free DLC - too little too late?

(Kalbuth) #21

Since I bought Brink, I also reinstalled ETQW for a few games.
but lately, the grenade and the way they work compared to Brink made me rage-quit QW :frowning:

(Kendle) #22

Can only agree with the sentiments expressed so far, if the DLC doesnā€™t also contain major game play fixes Iā€™ll no doubt do what a lot of other people will do and play the new maps a few times then wave bye-bye to Brink once and for all.

(BomBaKlaK) #23

Today the peak is under the 1400 players ā€¦

If nothing comes with the DLC like :

  • Map fix
  • Balance fix
  • bug fix
  • crosshair fix
  • skin bug fix
  • glitch fix
  • etcā€¦

the game is definitly dead ! thatā€™s a fact

(dazman76) #24

Mmmā€¦ as much as I agree that a low player base isnā€™t exactly healthy, I donā€™t agree with the term ā€œdeadā€ :slight_smile: I mean, youā€™d think ET:QW was dead now - but there are a handful of full servers, regularly - maybe 200 players? Itā€™s not much I know - but if the game were truly dead, nobody would be playing it :slight_smile: Same goes for Red Orchestra - Darkest Hour. Regularly 200+ people playing, which is 4 full 50-slot servers - tiny yes, but simply cannot be dead because I get regular games against 49 other people - and some of those people are new to the game, according to voice and chat comments :slight_smile: Very few online games actually die outright, unless they require expensive backend systems (rather than just dedicated servers) to keep them running.

(Kendle) #25

Iā€™m still seeing Brink adverts on TV, it was No.5 in the PS3 charts when I looked in Tesco yesterday (Ā£24 for the PS3 version, Ā£35 for the XBox version, not sure how they work that out!), I wonder what SDā€™s view is of the fact the game seems to have bombed so badly so quickly?

A major title, years in development, loads of trailers, demos at trade fairs, huge amount of press / media hype before release, and yet a few weeks after release itā€™s being spoken about in the same sentence as old games that only a tiny hardcore still play.

(Galaxy) #26

The free dlc will only be good as a bait to lure players that left the game back to hopefully be pleasantly surprised by the balance and technical improvement. If the player base doesnā€™t grow a bit more I highly doubt theyā€™ll bother with more dlc and even sadly with more fixes and tweaks.

You have to remember that there are many users (I have seen them post many times saying the same) that actually liked the game but left it because they were sick of coping with bad performance. According to steam stats 33% of the users have ati cards. Other players have said they stopped playing because they were sick of everyone using the same weapons, classes and body types and/or because of map imbalances (spawn camping). All of these can be won back if the proper issues are fixed. Then if you have a decent base community you would just need a good sale (say with the release of a hypothetical 2nd dlc pack) and many other players would come to stay.

[QUOTE=Kendle;340615]Iā€™m still seeing Brink adverts on TV, it was No.5 in the PS3 charts when I looked in Tesco yesterday (Ā£24 for the PS3 version, Ā£35 for the XBox version, not sure how they work that out!), I wonder what SDā€™s view is of the fact the game seems to have bombed so badly so quickly?

A major title, years in development, loads of trailers, demos at trade fairs, huge amount of press / media hype before release, and yet a few weeks after release itā€™s being spoken about in the same sentence as old games that only a tiny hardcore still play.[/QUOTE]

The problem was that the game was rushed 6-12 months before it should. I consider Brink a good game but it is the worst case of mismanagement that I have ever seen. I got infuriated when I see for example that the latest issue of my games magazine comes with a Brink transparency on the subscription leaflet, or when I see buses with Brink ads, since I think the game is in no state to be advertised like that, people will get very angry when they canā€™t even run properly what is supposed to be ā€˜the next big thingā€™, that is one of the reasons of all the massive hate for the game. All of this just stinks so much as greedy and ignorant corporate strategy and I blame Bethesda for most of it.

Good game, bad bad release.

I just hope the game can survive despite all thisā€¦

(wolfnemesis75) #27

Does anyone realize that you donā€™t have to play Brink online or with other people? Maybe 40% of people who purchase a game actually play online, the rest play offline. How do you actually know how many people still play Brink? You donā€™t. Also, as long as the game has support, there will be people still playing online that you can play with. So any notions of the game being Dead, is definitely greatly exaggerated, and probably unfounded regardless. Brink was second highest selling game in May, and most people do not trade in games because you donā€™t get all of your money back, and would rather keep it. I have never traded a video game in, I just feel like no matter what I am getting the short end of the stick on the deal. Iā€™d rather keep the game and play it now and again if I am unsatisfied. Which in this case, I am not.

(SubXulu) #28

I cant speak for the people playing on PC (or PS3), but from a 360 players point of view the DLC means absoluely f**k all to me.
Because of the xboxlive lag i dont really feel like i have played any of the Brink maps that much because the whole experience is just to frustrating (lag, no lobbies, carb spam etc etc).
Throwing in a couple more DLC maps to lag around on is pointless exercise.
I would rather they just threw in the towl and started Brink2 with DEDICATD servers for consoles.

(Azev2000) #29

[QUOTE=dommafia;339797]I stopped playing the game a while ago and decided to wait for the dlc and the following insurgence of players that was sure to come. At this point though, do you think the dlc will have any effect? So many players have stopped playing :frowning:

We all want the dlc to come out so bad before the playerbase dries up, I was hoping for this week. At the same time though if they release it before itā€™s bug free then weā€™ll be bitching and complainingā€¦ Just feels like we are ****ed either way :sadpandaiconshouldbemade:[/QUOTE]

Wow you were diehard SD guy too. I hate to say it but no DLC is going to save this game. With a daily drop in population it will continue to frustrate more and more of the even hardcore fans due to the lack of available playable servers. 1350 is the peak for today. A drop of 140 from this time yesterday.

The numbers during US primetime are just sad. High 200ā€™s to high 300ā€™s the past few days. These people are not waiting for some DLC. They have already made up there mind and are still pissed off that they were taken advantage of by SD/Beth.

The original Idea of Brink was created by the REAL SD guys. If it had been developed fully by the core guys we probably would not have the mass exodus that we had in this past month.
Who thought it was a good idea to bring in a creative director who worked on the Sims and fable 2. Along with siphon filter a Playstation fps. I am sure he is a brilliant man, but it is quite obvious that what he did with BRINK was a failure in terms of customer satisfaction. Sales wise they fooled a ton of people to pre-order and therefore are almost breaking 1 mill sales. Had there been a demo or beta that number would be cut in half.

(dazman76) #30

No, we donā€™t - and it doesnā€™t matter anyway, so why should we even care? :slight_smile: Sorry Wolf, but this has absolutely no relevance to anything, or anyone. Why would someone looking for online play against humans, care about how many people are playing offline? It doesnā€™t affect them, and it doesnā€™t help them enjoy the game in the way they want to - i.e. playing online. Someone who is playing Brink 100% offline is not contributing in any way to keeping it alive. You may as well simply count the number of people who bought the game full stop - which is also irrelevant, because many of them will have put the game aside never to bother with it again. Or do you assume all of those people are ā€œplaying offlineā€ too? :slight_smile: Maybe itā€™s a euphemismā€¦

Please remember I disagree with the term ā€œdeadā€ - Iā€™m not making this post because I think Brink is dead, Iā€™m making it because the point of your comment completely escapes me.

(Galaxy) #31

Unless you play on offline mode steam tracks players playing online or not inside the game, and I think not that many people play always with steam offline.

But about the sales, thatā€™s what I was wondering when I saw the rapidly declining player base yet the game was very high on the top sellers for weeks, itā€™s not that very few people bought the game, it seems that many many people did, and specially on pc with steam they canā€™t return it, so that means they still own it.

That is on one side bad because it means that many people completely disliked the game very quickly, but the good side is that there is a huge potential player base if they can get the complaints fixed.

(tokamak) #32

Nobody stopped playing the game because it ran out of content. They stopped playing because of fundamental problems.

(Azev2000) #33

[QUOTE=Galaxy;340617]The free dlc will only be good as a bait to lure players that left the game back to hopefully be pleasantly surprised by the balance and technical improvement. If the player base doesnā€™t grow a bit more I highly doubt theyā€™ll bother with more dlc and even sadly with more fixes and tweaks.

You have to remember that there are many user (I have seen them post many times saying the same) that actually liked the game but left it because they were sick of coping with bad performance. According to steam stats 33% of the users have ati cards. Other players have said they stopped playing because they were sick of everyone using the same weapons, classes and body types and/or because of map imbalances (spawn camping). All of these can be won back if the proper issues are fixed. Then if you have a decent base community you would just need a good sale (say with the release of a hypothetical 2nd dlc pack) and many other players would come to stay.

The problem was that the game was rushed 6-12 months before it should. I consider Brink a good game but it is the worst case of mismanagement that I have ever seen. I got infuriated when I see for example that the latest issue of my games magazine comes with a Brink transparency on the subscription leaflet, or when I see buses with Brink ads, since I think the game is in no state to be advertised like that, people will get very angry when they canā€™t even run properly what is supposed to be ā€˜the next big thingā€™, that is one of the reasons of all the massive hate for the game. All of this just stinks so much as greedy and ignorant corporate strategy and I blame Bethesda for most of it.

Good game, bad bad release.

I just hope the game can survive despite all thisā€¦[/QUOTE]

Did you really see buses with BRINK ads?!? They must really have spent more money than I thought. I know Gamestop had 2 GIANT Brink posters in the from windows. Best buy also had some posters. Other than that it has all been online.

(Galaxy) #34

Yes, I live in Australia and actually saw the bus on the background of a news report of the biggest neighbouring city (Brisbane) while watching tv (my town isnā€™t that big). And the magazine ad that I mentioned was a Brink image superimposed on the paper that comes when you receive the magazine on the mail, so it wasnā€™t like your typical ad inside the magazine. And I think Iā€™ve heard also that they had tv ads for the game in the uk. So itā€™s a big marketing campaign for a video game.

(Kendle) #35

Itā€™s been advertised on TV and in the cinema in the UK, and some of the TV advertising has been prime time. Bethesda has certainly thrown a lot of money at getting this game off the shelf, pity they didnā€™t spend that money finishing the game before trying to sell it.

(coolstory) #36

WOW Really?

Thanks captain obvious

DLC wont change anything, highly doubt sd will give pc players demo recording, first person spectatin, unlock fps cvars etc.

the spam smg game got boring quick

good night sweet prince.

(Galaxy) #37

Exactly, that is why I say itā€™s greedy and/or ignorant corporate management, it doesnā€™t make any sense unless they are really trying to fool as many people as they canā€¦ and sadly pulling the gameā€™s release date 1 week before in the state it was (and they knew it of course) so not to be at the same time as the release of other big games, along with no beta, no demo, review embargo, and big push for big marketing all only seem to confirm that sadly the producers didnā€™t believe in the gameā€™s own merits, they just wanted to mercilessly milk it as much as possible, quite possibly sacrificing the hard earned reputation of SD in the process.

(bastuden) #38

[QUOTE=dommafia;339797]I stopped playing the game a while ago and decided to wait for the dlc and the following insurgence of players that was sure to come. At this point though, do you think the dlc will have any effect? So many players have stopped playing :frowning:

We all want the dlc to come out so bad before the playerbase dries up, I was hoping for this week. At the same time though if they release it before itā€™s bug free then weā€™ll be bitching and complainingā€¦ Just feels like we are ****ed either way :sadpandaiconshouldbemade:[/QUOTE]

I will believe you when you and the rest of you pitchforkers completely stop posting on this forum, until then I call your bluff, youā€™ll wait like the rest of us, you guys for the most part are just here to vent and honestly I donā€™t blame you.

Also on another note, I think that 50% of the people who post here saying they sold their game are lying and just simply posting here to A get the support of community to make them feel good they infact did not sale their game or B, they never owned the game and are here to F with us.

(Azev2000) #39

[QUOTE=bastuden;340660]I will believe you when you and the rest of you pitchforkers completely stop posting on this forum, until then I call your bluff, youā€™ll wait like the rest of us, you guys for the most part are just here to vent and honestly I donā€™t blame you.

Also on another note, I think that 50% of the people who post here saying they sold their game are lying and just simply posting here to A get the support of community to make them feel good they infact did not sale their game or B, they never owned the game and are here to F with us.[/QUOTE]

He has been a DIEHARD Splash damage supporter. Well before BRINK was even announced. The fact that he feels this way is a good indication of the terrible state the game is in.

(Darksider) #40

In the case of Steam, It tallies everyone who are playing the game in SP or MPā€¦ the game averages about 1500- 2000 peak every day then it fluctuates during the day, definitely not dead but very weak in itā€™s user base and getting some decent matches going online.