Stardock Pays The Price » Forum Post by DalzK

Quoting DalzK,

Just so you (and everybody else who reads this) know, those sites only give above an 8.0 on games/companies that pay for advertisement space on their site. Forget the "oh, that was only one time thing" bull that some people might say, but it's been proven time and time again that those companies are using their reviews as a buyout. I don't trust a damn one of them.
If only all the people who read the review knew that Unfortunately 90% of the people who read the reviews will dismiss the game stupidly..

How is it stupid to not buy a game with a universal consensus of discontent because of absoulutely sub standard network connectability. The people that don't read reviews are stupid and are risking their $50 on a gamble.

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In this age of instant gratification, people don't even read the view, they ONLY look at the score.

IUP and IGN both gave GREAT reviews wording wise, but the scores are awful. Only the scores are going to get looked at.

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If we're talking about major sites, why is Stupid Spot up in that list? No one with half a brain listens to it anymore.

Hate to say it, but a lot of sales come from it.

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As much as i love this game, it enfuriates me that theres so many connection problems, and im glad some reviewers understand multiplayer games are so hard to get right on day 1, and will come back and relook at it, i trust in frogboy and the other devs to sort it out, even as such, me and some RL mates are trying this at LAN tomorrow, as we all have it .

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*Looks at the list*

See problem is, NONE OF THOSE SITES KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ANYTHING. Well maybe thats a lie. But when it comes to MONEY, eh gads, logic goes out the frakking window. Notice any of those reviews mention ANYTHING about the servers getting better? How about how Stardock had to SCRAMBLE thanks to GAMESTOP and thats probably what FUDGED THE SERVERS.

All of these sites, if they wanted to give a fair review without hurting their partner Gamestop should've waited a week or two...

Stardock should've filed that lawsuit. Even though they didn't, it seems to me like Gamestop is at work here....

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Why does everyone keep blamming Gamestop for this? This was comming no matter what. Releasing DG a couple of days early at retail was not the cause of this. This games MP component was not ready for release. I think a 6.5/10 is pretty fair for what I`ve got right now. If MP worked well, It`d be a 8 or 8.5. Stardock treats their customer`s well, That doesn`t mean they don`t f*#$ up too. SD shit the bed here.

What the Sorceresss said(reply 21) ring`s true to me.

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Quoting weeble1,

reply 6

Quoting DalzK, reply 4meta-critic has it at 50/100 atm - which is what people will look at.

Like the end bit about "re-reviewing" - all reviews should do that imo. Maybe there is hope IGN/Gamespot will boost the score if connectivity gets fixed soon?
Ask the Ubisoft/Tom Clancy guys how that hope worked out after initial server problems wrecked console EndWar and H.A.W.X., or the GPG guys about Space Siege.

To be fair, all three games were awful...

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Quoting Ron Lugge,

reply 25

I mean those are the three major sites where most sales come from right?

If we're talking about major sites, why is Stupid Spot up in that list? No one with half a brain listens to it anymore.

To be fair, if a site that usually rates stuff really high rates something low it makes people pause. It'd be like if FOX News said something bad about a republican administration...you KNOW it's true.

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Actually they thought they needed to be released febuary, after sins.

Key thinking is releasing it at a time where no one has new games to play. It's always the holiday rush, ton sof games, then people are bored and want something new while waiting for SC2.

So, they had to get it out before SC2 and such.

But waiting another 2-4 weeks and having more people testing would of been better than this..

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Quoting Siphaed,

reply 20

quoting postIGN gives it 7.5/10

Gamespot gives it 6.5/10

1UP gives it 5/10

I mean those are the three major sites where most sales come from right? IGN gave its gameplay a 9.0, but due to its connectivity they bogged the rating down a bunch.

So the question is, if you were waiting to buy Demigod and you saw those review ratings, would you really go out and buy it? The answer is no.

Sorry Stardock, but I guess you payed the price (literally) for releasing it with poor connectivity

Just so you (and everybody else who reads this) know, those sites only give above an 8.0 on games/companies that pay for advertisement space on their site. Forget the "oh, that was only one time thing" bull that some people might say, but it's been proven time and time again that those companies are using their reviews as a buyout. I don't trust a damn one of them.

However, if you look at the non-mainstream sites, the ones that are like blogs and what not that are there for opinion only (and not in it for the cash), they are all saying that this game is awsome and definitely worthy of a buy.

It's interesting you mention that about those gamesites as it is in line w/ my suspicions. I've noticed how they hype games for years and then give them lousy ratings. I think to myself..."why the heck have you been hyping this piece of crap all this time, you knew better". I think the hype is good for business, bottom line. As for game co's having to "pay to play" I'd buy that too b/c some games get amazing ratings yet they stink to high heaven.

With that said, It's a same Demigod is having the multiplayer issues it has. At its core, it is an amazing game. I love the gameplay. However, it's release execution has not been good.

It's this simple, for a multiplayer game to be successful, it has to be EASY to get into a multiplayer game, whether it's automatch, tourney, or custom.

I'm sticking w/ DG for now and I hope I don't have to go back to WC3.

I look forward to a time where I can jump in DG games w/o a lot of trouble. As it is, I've been in some great MP games but getting setup to play is hit and miss (more miss than hit).

But like I said, gameplay and graphics are great.

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Update:

http://forums.demigodthegame.com/347467

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Quoting Frogboy,

reply 11

Update:

http://forums.demigodthegame.com/347467

"But here’s the thing: While piracy is annoying, you can’t blame piracy for this problem. Let’s face it, there’s plenty of data out there about how many pirated games are being played. We should have looked at that. We assumed since Sins of a Solar Empire and Galactic Civilizations, both of which sold extremely well and got great reviews, that the # of pirated copies of Demigod in use would probably be in the same ballpark, maybe twice as much. But had we looked at what other publishers have said, we would have known that it’s not unusual for there to be hundreds of thousands of warez copies in use. And if we had, we could have simply had the retail version not have any HTTP calls in it and instead just had an update button on the main menu to check for updates and voila, problem solved."

Thanks for at least admitting this. Because this is what sort of annoyed me was trying to say you couldn't forsee so many pirated copies trying to connect. Because really the issue was checking on game load instead of when someone does shift+tab or clicks log-in.

It's a lot better that you admit it, at least, and are now fixing things and upgrading servers.

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Quoting Sorceresss,

reply 21

Some dogmatic Grand Poobah, at Stardock or GPG, decided that the Game absolutely had to be released in April.

That was The Big Mistake.

Yes.

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Even though Gamespot is one of the well known reviewing sites, I dont credit them as reliable. That review is nothing to me. I am glad IGN took note of the gameplay. The gameplay is fantastic, definitely worthy of a 9/10. I am especially greatful to the 1up reviewer for saying that he will re-review it when all the kinks are worked out. They know this game's potential to be spectacular is huge.

Its evident that this game has its fair share of problems and as a result the reviews on it arent too flattering. But instead of dwelling on how many problems this game has, why not take note that the dev team is extremely responsive and helpful, going so far as to log on to their own game and sit there answering questions trying to help out as much as possible to make gaming as enjoyable as they can for gamer. I dont know about you guys but this is the first time Ive ever seen the CEO of a game development company actually log on and help people out. I was ready to throw in the towel at first and get my money back, until I saw the chat and who was on it. At least when I log on I know that if something happens thats not suppose to, I can get on the chat and get some help from the people who made the game.

The game is definitely going to get fixed.

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Having worked in the IT industry, I know all too well how management like to set deadlines for everything and have it all planned out ahead of time, down to the day. This is something I had to work with as a programmer, and when you're talking commercial software you have the extra work of fixing whatever problems a buggy program will inclict on its database.

One paticularly bad company I worked for had me spending 3/4 of my day just fixing databases where if they had waited I could have spent 100% of my day polishing (or simply completing) the coding.

Deadlines seem to be in vogue with company management these days, and it seems Stardock is no exception either. Its a great shame, as Im sure in time it will be a great game, but as others have said, most games that get bad reviews on release become minor players at best. I really hope that this game can turn things around, but I have severe doubts. Its no good canning th review sites and saying how wrong they are, or how you wouldnt pay any attention to them. fast is a lot of people do, and those bad reviews are going to severely hurt sales.

I really like stardock as a company, its dedication to fixing thins, its releasing of non DRM protected games, and I must say Im very surprised that they have dropped the ball on this one.

Having said that, the game isnt so bad for me. Im just plaing pantheon games, and Id say in an evening I probably spend about 2/3 of my time playing and about 1/3 trying to connect. Not great, but I can definitly live with it for the moment. It seems a lot of the problem is particular players who join a game and then cant connect to anyone, and just stay there until you leave. Most players I can connect to in short time. It only takes 1 poison player to mess up a game tho, so that results in a greater percentage of failed games attempts than failed connection attempts. (Did that make sense?) Im pretty certain that a lot of the problems are people who cant set up their port forwarding/firewall correctly, and a few who have ISP's that aren't peer-to-peer friendly.

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Hm I can't give a 9/10 because I can think of lots of improvements. Like to some of the underpowered items, an upgrade thing would be nice, having 50% more skills, and some bugs like getting stuck when using a click skill. But 8/10 yeah. I would of probably given it a 7/10 by what i expected in phase3, but a ton of things where fixed. Though there are still ui lag issues and connection issues which i'm not factoring into how i'd score it. :/ Hopefully in a year I can give it a 9/10 though.

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I love how a negative review or two can get people to bring out the big conspiracy theories. Like, all reviewers only give good grades to games that advertise on their homepage, how they don't mention Gamestop because it is their partner, etc

Come on people, wake up. Fact is that the initial release had severe issues (and many people still do). For me, I appreciate when the press reviews games as they are at release and not await some promised improvements. That is the way this industry always was, that is the way it should be. Devs know these rules, and if they release a game in a broken state, they know that the reviews will reflect that. I find it far more alarming to see some sites give this game 10/10 without a single word about these issues. Of course, the fanboys here praise those who say nothing about the issues, while calling into question the integrity of those who do...

Reviewers can't take promises into account. Ubi Soft promised to fix the game-breaking bugs in Far Cry 2. Almost 6 months on, they are still in the game.

And for all those of you who are so insistent that these sites, especially Gamestop, automatically give good grades to games with big marketing behind it, you might wanna take a look at Socom: Confrontation on PS3. Hugh franchise, big marketing muscle, positive previews all along. BUT- at release the game missed many features, and had horrible connectivity. Naturally, the game got hammered in reviews, much more so than Demigod...

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Quoting Com_Raven,

reply 17

I love how a negative review or two can get people to bring out the big conspiracy theories. Like, all reviewers only give good grades to games that advertise on their homepage, how they don't mention Gamespot because it is their partner, etc

Come on people, wake up. Fact is that the initial release had severe issues (and many people still do). For me, I appreciate when the press reviews games as they are at release and not await some promised improvements. That is the way this industry always was, that is the way it should be. Devs know these rules, and if they release a game in a broken state, they know that the reviews will reflect that. I find it far more alarming to see some sites give this game 10/10 without a single word about these issues. Of course, the fanboys here praise those who say nothing about the issues, while calling into question the integrity of those who do...

Reviewers can't take promises into account. Ubi Soft promised to fix the game-breaking bugs in Far Cry 2. Almost 6 months on, they are still in the game.

And for all those of you who are so insistent that these sites, especially Gamestop, automatically give good grades to games with big marketing behind it, you might wanna take a look at Socom: Confrontation on PS3. Hugh franchise, big marketing muscle, positive previews all along. BUT- at release the game missed many features, and had horrible connectivity. Naturally, the game got hammered in reviews, much more so than Demigod...

this ^^.

Also the fact that many of the network issues, bugs,...etc didnt suddenly show up a few days ago, but have been around for over a month in the beta and been mentioned a lot. Which gives all the more reason to think they had a deadline and had to make some calls of what to not work on at all and leave in a non optimal form (no threading in network code).

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Of course Gamestop releasing the game on retail early had all the impact in the world. How long does it take to upload a torrent, and then the swarm to start reaching critical mass? When it's 3-4 days before day 0, everyone who wants a torrent copy will have one. When it's day 0+this time, the server load is much more gradual.

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Quoting Siphaed,

reply 20

Just so you (and everybody else who reads this) know, those sites only give above an 8.0 on games/companies that pay for advertisement space on their site. Forget the "oh, that was only one time thing" bull that some people might say, but it's been proven time and time again that those companies are using their reviews as a buyout. I don't trust a damn one of them.

.

Is that really true? that means Stardocks paid for Sin to get a 9.0 from GS and 8.9 from IGN?

source : Metacritic

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Quoting DeadMG,

reply 19

Of course Gamestop releasing the game on retail early had all the impact in the world. How long does it take to upload a torrent, and then the swarm to start reaching critical mass? When it's 3-4 days before day 0, everyone who wants a torrent copy will have one. When it's day 0+this time, the server load is much more gradual.

Nope, it still wasn't Gamestop's fault. Not even Brad says that (see his latest update). In fact, Stardock got lucky - most pc games end up on torrents long before being in a store, with some greedy a-hole in the manufacturing plant stealing a copy and leaking it. For a AAA pc game, only ending up on torrents once it is on sale is pretty good.

Which is of course a horrible state of affairs in itself, and says a lot about far too many pc gamers

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