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Quality Control & MMO Standards?
fenring101
Member UncommonPosts: 80
We have all seen over the past few years how developers seem to be trying to provide less and less whilst still charging the same amount of money that they would if it was a completed game.
Do you think they would still continue to pump out crap on a converyer belt if there were consequences? I know its not really feasable at present, but it really would be a welcome change if there were some sort of governing body which dictated exactly how much a company could charge for a game that wasnt completed.
The idea itself is fairly simple, all games are Graded at launch, and then every six months, from A to F
With A-Rating being $50 box fee and $14.99/month subscriptions
down to F-Rating with $10 box fee and $4.99/month subscriptions
In theory it would stop all these massive developers screwing over people who trust them to give them there moneys worth and it would make a lot of them think just a little bit more about whether they release the game while it is broken, unfinished and not what they have been selling it is, because they would not be able to overcharge people for something that is not finished.
Of all the Gaming Industry the MMO publishers seem to be the worst for this, and they are getting a lot worse because people keep putting up with it, it isnt going to change itself because there are too many people who are willing to give there money away even though they probably wont like it, most not realising that everytime they do this, that the industry as a whole is getting worse and worse.
Launching a Game should be a sense of accomplishment for a developer, not merely smoke and mirrors to con as many people as they can before the smoke clears, and the mirrors turn out to be foil that leaves the players with a game that is total crap and will probably remain so until they finish it.
Comments
All it would take is people to stop buying games at launch. Wait a week and read what others have said. STO only sold 1 million copys because its star trek. Makes me wander what the game will look like in 3 months. Same will be true for KOTOR or what ever its called. it will be OMFG its star wars!!! But 99% of mmo players will never even see something like this so it will never matter. Developers will keep makeing Easy money off of half finished games. So just keep looking for ones you like.
If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude; greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.
Samuel Adams
Its creative freedom etc. The government cannot dictate market prices unless it becomes a monopoly or adversely affects the country (such as a heavy reliance ie gas, medicine, etc); our current market is based on supply and demand. If people are willing to buy something for the asked priced, it will be marked as so -- if people believe its too high, they won't buy. So therefore, if people truely thought that they were being gouged by MMO companies, the companies would have gone out of business due to well.. a lack thereof. Keep buying and a company will slowly see what they can get away with. Furthermore, you are able to mark what you believe your services/products are worth based on your sales expectations. You want a game which only multi-millionaires can play, then so be it. Your choice.
Lastly, you're setting up a scenario to kill indy developers. Just because a game can't "match up" to AAA standards, doesn't mean it should be graded an F which would effectively kill any business because who'd want to buy a game marked as an F, right? Not to mention different games have different costs (development, hardware, technology, staff, location, research, maintenance, etc).
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Games Tried: TCOS, 12sky, 12Sky2, Rappelz, LoA, GO, HO, GMU, Warrock, TR, PWI, SotNW:GE, PotC, EVE, MxO, PotBS, KO, HO, 9Dragons, LotRO, DDO, L2, Maplestory, Second Life, CoX, GW, EQ2, Ryzom, WoW, Planetside, SWG, FE, Aion, Allods, CO, etc
Create laws to give players the right for refund. Problem solved.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
Developers are not trying to get away with less and less for the most part. The players themselves are actually expecting more and more of these newly released games. Simply we as players get accustomed to certain features being present in a game so we expect any new release to have these so called "basic" features. The requirements for a game to be considered "completed" at launch are steadily increasing.
A side effect of trying to do so many things at once is less time put into each individual piece of the game. The more complexity you have in any program the greater the chance of having bugs exist within it. So less time is spent carefully crafting each piece and more pieces are being put together. The result of all of this is a lot more bugs to stamp out before the game is shipped.
There is an old saying that you can have "Good, Fast, Cheap, pick two". It is interesting to note though that most MMO developers have a fixed amount of time and a fixed budget leaving them struggling to pick up that third quantity of "Good".
As far as your suggestion goes. It would never happen and it would never work. The company creating the game always claims that the product is finished but that they are continually trying to improve it. You could give an opinion that the game is unfinished but perhaps as far as the company is concerned it is done and no one is going to work on it again.
It should be kept in mind that it is not the developers that push out the game before it is truly ready but the investors backing it. Simply they have already spent millions on an investment that they wish to see a return on.
Yeah, thats a good idea. After I go to a finish a meal at a restaurant, I think I might tell them afterwards that it sucked. Give me my money back=)
With videogames its buyer beware folks. There are LOADS of reviews and every opinion under the sun at your fingertips. Then there are videos, trials & beta tests. If you buy a game and hate it after using countless tools at your disposal to have an informed idea beforehand, thats YOUR problem, not the game.
Here's an easy one. If a MMO has NO open beta or trial and the NDA is shut tight right up until release, AVOID AT ALL COSTS. Theres a reason a developer would choose to limit a game's exposure, . Only ONE reason. Thats because they do NOT want people playing it.
Blizzard dropped their NDA months before release. ANYONE could play the beta. No pre-order BS special access. Everything you needed to know about the game was there and everyone could play it. You know why? They had ZERO, NO doubt in their mind that the game was fantastic and they were right.
You should check Mortal Online, it makes DF STO CO or any other game's release of that type seem utterly packed with content and polished to perfection.
It is hardly in early Alpha stage, with nearly zero content even by sandbox standards, and as buggy as humanly possible.
yet the developers claim its a beta with all core functionalities done and working, and will start charging for it in some weeks.
so no, there's just common sense to be applied in cases like this. something that sadly an astonishingly high percentage of the gaming community lacks.
mm !one thing is sure we cant relly too much on size of the download anymore
since average asian game is always compressed for now its mp3 and all but soon
they ll adopt the better one like h264,mp4
better quality for even better compression ,so thos 500 mb file will end up in 300 mb format
A grading system is a terrible idea.
We already have video game reviewers destroying companies with overly critical reviews of games in other genres.
You wanna give that type of power to critics in this genre?
Better yet have some self control, Wait for a free trial before trying a new mmo and you wouldn't be wasting any money.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
It would be nice for a change. the critics in this genre look less like critics and a lot like hookers.
pay them and they'll do anything for you, and at the end they will swear you were the best.
thats pretty much what big game companies with terrible products have been doing for years, buy critic reviews and awards.
I want overly critical reviews, if thats the reality.
It would be nice for a change. the critics in this genre look less like critics and a lot like hookers.
pay them and they'll do anything for you and say how awesome time they had with you at the end.
thats pretty much what big game companies with terirble products have been doing for years. Buy critic reviews and awards.
I want overly critical reviews, if thats the reality.
Be careful what you wish for.
Have you read any single player game reviews lately? Critics ignoring funfactor for innovation.
Fun games like Darksiders, bayonetta and now Dante's Inferno getting shit on because they borrow elements of other games.
These games are damn near perfect if rated on Funfactor alone.
Imagine if reviewers did this in the mmo genre?
People follow reviewers like sheep, currently Dante's inferno is getting nothing but low 7s and 6s ratings and due to this the games developers will probably forgo sequels.
To give that much power to reviewers that are nothing but glorified forum trolls is a bad thing.
Do you want critics destroying your favorite game? Do you want the sheep to determine the future of a possible franchise.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP