Profile: cbas
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• • AOC: Indictment against the game reviewing industry?

  • Originally posted by gestalt11
    

    @Stradden:

     

    IMO professional reviewers should maybe stop having drinks with these guys and start playing some hardball.

     

    It is not really realistic to play the whole game in 2 weeks because these games are purposely made so that does not happen.

     

    However it is easily possible for devs to give access to pre made stuff or various other means for a reviewers to get a decent survey of the real state of the game in a reasonable amount of time.

     

    Mythic could easily give a reviewer a pre-made character at each of the 4 tiers just like they do for Beta testers.  Afterall reviewers are essentially testing things out for their readers.  Just simple things like this could make reviews actually mean something.  If AoC had given the pro reviews a premade level 60 and reviewer had tried to level to 80, how many reviews would have been 5 or 10 points less.  Probably quite a few.

     

    All I see are excuses.  Well fine either admit these reviews are good for nothing but toilet paper or start refusing to review them until the developers give you the access you need to properly kick the tires and see what is really the case.

     

    These devs spend a lot of resources to to get good reviews.  And not doing so will make them look like they something to hide.  It is easily possible.

     

    Because all I have seen over the past few years is a bunch reviewers getting played by having dinner with these guys and the goo goo gah gah feeding frenzy effect of limited access.

     

    Man up and turn it around on these guys.  They have been running these gaming sites like a pimp runs a ho.  That might be rather course but it is rather apt.  They need you, but they limit access and various other things and the press etc demand nothing in the way of quid pro quo.  They just do a fluff piece on the first 20 levels that these guys know you aren't going past. 

     

    Seriously all I see a bunch of guys getting played and mostly because they want to be played.  Not corruption, not a sudden conversion to fanboyism.  But not real objectivity, not a real search for information.  Just limp wristed attempts and then taking whatever is shoveled at them.

     

    Edit:  This is not meant to specifically apply to you, Jon.  its not like you gave EE a pass or something on your last interview.

    
     

    You make some good points.  Reviewers could always say "give me a tricked out level 50 charecter" and lets see for myself.

  • Posted: 9/03/08 7:19 PM
    Age of Conan
• • AOC: Indictment against the game reviewing industry?

  • I think the reviewers only saw what most of us saw and raved about in the first few days of playing.  I think Tortage was well done and provided the hook.  Unfortunately that attention to detail just didn't carry through and beyond..

    I think it would have been hard for a reviewer to play up to say level 30-40 by which time they would have thoroughly seen through the vail and cried foul.

    Certainly something to think about in the futrue.  Just goes to show that it pays to wait a few weeks before buying and playing a new release MMO.

  • Posted: 9/03/08 7:10 PM
    Age of Conan
• • Fallen Earth MMO Alpha testing....Vent your frustrations

  • When testing a system it is better to get people who know nothing about the system you are trying to test,  than those who are familiar with it.  It just works better.

    For the record I have been following the game for a while and I thought about being an Alpha tester.  In the end I am just glad this game is at the stage where its getting tested.

    Life's too short to get all butt hurt and whine about not being used as a lab rat.

    Also if I were developing the game, or this system, the last people I would want on my Alpha are die hard fans who regardless of NDA's will most certainly leak the details, bitch and moan long before the horse is out of the gate, and pretty much bung up my release.

    In short get over it.  If you are already bitching about how Icaras "let you down" this early in the game, before you even try playing it, then you only prove the point that they made the RIGHT decision to not pull testers from their die hard fan base and instead go with the general file planet, or whatever the heck it is population.

  • Posted: 8/27/08 3:14 PM
    Fallen Earth
• • The snake starts to eat itself

  • Originally posted by twhint
    

    The problem with the roof/fountain/wall example is that the mobs couldn't attack you back, which is an exploit. It has always been known that using terrain to prevent taking damage from mobs is an exploit. Claiming ignorance to that is like saying you didn't know not signalling to turn is a ticketable offense. You learned it in traffic school. It may not always be enforced, but it is there.

     

     

    Give the mobs ranged weapons and the ability to use them.

    Much easier to fix than 1) rebuilding the terrain for the whole game and 2) it sure as heck beats pissing off your player base trying to keep people from doing something they might actually think is a feature.

    Honestly I was surprised the first time I jumped up on a hill over looking a mob with my bow and couldn't inflict any damage on them.  To me it seemed like the right thing to do.  The game has climbable areas, ranged weapon classes and high ground then why can't I inflict damage on them?  I can get up here.  If so then they should be able to get up here as well.  If the AI can't handle the pathing to where I am then give them ranged weapons and the ability to use them. 

    Seems like an easy fix to me.

     

  • Posted: 8/08/08 2:38 AM
    Age of Conan
• • The snake starts to eat itself

  • I recall watching a Funcom intro video showing a Ranger doing something to that effect.

  • Posted: 8/07/08 8:44 PM
    Age of Conan