Bugs will be ironed out over time. What this game seems to be lacking from all I've read and from what my friends have told me, is content. That's not so easy to add.
You could have the smoothest MMORPG launch in history, but if there's nothing for people to do, what's the point? I guess my comments are coming from my 4-years-of-EverQuest point of view, where I see how (relatively) easy it is for bugs to get squashed, but how difficult it is to add meaningful and balanced content to actually flesh out the world... that's something SWG just won't have at launch, and probably for a few months after.
I wasn't arguing, I was stating what I saw the condition of the game to be one week before it was to be released to the public. The bug (affectionately termed "rubber banding" by players) has since been fixed.
So basically what you're saying is, all the people who have given the game bad reviews and who have presented bullet pointed lists of what's wrong with it, specifically, are all wrong because they didn't "test" the way you "test".
All those posts people made on the SWG Beta boards where they complained about something not working are examples of what you say they weren't doing: providing feedback. The problem is, their feedback would often get deleted by the board admins because they don't want anyone to talk bad (or, "be unconstructive") about their product.
I have 2 friends who were in Beta, and they both were absolutely shocked when they heard that it was coming out so soon. I went to visit them last weekend and saw it for myself: the game is not at all fun, outside of the cities there is almost zero content, classes aren't close to being finished, and it's buggy as all get out (nothing spells "immersive StarWars universe" like running for 5 minutes towards a large city and suddenly warping back out into the field where you started - repeatedly). Neither of them will be buying the game and nor will I - we just expect better from "professional" developers.
I've played EverQuest for over 3 years. Rants (which is what this is, it's not "news", it's barely even "buyer beware", it's a textbook EQ rant) pop up all the time in the EverQuest community. It goes something like this:
1) PlayerX logs in for some fun. 2) Something negative happens. Either a confrontation with another player, a monster or camp is stolen, someone else beats PlayerX and/or his guild to the punch, etc. 3) PlayerX, having nobody tangible to blame for his frustration, turns on Sony because, clearly, they designed the game to inconvenience the players.
He could publicly blame players for their actions, instead of deflecting blame to Sony, on the many messageboards that are dedicated to the individual game servers (example, example). But, just like the captain of the chess club blaming the captain of the football team for bullying him, it would likely do more harm to his virtual reputation than it would help. So he lashes out at the one target who likely won't lash back.
Some of his points are relevant. If you can chop out the vitriol and get to the meat of it, you might find some comments which make sense - but these are all side effects of the very nature of MMOPRG's. Massively (large) Multiplayer (you interact with lots of people, and you won't like every one of them), Online (the internet is NOT a friendly place), Role-Playing Game (people are not who they say they are).
I don't consider the last 3 years of my time spent in EverQuest to be "wasted years." I feel sorry for people who say things like that, like the comment I read earlier where someone said they'd go to their grave wishing they hadn't have squandered 2 years of their life playing the game; that's unfortunate. I've met a lot of interesting people. I've banded together with fellow adventurers who are real people, who work 9-5 or go to classes like everyone else. Yes, I've met people I'd love to be able to rain fire down upon in real life like I can in the game, but frustration is hardly unique to EverQuest or video games in general.
If you play these types of games expecting to find a utopian society: dream on. If you play them for the fantasy aspect, where you're granted the ability to team up with like-minded adventurers to slay dragons and giants akin to the ones Tolkien wrote about, then go for it. But don't come whining to Slashdot when someone kicks sand in your face - just deal with it or move on.
Slashdot Mirror
What do studies say about someone who dismisses a (rather large) subset of the population as "not relevant" simply because of their personal beliefs?
Bugs will be ironed out over time. What this game seems to be lacking from all I've read and from what my friends have told me, is content. That's not so easy to add.
You could have the smoothest MMORPG launch in history, but if there's nothing for people to do, what's the point? I guess my comments are coming from my 4-years-of-EverQuest point of view, where I see how (relatively) easy it is for bugs to get squashed, but how difficult it is to add meaningful and balanced content to actually flesh out the world... that's something SWG just won't have at launch, and probably for a few months after.
I wasn't arguing, I was stating what I saw the condition of the game to be one week before it was to be released to the public. The bug (affectionately termed "rubber banding" by players) has since been fixed.
So basically what you're saying is, all the people who have given the game bad reviews and who have presented bullet pointed lists of what's wrong with it, specifically, are all wrong because they didn't "test" the way you "test".
All those posts people made on the SWG Beta boards where they complained about something not working are examples of what you say they weren't doing: providing feedback. The problem is, their feedback would often get deleted by the board admins because they don't want anyone to talk bad (or, "be unconstructive") about their product.
I have 2 friends who were in Beta, and they both were absolutely shocked when they heard that it was coming out so soon. I went to visit them last weekend and saw it for myself: the game is not at all fun, outside of the cities there is almost zero content, classes aren't close to being finished, and it's buggy as all get out (nothing spells "immersive StarWars universe" like running for 5 minutes towards a large city and suddenly warping back out into the field where you started - repeatedly). Neither of them will be buying the game and nor will I - we just expect better from "professional" developers.
I've played EverQuest for over 3 years. Rants (which is what this is, it's not "news", it's barely even "buyer beware", it's a textbook EQ rant) pop up all the time in the EverQuest community. It goes something like this:
1) PlayerX logs in for some fun.
2) Something negative happens. Either a confrontation with another player, a monster or camp is stolen, someone else beats PlayerX and/or his guild to the punch, etc.
3) PlayerX, having nobody tangible to blame for his frustration, turns on Sony because, clearly, they designed the game to inconvenience the players.
He could publicly blame players for their actions, instead of deflecting blame to Sony, on the many messageboards that are dedicated to the individual game servers (example, example). But, just like the captain of the chess club blaming the captain of the football team for bullying him, it would likely do more harm to his virtual reputation than it would help. So he lashes out at the one target who likely won't lash back.
Some of his points are relevant. If you can chop out the vitriol and get to the meat of it, you might find some comments which make sense - but these are all side effects of the very nature of MMOPRG's. Massively (large) Multiplayer (you interact with lots of people, and you won't like every one of them), Online (the internet is NOT a friendly place), Role-Playing Game (people are not who they say they are).
I don't consider the last 3 years of my time spent in EverQuest to be "wasted years." I feel sorry for people who say things like that, like the comment I read earlier where someone said they'd go to their grave wishing they hadn't have squandered 2 years of their life playing the game; that's unfortunate. I've met a lot of interesting people. I've banded together with fellow adventurers who are real people, who work 9-5 or go to classes like everyone else. Yes, I've met people I'd love to be able to rain fire down upon in real life like I can in the game, but frustration is hardly unique to EverQuest or video games in general.
If you play these types of games expecting to find a utopian society: dream on. If you play them for the fantasy aspect, where you're granted the ability to team up with like-minded adventurers to slay dragons and giants akin to the ones Tolkien wrote about, then go for it. But don't come whining to Slashdot when someone kicks sand in your face - just deal with it or move on.
Ryan, aka. Sambus
64 Mage, Mithaniel Marr Server