Elemental - Now Fallen Enchantress

[Typhon]

I'll be buying it. The way I look at it, Kael wouldn't accept donations for FFH2, and I've sunk hundreds of hours into that game. If I get two hours out of FE, I'll still feel like I got my money's worth. Probably doesn't make sense, but there it is.

Hopefully it will be on steam. I look at dumping Impulse as a good thing, it's what kept me from buying galciv2.

I'm in the same camp, got so much play out of FFH2 that I won't pass up the opportunity to give something back.  Really, really hoping that he can fix what's wrong so that he'll have a third chance.

[Ingmar]

Except you're rewarding Brad Wardell far more than you are Kael. It isn't like he's getting a percentage.

[Stormwaltz]

More pre-beta footage.

[Reg]

It still doesn't look different from the original crappy Elemental game. He should stop releasing these videos until he has something to show.

[Stormwaltz]

People who had preordered Elemental received an email inviting them download the beta for Fallen Enchantress tomorrow. There will be no NDA.

[Reg]

Yup, just got the email. I think I'll skip the beta and just wait for the real release to give it a fair chance.

[Ingmar]

You say that like it deserves one.

[Reg]

Well, I'm one of the fools who preordered Elemental so it's free for me.  It's not like I have plans EVER to give money to Stardock again.

[Yegolev]

What Reg said.

For archival purposes:

[Sir T]

Got my email too. I'll be giving this a fair shot and giving feedback.

[Reg]

You're going to download the beta? Let us know what you think. The youtube videos Wardell released didn't impress me much.

[Soln]

Is there a Q23 update?  I think Im serious.

Edit: I likey Kael muchly which is why I still watch this... project?

[Sky]

Being a resident Kael fan, I'm also watching it.

However, there still seems to be way too much Brad in it. I don't think he is capable of admitting he fucked up and letting Derek fix things for him. Watching him talk over the footage was painful.

[Murgos]

It's going to take a lot of convincing to get me to try this.  Brad was posting about how great the AI was mere days before launch (because he was the one working on the AI) and it turns out the game pretty much had no AI to speak of.

To do that after all that grandstanding with the gamers bill of rights crap is beyond the pale.

[JWIV]

Just fired this up and tooled around for maybe 10 minutes.  First impressions are that this is a much cleaner game already than Elemental was.  A lot more interesting stats and quirks on the pre-generated characters, a more fleshed out make your own guy.  The tutorial is pretty solid, with some nice videos.   The playmap pops with a more vibrant palette.     Will definitely need to spend more time with this.

[Lightstalker]

I knew I shouldn't reinstall, but I did it anyway.  Crashed on first launch.

I know I should have quit then while I was ahead but I started playing.  DX Error: Invalid Call after 30 minutes of play.

I guess I didn't pre-order Elemental since I don't have an option to download the beta for Enchantress; I suppose that just saves me the bitter tears of playing.

[Xilren's Twin]

Just as an FYI you also get the beta email if you simply purchased Elemental before Nov 1 2010.
I'll check out the new one when i get my first sw character to 50. :)

[JWIV]

So far I'm a bit mixed about this.  It's definitely improved in terms of UI and overall gameplay.  But they continue to half-ass certain things - my current frustration being with they'll give you informational feedback about what a certain decision or option does, but only half the time.  It'll be like, this skill does X, but if I want to select a new spell path for instance, I can't see what SPELLS are actually in the god damn path.   Annoying as hell. 

[Sky]

Pre-orders on the site now give beta access, so technically the game is for sale (card charged when beta access is granted). $30 if you bought Elemental in 2011, $40 for new purchases.

[JWIV]

Looks like Brad isn't done shitting all over his own company yet.   

http://pdfcast.org/pdf/brad-wardell-sues-employee-for-one-million-dollars

[Murgos]

Looks like Brad isn't done shitting all over his own company yet.   

http://pdfcast.org/pdf/brad-wardell-sues-employee-for-one-million-dollars

Ah, it's the marketing managers fault that Elemental was a piece of shit because Brad couldn't spend those '3 weeks prior to launch' brilliantly finishing code and had to recreate marketing materials.

It's amazing that three weeks for Brads time as a programmer & debugger is worth ~1,000,000 USD.  Although, you would think that once the game had launched he could have fixed all the broken in three weeks of un-distracted 'programming and debugging'.

[Ingmar]

I was just coming here to link this. What a goddamn waste of oxygen that dude is.

[Trippy]

Looks like Brad isn't done shitting all over his own company yet.   

http://pdfcast.org/pdf/brad-wardell-sues-employee-for-one-million-dollars

Ah, it's the marketing managers fault that Elemental was a piece of shit because Brad couldn't spend those '3 weeks prior to launch' brilliantly finishing code and had to recreate marketing materials.

It's amazing that three weeks for Brads time as a programmer & debugger is worth ~1,000,000 USD.  Although, you would think that once the game had launched he could have fixed all the broken in three weeks of un-distracted 'programming and debugging'.

It doesn't say his time (the Plaintiff) time was worth $1 million -- it's the estimate of how much the destruction of the marketing materials and the repercussions from that cost the company:

As a result of the loss of the Elemental Materials, and the detraction from programming,
debugging and other responsibilities, Elemental was unsuccessful in the marketplace, earning
a fraction of its anticipated profits and causing Plaintiff damages of over $1,000,000.

If this person really did destroy these materials she should get sued, even if Brad is an asshole.

[Amaron]

Yea I'm reading through that (anyone have an actual article?) but it's worded like she quit in a huff and took/destroyed materials relating to her job.   Interestingly this happened prior to Elemental being released?   The implication being that her actions led to him having to spend time cleaning up the mess.

[Ingmar]

The idea that the failure of Elemental was caused by bad marketing, it's just unbelievably ridiculous. The only thing better marketing would have done is cost them more money in processing refunds.  

Also:

"Lack of time wasn't the issue," Wardell admits. "It was blindness, sheer blindness. We felt the game was finished."

He's going to get laughed out of the courtroom.

[Maledict]

I was about to say - he's on record as saying another 6 months wouldn't have made a difference because they thought the game was great and done. That's not going to help in court.

[Amaron]

The claim doesn't have anything to do with how well the game did.  It simply states she stole/destroyed materials that had to be recreated.

[Ingmar]

The claim doesn't have anything to do with how well the game did.  It simply states she stole/destroyed materials that had to be recreated.

30. Additionally, Plaintiff had to spend vital time leading up to the release of Elemental attempting to re-create the Elemental Materials, rather than programming, debugging and otherwise readying Elemental for release.

Seems to imply pretty clearly that they're saying that if they hadn't had to spend all that precious time recreating marketing materials, they'd have had time to fix the game. Which sounds like a vaguely logical case until the defendant's lawyer spends 3 minutes Googling up all kinds of quotes from Wardell that contradict it. Or just points out that 6 months wasn't enough time to fix the game after release.

[kildorn]

Not fix the game, but manage to sell another million in profits.

The logical counter argument would be "all your customers wanted refunds because the code was crap"

I'm not sure how legit the entire thing is. They waited two years to file, when the allegations imply they knew it prior to release (the 5k to restore data), and there was just a lawsuit the other way (lady vs Wardell) that nobody knows what was about because the county it was filed in doesn't keep awesome electronic filing records of everything.

[Typhon]

I don't see how the worth of the game is material to this lawsuit.  The questions to me seem to be:

1) If there was better marketing would more people have bought the game?
2) Did the destruction of the marketing materials result in marketing that was less successful then would have been enjoyed had the marketing not been destroyed.
3) Did the destruction of property cause staff to have to spend time apart from their normal duties - this isn't saying "I could have made the game great!", this is saying, "destruction of marketing materials prevented staff from perusing vital activities otherwise related to their jobs".  The are arguing that the value of the marketing materials was both lost revenue and lost time.

If I had any idea about how much effort had gone into the materials she destroyed, I might say 'yes' to all three.  But probably only 'yes' to the first two, three strikes me as a sort of double-dipping.

[Amaron]

Seems to imply pretty clearly that they're saying that if they hadn't had to spend all that precious time recreating marketing materials, they'd have had time to fix the game.

I'm not a lawyer but I don't think what it implies matters in this context.   My programmer brain is processing it as:

[DEFENDANT] destroyed X materials.  [PLAINTIFF] spent Y*veryexpensivetime restoring materials.

[Ingmar]

Well, that math clearly doesn't reach 1 million dollars; in order to get that out of it they pretty much have to be saying 'and it also cost us sales'.

[Soln]

f13 haz lawyers.  Page them in here for a consult.

[Yegolev]

I have learned something in my time working for corporations: everyone is a lying liar.  Also, I need to finish reading The Prince.  The truth isn't important so much as records and legal positioning.  Too bad Elemental is still shitty.

[Khaldun]

However the case goes, it's not going to help Wardell's reputation for being a tendentious asshole.