I know, it's probably typical of a PlayStation fan (though it has nothing to do with that... I really don't care that much about Naughty Dog's games and don't feel they make owning a PS3 over a 360 worth it by any means), but although I don't care for their current-generation games much beyond an interesting mastery of cinematic video game sequences and a nice action-adventure feel, Naughty Dog are a model development studio. They're so open about what they do and it's really nice. Some of us tech geeks like to see some of the behind-the-scenes stuff and get a lot of updates.

show me a post where he answers the questions I placed in my previous post.

Also how come other officials in other forums communicate much much more frequently than we see here? Seriously how can you even try to justify that? It is his job to communicate with us. I am monitoring this forum feom the very beggining and I have seen nothing but scarce vague resonses and people wondering for weeks before even hearing a single word...

there is definetely something wrong here with how they communicate. If Gstaff finds it hard to do this properly then i dont know... maybe he should ask for extra staff to help him or try something else for a living i dont know.

All I know is that this is not a very communicative forum. Gstaff doesnt have to answer eveytime. The solution is simple. You make a sticky thread where you answer the most frequently asked questions. It will take him no more than 10 minutes to write a post answering 5 questions for everyone. Sticky it and you are done with!

Now if you are trying to tell me he doesnt have 10 minutes to spare when he is spending so much time tweeting then sorry but I am certainly not convinced!

After three horribly performing games on the PS3 platform the fanbase is pretty much at a point of openly detesting Bethesda. But hey, they've earned it.

This is my first post, so first of all, a big hello to all.

I bought a copy of Skyrim just after Christmas and haven't installed it yet on my PS3.
I'm waiting and observing to see what goes on before I take the plunge!

I played Oblivion, Knights of the Nine and The Shimmering Isles to death - apx 220 hours in total. I love the game that much - one of my favourite games EVER on any platform.

I didn't buy Fallout 3 or New Vegas because of all the bad things I'd heard about performance.

So here I am, waiting for the right time before installing one of the most anticipated games EVER.
I'm really tempted to install the thing and put up with bugs, but when you know that the game is going to crash after xx hours, what are you supposed to do?

It's like an eternal state of tortuous flux.
On the one hand Bethesda know they've got a great game, followed and adored by thousands of people, perhaps milions.
On the other hand, there are people like us who have paid decent money for something that they now know to be broke.

So, here I am waiting for the 1.4 patch before going ahead with my install.
Call me clever, call me overly cautious for not wasting my time, but at the end of the day I've spent money on a product and I EXPECT RESULTS.

Honestly, if I install this game after the 1.4 patch is released and it breaks... that'll be the end of me and Bethesda.

The feeling of building up an RPG character to level 'whatever' and then not being able to continue is like being stabbed in the heart.
It feels like a part of your life has been stolen.

I adored Oblivion and have been waiting for this game for SO long.
I went through all of the tips and workarounds to cure myself of vampirism, even quitting the game, changing the PS3 language to German, re-entering the game, giving the newly named 'German' bloodgrass to the witch in her house in order to resolve the problem / get back on with the game.

But I am advising Bethesda NOT to screw up my life on this one.
This is not a bug, but a serious performance flaw that brings a gaming experience to an END!

Remember that this is more than simply playing a game - it's part of our life, decisions, choices... i.e. spending the free hours of our lives in the way we deem best.

Bethesda, PLEASE DON'T MESS THIS UP.

For as long as I've been on these forums, I have NEVER seen a direct answer from Gstaff on the PS3 Lag. Responses are always chocked full of can's/maybe's/hopefully's and not a single
word of concrete verification in relevance to actually resolving the big issue.

It's the biggest concern of the community. And we have had no real answer. Just a bunch of responses that don't address the issue as it should.

They don't answer that question with a simple yes or no because it's not a simple yes or no answer no matter what they're doing. Virtually EVERY PS3 game suffers from FPS drops in some locations depending on a huge variety of variables. They simply cannot guarantee a 100% fix to something like that and asking them for one isn't useful in any way.

I also like how open Obsidian (buggy, yes... side effect of pushy publishers, reused, unfamiliar engines, and probably not the world's greatest programmers, but very open and respecting of their fanbase... J.E. Sawyer even commented on thoughts behind Skyrim's PS3 issues while Bethesda never did) and Eidos Montreal (though relatively new, they really seem to love what they do and very successfully delivered Deus Ex: HR as a multiplatform title which actually seemed made for multiple platforms).

Great, it's their fault for releasing such a poorly-optimized, [censored] up piece of software in the first place. The fact that these issues will never be fixed because patches can't really do much to actually finish optimizing an engine is something they should face up to.

While this may be true to the very smallest degree. I have played a massive amount of the PS3's library and have only suffered an FPS drop
anywhere NEAR the extent of Skyrim on one game- and that was Dark Soul's Blighttown. And the saddest thing is that Dark Souls is one of
my favorite games. Heck, the lag in Blighttown isn't even as bad as what I have to deal with starting a new character in Skyrim.

I've been able to platinum five games since I've bought Skyrim for the PS3. Why? Because Skyrim refuses to run at a clean framerate for me.
I've tested my disc on multiple PS3's and have even resorted to checking out different copies. It's all the same experience.

Right and I'm not saying they won't do anything to improve it, but they won't every be able to get rid of it 100% on any system, period. It shouldn't be as bad as it is for sure, but do I ever expect to be able to play Skyrim at a permanent 30 frames per second on PS3? No. It's beyond unreasonable to expect that level of performance.

yeah right you are just about ready to say just about anything to justify something that is simply ridiculous even trying to justify.

This forum is NOT communicative at all. That is a fact. People here feel like idiots because noone seems to give a damn about what is happening and gstaff's tweet on the other hand is updated like every 10 minutes.

if you as a customer are satisfied with one post per week from gstaff, please keep it to yourself. I for one expect more because i have 60 dollars for something that is clearly inferior to the opposition and doesnt work.

So i need gstaff to be more talkative than just telling me "i am doing my best" when he clearly is not.

It's beyond unreasonable to expect that from this pathetic example of a company after the release of Skyrim because of how poorly-constructed the PS3 variant of the game's source code inherently and irrevocably (considering it's already been released) is, yes, but it is not beyond unreasonable to have expected Skyrim to run at a smooth 30 fps on the PS3, in general, and Bethesda ineradicably failed on their part in that regard upon release with no chance of being able to fix it, as you've said. So... we should already be eternally pissed off.

And how exactly do you know that he's not doing his best? He's limited in what he's allowed to say on behalf of the company, just like any spokesperson for any company is. You don't know what other responsibilities he has, so you have no basis for judging whether he's doing his "best" or not. Heaven forbid he post less than usual the week between Christmas and New Years and take a few days' break from all the whining around here.

So, and let me get this straight: It's beyond unreasonable to expect Skyrim to play a permanent 30 frames a second?
Well, I can undesrtand that if it was true 5-9% of the time. But I shouldn't be playing at less than that amount for more
than 90% of the time.

We're not asking for the game to be fixed in every measure, to a perfect extent. We're asking for the 0-20 FPS lag to
go away. That is not unreasonable.

Plenty of games have locked framerates but that's not what we're asking for here.

We'd very much like Skyrim to never ever ever pull-off masterful feats like the Digital Foundry First Ever Registered 0 Frames Per Second.

I understand that and I fully agree. All I'm saying is that, "Is this patch going to fix the lag?" is an unanswerable question because even if it does bring the game up to averaging 25-30 fps 95% of the time you're still going to have some people out there with dirty PS3's tucked in cabinets coming here to whine about how Bethesda lied when they said it was fixed.

This is all very confusing as in some regards, it seems Wilco is defending Bethesda, but it is truly unreasonable, now, to expect 30 fps on the PS3 version simply because the base code and the poor optimization for the engine itself for the PS3 are things too major to be fixed by patches. It was not unreasonable to expect 30 fps with Skyrim, however... no, that's a base standard for proper treatment of a consumer. I can't tell where Wilco actually stands on the issue of what Bethesda did and how they should be reviled for it, but he's right on a technical level of what is or isn't possible, now that the game is already released and supposedly "finished", albeit with a wrongfully placed, slightly apologetic tone.

just as i thought so nothing else to discuss with you on this. You clearly like to spend your time defending this. I am glad you are part of the minority but i am sad you see fit to spent your time like this.

I am still waiting for some proper communication here. I dont care what gstaff is or is not allowed to say or not. If he is so limited by the big heads at bethesda then it is even worse actually. And the word apathy seems the perfect one to describe them and their behavior towards their fans.

Semantics aside. That's what we mostly are referring to. Heck, I'd love it if my game just played anywhere near the XBox360 version my friend has.
He came over to my house just the other night and saw me load up a game. No joke, and I quote:

"Man, dood. That is terrible. You should take that back."

I can't now- because I wanted to wait out for a patch. I'm stuck with my money handed over to Bethesda. I am used to video game lag. I've played
TONS of games on the PS3. I don't mind if the game lagged in an area with a massive amount of lighting or water effects- that is understandable.
But when I'm just moving through the forest and the game stops every few seconds? There's a problem...

Yeah but that's the name of the game around here. If Bethesda says, "The lag is fixed" then they get mobbed by people the second the fps drops below 20 ever again. And if they say, "We fixed it so that a clean system running under ideal conditions will run between 25-30 fps 95% of the time" they get slapped for being too vague. There's absolutely nothing they can say that will make people happy. The only thing they can do is actually work on the problem, which is what they are already trying to do. People complain that they don't communicate enough but at the end of the day the communication is just a waste of time no matter what they say.

I'd argue that it's a waste of time due to how often they've lied in the past.

That's also why we require definitive answers instead of their standard wishy-washy PR BS like Skyrim using a "New Engine".

if it is a waste of time for them communicating with their customers then they should just close this forum down...

Seriously some unbelievable "arguments" being thrown around here...

Whether they've lied about anything in the past is immaterial (and also unproveable, you can only speculate that they lied about what you claim they lied about). All that matters at the end of the day is whether they can get the game running properly. I prefer they spend their time and money on action rather than speech.

And I'm out.

You know, as radical that may sound initially- I can see what you mean.
Heck, Bethesda can say the earth is flat for all I care. I want to see the game fixed.