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problems at launch, will you still play? or never go back?
Silkraven
Member UncommonPosts: 74
I have the experience of trying many games. Some were very smooth at launch, best example would be DAOC. The games i've downloaded and could not play right away, i deleted. So i ask you, do you have patience with a bad launch? bad tech? Or just move on to the next title?
Comments
If a game turns out to be more popular than the servers will handle its worth being a bit patient imo.
WoW it was in all kinds of trouble at lainch until more servers were available, look at it now.
i remember the Anarchy Online launch. Was pretty bad, and i dropped it, only to go back and try it a year later. Played it and liked it. However, i must say i usually will not go back.
If by bad launch you mean the first couple of weeks, I will still give it a chance (along with some blistering criticism). But if you mean the game is a turd at launch and I am supposed to wait months or years for it to improve, then no.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
I regularly try MMOs when they are released adn then revisit them six months to a year later. There is always a marked difference in stability, quality and content when I go back.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
I have played most of the major releases as they have come out and pretty much regardless of the comments or issues they might have had I've generally played them for an extended period of time except for one notable exception. Warhammer, AoC, Tabula Rasa, etc have all been games that I've played and stuck with though have ultimately stopped but would consider going back to and in fact I did retry AoC and found it much improved but just wasn't able to build up any enthusiasm for it.
The one exception? Star Trek Online. I purchased this, tried and put it on the shelf. Maybe I will re-install and try it again when I'm totally bored but I don't see that happening.
P.S. Yes I know TR is dead and offline
This depends on the sort of problems.
If obviously the game, the game mechanics, the technology is broken beyond repair i leave and never come back.
If its only the common rough start and the product it self seems healthy i will stay or come back after a while.
"Torquemada... do not implore him for compassion. Torquemada... do not beg him for forgiveness. Torquemada... do not ask him for mercy. Let's face it, you can't Torquemada anything!"
MWO Music Video - What does the Mech say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF6HYNqCDLI
Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0x2iwK0BKM
you guys have more patience then i do. i feel that a product must be finished, at least for the most part, and trouble free. a few examples : a garment with a defect or hole in it, a new automobile that won't start on rainy days, you get the idea. Things that you pay for have to work. so called free to play is not really free either, so no free pass there either.
I have been a part of a few launches myself and I can honestly say that no game can have a smooth launch. There will always be an issue for a mmo the first year or so. There will be class balance issues, server problems, bugs, etc. That is apart of being apart of a launch though. To say you were there when the game first came out and played through the issues and watched the game become what it has become. I understand that isn't for everyone, but that is just the nature of the beast.
Generally speaking, it seems as if the launch is a microcosm of how the game will run later on. DAOC was a great launch and a great game. Others, not so much.
THough I do remember the first few days of WoW being pretty unstable, and it ended up ok. But I've been burned with enough launch purchases that I simply do not buy at launch anymore, unless I've played an open beta and really enjoyed it. That's why I wouldn't get in on a game like Aion at start - I don't have the means to drop 50 bucks on a chance and a prayer that I might enjoy something I haven't taken for a "test drive."
It depends on the problems and the response. If a game is buggy and the devs are fixing it, fine. If the game is incomplete and broken and the dev refuses to acknowledge anything is wrong for PR reasons, then I'm out.
MMOs are never finished, they are forever evolving patch by patch, so I tend to ignore "launches" and judge all games equally by both the position and momentum of their development - from the first dropped NDA of pre-launch beta through many years after its launch. Yes. a bad launch is a hard hurdle to overcome - but if I hear that a game has a steady heartbeat of improvement over the years, that matters more.
It depends on what sort of problems we are talking about.
If the problems seem specifically related to launch day server issues, such as overwelmed servers (WoW and any number of other games) I don't hold that against them overly much.
As others have said, if the issues seem to be related to the core of the game or gameplay. Or stuff that should have been dealt with in beta or in development than no I will never go back. I don't care how much raving someone does about how uber fantastic patch xyz is that made it a game worth playing. They disrespected me by releasing a turd in a box. They dont get any more of my attention or money. Any number have games have hit this point with me, but WAR and AC2 are probably the best examples.
I make it easy, I refuse to play any game at launch, I won't touch it until it's been "in the wild" for at least 4-6 months and all of the bugs have been worked out. Then, sure, I'll give it a shot. Otherwise, I have no interest in paying to test out their buggy game, overloaded servers and unbalanced system.
Played: UO, EQ, WoW, DDO, SWG, AO, CoH, EvE, TR, AoC, GW, GA, Aion, Allods, lots more
Relatively Recently (Re)Played: HL2 (all), Halo (PC, all), Batman:AA; AC, ME, BS, DA, FO3, DS, Doom (all), LFD1&2, KOTOR, Portal 1&2, Blink, Elder Scrolls (all), lots more
Now Playing: None
Hope: None
I've never come back to an old game to find out that it's a whole new game. If the problems are the sort to drive me away, they run too deep to ever fix. I always think people who defend a game by talking about its potential are either very naive, or maybe just more sensitive to minor issues that I'm willing to overlook to begin with.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
Agree with both Cephus404 and Vhaln.
If a product has fundamental issues that causes me to cancel a subscription (other than lack of enthusiasm over a period of time) then I would never re-subscribe.
Cheers!
"If you think I'm plucky and scrappy and all I need is love, you're in way over your head. I don't have a heart of gold or get nice. There are a lot nicer people coming up. We call them losers."
I'll quit and try again in a few months. Then probably a few months later if it's still rough.
I highlighted the part I thought was most relevant. I usually find out if I dislike a game within that first "free" month that they give you. If the problems you speak of are technical in nautre such as bad frame rate, unstable engine, bad programing or what have you, I can easily find out about these problems from other people who play the game. This is why I usually give a game 2 weeks before I consider buying it, and if in that 2 weeks I hear that it has instability issues then I will put it off till it gets fixed. Now if the problem is things like community and what not, then if I quit I won't be coming back.
You wouldn't buy a car from a newly formed company without asking around about the quality of their product or wait a while for other people to test the waters. That's why I give it all some time. I follow the games I'm interested in but I work hard for my money and I'm careful about how I spend it. I don't spend money on things that don't work. I make sure they work first, then I think about buying them.
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
it depends. If the problems are with the core mechanics then most likely not. But if a game is buggy or just lacks content then yeah I'll wait a while and check some forums to see if changes are being made. If there seems to be improvement then I'll give it another shot. Of course it doesn't always work out. I did after all go back to Horizons once (shudder).
The Moving Finger writes, and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
~Omar Khayyam
I tried UO early on and although I saw the potential of the world, found it unplayable because of the failed social experiment. But I went back after the Tram/Fel split and had an absolutely fantastic time, staying for several years.
There have only been a few games I tried at launch and haven't tried again: AoC, CO and FE. I will not try AoC or CO ever again, but I will probably try FE again later on. AoC was nothing like the game I expected and the community was the worst I've ever seen. CO was not what I expected either, and I got bored with it by the end of my first month. CO had nothing going for it.
There have been two games that had really bad launches that I missed, but I tried them later anyway and really enjoyed playing them: VG and DF. Both still had issues, but were engaging and different enough that I stuck with both for at least a few months. I plan on getting back into DF once I get a good gaming rig.
Current: None
Played: WoW, CoX, SWG, LotRO, EVE, AoC, VG, CO, Ryzom, DF, WAR
Tried: Lineage2, Dofus, EQ2, CoS, FE, UO, Wurm, Wakfu
Future: The Repopulation, ArcheAge, Black Desert, EQN
Nope I never go back , games (mmo) with a bad launch or usually a cash grab. If a bunch of players quit the dev+patch team quicky evaporates.
Its not a big deal for me though i research games before i play them. For example I knew WAR was going to suck from playing the beta. I think i even made a post before it was released, about how crapy it was going to be and got flamed.
Pretty much the only game in the last 3 years i've wasted money on is Age of Conan (by wasted i mean paid for but ended up not liking).
Yes i have done this with a few games. War and AoC i played at release but quit after the free month, then went back later to try them again. WAR still isn't very good, too much realm imbalance. AoC was a lot of fun and was much improved but once i got to end game there just wasn't enough to do.
I should mention i didn't go back because i thought the games were improved or because i had faith in them. I mostly did it out of bordom. Because there just wasn't anything out there i really wanted to play.
I am suffering from that now but have no games left to go back and try. GW2 and Rift need to light a fire under it!
Depends on the game and how it plays. I remember SWG having the worst launch ever. Did I stick with it? Yep, up to the point where unlocking jedi was all about grinding professions at random...but before that, heck yeah.
Stuck with WoW, which had server issues in the beginning. Stuck with Lotro, which I didn't like AS MUCH at the beginning as I do now after their combat tweaks.
Other games though, like AoC, WAR, STO, CO, were so lacking in "world" feel and FUN that I just didn't go back or barely have any inclination to do so anymore.
FFXIV - having a rough time right now, little bit laggy, UI is annoying, and other issues, but the core gameplay I LOVE and I'm sticking with it because I know they will address these issues in time just like all the other "great" games have.
MMORPGs aren't like single player games. Launched and forgotten, maybe a patch or 2 here and there, but mostly forgotten. These games are meant to grow, evolve, change over time and are bound to have issues no matter what.
I must have a "super marsian made computer"
, as the amount of times I read about issue's with certain games I "hardly" encountered them myself and even if I knew of some issue's I am a long time MMORPG player aswell being a full gamer so my patience level seems to be allot higher then the common person who tries to play games.
Now this does not and never means that the games I have played didn't have issue's, but to be honost I read more about those issue's and it never made the games I played unplayable. So most times when I left it was more due to the overall gameplay experiance the games gave me which didn't suite my playstyle, so never really been back except for one game which was Star Wars Galaxies which I played in beta, then from launch till a few weeks into the NGE and then returned in 2007 for about 8 months and really enjoyed it but due to many things happening in rl I hardly had time enough to enjoy the game they way I wanted to.
I'm pretty tolerant of server stability and lag issues when a game launches because those things usually get fixed reasonably quickly anyway as the game settles down. However if a game is so incomplete or buggy that I feel forced to quit then the chances are I will never come back.
There are three fairly objective reasons why I don't feel inclined to give games a second chance if they fail at launch:
1) The chances are that such games will always be behind the development curve. By the time the developers fix all the initial problems they will be months or even years behind in developing new content for customers that have stuck by the game.
2) MMOs with severe problems at launch will rarely capture the size of player base they need to thrive. Moreover, the resulting bad publicity means the game will always be sailing into a headwind as far as attracting new players goes. This usually results in further underdevelopment and underpopulated servers.
3) A game which has been rushed to launch will almost always have some serious compromises to its design which will turn out to be permanent or, at least, very long-term because there are so many more urgent things for the developers to sort out.
Vangaurd is a pretty good example of all of the above but the real killer for me was that the Diplomacy system had been rushed through so badly that it was nothing more than a grindfest. The original concept had so much potential that with a little more development it could have been something really special. However, with all the other problems, it wasn't even on the agenda that they would revisit the core structure of the diplomacy system and I would not be surprised if it hasn't been fixed even now.