ViciousFrost

Join Date 04/2009

Why did I pay for a beta?

When a game has some aspects working, it's called a beta, and if you want gamers to do the QA it should be free.

Stardock, why would you release a game that doesn't work? If you did any QA on the game, there's just no way you could miss the countless bugs in-game, the game locking up and having to kill the process in the task manager after failing to connect to a player in the lobby, games timing out during a match, a useless friends list which doesn't tell you what game your friend is in, no favor (which was initially working and you managed to break in a patch), and the tournament system not working. It's quite obvious that this is not a fully functioning game, so why did I pay money to try this out to tell you what's not working? Why wasn't this released as a beta so that we (who are actually still with this community) could have told you exactly what was wrong? Great concepts come crashing down when a game is released too early. Even if you manage to fix everything, there is no one even playing the game anymore. The multiplayer lobby is completely empty, and who is going to tell all these people who tossed the game aside out of frustration that "everything's ok now"?

You would have been better off pushing back the release date till you had at least a semi working game. This should have been the next biggest game with the DotA following that you had. Now they are all back to playing WC3 and the game has become wasted potential.

demigod

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do u read any other posts

stop bitching there is hardly any bugs now and they have been trying there hardest to fix them as quick as possible yes a beta would have been nice and theyknow they should have done it now but it is quiet stupid looking back on what has happened and ssaying what they should have done

any iddiot can look back and tell u they should have had a beta they dont need to be reminded by every little person

and the game works fucking fine there was like 4 probs when i started and most of that was multi

if u want to go back to dota go right ahead but dont post a thread stating the bleeding ovious to every when they already know

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typical dota player, they really show their mentality dont they?

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I believe Demigod was doing fine during the beta. Only most beta testes were located in North America an upon release, Stardock found out people from far away were suffering from all the problems you can expect (and Stardock didn't) when you're far away. With multiplayer being of paramout importance to Demigod, instead of carefully analyzing the situation and fixing it, they just rushed some stuff that fixed many problems for 90% of the players, but broke stuff for everybody. Now they're pretty much clueless, working their butts off to come up with the proper fixes. But if the situation is as dire as you say and the lobbies are almost deserted, it may be too late already.

As for why did I pay a beta, it's because I like to support Stardock; they lost some points for now, I may have to think twice the next time, but we'll see how the whole things go. Plus, I'm an engineer, too.

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There was a beta.
The "countless" problems pretty much all boil down to multiplayer connectivity. A complex problem with many interacting variables but basically one big problem.
This problem was not discovered until the game was stress tested on a massive scale - worldwide release. The only way to stress test on that scale is to release.
This has been covered so many times before.

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I hope others can understand why a frustrated user does this. Realistically, for Stardock and GPG, I think yes, you somewhat missed the mark. People can go ahead and naysay all they want about how wrong others’ opinions are but I also want to clarify that Demigod isn't a bad game. But Brad, I'm sure even you understand the potential fumble since this title doesn’t exactly scream evergreen. The best course of action is to…. Well you know, you’re doing it already. =0)

Show the gaming community that it’s not just what the Demigod fans want — but what the general PC gamers need.

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Thats good perspective r3trograd3 and a valid point but I think I can speak for a great number of people here when I say that even though these posts come from people with an understandable degree of frustration it is equally frustrating to see that they leap straight from a bad experience with the game and begin typing a tirade in general.

Now even the tirade part is understandable but the are almost always filled with false statements and misinformation. Given how much Frogboy has done to show transperency and provided a constant stream of up to date information in the journals people keep exiting the game, metaphorically kicking in the door to the forum and start shouting at the top of their lungs without stopping to think, educating themselves on the available information and posting in a state of heightened anger that is most likely to cause lapses in logic, miunderstandings and general negativity all around.

These forums are changing from a place of reasoned discussion into a maelstrom of furious ignorance. A lot of people have tried to point out the errors in these posts and it just starts further arguments and flames. As a result a lot of good people have refrained from posting. I sure know I've posted with less frequency the past few days... a lot of the 'fun' has gone out of this place and been replaced with a palpable angry resentment.

I checked into the IRC channel yesterday and there was a very mature discussion going on and I commented to the effect "rational debate in here and arguments, name calling and silliness on the forums - have I walked into a mirror universe?"

I was pointing out how back to front things have become as time progresses. A few weeks ago things were a lot different and in a way I really miss it. I suppose its to expected given that with the game being released there would be a huge influx of people and the current issues certainly don't help.

Just seems like a huge waste given so much of this could be avoided if people stopped for a moment and read up on whats going on before posting.

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Well some of those are related to you specifically. I have never crashed while alt tabbing, in fact i do it in 99% of games. I'm actually alt tabbed right now as I type this.

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I really don't understand the basis of complaining about the "Paying" for a Beta. Don't forget, this is a Stardock Game. Everyone who took part in the Beta Test paid for the game. I bought this game back in July of 2008, full price, and I've been playing ever since September 2008. To me, the Beta Test has never ended, it's just another day in the growth of Demigod. That's the beauty about Stardock and paid Betas. When the game is "released" it's just a bigger, better Beta Phase. Everytime. But it works, it really does work.

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um play betweenm 8pm to 2am eastern time there are plenty of custome games. Pantheons and skirmishes pop pretty fast too.

thats a memory leak and i had it happen to me 1 time.

People have to realize that there are loads of pc hardware they need to make it playable on hence is why consoles are catchen up in the gaming world.

If demigod ever gets to a console i will buy it just for that game its that good.

I have yet have any freezes or crashes since i been playen .

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I was in the Beta, on & off (alternating with my dad), from the very start, 8 months ago. My dad ("CyberMage") and I were very happy, then : the game had a lot of features from the start, and it never once crashed.

(The release version has crashed 5 times, in April, with debug-error windows popping up -- since we play the game in a window.)

Even though we were very happy with the whole Beta process, we believed that the game was not ready to be released in April.

But take into account that we both have no knowledge or experience whatsoever in the PC-Games Development & Production business : none! Consequently, our opinions don't weigh much compared to the decision-making concepts of the CEO of Stardock --- "Frogboy". He decided to release the game in April : one has to assume that he knew what he was doing.

I read this thread's OP, and it doesn't strike me as unfairly nasty : it's a politely formulated, critical opinion.

It is intellectually too bad, though, that the DG Forum is being pa-trolled by self-appointed "bouncers" who enjoy pouncing on the authors of fair, critical opinions. I've haunted many gaming forums : nothing new or unusual there. Authors of non-fanboy, critical opinions should not have a thin skin and a short temper.

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I have to a gree with Comanoodle.

Connection issues are workable now, and presentation is great. But there are still a large number of subtle problems and missing features... some of them can be truly game breaking in a tight match.

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Only reason they didn't forsee these connection issues in beta BECAUSE ONLY A SELECT FEW GOT IN. 500 vs 10000 people. GTFO

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Quoting VyperXXX,

reply 9

Well some of those are related to you specifically. I have never crashed while alt tabbing, in fact i do it in 99% of games. I'm actually alt tabbed right now as I type this.

The crash actually happens when you return to the game (when you click on the game on the task bar, or alt-tab back into it), and not always. Just keep doing it, you'll crash.

Maybe it has to do with how often you alt-tab, too, because I generally alt-tab when waiting for a Custom Game to fill up, and then that means I alt-tab in and out pretty often.

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Quoting VyperXXX,

reply 9

Well some of those are related to you specifically. I have never crashed while alt tabbing, in fact i do it in 99% of games. I'm actually alt tabbed right now as I type this.

depends what patch u joined on i joined on the release date and there was alt tabing bug but it was sorted out and wasn't a very big bug

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It happened to me today.

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ah, sorry to hear that, I tab almost every single game, and always when waiting for panth. As soon I hear 'FIGHT!' I tab back in, never had a crash for that reason.

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Comanoodle, most of the issues you mention in that list are most likely connected to the multiplayer problems that still persist.

Personnally, having played quite a bit of singleplayer, I have not noticed any crashes and no problems properly commanding the demigod.. maybe the one where they insist to attack some silly little guys while they should get the hell out, but that's only a minor delay when you give them the order again. Multiplayer lag probably blows the problem up because of lag.

I'm gonna try some online stuff and see if I can get it to crash there