SE5 bad reviews and problems.

[Dejavuproned]

On a good note, Malfador updated the website, appearently they listened to all the bug reports and reviewed saved games send to them and are releasing a patch accordingly. It is expected on the 6th hopefully.

This is why I never worried about the buggyness of the game, timely patches!

[Atrocities]

Combat Wombat said:
Oh I even forgot about the adware that watches what you do on the internet and gives you _IN GAME_ ads based on it, and they still charge you $50 which is outrageous for all the reasons listed above.

WTH!!! This kind of thing should be stomped to death at inception. I WILL NEVER BUY A GAME that requires you to install adware so they can market content to me while I play their game based upon my on line activities. THIS IS JUST PLAIN WRONG!

No its worse than wrong, its upper case DEAD WRONG AND EVIL!

[Kana]

Atrocities said:
Was the game released to early, YES, yes it was. I say at least 8 to 12 more weeks were needed. However by releasing the game early, a ton of new bug reports have been generated by players. So in the end, releasing the game in the state that it was in was a good move for improving the game, but a bad move for those explecting a 100% bug free game on version 1.0. (Unrealistic in my opinion but hey they are out there, and they ***** like mad when things aren't bug free.)

I agree as well...yet I heard of the 50 or so beta testers...about half or more flaked out, which left the rest with a large workload. Plus it seems that most companies now are pre-releasing most game, in some form of public beta test, months before release, to squash bugs, balance game play, and test game engine, and any MP infrastrucure if need for said game. In many instances, Company of Heroes for instance, made the end release a much better game, not mention helped the hype of the game.

SEV could have used a bit more beta testing in my opinon, maybe a slightly large pool of testers other than the initial 50...Yet with MM track record of patching, and listening, and now that this is his so called full time job, he will be able to do it in a more timely fashion than SEIV. So I say play the game to death, find out whats wrong, and report it. The game will become better, and the mods will make it playable for many years to come. Much longer than some other games I've played in the past 6 years.

[Santiago]

I think there is also a split along the modders/non-modders line. SEV was made for its modding abilty first and it's playability 2nd. At least it seems that way to me. I do mod some small items to suit for taste, but a whole mod takes hard work, time and dedication. If Kwok's Balance Mod wasn't ready to go, I think there would have been even more complaints.

The release imo should have waited a little longer, but its a trade-off. More bugs are getting squashed sooner.

But that doesn't solve the problems with a questionably designed UI. Hopefully this will be looked at when most of the game bugs are fixed and not forgotten about.

Someone in another post here or one of the other sites made a comment about (paraphrasing) in 5 or 6 years SEV will be at the point SEIV is. Problem is that's fine for the faithful not necessarily new customers.

[Tim_Ward]

Was the game released to early, YES, yes it was. I say at least 8 to 12 more weeks were needed. However by releasing the game early, a ton of new bug reports have been generated by players. So in the end, releasing the game in the state that it was in was a good move for improving the game, but a bad move for those explecting a 100% bug free game on version 1.0. (Unrealistic in my opinion but hey they are out there, and they ***** like mad when things aren't bug free.)

A false dichotamy. No game will ever be bug free, but that's no excuse for releasing games that are near unplayable.

As it happens, Aaron does have excuses and mitigating factors. Like being one man trying to single handedly produce a highly detailed turn based stratagy game. Balance, design, coding, it's all him. Other developers have departments for those things and they still aren't making games half has complex as SEV. The other mitigating factors are his manic patching, and the work that eventually gets produced by the modders.

You do have to question the wisdom of this approach, from a commerical point of view. The first few weeks after a game is released are the most critical. People aren't going to buy a game they hear is unplayable now, but don't worry after a few months or years there'll be all these patches and mods and then it'll be awesome! It's a shame, SEV deserves to do well and the TBS genre as a whole needs it to do well.

[Xrati]

The Beta Testers should have been choosen more carefully. It IS an important step in releasing a product. Many of these bugs could have been found in the playtesting and patched before release. These don't seem to be bugs that require a 'long' game to discover, but are 'in fact' some basic game operations that are flawed. While I don't agrue that the playtesters did a good job, maybe they just needed some modders and dedicated players to have been playtesting?

[Yimboli]

Imperator Fyron said:
Artaud said:
I sense a growing hostility here toward those of us who are not happy with the way SEV turned out. Some here are sick and tired of listening to us, and the clear message is to sing praise or keep quiet.

Huh? I haven't noticed any such message or hostility.

I have. It's nothing I can put a finger on and say "Here's the hostility! Here's what we're talking about! Everyone look at this!" but I've felt it. I've seen little or no outright bashing of critics on the forums, but I have noticed that many criticisms are summarily ignored, yielding contempt and a growing split. Maybe that's why you haven't noticed it.

Santiago said:
The release imo should have waited a little longer, but its a trade-off. More bugs are getting squashed sooner.

There certainly comes a time in debugging where you have part of the code bug free, and part buggy... when fixing bugs reaches diminishing returns and releasing the game (via public beta, full release, etc.) becomes more cost efficient. I think the only thing you can argue about here is where exactly that point of diminishing returns lies, and of course everyone has their own opinion.



For the sake of argument, we can divide the end users up into the moderately-fan-to-hardcore-forumgoer category and the new-or-non-forumgoer user. As a member of the former, I know that se5 has immense potential like se4 did. Contributions from people like Fyron, Kwok, SJ, AT, etc will provide enough options that most of us will be able to find a niche we like. I will eventually buy the game. Folks that fall under the latter category will likely read the reviews that were based on the initial buggy release and say no thanks. Unfortunately sites like cnet.com and ign don't go back periodically and update reviews based on patches and mods that come out a year after release. That would certainly help.

I think a public beta period *would have* helped if malfaydor was a large enough company to handle all the bug reports (this has been discussed on the forums before). This has almost all the benefits associated with a full release without the negative reviews that come with a buggy release. The alternative to a public beta is fewer bugs to begin with. Aaron managed neither. That's why we have this thread.

[Captain Kwok]

Xrati said:These don't seem to be bugs that require a 'long' game to discover, but are 'in fact' some basic game operations that are flawed. While I don't agrue that the playtesters did a good job, maybe they just needed some modders and dedicated players to have been playtesting?

90-95% of the currently reported bugs/flaws were reported - but unfortunately the release date came before most of these could be addressed.

[Elsemeravin]

Yimboli said:
I have. It's nothing I can put a finger on and say "Here's the hostility! Here's what we're talking about! Everyone look at this!" but I've felt it. I've seen little or no outright bashing of critics on the forums, but I have noticed that many criticisms are summarily ignored, yielding contempt and a growing split.

Don't you think it could simply be that reasonable people will easily react and add comments to one opinion they agree with, while only read without answering to someone whose opinion they do not agree with.
They of course the result is a few post with negative opinion and few answers and more enthusiastic posts with many emotional answers.
It does not necessarily means contempt and ignoring.

[Mephisto]

Captain Kwok said:

90-95% of the currently reported bugs/flaws were reported - but unfortunately the release date came before most of these could be addressed.

Yep.