Gaming Journalism Hurts the Industry Again. Also, It's Wednesday.

[Lindorn]

I saw your first post. But if you're going to hang out here for awhile, you have to know that there are many posters that are ruthless. I'm a speck of space dust compared to the likes of angry.bob.

I totally understand and I appreciate that believe me.  I know there are some ruthless posters here but you know what?  That's ok too.  Generally the more condescending and vitriolic a person is the weaker their arguments tend to be as well.  I know there is a lot of gold on these boards and I'm willing to "hang" to talk to people like yourself that are willing to be mature about it.

[schild]

I'm willing to "hang" to talk to people like yourself that are willing to be mature about it.

Mature people can say "fuck" and call you a "cockstab" too.

You'll go a lot further ignoring it then you will by trying to be The Censor Police.

[Lindorn]

Mature people can say "fuck" and call you a "cockstab" too.

You'll go a lot further ignoring it then you will by trying to be The Censor Police.

Well luckily I never claimed to be the Censor Police, nor does it bother me if people speak their opinions regardless of how they go about it.  As long as someone isn't being a blatant dick to me 90% of the time I will ignore it.

[Xerapis]

No more censor police?

So everyone can post in the den now?  Oh no, that's right.  Just the special people, so they can always have the last word in any argument.

[cmlancas]

Sorry, f13 can't just promote everyone to level 60. You have to earn your way up to the Den, thanks. Fucking carebears always wanting everything on a goddamn silver platter. "Wah, I can't post in the Den! Fuck these cockblocks!"


Jesus.

[Murgos]

No more censor police?

So everyone can post in the den now?  Oh no, that's right.  Just the special people, so they can always have the last word in any argument.

HELP! HELP! YOU"RE BEING REPRESSED!

edit: I'm way too grumpy in the mornings.

[Xerapis]

Let me spell it out for you.

If respectfully asking someone to stray away from being patronizing = Censor Police!!

Then the Den = Repression.

Geez.  I know the comparison was bitchy and weak, but still.

I tried grinding up to 60 for phat den lewt but the end-Schild-boss TPK'd my contribution attempt.  :P

[cmlancas]

Corp por.


I think it is hilarious that we've used the opening line, "Let me spell it out for you" twice in two posts. Bravo.

Oh, and by the way Lindorn, expect to have someone be a dick to you (cockstab?) 95% of the time.

[WindupAtheist]

They don't want 60 bucks for a book or a DVD.

That's why you don't preorder anything, or buy anything on release day.  If it's an MMO, maybe you don't buy it for the first month.  You practice a bit of restraint, and see what people are saying about it first.  Games "journalism" is a fraud, word of mouth is everything.

[Lindorn]

Oh, and by the way Lindorn, expect to have someone be a dick to you (cockstab?) 95% of the time.

If that is how it has to be then I'll just react accordingly.  Probably by doing what Schild suggested and just ignoring it and/or moving on to a place where the discussion is more about MMORPG's and less about an old western style "who can whip their dick out the fastest" contest.

[cmlancas]

It's not about how fast; rather, with how much authority.

[Xerapis]

And don't face off against the wrong person, or you get a whole posse jumping your ass out of nowhere.

[shiznitz]

The point has been made but it seems to get lost in the other noise.

schild, pick a game you are beta'ing. Write a "report" on it in the format you are proposing. Send it to Trippy so he can put it in  a "lockbox." Two weeks after the game goes live, put the report up here so everyone can judge whether or not you can do what you say you can do.

[Signe]

Why does cmlancas hate angry.bob?   

[cmlancas]

It's not hate -- it's respect! I'd never go toe to toe with angry.bob. I don't want to be one of the first to the wall.

[Xerapis]

The point has been made but it seems to get lost in the other noise.

schild, pick a game you are beta'ing. Write a "report" on it in the format you are proposing. Send it to Trippy so he can put it in  a "lockbox." Two weeks after the game goes live, put the report up here so everyone can judge whether or not you can do what you say you can do.

Pretty sure that won't happen.

Ranting is easy.

[Ironwood]

Fucking Awesome Avatar.

[Hoax]

fucking edit/quote buttons...

[shiznitz]

That kind of feedback isn't worth $1000. My understanding of schild's point is that he can offer more substantive feedback. He specifically mentioned predicting the game's review score within a narrow range of error.

That said, if he really wants to do this then he needs to put a sample out there that people will believe was written well before launch.

[Xerapis]

~insert sound of crickets chirping~

[schild]

At this point, I'd have to be paid to do it for MMOGs.

Why?



That's why.

Xerapis, stop being a dick. It's gotten old. You made your point months ago.

[Xerapis]

Since when did being a dick get old around here?  LOL

And to me, the point was clearly never made.  I mean, my name's not blue, is it? :P

You jumped up and claimed you could do something.  People asked for proof. 

How much do you want?  Maybe some of us could take up a collection just for laughs.

[Trippy]

And to me, the point was clearly never made.  I mean, my name's not blue, is it? :P

You deleted your article. Let it rest.

[Xerapis]

Oh, sure.  After the site owner slammed the article twice in my thread. 

Yeah, I fucking deleted it then.

He ASKED me to do it.  Then slammed it in the thread.

Sure, he apologized in PMs.  But when I said I wasn't sure how to fix it, waiting to follow his lead, there was no follow-up.

It was on him at that point.  And he just stopped talking.

I tell you what.  You spend the time and money I did to write that article for him, then have him shit all over it, and we'll see how well YOU let it rest.

[Trippy]

I'm not sure what you expect to accomplish by constantly bringing up what happened in the past. You certainly aren't currying any favor with him or myself by doing so. If you stilll have a problem with how schild treated you you should take it up with him in PMs or email. The forums are not the place for this sort of thing.

[Ironwood]

Indeed.

On the other hand, it does make one insatiably curious for teh dramaz.

 

[cmlancas]

I think we need some "investigative journalism" here. Mainly, I just want an interview with all the e-dramas so I can have more EvE online type stuff.

Thanks :)

[Hoax]

You need an avatar before you start making demands on other people's time.  Although I agree e-drama is 4tw.

[Trippy]

But just to be fair, I'll spread the blame to you too, Trippy.  You could have frontpaged it, or merged the comment thread with my article.  But neither of you did anything admin-worthy that day. 

Okay see that's where you are wrong. We still have that thread archived and you did not ask for any of that until after you deleted your posts and I wasn't privy to your arrangement with schild beforehand so I had no idea what it was I was supposed to be doing. I made some comments about your posts, went to bed, and when I woke up you had deleted everything. If you had asked me to merge the threads or front page your article I would've done so but instead you deleted your posts before either of us could've done something to appease you. I'll bring back out that thread if you don't believe me on the timeline.

And now that you've dragged me into your mess with schild by blaming me as well for the problem you made unsolvable by deleting all your work hard work, basically cutting off your own nose to spite your face, I don't have any problems with telling you that this is your final warning to STFU about this in the forums. If you want to discuss this privately send me a PM.

Edit: Xerapis did have a post this was a reply to, I swear!

[Xerapis]

Understood.  Clearly this was just one uncoordinated bumbling clusterfuck.  Nuff said.

Edit: Xerapis did have a post this was a reply to, I swear!

But where the fuck did this shit come from?  I've never ninja edited in an argument.  Not cool, man.

Edit:  Oh, I see now.  The den.  That's cute.

[Margalis]

"stop starting us off killing rats/boars/snakes/bats/sheep"
"stop giving quests that tell me to kill X to get X"
"why am I waiting for the fun part after 10 hours /played"
"why is the core gameplay still autoattack + hotkey button for shiney effects of +10 damage"
"fix your face you no talent fuckwads"

These are all useless observations that are very easy to make and very hard to fix.

Someone who is being paid to improve a game would point out things that:

1. Were not immediately obvious
2. Were fixable with some reasonable resources
3. Were worth fixing

Nobody is going to "fix" autoattack-based combat. That sort of observation isn't any more useful than "uh this sucks."

A good suggestion would be something like:

"The LFG tools are lacking and group play is a major part of the game. Here are 5 very specific suggestions on how to improve the LFG options."

Or:

"At low levels many of the classes are too similar, you might want to move X Y and Z character-defining abilities much lower down the XP curve so players quickly understand the core gameplay of the class."

[Xerapis]

Yeah, I'd love to see a more nuts-and-bolts approach to reviewing.

When pointing out all the horrific glaring flaws in a new game, go ahead and explain how you think they could fix that problem.  Realistically, not just snarkily.  Give a decent solution by the numbers.

Preferably using examples of other gaming systems, whether they are from console or computer or handhelds or whatever.  To be honest, I think this is the part Schild with all his esoteric computer knowledge could excel in.  He just needs to spell it out a little better sometimes for those of us who haven't played every game ever created for every system in every country. :P

[Hoax]

OMG Hoax why aren't you taking Shiznit's challenge seriously

1. By the time a game is in a open beta phase where we could perform Shiznit's "challenge" the game is already perma-fucked by the same mediocre design choices we see from every western MMO.

2.  Western MMO's suck so hard this "challenge" isn't worth dick.

Let's look at some recent "AAA" titles..  Fucking VG, LOTRO and christ I'm drawing a blank here what else have we had recently besides another GW xpack?  Anyways, VG wtf are you going to tell them to "fix" for VG?  LOTRO?  These games are flawed from the word go.  They are trying to put a shinier chrome hubcap on the wheel that WoW perfected.  Fuck off with that shit already.

Also the fact that for every MMO you could ask why the game isn't fun for the first 10 hours /played and that is a stupid thing to say because the complaint is "immediately obvious".  But instead we have a ton of endgame apologists or people who get starry eyed over WoW's "quest system".

What would you have told AutoAssault?  Besides that they were making a cars+guns game into a diku clone?  No matter what else they do if thats their core design the game will suck.  I consider that advice to hit two outta three of your categories:

1. Were not immediately obvious
2. Were fixable with some reasonable resources

But whatever, my bad for taking a shot at the clone army that basically amounted to "uh this sucks" they aren't fucking worthy of anything beyond that for my money.  I haven't paid for a MMO subscription since I quit WoW a third time almost a year ago.  Yet I guarantee I've been playing more interesting mmo's / quasi mmo's during that time period then anyone still flogging themselves playing WoW/EQ2/UO or whatever.

[Margalis]

If you claim to offer a vaulable service you should consider having any evidence at all that you can deliver it.

Even a bad game can be made better. The fact that you essentially deny that says to me that you aren't any better at what you claim to be good at than any random person off the street. If you want to be making the design decisions from day 1 get a job as a developer.

[lamaros]

If you claim to offer a vaulable service you should consider having any evidence at all that you can deliver it.

*Waits in vain for a reply from schild*