Are we 0ver a barrel ready to give two big coughs?

[SphereCow]

3 insightful people in a game forum’s thread. Bull****.

[sz80]

If gamers all around can control themselves and be happy with what they’ve got, and not jump on the pre-order bandwagon, then things can change.

Wouldn’t surprise me if gamers can’t, and break down to temptation like addicts. That’s capitalism these days… not informed consumers abstaining from bad products like it ought to be, but idiots brainwashed and unable to control themselves, often unhappy/unconfident with who they are or what they have, then buy products to avoid emotional discomfort. We’ll see if gamers decide to take control of themselves, and then society in turn.

On a less serious note, I only paid 40ish for the PC preorder off direct 2 drive, and I don’t feel too bad, it’s just 40 bucks. But now I see preordering as contributing to a serious problem, and I don’t think I’ll be doing it again.

[Agrocr0c]

[QUOTE=Orthias;316948]OP: I couldn’t agree more.

The comparison you made between games and drugs on the basis of the need for escapism is one that often crossed my mind, and one that i came to agree with.

Like any drug dealer, publishers are profiting on the misery of their clients:

[ul]
[li]if one is a balanced person that leads a life they are satisfied with (mostly), if one can afford to live comftorably enough to go out, travel, see the world and experience new thing for real, then one will only play games for their entertainment value (same as watching a film - it’s a low risk activity, if the movie is bad, what if, you just lost an hour and a few bucks.)
[/li][li]but if one is part of the mass of people that can’t really afford all that, who have to lie to themselves constantly that their life is bearable an theat they feel ok, then one NEEDS to escape, one needs their dose of numbing activities among which playing games and watching TV are chief, so that one doesn’t think too much about their current situation and how bad it really is, because they really don’t feel they have the power to change anything, so then why suffer staring the reality in the face?
[/li][/ul]

And therein lies the problem.
People feel threatened by the very idea that a game they are waiting for and that sounds like will cater to their personal preferences in escapism, will be a bug-ridden, half-done piece of over-cut dope.
Because of that, they ignore the unpleasant facts and continue to hope for the sake of hoping that things “really aren’t that bad”, until they come to believe it.

Sometimes the illusion persists even after the game is launched - these are the fan-boys that defend the game no mater what because they lie to themselves to protect themselves.

And sometimes the illusion breaks down, and people are jagged and hurt and angry.

I did the same, I wanted to believe the game was awesome, I saw the passion of the developers, i saw the thought and work that had gone into this and that blinded me to the most important factor in today’s game industry: the publisher.

Bethesda destroyed this game because:

[ul]
[li]they sent out horribly broken X360 copies to reviewers that were worse than even the launched version currently running on the consoles, thus guaranteeing horrible reviews
[/li][li]they rushed the release a week to not compete with a couple fo titles that cater to a completely different gaming audince - and so demonstrated lack of faith in their own game and created the false illusion that the game was “ready and done with, no more work needed” - for those that did not realise their true motives
[/li][li]they did not support the game as anything more thean a throw-away cash-cow, meaning they did not give enough funds or time for testing
[/li][/ul]

But never again will i buy a game before reading competent professional reviews and / or trying the game myself to my satisfaction. (well, except Guild Wars 2 which has a “It’s done when It’s done and not a second before” policy - i’m pre-ordering that the second it’s available, and will perform the lowest deeds to just get into the beta, but I have my reasons to do so, after playing for 5 years what was the best PvP experience in my life: Guild Wars 1 - i would donate the cost of GW2 to the developers, even without reveiving the game)

So if nothing else, i paid 50 Euro to be taught a lesson, one that i needed, and one that i have taken to heart.

(PS, OT: I dided a little inside when i learned bethesda had picked up Hunted, Demon’s Forge)[/QUOTE]

I think this is an excellent post that articulates the issues very well. Particularly the drug anaolgy and the unfounded support players give to sub-standard games.

[Agrocr0c]

[QUOTE=Akasen;316414]Bravo good sir, bravo. I have made an account because of your well written rant. I too have bought a game that seems to have suffered a fate akin to Brinks but in some ways was much worse. The game in question was Fallout: New Vegas, a game that I rank as one of my Top 5 favorite RPG’s of all time.

When New Vegas was released it was a terrible mess of bugs. For PC there was an issue where the game lagged because of characters faces and a bug that crashed the game when the ending showed. Bethesda never was blamed for these issues. And why should they? They didn’t develop the game, Obsidian Entertainment did with it’s team of Black Isle Veterans and the man who made Oscuro’s Oblivion Overhaul (no I’m serious).

While New Vegas did meet and exceed all of my expectations that I had for it there were still bugs in it. Many believed this to be the fault of Obsidian. Some pointed at the Gamebryo engine. A small few though have pointed at Bethesda for the problems in the game and their accusations may be right.

Now did I buy this game because Bethesda’s name is slapped on it? No I didn’t. Truthfully I saw the name as a terrible omen. The only game from Bethesda that I have ever enjoyed is Fallout 3.

I was pulled in by the hype of TES:IV and for years I was blinded by an illusion that wanted me to believe that this game was everything I expected and hyped about. As I grew older, my taste in games matured and expanded. I had realized that Oblivion was not everything I wanted. And it didn’t leave me wanting more. It left me disappointed.

Why was I blinded by Developer demo shown at E3 2004? Why did I let myself be lulled by Todd Howard as he explained many aspects of the game? Why did the Alpha of the game look better than the final product? Why does the alpha have more voice actors than the final product?

I can answer these now: I was young and naive, I kept watching the videos over and over with fascination, consolification, and I SERIOUSLY DON’T KNOW. These are the answers to the questions I asked myself after I shattered my illusion and took the name of Bethesda as the name of a company that I must take with caution.

So why then should Brink suffer? While it does have the name of Bethesda on the box and you have to search for the name Splash Damage on the back (I never heard of Splash Damage until that point so I thought it was extra software or something). I had tooken my chances and bought the game BEFORE reading reviews. I read the reviews as I downloaded the game and found reviewers to hate this game but the comments were at war. After booting up the game and playing I found myself loving the title.

So what did I learn after playing Brink? F*** reviewers. The only good reviewer is one who doesn’t speak through a filter made of money. Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation, while paid, isn’t paid to review a game and make sure it sells. He’s paid to review a game and give his thoughts on it and make you the viewer know whether it is worth your money or not.

As a final note, I am sorry for hijacking this thread with a rant of my own. I was just so pleased with your post I had to speak my mind.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the support. You are welcome to hijack with this kind of contribution. It sends a shiver down my spine when I grudgingly acknowledge I too have watched videos of games in the past over and over in anticipation of the finished product, only to be disappointed. Peter Molyneux from Lionhead Studios is the worst of the worst for over-hyping stuff’s potential I think.

[Agrocr0c]

OK I think there are enough ideas here for me to start a fresh thread about us gamers changing our attitude and perhaps behaviour when it comes to buying games and making idiots rich. Feel free to contribute when it pops up. Except the guy in tracksuit.

[dazman76]

Did using <snip> in quoted posts go out of fashion or something? I love a nice long post, but that’s no reason to quote the whole thing in a reply, especially when the reply itself is just a few lines. Spare a though for the TL;DR crew! They’ll be losing the will to live…

[Protector]

OK I think there are enough ideas here for me to start a fresh thread about us gamers changing our attitude and perhaps behaviour when it comes to buying games and making idiots rich. Feel free to contribute when it pops up. Except the guy in tracksuit.

Lol lets just hope SD buck up their ideas a little and stop anymore retarded posts from your fat self.

PS Hope you enjoyed watching eastbenders last night with your mother.

[Agrocr0c]

Did using <snip> in quoted posts go out of fashion or something? I love a nice long post, but that’s no reason to quote the whole thing in a reply, especially when the reply itself is just a few lines. Spare a though for the TL;DR crew! They’ll be losing the will to live…

Fair enough, sorry about that. Snip it is.

[Agrocr0c]

[QUOTE=Protector;317434]Lol lets just hope SD buck up their ideas a little and stop anymore retarded posts from your fat self.

PS Hope you enjoyed watching eastbenders last night with your mother.[/QUOTE]

I presume the tracksuit thing touched a nerve…

[dazman76]

Fair enough, sorry about that. Snip it is.

hehe, no worries at all Makes a bit of a monster scroll down that’s all.

I’d have to agree on your mention of Molyneux - he even admitted his failings way before Fable III launched for the 360. Did it stop me buying it? sigh Another one for the “probably won’t play again” pile. Sadly for me, Molyneux is one of my gaming industry heroes - I think I’m destined to buy most of the stuff he produces, regardless of common sense and previous reasons not to. Some kind of voodoo magic I think.

[SubXulu]

[QUOTE=Protector;317434]Lol lets just hope SD buck up their ideas a little and stop anymore retarded posts from your fat self.

PS Hope you enjoyed watching eastbenders last night with your mother.[/QUOTE]

I dont think his post was retarded, infact most people in this thread agree with him, actually your responses to him have been the most retarded things written: ‘eastbenders’ … seriously is that your best shot … fail … (dont let him put you off wearing tracksuits though)

[xzen]

[QUOTE=Nullzero;316917]I think Bethesda does shoulder some of the blame though. Usually a small developer will partner up with a big publisher for the express purpose of making the product better. Usually a publisher provides funds, access to QA teams to help test, or consulting for console ports, or PR support for advertising.

If Bethesda didnt help assure the quality of the PRODUCT WITH THEIR NAME ON IT… I have to assume they just dont care. So poop on both companies for failing to properly test their game…[/QUOTE]
From what I’ve heard, Bethesda did the majority of the QA but SD have a small QA team also.

[Lemming]

I find it interesting, if you look back at all the games Bethesda have published in the past 10 years or so, just how many have released with gamebreaking bugs.