Syfy + Trion = Defiance MMO Action Shooter (PC 360 PS3)

[Numtini]

Given that they have already sold subscriptions, they may not feel they have an option to do anything other than produce them as a paid product.

I have no idea how they have let things go this far. I remember people chomping at the bit for the DLC when the second episode of the series came out and wondering why it had been delayed so long. I don't think that blog comes even close to the kind of damage control they need to do.

[Pennilenko]

The DLC was originally sold for $29.99. Also the game is shit. I know that at its core there is some decent gameplay stuff stuck in there, but everything else is shit. The pvp is shit. The "class" selection is shit. The itemization is shit. The bullshit to keep you busy is uncreative and shit. Trion should be apologizing to everyone that purchased the game. They should refund DLC purchases. Every single person that worked on Defiance should be locked out of working on another game for the rest of their lives because they are shit.

[Stormwaltz]

What did we decline to comment on?

Richardsson's departure; "Massively confirmed Richardsson's departure with Trion earlier this afternoon, but the company declined to comment further."

I believe they're suggesting that it was not an amicable parting. When high-profile devs leave with neither side saying a word about it ("thanks for your work, good luck" and "great team, I'll miss you"), people wonder.

[Senses]

I'm at such a loss to explain what is going on with this title because as I have said before, it isn't bad.  Of all the crappy games out there this one has so much potential and the fact that its connected to a popular show on Sci-fi, if only in name, makes it even more ridiculous.  They should've just made it a console shooter and let it go.  I would think, if I was a member of the team that spent a lot of time and work on this title, I'd be pretty pissed with the direction the company took on it. 

[Kageru]

Because it is bland, promised a lot and will never deliver on that promise. The "potential" it had is one of the reasons to dislike it.

Though I think part of the fun is seeing how they manage to extricate themselves from a failing game, falling revenues and the promise of continuing content they sold in advance.

[Chockonuts]

In charge now.

Curious.. wonder if he was overseeing the End of Nations fiasco on Trion's end. If so, he could have been the one who told Trion to pull the plug on Petro and bring it in-house..

[Fabricated]

Wasn't RIFT literally a tech test for the making of this thing? Is there some irony in that?

I thought Defiance was okay but there wasn't really any variation or much to do really. I dunno how to put it, but Defiance feels really repetitive and boring in comparison to other 3rd-person cover-based shooters but the other cover based shooters don't really have that much more to do. You just shoot the mans in both but somehow Uncharted/Gears/etc managed to keep the 40th gigantic shoot out different/interesting feeling enough for me to not be completely bored.

[kildorn]

It's that Defiance doesn't even pretend that you're doing something different. It's a giant useless but varied terrain containing a very very tiny number of Rift things you actually wind up doing.

The shooting and whatnot is all very well done and it plays wonderfully. There's just not that much to actually do in it.

[Riggswolfe]

The core gameplay is fun as hell but everything else is lackluster. The story, for what it is, is ok but extremely short.

One of the biggest problems with this game, IMO, is the horrid chat interface. It's hard to have an MMO when I can barely communicate with other players. Add to that the repetitiveness, and the stupid decision to tie it to an IP but set it half a continent away. If they'd set this game in Defiance that'd have sold it so much better. Hell, Defiance and the surrounding areas probably have tons of stuff to do that the show characters aren't handling.

I believe that the decision to make it multi-platform is what killed it. They cut so many corners to put it on 360 and PS3 and it really show, especially in the PC version.

[Chockonuts]

Wasn't RIFT literally a tech test for the making of this thing? Is there some irony in that?

I thought Defiance was okay but there wasn't really any variation or much to do really. I dunno how to put it, but Defiance feels really repetitive and boring in comparison to other 3rd-person cover-based shooters but the other cover based shooters don't really have that much more to do. You just shoot the mans in both but somehow Uncharted/Gears/etc managed to keep the 40th gigantic shoot out different/interesting feeling enough for me to not be completely bored.

A lot of players like to remark on how much it's like Borderlands in ways being shooters blah blah blah.

To me it didn't really feel like that. The difference being Borderlands was funnier, dropped more loot, better weapons, and didn't feel like a grind as you played it because of the story. Strangely a game like Defiance with it's own television show and five years of planning has such a boring story that only actually crosses over a quarter or so of the time so it's hard to get into it except for the face shooting.

This is why I chuckle at people saying the $60 price was worth it because ''Compared to other shooters...'' 

Incidentally, it's now selling for $7 American since it's April launch if anyone hasn't seen the game yet and still wants to try it.  Or you can wait until next month when it will be dropping to 5 Zimbabwean dollars and get it then.

[satael]

Incidentally, it's now selling for $7 American since it's April launch if anyone hasn't seen the game yet and still wants to try it.  Or you can wait until next month when it will be dropping to 5 Zimbabwean dollars and get it then.

Or you can just play the free trial now and save your Zimbabwean currency 

[Pennilenko]

Or you can just not play it and avoid the shit sandwich.

[Chockonuts]

Incidentally, it's now selling for $7 American since it's April launch if anyone hasn't seen the game yet and still wants to try it.  Or you can wait until next month when it will be dropping to 5 Zimbabwean dollars and get it then.

Or you can just play the free trial now and save your Zimbabwean currency 

"Your free trial will start as soon as you sign up, so make sure to download the client immediately after signing up."

Why would anyone do that?

Their patcher sucked so bad that it would take the full 72 hours for them to even get you in the game. You should see how many people have been complaining about that. Even Angry Joe couldn't take it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-iKMWrwl74

Seriously, it was pretty bad. People still having problems from their last trial.

[BlueAvocado]

In charge now.

Curious.. wonder if he was overseeing the End of Nations fiasco on Trion's end. If so, he could have been the one who told Trion to pull the plug on Petro and bring it in-house..

I did work on End of Nations for quite a while but, obviously, can't comment on the move taking it internal.  I moved over to Defiance in the last 6 months before launch.

Also, that Angry Joe video was put up just about 4 days after launch.  We have made a few improvements since then although there are always more to make.

[Falconeer]

Does Schild still make names red?

[Pennilenko]

Does Schild still make names red?

I think only if they survive.

[Typhon]

Why would you want a red name?  Seems counter-productive to anything a dev would hope to get out of posting here.

[Pendan]

Their patcher sucked so bad that it would take the full 72 hours for them to even get you in the game.

Took me about 60 hours to download because the patcher would fail regularly and then on restart would lose progress (has to do with downloading 4 files at once and not being able to restart any files from where it left off if you error or purposely quit out). The 72 hour limit was not that big of deal though because only took a couple hours of play to get to the max 200 whatever they call it points where character can not advance anymore in the trial. You also limited to the first two area just like the open beta weekend. Those two limits mean it is really silly to have just a 3 day time limit. A longer time would not mean you could actually do all that much more.

[Senses]

I thought only baseball players got red names?

[Ghambit]

Oooh, I'll have to start actively watching this thread now eh?   
Release the hounds!!!!!!!

[Chockonuts]

Oooh, I'll have to start actively watching this thread now eh?   
Release the hounds!!!!!!!

Wait until they put out their first promised DLC, then it might be. Until then, it's chuckles and grinnies reading about the state it's in.

[Ghambit]

I was referring to the non-red named lurker dev. in the thread and his impending beatdown.  The game itself?  Not that interested.

[Nija]

Where the hell is that DLC? The entire first season of the TV show has came and went. There wasn't any overlap in the game at all. Didn't someone somewhere say there was like ~15-20% overlap? Ha!

[Numtini]

Not to mention that it seems like the only thing you get out of it is being able to grind through with a new character race.

[Chockonuts]

Where the hell is that DLC? The entire first season of the TV show has came and went. There wasn't any overlap in the game at all. Didn't someone somewhere say there was like ~15-20% overlap? Ha!

Yar, this guy did:

Defiance's Game-TV Crossover is Disappointing

“Around 75-80 percent of the show has nothing to do with the game, so perhaps only 25 percent has to crossover,” Nankin says. “Originally, we were rooting for horses, because it made sense to us in a post-apocalyptic world that people would get around by horse, but the game designers said ‘no we can’t do horses, sorry.’”

[Ghambit]

This whole thread can been summed up by "we really should've made a Fallen Earth TV show instead."   

[Riggswolfe]

I don't think this link needs much explanation:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/09/trion-worlds-closing-defiances-san-diego-development-studio

I am not terribly surprised and suspect this will only further delay the DLC. I think Defiance is going to be the thing that kills Trion if they're not very careful.

[satael]

I don't think this link needs much explanation:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/09/trion-worlds-closing-defiances-san-diego-development-studio

I am not terribly surprised and suspect this will only further delay the DLC. I think Defiance is going to be the thing that kills Trion if they're not very careful.

..or they'll push out whatever they have ready to fulfil the season pass obligations (5 dlcs if I remember correctly) and put the game on bare minimal support staff wise until they can close it without too many objections.

[Kageru]

First they'll make the base game f2p, upgrades and the promised DLC available from the shop for new players. That's generally the initial attempt at resuscitation.

[CmdrSlack]

So...


I rented this from Gamefly. It installed itself on my 360, then took about 30 mins to nab the game client. It then took another 45 minutes to patch.

I am still in the tutorial, I think. I am underwhelmed.

The last MMO to grab me was TSW, and I think my inherent no MMO on the console bias makes me like this even less.

On the upside, I can only quick chat.

[Mrbloodworth]

You can rent it?

[Ginaz]

You can rent it?

360.  Its available on 360, PS3 and PC.  Separate servers for each platform.

[Senses]

Now introducing, CASTITHANS, a completely new playable alien species that looks oddly human but with exciting space tribal tattoos!  Just once I want to see a new race be an amorphous blob of jelly.

[Numtini]

Free to play without a box cost coming in June to coincide with the second season of the tv series. Up to now, I gather they've half assed the expansion packs and they still haven't met their commitment for people who "subscribe" at launch.

Their scheme to link the reputation of the game to the show has worked though. The way the game has been treated has significantly soured me on the show. Probably not what they wanted.

[Falconeer]

How's the show being received anyway? I stopped watching arounf episode 3, I was pretty much bored. But sometimes these things pick up later. I guess people don't hate it if it got a second season on top of not being canceled.