OT: Starcraft II and Elemental

[13lackGu4rd]

Originally Posted by delacroix

the problem is that Brad is the CEO of Stardock, thus he can't just act like your average poster! sure, he apologized for it later saying he was tired and sleep deprived, and of course that his quote was out of context, but it's still no excuse for the company's CEO to post in the forums as if he was some child customer. also saying "if you don't feel the game is ready don't buy it" and insisting that he feels the game was actually ready for release, sounds like "this is the game, take it or leave it" instead of "we are aware of the problems and we'll fix them. sorry we released the game too soon, our mistake".

I mean, come on, the game has been released, not beta, retail! you can't release a game and charge money for it when even basic features don't work and the came crashes constantly! sure, they're patching it up and fixing problems on the fly(and causing old problems to reappear it seems), but that's just bad, period. don't release a product until it's ready and mostly bug free, that's pretty basic. if you find the odd bug here and there that's alright, nobody is perfect, but crushing every 10 minutes? having tactical battles not work? AI factions that don't work or don't move outside their capital? those things are basic, and should never happen after release!

they'll probably fix all those bugs eventually, and even fix other things like the UI, AI, etc, heck Elemental might be a good game eventually(in a year or 2) but right now it's just pathetic, and charging money for such an unfinished product(and claiming it is finished) is almost criminal.

[sffrrrom]

Firstly, Brad isn't an average CEO. Stardock is a privately run company, so it's not like he has to answer to the shareholders, and Brad has always been deeply involved in the trenches, so to speak. While he has been known to take criticism poorly, and this is a prime example of that, I'd much rather he continue to lose his temper once in a while and still be actively involved in the community. Also, the review, while fairly accurate in a variety of extents, struck me as somewhat disingenuous in their use of that quote.

Secondly, the reason Elemental's release was so rocky is that several retailers broke the street release date. While the game still would have been rough around the edges without this (notably with respect to balance, which is still remarkably poor, a fact I've been critical of in the Elemental forums) many of the unplayability bugs and crashes probably would not have been large issues if people had been able to access the Day 0 builds properly, which would have happened if the street release had gone as planned.

That said, I really couldn't recommend buying Elemental right now. Personally, I'm just sticking it on the shelf for a month or two till it gets better balanced.

[13lackGu4rd]

Originally Posted by sffrrrom

Firstly, Brad isn't an average CEO. Stardock is a privately run company, so it's not like he has to answer to the shareholders, and Brad has always been deeply involved in the trenches, so to speak. While he has been known to take criticism poorly, and this is a prime example of that, I'd much rather he continue to lose his temper once in a while and still be actively involved in the community. Also, the review, while fairly accurate in a variety of extents, struck me as somewhat disingenuous in their use of that quote.

Secondly, the reason Elemental's release was so rocky is that several retailers broke the street release date. While the game still would have been rough around the edges without this (notably with respect to balance, which is still remarkably poor, a fact I've been critical of in the Elemental forums) many of the unplayability bugs and crashes probably would not have been large issues if people had been able to access the Day 0 builds properly, which would have happened if the street release had gone as planned.

That said, I really couldn't recommend buying Elemental right now. Personally, I'm just sticking it on the shelf for a month or two till it gets better balanced.

keeping such close contact with the community isn't always a good thing. generally speaking the masses are stupid, and when so deeply involved in fan forums it gets harder and harder to filter the quality criticism from all the junk. sure, it's good that he's open and all that, but taking it to heart is dangerous.

oh, and don't blame the early release on the retailers, that's just bull... the game still isn't ready a few days after the original release date(even without the early street release), so blaming it on that is just a pathetic attempt to clear their incompetence. moreover, Brad himself said that he feels the game is ready, which it clearly isn't, which makes your excuse even more mute...