Developer's Forums and Games That Suck

[Blackadar]

Why is it that every time a game is a huge flop, the deleloper's forums start to go down often and mysteriously?

For example, Lionheart is the new RPG from Interplay and Black Isle. It sucketh mightly. The forum has worked for months and months, yet it's starting to go down with regularity. I've seen this on a number of games. Is this a tactic to try to keep bad press away?

I remember when Looking Glass released Flight Unlimited III, which had a huge number of bugs. They closed the forum on the pretense that someone was impersonating a Looking Glass employee and saying it was going to be recalled. Like that fooled anyone...all it did do is piss off the customer base that was loyal. I saw the same thing when Ultima 9 was released. Hundreds of posts were mysteriously "lost" at release time.

Why do gaming companies do this?

[Franklinnoble]

It could be just another sign of overall incompetence.

[The Afoci]

The same reason that when a movie sucks ass, they don't have anyone preview it. Why would you allow for you game/movie to be ripped when if no one knows you still have a chance to sucker them in.

[EagleFan]

For some it could be volume doing it. A game that really sucks will draw hevy fire immediately after release which might bog them down with too much traffic.

But that whole incompetence thing shouldn't be overlooked either.

[EagleFan]

dola: To follow up The Afoci's remark... Or the same reason that if the movie really sucks, they send it straight to video to skip the theaters and the reviews all together.

[vtbub]

Superpower ring a bell?

[ISiddiqui]

Damn straight! I was all hyped about Lionheart, and was even considering getting it on the first day... then played the demo, and decided to wait it out.... then saw the forums and now I'm glad I didn't waste my money.

I also heard that there weren't any reviews of it early, because the company REFUSED to send out review copies to sites.

[Blackadar]

Now I think they're purposely having forum "problems" to prevent any more bad news from getting out.

[Calis]

No automap notations or markers...

No overwriting saves...

Worst combat system in the history of RPG's....

Oh how I hate this game, I went ahead and bought it having not played the demo, because I heard a buncha folks praising the full game for being so much better.

It's a trap...the first hour or two of the game is quite a bit of fun, roaming around Barcelona, and doing odds and ends quests...then it just gets ugly. Barcelona is basically it as far as towns go, so my hopes that the NPC interaction + story would be enough to overcome the hideous combat, was shot down.

Really dissapointed, as I think this was just an awesome idea and setting for an RPG, just done very very poorly.

The good news is, that frigging Breakout Clone they shipped out with the game is pretty damn sweet.

[Buccaneer]

Blacky, I think you are reading too much into such things. In more cases than not, it's about cutting losses. Just like a movie, if it's not going to get the revenues, then you don't waste any more resources on things like servers, admins/moderators, bandwidths and ads. Eidos does this all of the time.

[Critch]

Hope you're not always right. Republic:The Revolution is a game I've been waiting patiently for for years, as it has been delayed a number of times, but is apparently it's finally coming out at the end of this month.

Mysteriously the developer closed down all the forums a couple of months ago while "revamping the website", and they've never returned.

Hopefully not a bad omen.

[Calis]

Oops, forgot to add...I can't let all the blame lay with Black Isle.

Reflexive Entertainment are the folks who made the game, Black Isle had very little to do with it, only acting in an advisor role(albeit very poorly). Also, Black Isle as we once knew it, is dead. Basically everyone who helped make Black Isle what it was, left a month or so ago, and now Urqhart(however ya spell it) the ex-prez of BI and several other key folks have started up a new company, working under.....BIOWARE! So there's hope left!

One of the main problems is, is we're watching Interplay die a quite horrible death, and I'm sure this effected the developmental process of this game, and any others in work.

[Schmidty]

I hate to admit it, but I am really, really enjoying Lionheart. I think it has something to do with my ability to not pick every detail in a game apart, and simply enjoy it for what it is.

[tucker342]

I have a crazy idea for how gaming companies can avoid bad press:



MAKE A GOOD GAME!!!!!

[Blackadar]

Originally posted by Buccaneer
Blacky, I think you are reading too much into such things. In more cases than not, it's about cutting losses. Just like a movie, if it's not going to get the revenues, then you don't waste any more resources on things like servers, admins/moderators, bandwidths and ads. Eidos does this all of the time.

Yea, but the week after release????

[Blackadar]

BTW, GameSpot did the first major review. 6.5.

Ug.

[Blackadar]

Oh, it gets better. Interplay decided to roll the Lionheart forum back to 7/22 - BEFORE the release of the demo - and all posts during that time (and all registrations) are gone.

There's no way this is an accident.

[Calis]

Not to burst any bubbles, but it wasn't the Lionheart boards that got rolled back, it was EVERY board on the Interplay forums. This could actually be something screwy with their servers and not a conspiracy to keep it quiet.

I dunno, could be though...I just don't see it, it doesn't add up. They could've done a much better job "covering up" if that was really their intention. I think they probably just suck.

[Blackadar]

Update: Lionheart board still down.

[Schmidty]

Update: Lionheart is still a fun game.

[Mac Howard]

I'm not quite sure why anyone's surprised about this - if the game isn't going down well then the last thing a commercial operation needs is a forum for disgruntled users to tell prospective buyers the game isn't worth the price

[Blackadar]

Originally posted by Schmidty
Update: Lionheart is still a fun game.

You would be in the minority on that opinion, judging from the scuttlebut and the reviews.

[Schmidty]

Originally posted by Blackadar
You would be in the minority on that opinion, judging from the scuttlebut and the reviews.

Maybe so, but that doesn't mean shit to me. I'm having a blast.

Besides, game reviewers are like sheep.