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Fallen Earth: Fallen Earth Review
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This is why you are so good at what you do. Cheers
What qualifies a person to write a review on MMORPG?
Since the impact on the game can be massive, the reviewer has to have some accountability no?
Nope. I've written extensively on that on the forums and Jon has assured me that each review is independent and honest without any undue influence from the community or advertising dollars that MMORPG.com may receive.
Fear not fanbois, we are not trolls, let's take off your tin foil hat and learn what VAPORWARE is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware
"Vaporware is a term used to describe a software or hardware product that is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge after having well exceeded the period of development time that was initially claimed or would normally be expected for the development cycle of a similar product."
Stradden,
I'm glad to see you guys take reader feedback seriously. I've always seen reviews as a way to help both developers and gamers - let them know what works and what doesn't.
You will always have companies such as CD Projekt that take this feedback seriously and address the criticism with a much improved product. I would like to give Icarus the benefit of the doubt and say they're more than willing to listen and biased reviews(be it technical or preferential in origin) really don't help anyone - especially the developer.
If the game still comes out with the score that it did, it needs to be reflected better within the review.
I agree, people who come here do not need another's opinion about a game(we get enough of that already from all the numerous posts on the forums!), they need facts, about what the game contains, features, hardware requirements, even a walk through of the first few levels to show how the game plays etc.
No thoughts or opinions, and at the very least a score should not be awarded as this gives it a rank which can then be compared to other games, reviewed perhaps by another reviewer, and since reviews are not an exact science it becomes unfair in a way.
MMORPG.com IMHO should be for all mmos and hence seemingly approving of one and not another does not seem right.
These are my own thoughts and may not necessary be the mission of MMORPG
Cracks me up, some idiot reviewer gives Aion a 8.7 and this nut gives Fallen Earth a 6.9. Neither game is as good or as bad as the reviewer assigned numbers indicate.
What is with these ridiculous numbers Stradden? I think you need a personal disclaimer that these clueless reviewers don't have a clue when assigning numbers to a review of a game. What we have basically had here lately is a bunch of reviewers without a standard scale for assigning a review number to a game. Perhaps you should educate your reviewers before they make a fool of themselves.
Personally I would give both games a 7.5. Aion for the beautiful world and Fallen Earth for at least attempting some innovation in the genre.
Pretty sad when entire threads get devoted to discussion of bad choices when assigning review numbers, instead of talking about the review itself.
Taking the time to re-evaluate your own review based on new information is an amicable task and I applaud you for it sir.
Big up for you, Stradden.
Game should be reviewed by those who are actually able to judge a game on it's merrits.
And this particular one isn't the nr. 1 released game according to MMORPG.com members for no reason ;-)
My brand new bloggity blog.
Yo Stradden, I'm happy for you and all and Ima let you finish, but Eurogamer had the best low score review of an independent MMO of all time.
Ok guys,
I've spoken extensively with the reviewer. There was actually a mistake made in the original text. Originally, he was talking about the RAM in the dual video cards, and neglected to mention system RAM. His machine, on top of the video cards, has 4 Gb RAM, more than enough to meet the minimum requirements.
He also assures me that the offending lag comes at peak times and the game does run more smootly when there are fewer players online.
My sincere apologies for any problems that this caused to people. As you can imagine, this has been a bit of an embarasing situation for me. I really should have caught this on my edit of the review. So, continue to crucify me if you want to, but that was my bad and I'm sorry.
As for the score: That's the score that the reviewer chose to give the game. You don't have to like it, you don't have to agree with it but in the end when asked that the game was worth, he told me 6.9. Not everyone is going to like the same kinds of game. In the end, a reviewer scores a game based on his or her own opinions of it.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Fair enough. However, consider this. You're looking at a dog, however, a website calls it a cat, and the review calls it a cat. Do you see a cat or a dog? I challenge you to think for yourself and come up with your own reasons, based on sound reasoning and logic, on why you believe what you believe.
From my experience and definiton set by precedent, Fallen Earth does not fit the sandbox description.
Fallen Earth requires you to do quests to advance your character, because those quests grant AP, which is how you progress your character.
You can't wonder into areas where higher level monsters live, because you'll die.
There are level and skill level requirements to do quests, and equip gear.
No housing or city building.
As the reviewer pointed out, crafting follows the same routine as other games. The only notable exception is that you can craft the best gear, and crafting is in real-time.
Being able to pick and choose where to spend skills makes it a skill-based game, not a sandbox game. That's just the method you advance your character.
Being able to craft the best gear in the game does not make it a sandbox game, it's just the method you gain upgrades.
I've stated that Fallen Earth is not a sandbox game, and have defended that with sound reasoning. My examples of a sandbox game is UO and SWG.
Yeah, seriously, I'm giving my video card RAM when someone asks me about the system specification. Always.
Hi Stradden,
Far from me to be telling you how to perform your role, but in my opinion you are the one to give final sanction to the overall score, not the reviewer.
This is because you have to keep all scores awarded to reviews in line with each other. As you vet all reviews before they go out you can correlate them against each other, and keep the relation between them in line. As people are already comparing this score aginst the Aion score and since both come from MMORPG.com there should be some relationship between the two.
Here's the thing: If I, or any other paid employee of the site, starts being able to dictate the scores that opens us up to more accusations of bias on the behalf of advertisers. While we wouldn't do that, we prefer to keep the scores in the hands of the independent freelancers who write the reviews to insure that the game is given the score that they choose with no intererence from us. That way, there isn't even the slightest rational indication that we monkeyed around with the score for profit.
Now, I completely see your point of view and argument, and it's just as valid, but this is the way that MMORPG.com has been doing things since we started. I know that recently, in our Staff Blog, Dana Massey asked for input on our reviewing policies. I'd suggest you take this suggestion there.
Put it in front of the right eyes.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Seriously, the effect this score can have on a game is a rather large one. I am rather shocked MMORPG doesn't have some ruleset for developing scores or some form of criteria that needs to be met by all INDEPENDANT reviewers.
It could be this sites way of stopping horrendous reviews and creating a much better standard for reviews to come on this site
Is there any way we can have a second review of this game ? The community here obviously has more than a problem with this one.
http://baneoflife.com
So predictable.
REALITY CHECK
Thanks for your response, and i see your point, very valid. Consider this also:
"What value does a score add to a review anyway, to appear more impartial it is something that can easily be left off a review."
EDIT: This is, or should be the definitive MMO site on the Internet, ie the whole world comes here to read and discuss MMOs, as such certain standards need to be in place so that it remains to be independent and objective in what it does. Awarding scores to games is too subjective to remain in line with being independent (more so when there is no uniformly set standard and no accountability or previous experience is required to review).
OK so Aion being the million WoW clone is the best MMO ever and Fallen Earth which, although not for every taste, at least have an hint of originality just 6.9?
MMORPG.com should give up on reviewing games, there is lack of consistency throughout the board.
I am not actually contesting Fallen Earth score, rather Aion one.
I played both of the games, and I would have given both a 6.5/7 for different reasons.
They are both decent games which have pros and cons in different departments.
Aion is not 2 points better than Fallen Earth, it is made for a different audiance but it ain't so much better.
On a scale of 1-10, wouldn't a 5.0 be average? A 6.9 is to the right of 5.0 and was graded a "Mediocre". If you are going to allow independent reviews and advertise them on your front page, some form of uniformity is required. Do you accept individual reviews of this website?
Give an ORIGINAL SOLID INDIE GAME a bad score....
Give an onoriginal Asian grinder best score on website.....
these "reviews" are starting to make me not like this website.
I play all ghame
6.9 seriously
I bet the reviewer is quite content with himself for starting such a ruckus. I'm sure his scoring isn't completely innocent.
Why can't people get this in their heads? A score out of ten should be based on the quality of the game, not the amount you enjoy it. For example, I truly despise WAR, there is no fun to be had for me. I give it a 3/10 in that respect. There are so many mechanical flaws in the structure of the gameplay, it actually upsets me to think of how badly they wasted its potential. However, there are lots of good things in the game too that I can RECOGNIZE others will enjoy, and there is lots of commendable work to be recognized in the game that is been done by the developers. Let me tell you, my review of the game FOR OTHERS TO READ would definitely not be as hard as my 3/10. Thats just unrealistic.
Think above yourself when rating the time and effort that has been spent on something you can so easily strike down with a bad score. FE deserves that extra 0.1 for what it has accomplished (and I am basing that up against the rest of the genre, not against my preferences). It wouldn't have cost you much, Mr. Reviewer, but you selfishly wanted to wound the game.
What baffles me more than anything, is how they could include FE among the 10 Best MMOs Since WoW (which, lets be frank, says ALOT about just how solid this recently launched indy mmo really is) and then let an independent reviewer score it as mediocre.
Ok, so the reviewers score is his own, we get that.
However, is there not some final say or needed approval by the "senior staff" before these reviews are frontpaged? and if so, why do reviews like this ever make it to the frontpage to begin with? especially when they seem to contradict this own sites opinion (as presented in the 10 Best MMOs since... article mentioned above) of said game in question.
This is the exact reaon why i said that they should really leave scores and opinions off their reviews!!!
Because taking this further implies:
According to MMORPG.com: "There have only been 9 games released to date since WoW that are NOT mediocre!"