Sheesh, where did the week go? It CAN’T be Friday already. I haven’t even started my week yet. I barely gamed all week, dabbling a bit in WoW, spent some good time in L4D, and attempted to workaround my Bioshock/Vista issue. Bioshock 2 – you will not be purchased. There are over 3000 replies on various threads on the 2K forums regarding the same problems I am having. You can blame FMOD, you can blame Vista, but I bought *your* product and it can’t be fixed without a patch. You are still selling the game, still support it. It was my first ever 2K game, and it will be my last if you don’t fix it (hell, at least tell me you are working on a fix instead of leaving my specific thread unanswered on your official Tech support boards for a week.) Just tell me you care. That is what customer support is.
Le Sigh. More depression after the break.
I have been logging into Warhammer to work on the Heavy Metal event. Just enough time to do the event each day, but it has been alright. Remember this post? Guess what. Not one of those things have been fixed. My brainless dwarf still has to click the helm graphic every loading screen to see hair, after 4 WEEKS of not playing a level 18 character, I had basically ZERO rest XP (which is supposed to max out at 1.5 levels of rest xp), and I just realized my subscription runs out before the Heavy Metal event concludes. My original plan was to wait for the new classes and give them a go and see how the dust has settled. By that time, all server transfers will be “done”, so population shouldn’t be a problem. After being serverely dissapointed that the most basic of bugs haven’t been fixed in a month (and they are oh so basic) I am falling back into ‘blah’ MMO gaming land.
I have a rudimentary understanding of programming and how bugs appear, get an escalation level, and get fixed typically in priority. With the new classes coming out I suppose every single programmer they have is working on it. Which is bad. The new patch/class launch will bring us even more bugs (of course, is expected/”accepted”) so now you will have original bugs and shiny new bugs that need to be fixed. I bet they work on the shiny new bugs first. I won’t wait 4 more months for the old bugs to be fixed. The lack of care or urgency from Mythic is disheartening. I understand you have bigger problems. Those are your problems, and you have made them mine, by not addressing them. Your profession is programming, not mine.
I already have a bad lawyer that charges me too much for incomplete work on IMPORTANT stuff. I don’t need a bad developer that charges me too much for shoddy work for my entertainment.
You are losing me. If I treated my customers that way in my line of business, it would be devastating. Shamefully I hope it is for you too so the message gets out on consumer expectations and MMO’s.
On a completely related note, My Heavy Metal “event” is now ruined. I had to leave town for 1 day to attend a slew of business meetings, so I missed a day of gaming. This means I can’t participate in the event anymore (they indicated the first 7 or so events HAD to be done daily) which gives me even less reason to log in for the hour a day. I don’t suppose I need to tell the poor design decision in that choice.
It is snowing outside.
Is www.ihasconsole.com available?
On a brighter note, if you have an Xbox 360 our good friend Tesh has a highly rated game released through Xbox live that he worked on. Check it out and see if it is up your alley. As much as we bitch about the bad, we need to support the good.
*ahem*
Yes, come to the console side! We have donuts!
Thanks for the recommendation, Chris. We’re really happy with how the game wound up and with the good press we’re getting. It’s not a game that everyone will be interested in (and some reviews reflect that). That said, if you have any interest in city building sandbox types of games, and any degree of OCD or a love for customization, the game will keep you happily busy for a good long while. It’s well worth the modest $10 price.
Honestly, I suspect that with the economy as it is, and with the EA DRMs of the world, as well as the onerous (and inevitable in some ways) subscription model, we should see a renaissance of indie and small scale projects. “World of Goo” is one, our “A Kingdom for Keflings” is another, even Puzzle Quest was smaller scale, and provided good fun that was well worth the price.
Oh, and tangentially? The World of Goo guys (two guys did the whole project) have reported that approximately 80-90% of the people playing their game pirated it. That suggests a few things, but foremost in my mind is that small projects and studios are a great source for good games… but the market isn’t kind to them. (Then again, there are hints that major PC releases and even some console games have similarly high pirating rates.)
Poor world of Goo guys. I did express before (as you know) that Pirating is more about a crime of opportunity and that just shows that even further. There is no reason not to pirate when you don’t (can’t) get punished when you do. People who ‘legitimize’ piracy because they complain of DRM, big companies, etc, are big fat liars looking for any excuse to back up their reasoning. This is why I support online authentication for PC gaming as a better choice over draconian DRM schemes. With all the hubbub of second hand sales I think we have a future of Steam like services only for PC gaming. That isn’t ideal by any means, but at least it assures the revenue stream.