Wargaming => Games: Reviews/Previews & General Discussions => Topic started by: Mad Russian on 14 November 2008, 15:17:59



Title: Customer or Playtester?
Post by: Mad Russian on 14 November 2008, 15:17:59
With some companies you buy a game that they know isn't bug proof.

CMSF is a prime example, but that is by far not the only game out there that didn't work out of the box...or even a year later. HOI did the same thing and they even went so far as to charge gamers to buy the upgraded HOI 2 with the feedback they got from the original.

How do you feel about being an unpaid beta tester instead of a customer?

I personally won't buy a game again that goes to version 2 when I should have gotten a working product in the first place.

Some bugs and some patches yes. I'll work through that.

But I'll not be an unpaid beta tester only to have to rebuy a game that never worked right in the first place.

That holds true with games that aren't patched to a competent level by the end of at least a year.

Good Hunting.

MR


Title: Re: Customer or Playtester?
Post by: Koen on 14 November 2008, 15:59:21
With the prices you have to pay you should get a finished product.

Patches and other stuff should be made available to make the game better then better, not to make it playable.


Title: Re: Customer or Playtester?
Post by: Geordie on 1 December 2008, 12:37:03
If we start with the premise that no game is ever perfect then we wont be buying any more games.  However some are less perfect than others.  Take CMBO - version 1.12 is the latest.  The other CM games, learned from the CMBO experience and therefore had a lot less patches.

This means that SF is doing the Donkey work for the CMx2-WW2 title and I would expect there to be a similar effect.

Taking Battlefront as an example then at least they respond to criticism of games and release the patches and work on new aspects to improve the original.  To be honest, their target audience was probably such that they may have gotten away with not releasing any Patches for the game at all.  BF though arent a huge company and know they have to react to feedback.

Other companies make throw away nightmares of games and never interact with their customer base at all.

SO how do I feel about being a beta tester?  Depends on the game, mostly it sucks, but often as is the case with SF, game improvements come out of it that other companies wouldnt do.  Im thinking spacebar orders menus and improved unit placement etc.

If you still havent tried SF then wait until the 1.11 demo comes out and give it a whirl.


Title: Re: Customer or Playtester?
Post by: Mad Russian on 5 December 2008, 07:16:11
I'm not adverse helping work out the kinks. I am adverse to have to wait a year or longer and more than 10 patches before a game works. Or to give all the feedback and then have them do a second version of the game that they now want me to buy as well as the original that didn't work.

That I don't do.

Good Hunting.

MR


Title: Re: Customer or Playtester?
Post by: Herr Hauptman on 19 December 2008, 14:43:12
Yes develop the game first.I knew some one who worked at Electronic Arts.They tested their games to death before release.If I have to play test it then it turns into a coffee coaster and I dont buy anymore products from the developer anymore.Battlefront is out of a customer here. :P


Title: Re: Customer or Playtester?
Post by: Geordie on 13 January 2009, 14:59:25
I'm not adverse helping work out the kinks. I am adverse to have to wait a year or longer and more than 10 patches before a game works. Or to give all the feedback and then have them do a second version of the game that they now want me to buy as well as the original that didn't work.

That I don't do.

Good Hunting.

MR


Then your being a tad niaive I think.  If you havent tried the Demo, then how can you criticise the current game.  Whats in the past is exactly in the past.  The Demo is free after all.

I state again, CMBO had 12 patches.  CMBB and CMAK are still unfinished in that a lot of the features in them are buggy.

Dont get me wrong, Im not a BF defender but at the same time you cant forever abandon a company for one wrong game.  CMSF has a great editor to design scenarios in by all accounts and Im assuming CM ww2 will have the same.

As the future of ww2 CM style wargaming isnt going to be PZK and its unwieldy file exchange system and double 40 second phases then your going to shut yourself out of future ww2 3d gaming if you turn your nose up at the next BF product.

CM-1 wont be around forever you know.....


Title: Re: Customer or Playtester?
Post by: Mad Russian on 2 February 2009, 00:21:04
I'm not adverse helping work out the kinks. I am adverse to have to wait a year or longer and more than 10 patches before a game works. Or to give all the feedback and then have them do a second version of the game that they now want me to buy as well as the original that didn't work.

That I don't do.

Good Hunting.

MR



Then your being a tad niaive I think.  If you havent tried the Demo, then how can you criticise the current game.  Whats in the past is exactly in the past.  The Demo is free after all.

I state again, CMBO had 12 patches.  CMBB and CMAK are still unfinished in that a lot of the features in them are buggy.

Dont get me wrong, Im not a BF defender but at the same time you cant forever abandon a company for one wrong game.  CMSF has a great editor to design scenarios in by all accounts and Im assuming CM ww2 will have the same.

As the future of ww2 CM style wargaming isnt going to be PZK and its unwieldy file exchange system and double 40 second phases then your going to shut yourself out of future ww2 3d gaming if you turn your nose up at the next BF product.

CM-1 wont be around forever you know.....



Who said I hadn't played the demo? I've played alot more of CMSF than you think. Just not since the early days. When is a game worth looking at? Each of us has our limits. CMBO didn't work for the first 20 patches?

I didn't buy it until CMBB was out so I missed out on all that fun.

There are game companies out there doing this sort of thing right now. This is far from being about BFC.

Games in a series are different as well. Such as CM and PC. I understand that there are games out there that not everybody likes. There are things about PC that I don't like as well. Up until just recently though there was no BF answer for WWII that I would have even looked at. Their pocket book is hurting bad enough they are coming back to the people that made them what they are. That works. A bit late, but better late than never. Patch away if it needs it. I'll still more than likely not wait a year for them to get it right. What BFC did was crap and everybody knows it. After bashing everybody but the fanboys they even finally admitted it.

No, I'm talking about companies that do a game, release it, get feed back on it then release version number 2 that you get to pay for. That game didn't work in the first place, you the gamer, helped them with recommendations and playing it, essentially becoming a  playtester for them, only to have them stop patching the 1st version to make a whole new and improved 2nd version.

That second version came at the time and expense of those that bought the 1st game expecting it to work. They didn't expect to give their time, comments and suggestions to the game developer to have them use those for a version that now works. But, oh, by the way, we are going to charge you for all YOUR time and efforts by putting that all in a new 2nd version.

See this thread for just one example of a developer doing it with TWO different games as we speak.

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2011871&mpage=1&key= (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2011871&mpage=1&key=)

Good Hunting.

MR