Video Game Industry Thread: Master Chief -- script delivery boy

The_Scarab

Also, it's an internet poll. Three words: biased sample data.

Dragkonias

Undead Scottsman wrote: »

That doesn't mean they should be the #1 worst company winner though, which is where the beef comes in. In the end causing a recession IS something I'd highlight more than some shitty DLC practices, which aren't even the worst in the industry IMO.

Yeah. I'd say Capcom wins that fight.

Then there are a lot of smaller companies with really annoying DLC practices(like Idea Factory) but they are so small that no one pays attention to them anyway.

TheSonicRetard

Aegeri wrote: »

On internet polls, didn't Hank the Angry Drunken dwarf nearly when peoples magazines most beautiful person award or something? And yes, yes indeed he did actually manage to win by a landslide. Of course there was all kinds of vote rigging and other things going on behind the scenes with this.

None the less, you don't piss off the internet unless you want them to take it out on you in a convenient fashion. Pretty much what EA has learned.

this speaks volumes more about how stupid the voters in that poll are than how evil EA is. That they would put "omg vidya gaemz" over the shit that bank of america does is idiotic.

SwashbucklerXX

It would be nice if EA responded to the Consumerist poll internally by perhaps backing off a bit on the flood of DLC/obnoxious DRM and thinking about improving their piss-poor customer and technical support. I mean, sure, the other companies deserved a win far more than EA did, but there are reasons EA got its reputation in the first place.

In the past month, three members of my family have needed customer or technical support from EA for vastly different games/reasons. None of us got anything close to resembling help with our problems, despite multiple attempts to get help on the part of the two of us who are tech-savvy. My mother, who needed help with a technical issue she was having with Pogo.com, just felt embarrassed by the way the tech talked down to and then refused to help her and bugged the rest of us until we figured out how to fix it ourselves. It was a fairly simple setting problem in IE, too... a tech support person shouldn't have had a problem helping her, and it only took the rest of the family so long because we were long-distance and hadn't used IE in years.

I swear I've never heard anybody talk about customer interactions with EA's support department in a positive way. I mean, I've had a better track record with World of Warcraft support than I have with EA support, and that's saying something.

GnomeTank

Dragkonias wrote: »

I'm surprised people would even humor what is pretty much a pile of bigotry.

That pile of bigotry has a lot of money and a huge lobby, even if it's actual percentage of the population is incredibly small. ~60% of the country supports gay marriage, give or take ~3% depending on the poll. Why do we still not have marriage equality? Because the social conservative lobby is crazy powerful and crazy rich.

Dragkonias

Well. I think most people have just accepted that customer support is usually terrible in general.

I'm more surprised when I have a good experience with CS instead of a bad one.

The_Scarab

moot winning the Time person of the year thing was funnier. Marblecake also the game showed how useless even the most respected internet polls are.

Dragkonias

The_Scarab wrote: »

moot winning the Time person of the year thing was funnier. Marblecake also the game showed how useless even the most respected internet polls are.

The problem with internet polls is, like with most public polls, only people who have an interest in it are going to take part in it.

Therefore, you tend to get very skewed numbers.

The_Scarab

Also, they're easily rigged.

Muddy Water

Obviously, EA doesn't need to worry themselves about being the worst company in America. But they still need to do some... uhh, soul searching to figure out why their brand has such an awful reputation. Even if the poll was hijacked by angry gamers, they did vote for EA as the worst, and not Activision or Capcom.

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

there is no fucking way EA is the worst company of the year, or even the worst company nominated in that dumb poll. Frankly it's kind of disappointing that one of the few journalism/muckraking sites I actually sort of respect would even endorse such a dumb poll conclusion.

I mean EA's guilty of what, having poor customer support and charging you more for DLC than you think they should?

Skull2185

Muddy Water wrote: »

Obviously, EA doesn't need to worry themselves about being the worst company in America. But they still need to do some... uhh, soul searching to figure out why their brand has such an awful reputation. Even if the poll was hijacked by angry gamers, they did vote for EA as the worst, and not Activision or Capcom.

That's because Mass Effect 3 is the most recent thing that its cool to be upset about.

Shimshai

Muddy Water wrote: »

Obviously, EA doesn't need to worry themselves about being the worst company in America. But they still need to do some... uhh, soul searching to figure out why their brand has such an awful reputation. Even if the poll was hijacked by angry gamers, they did vote for EA as the worst, and not Activision or Capcom.

I'd say a lot of it is due to Mass Effect 3.

TheSonicRetard

Muddy Water wrote: »

Obviously, EA doesn't need to worry themselves about being the worst company in America. But they still need to do some... uhh, soul searching to figure out why their brand has such an awful reputation. Even if the poll was hijacked by angry gamers, they did vote for EA as the worst, and not Activision or Capcom.

I don't think capcom was ever a poll option.

Dragkonias

Muddy Water wrote: »

Obviously, EA doesn't need to worry themselves about being the worst company in America. But they still need to do some... uhh, soul searching to figure out why their brand has such an awful reputation. Even if the poll was hijacked by angry gamers, they did vote for EA as the worst, and not Activision or Capcom.

But Activision and Capcom haven't really done anything to piss gamers off by and large at the moment.

I mean Activision hasn't done much of anything except what they usually do.

Capcom had the whole thing with their on-disc DLC but at the same time hardcore fighting game fans tend to be fewer in numbers(they also don't tend to be as obsessive as your hardcore RPG fan). Not only that but on-disc DLC isn't really anything new.

Take that with the whole thing on ME3's ending which a month out people are still complaining about.

Believe me, if Bobby Kotick had recently came out and said they'd be sacrificing puppies to Satan during the development of the next CoD they'd be up there.

TheSonicRetard

Capcom's been on a slow burn of hate lately. The stuff they did to megaman, the way they handled SSFIV, then UMvC, and now the SFxTekken stuff, the way DmC is turning out, the megaman X iphone port with DLC to finish the game for you... none of them rile people up en-masse, but they build up to a lot of awful anti-consumer practices.

Dragkonias

Yeah.

Honestly, the only reason I don't think we have more DLC complaints about Capcom is because Japan in general seems reluctant on the whole DLC thing outside of the most minor stuff.

cloudeagle

korodullin wrote: »

While I agree that overall EA isn't nearly as terrible as a company like Bank of America or AT&T or any number of other horrible corporate entities in the US and that the Worst Company poll was pretty much compromised by Reddit, 4chan, and Bioware forum poll-bombing almost solely due to frustration over the ME3 ending and Bioware's PR handling of it (which Jessica Chobot's recent redacted blog did nothing to help the situation)

...against my better judgement, I'll ask what kind of carefully-researched, thought provoking conclusions the person who became famous solely for licking a PSP came up with.

Astale

Internet polls are both highly biased and commonly used as a vehicle for casual trolling? I'm shocked! Shocked I say! Well not that shocked.

Brainiac 8

TheSonicRetard wrote: »

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

Darmani wrote: »

Okay so it seems the WiiU specs were leaked and its same story as last gen. Not enough graphics power and not favorable for the Western third party developer.

Am I interpreting this correctly?

I mean it seems there is a lack of shaders and the graphics chips are weak, somehow, Is that accurate?

The specs weren't leaked. Unnamed 'devs' claimed that it wasn't as powerful, but other actual named devs with actual games in the works have said that it is quite powerful.

So, the question is who to believe.

We won't really know anything until Nintendo tells us themselves. This E3 should give us more actual information.

I would like to point out that the named Dev is a director, which, while not an indication that they're technologically ignorant, doesn't necessarily put them in a position to be able to make judgement calls about hardware performance. I've heard enough stories from lead programmers about producers and directors who don't know a damn thing about the hardware when setting milestone deadlines to know that, just because you're in charge of a game, doesn't mean you know how anything works.

This is true, but then again, this isn't the only person with a name to talk about how the WiiU is a decently powerful machine. I mean, we all know it isn't going to be balls out powerful, but as was said earlier, if the games are fun, and I get Mario in HD, I'll be happy.

This is also all speculation at this point. Any dev that remains anonymous can claim the system is super weak and such, but in the end, dev kits change and early dev kits generally don't show all the machine in the end will be able to accomplish. So who knows how early of a dev kit these guys could be working with, or what changes Nintendo could make in the long run.

korodullin

cloudeagle wrote: »

korodullin wrote: »

While I agree that overall EA isn't nearly as terrible as a company like Bank of America or AT&T or any number of other horrible corporate entities in the US and that the Worst Company poll was pretty much compromised by Reddit, 4chan, and Bioware forum poll-bombing almost solely due to frustration over the ME3 ending and Bioware's PR handling of it (which Jessica Chobot's recent redacted blog did nothing to help the situation)

...against my better judgement, I'll ask what kind of carefully-researched, thought provoking conclusions the person who became famous solely for licking a PSP came up with.

There's a screencap of it floating around that I don't have on hand but to paraphrase, she essentially said: "I haven't beaten ME3 yet, but I'm sooooo tired of the WHINY ENTITLED whiners whining about how entitled they are."

Edit: Here it is, and while it's not incredibly inflammatory or anything, she did herself few favors by engaging with commenters who objected to her blanket generalization.

cloudeagle

korodullin wrote: »

cloudeagle wrote: »

korodullin wrote: »

While I agree that overall EA isn't nearly as terrible as a company like Bank of America or AT&T or any number of other horrible corporate entities in the US and that the Worst Company poll was pretty much compromised by Reddit, 4chan, and Bioware forum poll-bombing almost solely due to frustration over the ME3 ending and Bioware's PR handling of it (which Jessica Chobot's recent redacted blog did nothing to help the situation)

...against my better judgement, I'll ask what kind of carefully-researched, thought provoking conclusions the person who became famous solely for licking a PSP came up with.

There's a screencap of it floating around that I don't have on hand but to paraphrase, she essentially said: "I haven't beaten ME3 yet, but I'm sooooo tired of the WHINY ENTITLED whiners whining about how entitled they are."

Finally found a quote of it:

I thought I would do a pictoral update on everything that has happened within the last 3 or so months…(and “NO” I haven’t finished ME3 yet. ” NO” I haven’t sexed Diana Allers (although I plan to) and “NO” I don’t want to know anything more about the babsolutly RIDICULOUS whine-fest that entitled gamers are having with Bioware)

http://masseffect3-ending-flavors.tumblr.com/post/20364957454/jessica-chobot-slams-me3-fans

...as much as I think that even if the ending is bad maybe people should just move on already, that sentence just hurts my brain.

Honestly curious, has she ever contributed anything meaningful to gaming journalism? I generally don't get when people gripe that "chick X is popular only because she's a chick," but goddamn Chobot irritates the crap out of me. Mainly because she sounds like your average GAFer.

Capt Howdy

TheSonicRetard wrote: »

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

Darmani wrote: »

Okay so it seems the WiiU specs were leaked and its same story as last gen. Not enough graphics power and not favorable for the Western third party developer.

Am I interpreting this correctly?

I mean it seems there is a lack of shaders and the graphics chips are weak, somehow, Is that accurate?

The specs weren't leaked. Unnamed 'devs' claimed that it wasn't as powerful, but other actual named devs with actual games in the works have said that it is quite powerful.

So, the question is who to believe.

We won't really know anything until Nintendo tells us themselves. This E3 should give us more actual information.

I would like to point out that the named Dev is a director, which, while not an indication that they're technologically ignorant, doesn't necessarily put them in a position to be able to make judgement calls about hardware performance. I've heard enough stories from lead programmers about producers and directors who don't know a damn thing about the hardware when setting milestone deadlines to know that, just because you're in charge of a game, doesn't mean you know how anything works.

And lets not forget a dev also said that the beta machine they have has been upgraded by Nintendo a few times.

This really is a case of wait until E3. Granted N probably won't give specs, but they will show off a few games that will let us know what it is (minimally) capable of.

I'm just hoping we get to see Lego City Stories in action. And a new Endless Ocean.

agoaj

Are they showing and Wii U stuff at PAX east?

Brainiac 8

Capt Howdy wrote: »

TheSonicRetard wrote: »

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

Darmani wrote: »

Okay so it seems the WiiU specs were leaked and its same story as last gen. Not enough graphics power and not favorable for the Western third party developer.

Am I interpreting this correctly?

I mean it seems there is a lack of shaders and the graphics chips are weak, somehow, Is that accurate?

The specs weren't leaked. Unnamed 'devs' claimed that it wasn't as powerful, but other actual named devs with actual games in the works have said that it is quite powerful.

So, the question is who to believe.

We won't really know anything until Nintendo tells us themselves. This E3 should give us more actual information.

I would like to point out that the named Dev is a director, which, while not an indication that they're technologically ignorant, doesn't necessarily put them in a position to be able to make judgement calls about hardware performance. I've heard enough stories from lead programmers about producers and directors who don't know a damn thing about the hardware when setting milestone deadlines to know that, just because you're in charge of a game, doesn't mean you know how anything works.

And lets not forget a dev also said that the beta machine they have has been upgraded by Nintendo a few times.

This really is a case of wait until E3. Granted N probably won't give specs, but they will show off a few games that will let us know what it is (minimally) capable of.

I'm just hoping we get to see Lego City Stories in action. And a new Endless Ocean.

Honestly, Lego City Stories is one my most anticipated launch games...it just sounds so fun. GTA legoized.

Capt Howdy

Lego City Stories is what made my wife and son TELL ME we are getting the WiiU.

Renzo

cloudeagle wrote: »

korodullin wrote: »

cloudeagle wrote: »

korodullin wrote: »

While I agree that overall EA isn't nearly as terrible as a company like Bank of America or AT&T or any number of other horrible corporate entities in the US and that the Worst Company poll was pretty much compromised by Reddit, 4chan, and Bioware forum poll-bombing almost solely due to frustration over the ME3 ending and Bioware's PR handling of it (which Jessica Chobot's recent redacted blog did nothing to help the situation)

...against my better judgement, I'll ask what kind of carefully-researched, thought provoking conclusions the person who became famous solely for licking a PSP came up with.

There's a screencap of it floating around that I don't have on hand but to paraphrase, she essentially said: "I haven't beaten ME3 yet, but I'm sooooo tired of the WHINY ENTITLED whiners whining about how entitled they are."

Finally found a quote of it:

I thought I would do a pictoral update on everything that has happened within the last 3 or so months…(and “NO” I haven’t finished ME3 yet. ” NO” I haven’t sexed Diana Allers (although I plan to) and “NO” I don’t want to know anything more about the babsolutly RIDICULOUS whine-fest that entitled gamers are having with Bioware)

http://masseffect3-ending-flavors.tumblr.com/post/20364957454/jessica-chobot-slams-me3-fans

...as much as I think that even if the ending is bad maybe people should just move on already, that sentence just hurts my brain.

Honestly curious, has she ever contributed anything meaningful to gaming journalism? I generally don't get when people gripe that "chick X is popular only because she's a chick," but goddamn Chobot irritates the crap out of me. Mainly because she sounds like your average GAFer.

She's right though.

TheSonicRetard

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

TheSonicRetard wrote: »

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

Darmani wrote: »

Okay so it seems the WiiU specs were leaked and its same story as last gen. Not enough graphics power and not favorable for the Western third party developer.

Am I interpreting this correctly?

I mean it seems there is a lack of shaders and the graphics chips are weak, somehow, Is that accurate?

The specs weren't leaked. Unnamed 'devs' claimed that it wasn't as powerful, but other actual named devs with actual games in the works have said that it is quite powerful.

So, the question is who to believe.

We won't really know anything until Nintendo tells us themselves. This E3 should give us more actual information.

I would like to point out that the named Dev is a director, which, while not an indication that they're technologically ignorant, doesn't necessarily put them in a position to be able to make judgement calls about hardware performance. I've heard enough stories from lead programmers about producers and directors who don't know a damn thing about the hardware when setting milestone deadlines to know that, just because you're in charge of a game, doesn't mean you know how anything works.

This is true, but then again, this isn't the only person with a name to talk about how the WiiU is a decently powerful machine. I mean, we all know it isn't going to be balls out powerful, but as was said earlier, if the games are fun, and I get Mario in HD, I'll be happy.

This is also all speculation at this point. Any dev that remains anonymous can claim the system is super weak and such, but in the end, dev kits change and early dev kits generally don't show all the machine in the end will be able to accomplish. So who knows how early of a dev kit these guys could be working with, or what changes Nintendo could make in the long run.

Oh, I agree it's all speculation. I don't even treat them as news worthy, we won't know what the machine can do until it launches. And regardless of what any of these rumors say, I'm still buying a WiiU at launch, nothing will change that. I'm just saying that painting that particular quote as qualified isn't really accurate. None of the quotes are. Until Nintendo comes out and gives us solid specs, or we see with our own two eyes what the machine can do, say, 3 years down the road, none of those quotes mean a damn thing to any of us.

Brainiac 8

TheSonicRetard wrote: »

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

TheSonicRetard wrote: »

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

Darmani wrote: »

Okay so it seems the WiiU specs were leaked and its same story as last gen. Not enough graphics power and not favorable for the Western third party developer.

Am I interpreting this correctly?

I mean it seems there is a lack of shaders and the graphics chips are weak, somehow, Is that accurate?

The specs weren't leaked. Unnamed 'devs' claimed that it wasn't as powerful, but other actual named devs with actual games in the works have said that it is quite powerful.

So, the question is who to believe.

We won't really know anything until Nintendo tells us themselves. This E3 should give us more actual information.

I would like to point out that the named Dev is a director, which, while not an indication that they're technologically ignorant, doesn't necessarily put them in a position to be able to make judgement calls about hardware performance. I've heard enough stories from lead programmers about producers and directors who don't know a damn thing about the hardware when setting milestone deadlines to know that, just because you're in charge of a game, doesn't mean you know how anything works.

This is true, but then again, this isn't the only person with a name to talk about how the WiiU is a decently powerful machine. I mean, we all know it isn't going to be balls out powerful, but as was said earlier, if the games are fun, and I get Mario in HD, I'll be happy.

This is also all speculation at this point. Any dev that remains anonymous can claim the system is super weak and such, but in the end, dev kits change and early dev kits generally don't show all the machine in the end will be able to accomplish. So who knows how early of a dev kit these guys could be working with, or what changes Nintendo could make in the long run.

Oh, I agree it's all speculation. I don't even treat them as news worthy, we won't know what the machine can do until it launches. And regardless of what any of these rumors say, I'm still buying a WiiU at launch, nothing will change that. I'm just saying that painting that particular quote as qualified isn't really accurate. None of the quotes are. Until Nintendo comes out and gives us solid specs, or we see with our own two eyes what the machine can do, say, 3 years down the road, none of those quotes mean a damn thing to any of us.

Yup, pretty much. Speculating is fun though.

LockedOnTarget

Renzo wrote: »

cloudeagle wrote: »

korodullin wrote: »

cloudeagle wrote: »

korodullin wrote: »

While I agree that overall EA isn't nearly as terrible as a company like Bank of America or AT&T or any number of other horrible corporate entities in the US and that the Worst Company poll was pretty much compromised by Reddit, 4chan, and Bioware forum poll-bombing almost solely due to frustration over the ME3 ending and Bioware's PR handling of it (which Jessica Chobot's recent redacted blog did nothing to help the situation)

...against my better judgement, I'll ask what kind of carefully-researched, thought provoking conclusions the person who became famous solely for licking a PSP came up with.

There's a screencap of it floating around that I don't have on hand but to paraphrase, she essentially said: "I haven't beaten ME3 yet, but I'm sooooo tired of the WHINY ENTITLED whiners whining about how entitled they are."

Finally found a quote of it:

I thought I would do a pictoral update on everything that has happened within the last 3 or so months…(and “NO” I haven’t finished ME3 yet. ” NO” I haven’t sexed Diana Allers (although I plan to) and “NO” I don’t want to know anything more about the babsolutly RIDICULOUS whine-fest that entitled gamers are having with Bioware)

http://masseffect3-ending-flavors.tumblr.com/post/20364957454/jessica-chobot-slams-me3-fans

...as much as I think that even if the ending is bad maybe people should just move on already, that sentence just hurts my brain.

Honestly curious, has she ever contributed anything meaningful to gaming journalism? I generally don't get when people gripe that "chick X is popular only because she's a chick," but goddamn Chobot irritates the crap out of me. Mainly because she sounds like your average GAFer.

She's right though.

Nope.

Lumping everyone who is negative about the ending into one group is silly goosery.

Smoogy

I still love EA and will always look back fondly at my memories of "EA Sports...it's in the game."

Of course, I've never played a game on Origin, so I probably just don't understand I'm disappointed in them that they are caving to fan pressure to change the ending to ME3, though. Put out a product and stick by it. This isn't a bug/glitch that needs to be fixed - it's an element you'd think they would have gone over enough times to be happy with it. Even if it sucks.

LockedOnTarget

Well they are sticking by it. They're keeping the same ending and expanding upon it.

It's not exactly unheard of in narrative to add and expand scenes later to improve it.

GnomeTank

They aren't changing the ending, they are adding more context and clarification. They explicitly said they AREN'T changing the ending, just expanding on it and tying up some lose ends.

cloudeagle

I think the guy at Topless Robot said it best:

Look, I have no idea if Mass Effect 3's endings are good or bad, or if EA acceding to players' demands for more closure is right or wrong. My question is this: Is this the triumph of the nerd masses for forcing a company to right a massive wrong, or is this the world's most dangerous precedent for a lifetime of constant nerd bitching over everything we don't like? Because I'm kind of thinking it's both.

That said we should probably move on before Rorus has to tell us to stop talking about it for the 47th time.

We could always talk about Suda 51's enjoyment of western synergy:

Suda sees his team as having been able to take advantage of collaboration with Gunn and a Western publisher like Warner Bros. In his view, Japan's barrier among different media disciplines, such as film versus games, is more rigid. "It's great being able to do this kind of work in America, because I don't think there's a barrier between the different media," he says.

"In Japan, the people who work in the TV industry, those who work in the game industry... I think they have their own silos," he continues. "But in America I think it's possible to grow across these borders as an enterainment industry, and I think it creates an environment where people can have a great time making the products."

In America Suda sees a heightened interest on the part of film industry people when it comes to understanding the power of letting players become the story's protagonist. "I think that's why this collaboration with James Gunn went so well this time," Suda reflects. "There's something so cheerful and forward-looking about him... he comes from a background of movies and what to do with the sets, he knows how to make that environment."

The collaboration has sparked something of an interest in cross-media work for Suda. "I would be interested in going and doing projects that would involve television or the movies; it's something that would be more difficult in Japan, but in America, it's freer," he says, adding he feels closer to film having worked with Warner Bros. and Kadokawa.

"I've also worked with other publishers in Japan, and there are some that have voiced interest in making an animation of some of my games," Suda says. "I've been coming closer to the movies and anime world, and maybe that's telling me I should come even closer."

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/167990/Grasshoppers_Suda_on_Lollipop_Chainsaw_and_the_new_media_landscape.php

Local H Jay

47th time? that's a lowball if i ever heard one

the stuff up there with EA getting voted worst was the doing of 4chan's /v/. people should just not have open polls like this because it's too easy for people to skew the results. obviously EA has issues with how they handle some things but i certainly hate BoA way more than them.

honestly i still think the worst thing EA does is shutting down their servers... or i suppose hosting their own servers. i mean i played scrabble in family game night like 3 times and now i hear they are shutting it down. money well spent i guess? should have just bought the real game because atleast then i could play it with people.

cloudeagle

Interesting bit from Gamasutra that examines the typical structure of a Zynga game, and comes to the conclusion that they're great at sucking people in at first with easy goals and rewards, but eventually players hit a wall (having to spam your friend's list to make any progress whatsoever) that drives nearly everyone away.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/168091/Opinion_Four_steps_to_a_bottleneck_or_Zyngas_real_growth_challenge.php

Undead Scottsman

So, uh, it's PAX East. Where's all the cool announcements?

UnbreakableVow

At PAX Prime

PAX East is for bitches

Spoiler:

I kid

Undead Scottsman

Sadly, PAX Prime often gets E3's sloppy seconds.

Algertman

Anyone know if the guy EA sent to answer questions about Mass Effect has been murdered yet?