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[nenjin]

Well, looks like frogboy needs a few days off. Remember folks, gaming is srs bzness.

Subway Wednesday

At Stardock, Wednesday is usually “Subway Wednesday”. We go to the local subway together and talk gaming. I substitute the potato chips with cookies.  We usually talk about all manner of things (nerd talk).

Today was a tough day.  It has definitely changed the way I look at certain gaming “journalists”. I do want to say we really appreciate the support from the community and have really appreciated the way some in the media have stuck up for us too.

...

Anwyay, this may be my last post for a bit. I’m going to take some days off. The last few days have been pretty challenging. But I will leave you in the capable hands of the game’s producer, Boogiebac (Scott Tykoski) who will keep you up to date.

[Sowelu]

Hey man, as much as I think they've been handling this fairly crummy, the weeks leading up to any software release are REALLY DAMN ROUGH and will seriously fuck you up hard.  Even moreso if your finished product needs you to keep working, and there's no actual end in sight (IE you intend to keep patching for the indefinite future).  Let him have his break.

Don't trivialize.  >.>

[Tilla]

This is why he needs someone in charge of PR. He has not been acting like a CEO, especially the same one who proposed the Gamers Bill of Rights.

[nenjin]

Not trivializing. Dude wrote a book, staked a publishing deal on it, on top of the game's short comings. That's a lot of negative criticism about one's creative passion. I'm only being half sarcastic when I say it's srs. This is also a lesson in indie development, from a lot of angles I think. There's a lot of perks, but when you put yourself out there like he does, there are some real consequences. Especially when people hold you directly responsible for their disappointment.

[alway]

This is why he needs someone in charge of PR. He has not been acting like a CEO, especially the same one who proposed the Gamers Bill of Rights.

They're all probably on so much caffeine at this point they aren't acting like much of anything. Then again, it's not the first time they've pulled an all-weeker. http://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/355093/page/1/#2244181
Also, they have bees. Best form of employee motivation ever.

[Mephansteras]

Yeah, this is why we have Community Relations people to deal with this sort of thing. Anyone who's been working that hard for that long is not a good choice for dealing with the public. Especially when the release is as rough as this one.

[fenrif]

Hey man, as much as I think they've been handling this fairly crummy, the weeks leading up to any software release are REALLY DAMN ROUGH and will seriously fuck you up hard.  Even moreso if your finished product needs you to keep working, and there's no actual end in sight (IE you intend to keep patching for the indefinite future).  Let him have his break.

Don't trivialize.  >.>

You know when people complain about stardock, and the response is "don't buy our games then..." Well if being stressed out about game releases bothers you then don't be a game developer.

His personal life shouldn't have anything to do with the game he's released. He's selling a product, thats his job. Just like the journalists that told people to hold off on buying it untill the game is playable have their jobs. If you're releasing a game you should expect criticism, especially if it's in the state elemental is apprently in.

The game allready seems to have a huge amount of leeway. Everywhere I'm seeing people talk about it they're giving it the benefit of the doubt that patches will improve everything, and fix most of the problems. Many many many games don't get that treatment. If ubisoft released a game that crashed every 10 minutes it wouldn't be a case of "check back in 6 months" it'd be "don't buy this crap." So the CEO of the company acting like a pompous ass and insulting customers, deleting forum posts, quietly taking down his "we're better than every other gaming developer" bill of rights thing just seems like a series of dick moves.

The stupidest thing? PC gamer warns people "this game isn't redy for release, don't buy it yet." Brad Wardell gets so upset it ruins sandwhich party time... Wardells response to someone saying the game has serious problems? "...Please stay away from our games in the future. I consider it ready for release and if others disagree, don’t buy our games.”

So yeah, journalists are the bad guys. For telling people to do what you, the CEO, told them to do.

I was really interested in this, but between the way Stardock is acting, and the terrible state the game seems to be in I doubt I'll bother.

[alway]

The game allready seems to have a huge amount of leeway. Everywhere I'm seeing people talk about it they're giving it the benefit of the doubt that patches will improve everything, and fix most of the problems. Many many many games don't get that treatment. If ubisoft released a game that crashed every 10 minutes it wouldn't be a case of "check back in 6 months" it'd be "don't buy this crap."

Because it's Stardock. Their post-release support for their games, no matter your opinion on the quality of said games, is always excellent.

[Aklyon]

Except for maybe Demigod.

[GaelicVigil]

The game allready seems to have a huge amount of leeway. Everywhere I'm seeing people talk about it they're giving it the benefit of the doubt that patches will improve everything, and fix most of the problems. Many many many games don't get that treatment. If ubisoft released a game that crashed every 10 minutes it wouldn't be a case of "check back in 6 months" it'd be "don't buy this crap."

Because it's Stardock. Their post-release support for their games, no matter your opinion on the quality of said games, is always excellent.

How many examples can you provide to back this up?  And you can't use Sins of a Solar Empire or Demigod because Stardock was only the publisher there, not the developer.

So we're left with one example: GalCiv 2, which was supported pretty well.  However, GalCiv 2 was pretty darn decent out of the box (I know because I bought it at retail) unlike Elemental.  So of the TWO games they have developed, they have already been inconsistent.

So everyone having this blind faith that this game is going to be awesome in 6 months based on a single example is pretty arrogant in my opinion.

[alway]

The game allready seems to have a huge amount of leeway. Everywhere I'm seeing people talk about it they're giving it the benefit of the doubt that patches will improve everything, and fix most of the problems. Many many many games don't get that treatment. If ubisoft released a game that crashed every 10 minutes it wouldn't be a case of "check back in 6 months" it'd be "don't buy this crap."

Because it's Stardock. Their post-release support for their games, no matter your opinion on the quality of said games, is always excellent.

How many examples can you provide to back this up?  And you can't use Sins of a Solar Empire or Demigod because Stardock was only the publisher there, not the developer.

So we're left with one example: GalCiv 2, which was supported pretty well.  However, GalCiv 2 was pretty darn decent out of the box (I know because I bought it at retail) unlike Elemental.  So of the TWO games they have developed, they have already been inconsistent.

So everyone having this blind faith that this game is going to be awesome in 6 months based on a single example is pretty arrogant in my opinion.

I never said it would be awesome. Just that the game would be bug free and crash free. Aside from the bugs, crashes, and memory issues, it's a pretty fun game IMO.
Not to mention, they aren't to my knowledge working on any other games atm. And the CEO has previously stated he is taking a couple months off to work on mods and such for elemental.

[Elven_ranger]

How many examples can you provide to back this up?  And you can't use Sins of a Solar Empire or Demigod because Stardock was only the publisher there, not the developer.

Actually, he can. Since it's typically up for the publisher to decide, whether or not to invest some additional resources into patching. They are the ones paying bills for that.

[Viken]

We all know that Stardock does excellent after-release support, with (sometimes very) rapid patching and fixes that make everyones life better in general.  Truely, I believe that if you do not like their games, don't buy them. lol.  As for Elemental, after finaly getting my hands on the 1.05 hotfix patch, I've had a total of one crashes, and that was for that 'Out of Memory' deal.  Which, for me, is understable, sense I was also watching anime at the same time on my computer. XD Even with 4GBs of DDR3 memory, it was still a massive draw. Haha.

Another thing: I'm a big fan of turn-based strategy games, and on that end Elemental is fairly decent as it stands now.  There are things that need fixing, but what game doesn't have a dozen+ things that could be fixed or made better? As for the massive ambitions of Brad and the entire Elemental team, I believe they can still make it work the way they invisioned.  Even for Stardock, this undertaking was massive and often time frustrating, but now that the release is done and over with, they can become the company we all know and love again. 

The one stickler I do have, is the map generation. As its been stated, the AI handles it about half-assed, often bunching up all sorts of resources close to one another, making everything crowded while messing with teh rest of the map. I really really really hope this is an issue that will be gotten to very fast. That being said, I still haven't even touched the campaign.

Note: I've gotten my characters essense all the way up to over 99, and the mana regen is only like 3 per turn out of battle. ><'' Shittttttty.

[Lap]

This made me start up AoW2:SM again. As usual I was not disappointed. Maybe I'll finally finish this Battle of Creation map.

[mnjiman]

I was considering purchasing this game, but that want out the window quickly after reading all of this crap that occurred.
That is what everything comes down too.