And many of us SAID it was coming, and got slammed for it.
There are legitimates reasons for abandoning the "every month" model, however.
They should've NEVER promised artificial release dates when it comes to developing their software(monthly, quarterly, etc). Saying you'll release a content patch the 1st of every month will either result in buggy releases, or you won't release it on time and you'll break expectations. In SOE's case, players got both a buggy release AND got it late.
Now, to play the devil's advocate here, I DO think they still plan to release every "month-ISH". Just that the realities of my point above have become clear. Probably were ALWAYS clear to the devs, just NOT CLEAR the jabbering idiot reps talking the game up. Certainly not an unheard of phenomenon in software development.
For me, the biggest lie hasn't been the "every month like clockwork" declaration. It's been the amount of content they're talking about. ALOT of content has certainly NOT been what's been coming out. It's about on par with every other MMO development team, which is actually low on an initial release where they have content that didn't make it to release that they just need to finish up.
It shouldn't come as a surprise. If they couldn't come up with more than 30 hours of content in 5 years, how much do you expect them to put out in a month? This was a point I made many times before they released, and largely fell on deaf ears.
It wouldn't surprise me if DCUO will follow GW's model and go B2P with expansions in a cash-shop. IMO this is the only way to promote DCUO for the PS3, since it's not common to have a subscription for a game on a console (I know XBox live has an annual subscription, but that's just the general service compareble with PSNetwork)
First from Smedley himself concerning 'monthly' updates:
"After release you can expect patches from us with new content and all kinds of fun stuff on a monthly basis. We'll actually be doing some patches on a weekly basis if we spot any issues."
"The monthly subscription fee means players can expect a lot of new content from us. And I say a lot - I really mean that. This is something that we feel obligated to the players, because they are paying monthly sub fee."
And from Chris Cao's interview with MMORPG dated 21 March found here:
"Chris kicked things off by giving us a rapid-fire rundown of the content update, which as you may have noticed, is no longer being referenced by month (e.g. last month’s February Update) due to the many variables involved in getting out a massive update to players."
Shocker, SOE can't keep up with pushing content update to players every month.
Shocker, Smedley flat out lied.
Shocker, SOE hasn't changed a bit. And they wonder why their game emptied sooooo fast. Gamers gave SOE their second chance and SOE performed as they always have.
Might be me but I didn't see anything in there that said they were not doing monthly updates anymore, just not calling the updates by the month they are released. If anything it seemed to me they stopped using the names of a month mainly because the updates are adding such major things to the game, or whatever.
But hey, the sky is falling... SOE are the true Axis of Evil...blahblahblah...
Well considering the fact that the Valentines update was what, February 22nd, and it's March 24th and still no update... I would say that the missing monthly label is pretty much a no brainer to understand. It is pretty rediculous with all of the exploits and cheats, I'm not a big PVP guy, but was actually excited to PVP in DCUO, until I started getting phantom damage, and rollover rez damage, not to mention all the other exploits. Stuff that should be easily solved weekly, but SOE, of course, let us down consistently. I've canceled my subscrption, I'll probably check it out next year, while I'm still waiting for SWTOR and GW2 to be released.
Edit: And I'm not saying that two days is a deal breaker, but the February content was weeks late, so I'm going with the orginally timeline.
When I first heard about DCUO, I was excited about a new superhero MMO and double excited about the fact that it was also coming out for the PS3 then I saw the dreaded SOE label attached to it's name and thats when I lost all interest in the game.
Shame really as everything that SOE touches generally turns into sh*t. I vowed never to buy another SOE MMO after what they did to SWG and to this day I have yet to faulter.
Well I remember when this topic was first brought up about how great the updates were going to be and so forth and so on. I pointed out SOE's track record. I was called a troll received some hate email from one person.
All I can say was I told everybody you know this is how they operate, all you have to do is look at eq2, swg, and vanguard.
Vanguard has not had an update in over a year. EQ2 we have them every day since the velious expansion, not because they are adding stuff, but because they botched it so bad that almost everyday they are fixing this or that. Exception was the eq1 stuff they put into eq2 due to the 12 years of eq1. SWG what can I say lol before the nge we had a track record of never getting any updates for long stretches at a time.
Oh well to pretend soe was going to push out updates on a monthly basis was funny to read.
I have to say I do feel sorry for anybody who actually thought things were going to be any different this time around. Don't get me wrong I still play eq2, but I have to be cynical. I know how soe operates.
Might be me but I didn't see anything in there that said they were not doing monthly updates anymore, just not calling the updates by the month they are released. If anything it seemed to me they stopped using the names of a month mainly because the updates are adding such major things to the game, or whatever.
But hey, the sky is falling... SOE are the true Axis of Evil...blahblahblah...
So true!
So what is SOE said monthly updates before the game released.
Then after release they said they needed more time to get the first update polished. It was just the first update.
So what if the holiday content missed the actual holiday by over 1 week.
Then they started referring to them as "roughly" monthly content updates. Again no big deal.
It doesn't matter that the second holiday content has already missed the holiday by a week and still counting.
So what if the updates are not referenced by the name of the month they update and now use a sequential numbering system. I'm sure there will still be 12 updates a year.
Why would it matter that no one has any idea when the content patches go live, get tested or anything like that.
I'm sure everything is fine and SOE will live up to their pre-release promises of significant monthly content updates. It is only natural to assume they didn't mean exactly monthly when they said monthly or that the patches wouldn't cause problems, because they were so untested or that holiday events would take place on the actual holiday. It is unreasonable to have such expectations, even when the developers make those promises.
So I agree that there is to much chicken little going on around DCU. Everything is fine and soe will stand up to their promises.
Might be me but I didn't see anything in there that said they were not doing monthly updates anymore, just not calling the updates by the month they are released. If anything it seemed to me they stopped using the names of a month mainly because the updates are adding such major things to the game, or whatever.
But hey, the sky is falling... SOE are the true Axis of Evil...blahblahblah...
So true!
So what is SOE said monthly updates before the game released.
Then after release they said they needed more time to get the first update polished. It was just the first update.
So what if the holiday content missed the actual holiday by over 1 week.
Then they started referring to them as "roughly" monthly content updates. Again no big deal.
It doesn't matter that the second holiday content has already missed the holiday by a week and still counting.
So what if the updates are not referenced by the name of the month they update and now use a sequential numbering system. I'm sure there will still be 12 updates a year.
Why would it matter that no one has any idea when the content patches go live, get tested or anything like that.
I'm sure everything is fine and SOE will live up to their pre-release promises of significant monthly content updates. It is only natural to assume they didn't mean exactly monthly when they said monthly or that the patches wouldn't cause problems, because they were so untested or that holiday events would take place on the actual holiday. It is unreasonable to have such expectations, even when the developers make those promises.
So I agree that there is to much chicken little going on around DCU. Everything is fine and soe will stand up to their promises.
i wanna play DCUO..... lemme know when it becomes F2P so ill roll villain, i smelled this from the begining and the game is still new.... something told me not to get it, theres still hope for f2p
Might be me but I didn't see anything in there that said they were not doing monthly updates anymore, just not calling the updates by the month they are released. If anything it seemed to me they stopped using the names of a month mainly because the updates are adding such major things to the game, or whatever.
But hey, the sky is falling... SOE are the true Axis of Evil...blahblahblah...
So true!
So what is SOE said monthly updates before the game released.
Then after release they said they needed more time to get the first update polished. It was just the first update.
So what if the holiday content missed the actual holiday by over 1 week.
Then they started referring to them as "roughly" monthly content updates. Again no big deal.
It doesn't matter that the second holiday content has already missed the holiday by a week and still counting.
So what if the updates are not referenced by the name of the month they update and now use a sequential numbering system. I'm sure there will still be 12 updates a year.
Why would it matter that no one has any idea when the content patches go live, get tested or anything like that.
I'm sure everything is fine and SOE will live up to their pre-release promises of significant monthly content updates. It is only natural to assume they didn't mean exactly monthly when they said monthly or that the patches wouldn't cause problems, because they were so untested or that holiday events would take place on the actual holiday. It is unreasonable to have such expectations, even when the developers make those promises.
So I agree that there is to much chicken little going on around DCU. Everything is fine and soe will stand up to their promises.
My sarcasm meter exploded on my desktop and nearly took my eye out... thanks!
While I'm madder than hell at SOE I will say that the game & its 1st month(maybe 1st 2-3 weeks) was worth the price. I do however regret buying the legends plan for $30. It was a great deal, $30 for 3 months but I only bought it because I had foolish hopes of them turning the game around. To be fair to DCUO, the combat was so enjoyable that if I owned a PS3 I'd probably go out & buy the game all over again for the PS3 because from reading the official forums the PS3 version is actually doing fairly well & only has a fraction of the exploits in it. It would suck being stuck at 30fps but the game could be very fun.
The PS3 is most likely the reason for the slow updates as it seems they're releasing updates for both platforms at the same time & I know the PS network(or w/e its called) can be a pain in the butt. None the less, SOE is trash & I'll be tarred & feathered before I ever give them another dime.
Beta testing is the way to go, it has saved me a couple of hundreds dollars.
This.
And lacking the opportunity to get into a beta, usually my friends and I split the cost a copy of a new game that we are not sure is good, and try it out for a day or two. If it is crap, you only end up buying 1/4 or 1/5 of a coaster instead of a $50 one each time. It is not that we can't afford buying one each, but after how many coasters is it enough?
Over the last several years, with the released MMOs all being more or less "meh", it has saved us a good bit of money, as you might imagine.
brilliant idea. I did beta test DCUO for about a week & I loved it & none of the exploits were really present. It did turn out however that a few of the beta testers had been withholding info & were found in release to be exploiting.
Originally posted by Daffid011 Originally posted by Slampig
Might be me but I didn't see anything in there that said they were not doing monthly updates anymore, just not calling the updates by the month they are released. If anything it seemed to me they stopped using the names of a month mainly because the updates are adding such major things to the game, or whatever. But hey, the sky is falling... SOE are the true Axis of Evil...blahblahblah...
So true! So what is SOE said monthly updates before the game released. Then after release they said they needed more time to get the first update polished. It was just the first update. So what if the holiday content missed the actual holiday by over 1 week. Then they started referring to them as "roughly" monthly content updates. Again no big deal. It doesn't matter that the second holiday content has already missed the holiday by a week and still counting. So what if the updates are not referenced by the name of the month they update and now use a sequential numbering system. I'm sure there will still be 12 updates a year. Why would it matter that no one has any idea when the content patches go live, get tested or anything like that.
I'm sure everything is fine and SOE will live up to their pre-release promises of significant monthly content updates. It is only natural to assume they didn't mean exactly monthly when they said monthly or that the patches wouldn't cause problems, because they were so untested or that holiday events would take place on the actual holiday. It is unreasonable to have such expectations, even when the developers make those promises.
So I agree that there is to much chicken little going on around DCU. Everything is fine and soe will stand up to their promises.
Is that sarcasm? My little sarcasm LED is blinking...but it doesn't seem sure of itself.
Anyway, DCUO needs monthly updates. They don't have to be exactly every month, but they need it to maintain subscribers. It's really the only long term thing they have to maintain interest in the game.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
First off... I love the "hate SoE" people who by now is holding on to blind rage as the only way to sustain their life... Feel for you brother and sisters.
Secondly... For those of you feeling rage and hate and other such strong emotions... see a specialist... It is not healthy...
Third... And while i am not happy with the delays i did on the other hand not expect them either as something as small as this -----> . <---- can kill a well timed launch...
Fourth... About the holliday events... I still say.. i rather have them in the game late then not at all... So what if they are a bit of center... afaik we do not have a DCU official calendar.. for all we know valentine was when it was.. =P =D
I thought SOE had changed their ways after SWG, but sadly that is does not seem to be the case. Late updates make for upset player base. With the slow decline on the server pop. I wonder how long this game will last. I just saw that DCUO is now downloadable right from the PS network. I myself love the IP but this no end game content is not for me. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
A couple of people have pointed out that the message quoted doesn not say that updates will not come out monthly. Look again at the reason he gives;
"..due to the many variables involved in getting out a massive update to players."
That's Latin for there is too much involved in these updates to get them out monthly.
They may get an update out in March, but you are kidding yourselves if you think they can sustain it. Not that we blame SOE for not having monthly updates. When the claime was made by Smedley many people on this site and others called him out immediately. We knew that it was unreasonable to expect monthly content updates. Anyone who has spent any time at all in a quality MMO knows a 30 day turnaround in content release is near impossible on one platform. SOE was going to do it on two.
This is about SOE flat out lying AGAIN to it current and future customer base. They have a track record, look it up. I firmly believe the reason the PC side emptied faster than the PS3 side is the PC gamers are well aware of what SOE is about to do to this IP and know that it is in their best interest to get out early.
PS3 users are about to get an education.
Smed knew they couldn't get content updates out on a monthly basis. He knew it when he said it. Everyone in SOE's development team(s) knew it. People on this board pointed this out and were called trolls and whatnot. Well, stand-by. If you are not familiar with SOE's business practices then you too are about to get an education
First off... I love the "hate SoE" people who by now is holding on to blind rage as the only way to sustain their life... Feel for you brother and sisters.
Secondly... For those of you feeling rage and hate and other such strong emotions... see a specialist... It is not healthy...
Third... And while i am not happy with the delays i did on the other hand not expect them either as something as small as this -----> . <---- can kill a well timed launch...
Fourth... About the holliday events... I still say.. i rather have them in the game late then not at all... So what if they are a bit of center... afaik we do not have a DCU official calendar.. for all we know valentine was when it was.. =P =D
Last but not least... Chill the F.... out.
lol, mate, the ONLY people upset over this are the ones paying for late content and lies. The rest of us really are not the least bit upset and I'm sure as hell not "raging". In fact, I'm smiling NEVER in a million years did I think DCUO wold go this well. NEVER! Kudos SOE!!! Kudos!
A couple of people have pointed out that the message quoted doesn not say that updates will not come out monthly. Look again at the reason he gives;
"..due to the many variables involved in getting out a massive update to players."
That's Latin for there is too much involved in these updates to get them out monthly.
They may get an update out in March, but you are kidding yourselves if you think they can sustain it. Not that we blame SOE for not having monthly updates. When the claime was made by Smedley many people on this site and others called him out immediately. We knew that it was unreasonable to expect monthly content updates. Anyone who has spent any time at all in a quality MMO knows a 30 day turnaround in content release is near impossible on one platform. SOE was going to do it on two.
This is about SOE flat out lying AGAIN to it current and future customer base. They have a track record, look it up. I firmly believe the reason the PC side emptied faster than the PS3 side is the PC gamers are well aware of what SOE is about to do to this IP and know that it is in their best interest to get out early.
PS3 users are about to get an education.
Smed knew they couldn't get content updates out on a monthly basis. He knew it when he said it. Everyone in SOE's development team(s) knew it. People on this board pointed this out and were called trolls and whatnot. Well, stand-by. If you are not familiar with SOE's business practices then you too are about to get an education
The thing I don't understand is why the fuck say it?
I mean those of us that have been playing these games for a while knew that was a farce. It simply isn't feasible unless you end up throwing out updates that have no business even going live and end up causing more harm than good. If players can recognize this...and many did. You know damn well they had to. So why even say it to begin with?
I know...I know...because its SOE! Because its Smedley! That's what some will say. Really though, it was completely unneccessary for them to set such an unrealistic timetable that everyone (or I should say most) knew simply wasn't going to be practical and would simply be cannon fodder. Simply doesn't make sense.
With the amount of mmos they have been involved in you would think SOE would be an industry leader in this field. INstead they seem to consistantly squander potential projects and franchises anymore least over the long haul or when you reflect on "what could have been".
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
I don't -hate- SOE anymore (tm). But I still have no idea how their investors can justify keeping Smedley where he is. He constantly messes up like this by making outlandish claims that he -should- know his company can't or WON'T (remember what he said about the CU right before that came out) keep. This is just business 101: NEVER under any circumstances PUBLICLY make a statement of promise that you cannot keep. If he had said this off-handedly to some random person and a reporter had overheard that would be different, but this was an official statement given from his position as an executive.
In almost ANY other company if you had an executive constantly making your company look bad he'd be fired so unbelievably fast his head would spin.
A couple of people have pointed out that the message quoted doesn not say that updates will not come out monthly. Look again at the reason he gives;
"..due to the many variables involved in getting out a massive update to players."
That's Latin for there is too much involved in these updates to get them out monthly.
They may get an update out in March, but you are kidding yourselves if you think they can sustain it. Not that we blame SOE for not having monthly updates. When the claime was made by Smedley many people on this site and others called him out immediately. We knew that it was unreasonable to expect monthly content updates. Anyone who has spent any time at all in a quality MMO knows a 30 day turnaround in content release is near impossible on one platform. SOE was going to do it on two.
This is about SOE flat out lying AGAIN to it current and future customer base. They have a track record, look it up. I firmly believe the reason the PC side emptied faster than the PS3 side is the PC gamers are well aware of what SOE is about to do to this IP and know that it is in their best interest to get out early.
PS3 users are about to get an education.
Smed knew they couldn't get content updates out on a monthly basis. He knew it when he said it. Everyone in SOE's development team(s) knew it. People on this board pointed this out and were called trolls and whatnot. Well, stand-by. If you are not familiar with SOE's business practices then you too are about to get an education
The thing I don't understand is why the fuck say it?
I mean those of us that have been playing these games for a while knew that was a farce. It simply isn't feasible unless you end up throwing out updates that have no business even going live and end up causing more harm than good. If players can recognize this...and many did. You know damn well they had to. So why even say it to begin with?
I know...I know...because its SOE! Because its Smedley! That's what some will say. Really though, it was completely unneccessary for them to set such an unrealistic timetable that everyone (or I should say most) knew simply wasn't going to be practical and would simply be cannon fodder. Simply doesn't make sense.
With the amount of mmos they have been involved in you would think SOE would be an industry leader in this field. INstead they seem to consistantly squander potential projects and franchises anymore least over the long haul or when you reflect on "what could have been".
I believe they said it to justify the price of the subscription.
Many of the people that played this game in beta were spot on when they said how short this game was on content - short in both the amount and the variety of content. There were a very large number of people that were questioning whether or not DCUO was worth a subscription given the overall game before release.
A sub was going to be "worth the price" given the promise that significant content would come out on a monthly basis.
Comments
And many of us SAID it was coming, and got slammed for it.
There are legitimates reasons for abandoning the "every month" model, however.
They should've NEVER promised artificial release dates when it comes to developing their software(monthly, quarterly, etc). Saying you'll release a content patch the 1st of every month will either result in buggy releases, or you won't release it on time and you'll break expectations. In SOE's case, players got both a buggy release AND got it late.
Now, to play the devil's advocate here, I DO think they still plan to release every "month-ISH". Just that the realities of my point above have become clear. Probably were ALWAYS clear to the devs, just NOT CLEAR the jabbering idiot reps talking the game up. Certainly not an unheard of phenomenon in software development.
For me, the biggest lie hasn't been the "every month like clockwork" declaration. It's been the amount of content they're talking about. ALOT of content has certainly NOT been what's been coming out. It's about on par with every other MMO development team, which is actually low on an initial release where they have content that didn't make it to release that they just need to finish up.
It shouldn't come as a surprise. If they couldn't come up with more than 30 hours of content in 5 years, how much do you expect them to put out in a month? This was a point I made many times before they released, and largely fell on deaf ears.
It wouldn't surprise me if DCUO will follow GW's model and go B2P with expansions in a cash-shop. IMO this is the only way to promote DCUO for the PS3, since it's not common to have a subscription for a game on a console (I know XBox live has an annual subscription, but that's just the general service compareble with PSNetwork)
Well considering the fact that the Valentines update was what, February 22nd, and it's March 24th and still no update... I would say that the missing monthly label is pretty much a no brainer to understand. It is pretty rediculous with all of the exploits and cheats, I'm not a big PVP guy, but was actually excited to PVP in DCUO, until I started getting phantom damage, and rollover rez damage, not to mention all the other exploits. Stuff that should be easily solved weekly, but SOE, of course, let us down consistently. I've canceled my subscrption, I'll probably check it out next year, while I'm still waiting for SWTOR and GW2 to be released.
Edit: And I'm not saying that two days is a deal breaker, but the February content was weeks late, so I'm going with the orginally timeline.
When I first heard about DCUO, I was excited about a new superhero MMO and double excited about the fact that it was also coming out for the PS3 then I saw the dreaded SOE label attached to it's name and thats when I lost all interest in the game.
Shame really as everything that SOE touches generally turns into sh*t. I vowed never to buy another SOE MMO after what they did to SWG and to this day I have yet to faulter.
I rather dev postpone the game for 1 more year and add 12 month worth of content than making big promise about big content patch montly.
Seeing is believing, big talk and big promise equate to harder fallout with community
Well I remember when this topic was first brought up about how great the updates were going to be and so forth and so on. I pointed out SOE's track record. I was called a troll received some hate email from one person.
All I can say was I told everybody you know this is how they operate, all you have to do is look at eq2, swg, and vanguard.
Vanguard has not had an update in over a year. EQ2 we have them every day since the velious expansion, not because they are adding stuff, but because they botched it so bad that almost everyday they are fixing this or that. Exception was the eq1 stuff they put into eq2 due to the 12 years of eq1. SWG what can I say lol before the nge we had a track record of never getting any updates for long stretches at a time.
Oh well to pretend soe was going to push out updates on a monthly basis was funny to read.
I have to say I do feel sorry for anybody who actually thought things were going to be any different this time around. Don't get me wrong I still play eq2, but I have to be cynical. I know how soe operates.
So true!
So what is SOE said monthly updates before the game released.
Then after release they said they needed more time to get the first update polished. It was just the first update.
So what if the holiday content missed the actual holiday by over 1 week.
Then they started referring to them as "roughly" monthly content updates. Again no big deal.
It doesn't matter that the second holiday content has already missed the holiday by a week and still counting.
So what if the updates are not referenced by the name of the month they update and now use a sequential numbering system. I'm sure there will still be 12 updates a year.
Why would it matter that no one has any idea when the content patches go live, get tested or anything like that.
I'm sure everything is fine and SOE will live up to their pre-release promises of significant monthly content updates. It is only natural to assume they didn't mean exactly monthly when they said monthly or that the patches wouldn't cause problems, because they were so untested or that holiday events would take place on the actual holiday. It is unreasonable to have such expectations, even when the developers make those promises.
So I agree that there is to much chicken little going on around DCU. Everything is fine and soe will stand up to their promises.
Well said sir!
i wanna play DCUO..... lemme know when it becomes F2P so ill roll villain, i smelled this from the begining and the game is still new.... something told me not to get it, theres still hope for f2p
My sarcasm meter exploded on my desktop and nearly took my eye out... thanks!
While I'm madder than hell at SOE I will say that the game & its 1st month(maybe 1st 2-3 weeks) was worth the price. I do however regret buying the legends plan for $30. It was a great deal, $30 for 3 months but I only bought it because I had foolish hopes of them turning the game around. To be fair to DCUO, the combat was so enjoyable that if I owned a PS3 I'd probably go out & buy the game all over again for the PS3 because from reading the official forums the PS3 version is actually doing fairly well & only has a fraction of the exploits in it. It would suck being stuck at 30fps but the game could be very fun.
The PS3 is most likely the reason for the slow updates as it seems they're releasing updates for both platforms at the same time & I know the PS network(or w/e its called) can be a pain in the butt. None the less, SOE is trash & I'll be tarred & feathered before I ever give them another dime.
Beta testing is the way to go, it has saved me a couple of hundreds dollars.
This.
And lacking the opportunity to get into a beta, usually my friends and I split the cost a copy of a new game that we are not sure is good, and try it out for a day or two. If it is crap, you only end up buying 1/4 or 1/5 of a coaster instead of a $50 one each time. It is not that we can't afford buying one each, but after how many coasters is it enough?
Over the last several years, with the released MMOs all being more or less "meh", it has saved us a good bit of money, as you might imagine.
^
brilliant idea. I did beta test DCUO for about a week & I loved it & none of the exploits were really present. It did turn out however that a few of the beta testers had been withholding info & were found in release to be exploiting.
So what is SOE said monthly updates before the game released.
Then after release they said they needed more time to get the first update polished. It was just the first update.
So what if the holiday content missed the actual holiday by over 1 week.
Then they started referring to them as "roughly" monthly content updates. Again no big deal.
It doesn't matter that the second holiday content has already missed the holiday by a week and still counting.
So what if the updates are not referenced by the name of the month they update and now use a sequential numbering system. I'm sure there will still be 12 updates a year.
Why would it matter that no one has any idea when the content patches go live, get tested or anything like that.
I'm sure everything is fine and SOE will live up to their pre-release promises of significant monthly content updates. It is only natural to assume they didn't mean exactly monthly when they said monthly or that the patches wouldn't cause problems, because they were so untested or that holiday events would take place on the actual holiday. It is unreasonable to have such expectations, even when the developers make those promises.
So I agree that there is to much chicken little going on around DCU. Everything is fine and soe will stand up to their promises.
Is that sarcasm? My little sarcasm LED is blinking...but it doesn't seem sure of itself.
Anyway, DCUO needs monthly updates. They don't have to be exactly every month, but they need it to maintain subscribers. It's really the only long term thing they have to maintain interest in the game.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
First off... I love the "hate SoE" people who by now is holding on to blind rage as the only way to sustain their life... Feel for you brother and sisters.
Secondly... For those of you feeling rage and hate and other such strong emotions... see a specialist... It is not healthy...
Third... And while i am not happy with the delays i did on the other hand not expect them either as something as small as this -----> . <---- can kill a well timed launch...
Fourth... About the holliday events... I still say.. i rather have them in the game late then not at all... So what if they are a bit of center... afaik we do not have a DCU official calendar.. for all we know valentine was when it was.. =P =D
Last but not least... Chill the F.... out.
This have been a good conversation
I thought SOE had changed their ways after SWG, but sadly that is does not seem to be the case. Late updates make for upset player base. With the slow decline on the server pop. I wonder how long this game will last. I just saw that DCUO is now downloadable right from the PS network. I myself love the IP but this no end game content is not for me. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
That was his point...
Too bad he doesn't know what EA does to games and IPs. He would wish it were done by SOE if he knew.
Its time for Lex Lutor to execute Order 66................
LOL
A couple of people have pointed out that the message quoted doesn not say that updates will not come out monthly. Look again at the reason he gives;
"..due to the many variables involved in getting out a massive update to players."
That's Latin for there is too much involved in these updates to get them out monthly.
They may get an update out in March, but you are kidding yourselves if you think they can sustain it. Not that we blame SOE for not having monthly updates. When the claime was made by Smedley many people on this site and others called him out immediately. We knew that it was unreasonable to expect monthly content updates. Anyone who has spent any time at all in a quality MMO knows a 30 day turnaround in content release is near impossible on one platform. SOE was going to do it on two.
This is about SOE flat out lying AGAIN to it current and future customer base. They have a track record, look it up. I firmly believe the reason the PC side emptied faster than the PS3 side is the PC gamers are well aware of what SOE is about to do to this IP and know that it is in their best interest to get out early.
PS3 users are about to get an education.
Smed knew they couldn't get content updates out on a monthly basis. He knew it when he said it. Everyone in SOE's development team(s) knew it. People on this board pointed this out and were called trolls and whatnot. Well, stand-by. If you are not familiar with SOE's business practices then you too are about to get an education
lol, mate, the ONLY people upset over this are the ones paying for late content and lies. The rest of us really are not the least bit upset and I'm sure as hell not "raging". In fact, I'm smiling
NEVER in a million years did I think DCUO wold go this well. NEVER! Kudos SOE!!! Kudos!
I don't think this is too shocking for anyone.
Those who had played MMO's in the last 5 years didn't expect them to keep monthly updates going.
I think AC was the last MMO with regular monthly updates.
The thing I don't understand is why the fuck say it?
I mean those of us that have been playing these games for a while knew that was a farce. It simply isn't feasible unless you end up throwing out updates that have no business even going live and end up causing more harm than good. If players can recognize this...and many did. You know damn well they had to. So why even say it to begin with?
I know...I know...because its SOE! Because its Smedley! That's what some will say. Really though, it was completely unneccessary for them to set such an unrealistic timetable that everyone (or I should say most) knew simply wasn't going to be practical and would simply be cannon fodder. Simply doesn't make sense.
With the amount of mmos they have been involved in you would think SOE would be an industry leader in this field. INstead they seem to consistantly squander potential projects and franchises anymore least over the long haul or when you reflect on "what could have been".
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
I don't -hate- SOE anymore (tm). But I still have no idea how their investors can justify keeping Smedley where he is. He constantly messes up like this by making outlandish claims that he -should- know his company can't or WON'T (remember what he said about the CU right before that came out) keep. This is just business 101: NEVER under any circumstances PUBLICLY make a statement of promise that you cannot keep. If he had said this off-handedly to some random person and a reporter had overheard that would be different, but this was an official statement given from his position as an executive.
In almost ANY other company if you had an executive constantly making your company look bad he'd be fired so unbelievably fast his head would spin.
I believe they said it to justify the price of the subscription.
Many of the people that played this game in beta were spot on when they said how short this game was on content - short in both the amount and the variety of content. There were a very large number of people that were questioning whether or not DCUO was worth a subscription given the overall game before release.
A sub was going to be "worth the price" given the promise that significant content would come out on a monthly basis.
Hell hath no fury like an MMORPG player scorned.