The_Foo
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Ok Foo, this just made me chuckle. I mean, do you live on the same planet as me? People will complain about absolutely anything no matter the situation.
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You're essentially saying, "Well, no matter what they do people will complain," but the majority of people only complain when they're getting antsy and bored, really.
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The pessimism is strong with these ones, my master...
Maybe I'm naive, but I genuinely think that if you're keeping people entertained, most of them will shut up and play the game. Sure, they'll [censored] on the boards while they're at work, but I really think most people prefer playing and having fun to whining for whining's sake. -
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Heck, ideally they should be set up so that each individual system is its own piece which can be enabled or disabled independent of the rest, with little extra work outside of what's already a part of the standard publishing function they have now.
They managed to put in two types of wings without enabling all the other types, and the Cathedral of Pain has been disabled since CoV's release, so there is SOME ability to break things into smaller pieces. They just need to take that further, so that if something (Vet Rewards, for instance) isn't ready, they can say, "Sorry guys, Vet Rewards have some issues. Good news, though, we're still releasing everything else from I8 now, with the rewards to follow!" (Like they've done with the Fly poses.)
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There are a lot of factors that would need to be considered. Not knowing how their internal structure works, we can only talk in hypotheticals, but for example:
It's easier to roll out in phases than it is to back out pieces. One reason for this is that once a code branch has been integrated, newer code gets written based on the integrated branch. While it's possible to back out a branch, it might entail a rollback of far more than you want, and there develops merge issues, and adds risk. And every time you change the base, you cause a new test cycle to be needed. It's a lot of cost and risk and without much gain from the company's perspective.
In a perfect environment, your architecture would be highly modular, very layered and client-server oriented. Modules would be small and primitive and have very tightly defined interface specs. Adding something new would mean adding a new service, or replacing and old one, not unlike adding a physics card or swapping out your GPU for a better one--all plug and play. It's possible to do development like this: many places do, though I've seen little evidence of it in the gaming industry. It takes a significant up-front investment on architecture and specification and rigorous adherence to standards, which developers tend to rebel against ("limits our creative freedom" is the common refrain), as well as a big leap of faith from the money people because very early on you might not see anything practical showing up; useful stuff to be sure, but stuff that doesn't wow investors. Even though, in the end, you wind up with a system that's easier to maintain, far less prone to bugs, and ultimately faster and cheaper to produce.
Naturally, of course, this is all sensible and logical so this approach isn't often taken and instead code is churned out like sausage from a meat grinder and systems just start evolving. The more evolution, especially poorly documented evolution, the you wind up with a system that's a nightmare to keep running or to extend, resulting in the obligatory rewrite (typically done in phases to ease the pain).
The big long and short of it is that the plug-and-play approach could give you the ability to turn things on and off easily. The more common meat grinder approach doesn't--once you make the sausage, you're stuck with sausage.
Vet rewards could be presumably disabled simply by disabling the trigger that grants the rewards, unless some of the changes they made for reward items have disturbed or broken existing systems, in which case just holding off on the rewards wouldn't work because the thing that's broken isn't the reward itself but the thing the reward is based upon. Ugly, complicated mess, which is why I'm content to wait for a bit yet.
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Exactly what I was saying. It'd be nice, but the truth is that most development is somewhere between the individual pieces and sausage. -
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They released them in bits onto Test, though. Not being able to release individual bits means that their development strategy is (perhaps necessarily) unmodular.
Heck, ideally they should be set up so that each individual system is its own piece which can be enabled or disabled independent of the rest, with little extra work outside of what's already a part of the standard publishing function they have now.
They managed to put in two types of wings without enabling all the other types, and the Cathedral of Pain has been disabled since CoV's release, so there is SOME ability to break things into smaller pieces. They just need to take that further, so that if something (Vet Rewards, for instance) isn't ready, they can say, "Sorry guys, Vet Rewards have some issues. Good news, though, we're still releasing everything else from I8 now, with the rewards to follow!" (Like they've done with the Fly poses.)
'course, that doesn't help them if there are major bugs in everything...
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While I think this is a good idea in theory; here's my huge concern with something like that.
People will still [censored].
Namely - you tell them "Sorry, everything about I8 will come out except for <insert feature>" and you'll spend the next 2 weeks-2 months dealing with bilespewing dev-hate filled rants on the boards because "X feature was the only reason I was keeping my subscription active!!"
Especially something major like Vet Rewards.
I'm not saying its not a better strategy overall - But it seems that people will be jerks regardless of how you swing it; and so I have to ask "Is it worth it to the devs to split things up into a more efficient system when the players will be just as gripey?"
Maybe thats just my own personality leaking through though - I know in their position I personally would do what's easiest for me unless I thought that doing something a particular way had a good chance of making a desirable impact. Failing that impact I'm just not going to muck with it.
Again, that's all personal opinion - I'd be fine seeing the updates switched to a smaller more modular approach; I just question how much impact it'd actually have.
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You're essentially saying, "Well, no matter what they do people will complain," but the majority of people only complain when they're getting antsy and bored, really.
Are you honestly saying that you don't think there'd be less complaining if updates were more regular and came out closer to their stated release dates?
Look at it this way, using just logic, not your feelings: Issues are made of multiple parts. People probably want more than one part of those issues, right?
So: what are the odds that if you're holding an issue back for three or four of those parts that every person that's annoyed now because they want something new won't get at least one part that they're looking forward to if you only hold back the broken bits, instead of the entire thing?
Emotionally, sure, people will [censored]. Logically? C'mon, unless the majority of the issue is broken, putting out the parts that are working has got to at least distract some of the people. -
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That's it! You're off the list! That'll teach you to make internet fads!
(Btw, what're you going to do, take me off the list I'm not on? /dare)
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That's it, you're on the list! That'll teach you to be a smartarse!!
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That's it! You're off the list! That'll teach you to throw my words back at me!!
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That's it! You're off the list! That'll teach you to wait patiently!!
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Uhoh! No waiting patiently? Better think fast...
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zomg I wnat mi artz now u nub!
*EDIT*
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BUAHAHAHAHAHA!
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That's it! You're off the list! That'll teach you to laugh at me!!
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That's it! You're off the list! That'll teach you to wait patiently!!
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Uhoh! No waiting patiently? Better think fast...
....
zomg I wnat mi artz now u nub!
*EDIT*
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That's it! You're off the list! That'll teach you to l33tspeak me!!
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What if, when it looked like it was going to be late, and let's not kid ourselves, someone knew it wasn't going to be a quick fix. When it looked like September just wasn't going to happen at all, would it have been acceptable to you (lurkers, you guys answer too, ok) if Cryptic came out and said, "I8 will be released, but we can't get all of it done. We're releasing this part now (insert something, costumes, safeguard missions, whatever isn't totally fubared right now) and we'll release the rest when it's ready."
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Aside from disabling the Vet reward triggers, I'm not sure if they could have split things up without creating even more work and risking more bugs. Without knowing how integrated or modular the features are, it's tough to see if it could be done piecemeal or if it was an all-or-nothing deal.
Even if it could be released in phases, that adds additional workload behind the scenes--a lot of additional workload. Which, in turn means resourses get tied up, and other things in the pipeline get delayed, and furture schedules get slipped or have to be seriously reworked. It's a godawful mess when you start mucking with content at the tail end of a development cycle, and you don't want to go down that road unless you have no other choice. Since a delay will not adversely affect sales, and will likely only marginally affect subscriptions, there's probably not much to be gained by phasing the release just to placate the concerned subscribers (which may be only a small, though vocal group, relative to the entire player base anyhow).
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They released them in bits onto Test, though. Not being able to release individual bits means that their development strategy is (perhaps necessarily) unmodular.
Heck, ideally they should be set up so that each individual system is its own piece which can be enabled or disabled independent of the rest, with little extra work outside of what's already a part of the standard publishing function they have now.
They managed to put in two types of wings without enabling all the other types, and the Cathedral of Pain has been disabled since CoV's release, so there is SOME ability to break things into smaller pieces. They just need to take that further, so that if something (Vet Rewards, for instance) isn't ready, they can say, "Sorry guys, Vet Rewards have some issues. Good news, though, we're still releasing everything else from I8 now, with the rewards to follow!" (Like they've done with the Fly poses.)
'course, that doesn't help them if there are major bugs in everything... -
That's it! You're off the list! That'll teach you to wait patiently!!
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Right, but that hasn't stopped their free updates, as far as I know.
Also, let it be known: I frackin' hate WoW. I think it's over-praised and excels only in its mediocrity. -
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But is what you want feasible?
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World of Warcraft seems to handle it just fine.
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*falls out of chair laughing*
Oh man my poor keyboard.
BWAHAHAHAHA
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Why is this so funny? Could you please explain? I've played WoW a couple times(only 1 month when I first bought and just recently). It's not my particular cup of tea but my friends like it a lot and that's mainly the reason I play it. I like playing with RL friends where possible. I'm here because I love superheroes but even the current release schedule is getting to me. I didn't find WoW a bad game and there was certainly a LOT to do and according to one friend, he was quite happy with the content/frequency of the updates. I don't understand that in all non-WoW forums, there is nothing but hate and the spurning of it's success especially if the two games are compared.
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I played WoW for a few months. I ran out of things to do, I played a few character to high levels, both sides.
The reason why it is so funny is because Blizzard is HORRIBLE at keeping their schedules. We aren't talking weeks or months off, but years.
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To be fair, though, that's not really what's being discussed.
Blizzard never gives deadlines out for their games, saying, "They'll be released when they're ready". That much is true.
Regarding WoW, though, they've been pretty much like clockwork since their initial post-launch update lull, with an update of some kind every few months or so. -
HITCOUNT. RISING!! RAAR!
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Yarrr, the floodgates, they be open, cap'n!
Feel free to keep posting. I'm picking and choosing a bit as I go, and I'm only able to draw in the evenings, but you can't win if you don't play! Spin that wheel!
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But what happens if I hit "Bankrupt"?
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Then you owe me money. -
Yarrr, the floodgates, they be open, cap'n!
Feel free to keep posting. I'm picking and choosing a bit as I go, and I'm only able to draw in the evenings, but you can't win if you don't play! Spin that wheel! -
Feel free to link directly to my Deviantart page if you want to post your pics elsewhere for others to see. I crave more hitcount!
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You people need less complicated costumes!
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LIES!
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Sister thread to Who wants a sketch?
Here are the actual results of my hard(ly) work!
Rowr!
Rasputina! -
OK, so I haven't been drawing as much as I'd like, and I wanna try messing around with some different styles and such. So, if you want a hastily-drawn sketch of possibly dubious quality, post some pic refs here.
(Note: I may not get to everyone, and I may not get to folks for a while, but I can promise that I will at least pretend to try!)
Hit meh! -
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'A Council of War' simply added the Kheldians and their story arcs.
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And Striga Isle, don't forget.
And EPPs for heroes.
And Lusca, the Ghost Ship and the Clockwork Paladin.
Issue 3 did a lot more than 'simply' add Khelds.
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Your facts hold no sway over our revisionist history!!
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Plus, y'know, I'm open for commissions all the time!
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I can SO make a comment but I am too sweet so choose not to
I do have you on my list to comission again Foomiester.
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Make your comments, if you dare! All talk of me feeds my ego, positive or not! -
Plus, y'know, I'm open for commissions all the time!
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That heart is NOT raspberry Jello!