Splash Damage reputation

(Kinjal) #1

First of all, sorry for my bad English

After release of ET and ETQW the 2 masterpiece games, SD was one of the best PC game developers on this planet. The ET style was unique – a fast-paced game play with almost endless way to improve your skills and team tactics.

After that, all (including me) was expecting nothing less than another epic game from SD and they come out with…Brink. Let’s make it clear the almighty Blizzard is the best developer in the world, and why? Do they make sum insane games? No, there is a lot of games that deliver same amount of fan as Diablo 3 or World of Warcraft. Yes it’s a very good games but not revolutionary as starcraft 1. So maybe its cos of ideal game balance? No, if u take a look at Blizzard forums u will see a tons of negative feedback about PvP balance in wow. So why? Long ago (if I remember it right, it was 1998) The Westwood lead game designer, one of the creators of original Command&Conquer said – “Even if blizzard will make a golf simulator, they will sell millions of it”, why? Cos they have a reputation! There games always deliver the things u expect from them, that’s why. Maybe the game will not be revolutionary, but it will be solid, well made, on the same level of quality. I really think that Warcraft adventures, starcraft ghost, original Diablo 3 was not a bad games but Blizzard cancel them, only because of chance of reputation loss.

And now let’s get back to Brink, is it a total fail game? No I don’t think so, just a bit lower than average level of quality for games this days, many ppl likes it actually. After all Brink sales was not so bad, yea? BUT, just look at the comments on Dirty bomb on varius game sites, about 30-40% of comments is like this one (just first picked up) –

«Oh man Brink. That game was so good on paper, but it didn’t even work properly. Every match I tried connecting to (on Xbox 360) lagged like crazy, so all I could resort to doing was playing against bots with a friend, which got old pretty quickly.
I kind of find it hard to trust Splash Damage after that. They released a barely functioning multiplayer FPS, and now they want to try and sell me another one? I expect I’ll give this a miss.»

So the golf simulator from blizzard may have not bad sales too, just like Brink , but reputation loss will be terrible, it will result in hundreds of millions lost in future releases from this developer. And Brink good sales , have nothing to do with Brink, it’s a Sales of the game from creators of ET and ETQW.

And now I’m addressing Splash Damage – Dear SD, now you are not just creators of ET and ETQW, now u are creators of Brink too, so u have to work twice as hard after that. Good Luck to u guys.

Remember - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXGUpaJIy6g&feature=plcp

(Lynox) #2

god damn right.

(dommafia) #3

that video… Tears in my eyes !

(Coliseum) #4

I agree with Kinjal here. Bliz have carefully managed their reputation, taking an ‘evolution over revolution’ approach when it comes to their releases. I feel that same thing should apply to fps games, as the core of those games, the shooting, doesn’t fundamentally change, in my opinion. You hang on to what works. Note that I’m not saying the shooting bit is the only important thing.
To me that means that any game which revolves around people shooting eachother, whether in a objective or deathmatch-based setting, should have mechanics in service of that aspect: good netcode, well-defined hitboxes, easily identifiable teams and weapons (you need to be able to see and hear who you’re up against and what weapon they’re packing, no huge arsenal and only limited customisation of player models), uncluttered environments and no fancy movement system (trickjumping shouldn’t be a feature, it’s an extra). Brink, while not terrible, got a lot of those, well, ‘wrong’ isn’t the way to put it. It just did things in a way that wasn’t enjoyable to me.
I enjoyed the hell out of ETQW and watching those ET fragvids, I’m very sure I would’ve enjoyed that one just as much. Perhaps even more because of the lack of vehicles. Too bad I was late for that party… :frowning:

(rorgoroth) #5

Epic ET video time? Epic ET video time.

//youtu.be/KXGUpaJIy6g

(^^ I know you included this)

//youtu.be/sBq2Svs9jSE

//youtu.be/M4fR1xcl7Ew

Also, as Lynox, I too agree.

(.Chris.) #6

It’s Free to Play, lots of people will try it because of that, if the game is good they will continue playing it, the guy you quoted is an idiot.

(phoen1x) #7

Blizzard has the money and they are done when they are done. SD is not blizzard and never was. If they had millions or billions from ET like blizzard has from WOW then maybe they could be compared to blizzard. And blizzard’s games were not free unlike SD’s ET. U can build reputation, but without money u are still nothing.

(shibbyuk) #8

I think that your average consumer saw Brink as a “Bethesda” game. For those in-the-know, there’s plenty of respect for SD from their ET games!

Also, as Chris says, it will most likely be free to play, so they don’t “want to sell you another one”!

(Ads913) #9

Its definatley a case of can SD recover after Brink.
Brink was delivered to the masses after years of development.
No public beta testing ,which did not allow for good judgement on how the game was.
The game was broken unplayable from the start.

The Pc version was unfinished were console support seemed to be priority.
SD disconnected from it community at this stage as their community base was purely Pc client driven.
For me this was major disappointment as ETQW mastered the art of social gaming in game voip ,friend system
clan wars,
There was no soul to Brink it did not look like a Sd game it was stripped down it did not add to what was delivered before.
This is why i also agree Kinjal said at least blizzard wpuld have had added to the things that worked before .

Sd you need to use your community ,take there feedback use it or you will lose them.

(millerq3) #10

[QUOTE=Ads913;411155]…For me this was major disappointment as ETQW mastered the art of social gaming in game voip ,friend system
clan wars.There was no soul to Brink it did not look like a Sd game it was stripped down it did not add to what was delivered before.[/QUOTE]

&

strike a chord & sentiment to all those used to playing SD games.

(dommafia) #11

[QUOTE=millerq3;411179]&

strike a chord & sentiment to all those used to playing SD games.[/QUOTE]
Even within sd fans there’s a split on what they want. you can’t please everyone I just hope the game comes out good.

(Kinjal) #12

I don’t want to be a captain obvious but dude, 50%+ of this planet population are idiots in sum aspects. I can give u an example, (not the best but it’s a first thing that comes to mind) imagine u are in the market and see sum free cookies and a man who stand near u will say - “Oh I tried a last cookies from this company, and they was terrible”, will u give them a chance anyway? Of course if u a fan of this company u will think “oh another idiot”. There is a tons of F2P games right now, u try all of them? How u judge try a game or not?

SD was much closer to Blizzard than u think. Than the Blizzard made a Starcraft, there was around 20 ppl in the studio at the moment, I think it’s the same amount of ppl that worked in SD then they made ET. Does u think the real reason of Blizzard success is money? U are wrong dude, Michael Morhaime founded Blizzard entertainment using money he has lent from his grandma (its true u can check it), and Warcraft, Warcraft 2, Warcraft 3, Starcraft, Diablo, Diablo 2, was made before WoW, so the reputation of Blizzard was gained long before a profit monster release and that profit monster was a result of their reputation.

(rookie1) #13

[QUOTE=Kinjal;411254]I don’t want to be a captain obvious but dude, 50%+ of this planet population are idiots in sum aspects. I can give u an example, (not the best but it’s a first thing that comes to mind) imagine u are in the market and see sum free cookies and a man who stand near u will say - “Oh I tried a last cookies from this company, and they was terrible”, will u give them a chance anyway? Of course if u a fan of this company u will think “oh another idiot”. There is a tons of F2P games right now, u try all of them? How u judge try a game or not?

SD was much closer to Blizzard than u think. Than the Blizzard made a Starcraft, there was around 20 ppl in the studio at the moment, I think it’s the same amount of ppl that worked in SD then they made ET. Does u think the real reason of Blizzard success is money? U are wrong dude, Michael Morhaime founded Blizzard entertainment using money he has lent from his grandma (its true u can check it), and Warcraft, Warcraft 2, Warcraft 3, Starcraft, Diablo, Diablo 2, was made before WoW, so the reputation of Blizzard was gained long before a profit monster release and that profit monster was a result of their reputation.[/QUOTE]

Brink didnt do well …too bad… but SD has to look forward
If Players playing DB and like it and critics are mostly good too very good …People will forget Brink fast .
Still, Brink itsnt a so bad game Some ppl Love it .Brink Brought new ideas to SD for sure .
Nice the facts you Bring about Blizzard Kinjal …very interesting :slight_smile:
There are few that were so sucessfull like Blizzard.
Gaming industries is huge ,idk may be hundreds or thousand of games every year .So lucky the ones that reach the top 20.
Some Games we wondering how come they been become so popular …
These days I wont bet on a WW2 or any pure war games ,I think the industrie is satured of these type only few will survive.
Originality and timing is probably important also

(phoen1x) #14

Seriously man, you just can’t compare apples vs oranges. I mean look at wikipedia (even though information is not 100% accurate but still) and u’ll see that blizzard back in 2001 when SD was formed was already huge company that made millions of dollars. SplashDamage by that time was just team of modders. And their first game (Enemy territory) was released as free to play. Also by that time there were already lots of FPS games out there. Yes they have gained reputation,fans,players but not the money. Then 4 years later they have released ET:Quake Wars which was awesome game and i’ve played that game for like 1400 hours, but ET:QW was like a small drop in the FPS sea. Competition was huge, lot’s of FPS games out there. Let’s face it, back then games like COD or MOH were known for their single player not for their MP part it was like a book (SP) with a bonus brochure (MP). And QW was just brochure… So honestly the only mistake they have made was BRINK, i guess blizzard would never have released buggy game, but when u are small company like SD, u do what u have to do and what publisher tell’s u.

(Exedore) #15

I encourage you to participate in the polls we’ve been running here for a while now.

(Slade05) #16

Rant was not bad in itself - SD reputation is severely tainted by Brink - and then you had to kill all of your credibility by using ****ING u instead of proper you.
Way to disrespect the reader, congratulations.

(BioSnark) #17


u mad?

:slight_smile:

(Ads913) #18

I do ,most polls i am adding my views.
Dont get me wrong i wish Splash Damage every success.
Polls is a good start .
Just do more with the community.

(Exedore) #19

[QUOTE=Ads913;411871]Polls is a good start .
Just do more with the community.[/QUOTE]
We’re also open to ideas to community ideas to further engage the… community, so if there are any ideas it’s fine to post them.

Just wanted to also mention that it really doesn’t matter how old the polls are; the topics are still relevant, and we still look at the statistics from them as well.
:magicpony:

(tokamak) #20

If you put your two sentences in a different order then the idea of not limiting the polls to the forum but keeping a special poll section on the main site becomes apparent.

Right now it´s a shame they keep sinking to the bottom and that only the most recent one is being discussed. Having an orderly list of stuff you want to know from the community including a link to the forum discussion. That way all the polls keep being voted on and the discussions all receive a fresh influx of new posts.

On top of that it also shows to outsiders that you’re a company that is listening to your community. Some hapless visitor clicks on the poll section, becomes intrigued with the different questions he or she may not have ever considered, comes to a conclusion, wants to vote, gets lured into the discussion and presto you’re part of the community. Much more effective than giving a price for having made one post on the forum (grumble).

I believe that’s how I got started on the W:ET forums a decade ago. I believe I wanted to vote on which map I preferred and got sucked in ever since.