5

[darcy]

If his playing time was restricted by QS, he should

1. say so openly
2. don't write 30 pages when 2 would suffice.

How you can still sympathize with him as an author after he has started to mock and ridicule his readers is beyond me.

[rhofman]

For how long could you (or anyone else for that matter) take vultures picking at you?

He didn't cast the first stone, or the second. Bash not lest ye be

[Jack Frost]

he has so far cast 5.

I don't know what he was thinking... he hyped up this combat description so many times in ealier bits of the preview...

Was it all a ploy for advertising hits?

Was it an experiment: "what will the moo community tolerate for an article with moo in the title?"

wtf was he thinking? An in depth 30+ page preview dragged out over 6 weeks based on nothing?

[Jack Frost]

ps - as a side - the actual writing itself has improved in 4 and 5. The organization is much better. Dan did put honest effort into pleasing the community.

But all in all, its just ... what was he thinking?

[player1]

Hmm...
I don't have idea what's problem with all of you guys.

I liked this preview and liked several others.

First two were a little bit boring.

But all others are pretty good and informative (KEY word: informative)
Not same cut&paste job done with other MOO3 previews.

P.S.
Now stop ganging up against Dan.
That's just trolling.

[Darkrenown]

Originally posted by player1
But all others are pretty good and informative (KEY word: informative)
Not same cut&paste job done with other MOO3 previews.

But they are not informative, they are misleading! He tell us about non player empires when non exsist and refuses to correct his preview now hes been told he was wrong. Betas have hinted that hes wrong about other things but can't say due to their NDAs.

He hypes up his combat preview in the first 4 parts but it turns out to be:
"I pressed the wrong button and my scout got killed"
And he says that is his ONLY combat experiance. It's clear he has not even played one full game of Moo3, I'd be surprised if he had played over 100 turns. And it's not that he only got to play for half an hour or something, he's had the game for months:

"In late December, 2002, an advanced beta copy of [MoO3 arrived in my mailbox. Since then, I have had the opportunity to examine this much-anticipated turn-based strategy title first hand" - Dan Q.

As well as the above part 5 startles us by revealing you can both talk to other races via the diplomacy screen (wow!) and research stuff. Very informative.

[player1]

But for that you don't need 20 posts.

Just one.
And its over.

P.S.
Actually, the most intersting is that part 5 has very much in game experince (description of game played).
Which I indeed find very interesting. Gives you feel of the game.

I remember that one of early complains about these previews was a lack of such info.

Heh, you can't please everyone.

[niteshade6]

Hey we can spend as many posts as we want discussing how bad something is. If you have something to contribute to the discussion, that's fine, but don't tell us not to make as many posts as we want in it. Miserly loves company and it can be quite fun discussing how bad something is.

And I didn't see much in the way of game experiences in this past preview. If anything I saw that the reviewer didn't play the game at all. He claims to have had the game since December so either......

1) He didn't do his job and actualy play the game before reviewing it

or

2) He lied in order to attract more readers (and presumably boost ad views).

Neither of these are particularly good.

[Kc7mxo]

From what we've seen I think Dan got to play the game in december, and for whatever reason IG just didn't want him posting his preview till now. Its quite obvious Dan didn't have more than a couple hours access the game, or else he would have understood that the only nonplayable races are the NOs and the magnate civs.

[Darkrenown]

Originally posted by Kc7mxo
From what we've seen I think Dan got to play the game in december, and for whatever reason IG just didn't want him posting his preview till now. Its quite obvious Dan didn't have more than a couple hours access the game, or else he would have understood that the only nonplayable races are the NOs and the magnate civs.

If he didn't get his own copy why does he say this?
"In late December, 2002, an advanced beta copy of MoO3 arrived in my mailbox. Since then, I have had the opportunity to examine this much-anticipated turn-based strategy title first hand"

[Kc7mxo]

If he didn't get his own copy why does he say this? "In late December, 2002, an advanced beta copy of MoO3 arrived in my mailbox. Since then, I have had the opportunity to examine this much-anticipated turn-based strategy title first hand"

Urk. Ok, well, I have trouble reading through most of his preview without falling asleep, so can you blame me for forgetting that?

Hmm. Maybe he had to send it back, i dunno. But I just find it impossible to believe he played more than a few hours before he wrote his preview.

[mactbone]

"Advanced Beta Copy"

Doesn't this give you a clue at all?

He never had the complete, finished game, so obviously it's not going to be great - not to mention that it's a PREVIEW, as in before it's finished, not a review, not an AAR.

[Purifyer]

Originally posted by MacTBone
"Advanced Beta Copy"

Doesn't this give you a clue at all?

He never had the complete, finished game, so obviously it's not going to be great - not to mention that it's a PREVIEW, as in before it's finished, not a review, not an AAR.

Late december, 2002. The game has been 'under production' for how long now, 3 years? Even with the rehaul... how much a 'beta' do you really think it was? All QS seem to have been doing over the last 2 months is moving offices and fixing mutliplayer bugs anyway.

He would have at least a similar version to the beta testers... look at what they can do.

And yes, I agree. It should have been a preview, not exhausting diatribe on Menus/icons.

Page 58 of the MoO3 manual may refer to image to the left of the '152' numerical value in the aforementioned screenshot as constituting in part a test tube, but I believe it to me more accurately described as a beaker.

^Defend that.

[Adacore]

Err - well, it does look like a beaker, i suppose...

[Darkrenown]

Originally posted by MacTBone
"Advanced Beta Copy"

Doesn't this give you a clue at all?

He never had the complete, finished game, so obviously it's not going to be great - not to mention that it's a PREVIEW, as in before it's finished, not a review, not an AAR.

Why yes, it does give me a clue. I tells be he got the same version the betas got in late dec. Here's a quote from CKs AAR posted on dec 4th:

"A number of the beta testers have said that the game's good enough and can be shipped already, and the rest can be fixed up in a day of release patch. I think so too. But I guess IG really wants to put out a great quality product that doesn't need to be patched to be a great game, and that's just fantastic. It gives me a lot of confidence in good post-release support for this game and in that the remaining issues will be no more by the time the game hits the shelves. "

So there's no reason whatsoever for him not to have played at least one full game.