163 replies to this topic

[XIRUSPHERE]

Grraarrgghh, on 20 March 2013 - 02:11 PM, said:

What's a good way to overcome the arbitrary need to attach significance to video games?

With all great deceivers there is a noteworthy occurrence to which they owe their power. In the actual act of deception they are overcome by belief in themselves: it is this which then speaks so miraculously and compellingly to those who surround them.

Edited by XIRUSPHERE, 20 March 2013 - 02:14 PM.

[Grraarrgghh]

XIRUSPHERE, on 20 March 2013 - 02:14 PM, said:

With all great deceivers there is a noteworthy occurrence to which they owe their power. In the actual act of deception they are overcome by belief in themselves: it is this which then speaks so miraculously and compellingly to those who surround them.

Thanks for the word salad Walt Whitman.

Doesn't really answer why you get your panties in a bunch over a couple hundred bucks.

EDIT: Also, Neitzsche hated women, was a sister-******, and his views on absolute moral guidance are hilariously terrible.

Edited by Grraarrgghh, 20 March 2013 - 02:24 PM.

[Thorn Hallis]

XIRUSPHERE, on 20 March 2013 - 01:20 PM, said:

You know what's more difficult? Seeing the amount of people here who think that bad customer service should not only be swallowed, but that we should maintain a level of insanity that is reminiscent of Stockholm syndrome. You call a devs job hard, I would be willing to accept that if I actually saw the fruits of said labor. What I see here is a very small team that got enough money to make a AAA title and it seems to have vaporized.

5 million dollars ain't make a AAA title nowadays.

[Felicitatem Parco]

Olivia Maybach, on 20 March 2013 - 10:21 AM, said:

First off, this isn't to brown-nose or suck up to the devs. I just thought I'd respond to some of the vitriol that's been flung around lately... I know we probably don't need another thread like this, but we also don't need more negative ones and there are LOTS of those.

As someone who's dabbled in online game development, I can tell you the toughest thing is game balance. It's brutal. Games like this have SO many interdependent aspects that you can never really change one little thing and not impact 100 others, often in ways you'd never anticipate.

Part of it goes to the fact that we as gamers (and human beings) will always find the cheese... if something works, overloading it will make it work better! Or if a tactic is successful, everybody's doing it within a week. That kind of thing changes game-flow in a way you might never anticipate as a dev. Testing? Sure, you do that. At least to a reasonable degree. But making a change and running it by a few dozen people over a few weeks is NOTHING compared to what thousands of competitive monkeys hammering away can do in the span of a few days.

And game devs WANT to make good games. They have to make a living, and so there will always be questions about why some things cost x amount and some cost y, but that's the price of delivering a product... it isn't a charity. Online game devs have a passion for their work, and for their game universes (generally; especially in ones like this that are enthusiast-coded) so you really have to take that into account when formulating a flaming rant on why they should "quit for the sake of the game". That kind of stuff is demoralizing and not particularly helpful.

And even game devs aren't imperfect. Sometimes, things just don't go as planned and they might have to back-pedal, or god-forbid, change their minds (*cough* coolant). That happens. This isn't a courtroom. As a publisher, they have the right to change their minds and take the game in a different direction, if they wish. "But they will lose me as a customer!" some might wail. That happens every day. KFC brought in the artery-clogging Double-Down but that doesn't mean you have to eat it. If you want to stop going to KFC, that's your decision, nobody will condemn you for it, but krikey, stay frosty, will ya? No need to villify.

I know that sort of thing comes from a very small subset of subscribers, but for the love of Mike, take a few minutes before you post and think about trying to CONVINCE and PERSUADE people... not bash them about the heads. Are your arguments logical? Are they coherent? Are they laced with sarcasm? How will that be taken? Will you end up with a flamewar/trollfest when you wanted to change someone's mind? I'll guarantee that regardless of what you think, game devs (and other gamers!) will take your opinions, even if you disagree on some point, with a lot more seriousness.

So cut the devs a bit of slack. Be patient. If you don't like aspects of the game, post calmly about it. If you HATE aspects of the game and are unwilling to be convinced otherwise, other games will be happy to take your money. There are no "points" to be scored by flame-threads. I know there is a lot of emotional investment in the franchise by so many BT fans, but we've got to be happy that someone is at least giving us a useable, entertaining product in the BT universe.

I like this statement. The rest of this thread has become an argument ground, so I will lock the thread with a reference to the OP, thus ending on a positive note.