» Tue Mar 30, 2010 1:39 am
Finally someone who isn't blaming one thing for another. And he's right about Bioware, they are a great developer for PC.
I feel like Bioware faced a very similar situation with the DA2 launch that Crytek is facing now. Legitimate (if overdramatized) complaints about gameplay simplifications, and the appearance of flatout lies having been told prelaunch (in bioware's case it was with the supposed sneak insertion of SecuROM.).
**** happens. I understand that. I have had the impression all along from the Bioware responses that they are proud of their work and will actively defend its integrity, but at the same time they are honestly committed to working with the community to ensure its quality. I don't like every design choice they have made, but their openness and willingness to engage the community over its concerns has given me enough faith in them that I tend to believe they are working on an updated toolset, or to trust that the decisions that supposedly "consolified" Dragon Age were made by people who know the game a lot better than I.
On the other hand, look at Crytek's response to the pages upon pages upon pages of problems, bugs, glitches, falsely advertised features, etc., which are currently blanketing forums all over the tubes, and not only on PC. I say "look at" their response, but it's kind of just a figure of speech at this point, because there isn't a response. There are no acknowledgements of mistakes, no admissions that they should have been more clear in communicating things, and there aren't even any developer posts defending the game. All we have are CR reps - whose job is generally to be the liason between the customers and the developers, if I understand correctly - suddenly being forced into the roles of tech support, quality assurance, defenders of the software, among other things... On top of their normal work. I've seen people bashing the ad hoc nature of some of the official workarounds that have been posted, but in my view, they are the only Crytek employees who deserve a penny from this game. Where are the designers defending their choce to simplify the nanosuit (despite the whining, general consensus seems to be that this was the right choice)? Where is the guy in charge saying "We understand your frustration, let me explain why we made these decisions before you lose faith in us"? I really don't give a rat's ass if the renderer is dx9 or dx11 if the game looks incredible, but what I DEFINITELY care about is the appearance that Crytek intentionally and blatantly lied about the issue while it had a chance of affecting preorders.
I don't think in all my years of commenting on video game forums I have ever seriously accused a company for "selling out" or condemned a company for making fiscally motivated decisions at the expense of a game. I've complained about it, but never before now have I felt such disrespect from a developer for their customers that I even considered writing them off because of it.
