Tom,
I didn't like Wed's action much, all that
volume and going nowhere usually means
distribution, the traders new it and bailed
Thurs morning, but the buyers took up the
slack in the afternoon.
Usenet has become a minefield eh? You are
right about the reps, but they are mostly
the developers who post after the game hits
retail. I always check their Sigs, i'll e-mail
them sometimes just to check if they are legit.
It is a war now, the warez folks post reviews
2 weeks before the game is released, the great
unwashed public in Usenet make their buying decisions
before a final review is even released.
Tresspasser was creamed before it even had a chance,
Sin is getting creamed for bugs, i'd hate to see
what happens to Half-Life if it's buggy:-)
I've watched the whole Usenet thing evolve for years,
it makes or breaks a game now, All the companys know it
and that's why they are there, paying full attention
to what's posted. The power of the people is incredible,
once demos are released, the developers will actually
change or modify features just from suggestions posted
in Usenet. Now they actually solicit suggestions while
the game is in development and implement them.
HG2 is doing good, looks like it will pass the Usenet
test. H2 passed with flying colors, Sin is having a
tough time, flame wars hurt:-). I'm not joining anymore
groups, i'll let you check on the "flight boys", that's
a huge group, very dedicated, and if ATVI's WW2 sim
get's approval from those folks, ye haaa.
Also Tom, ATVI has been slammed in Usenet since the
I-76 mess. The company still has a credibility problem
with the folks there. When I-76 was released, we were
all promised a patch for our Voodoo cards, it took
months to get one, and the company gained alot of enemys
because of it. It got so bad people were actually posting
that they were dumping their stock. Heavy Gear last
year was a diaster, there still isn't a patch to fix it,
and people felt like they were abandoned.
This past year has seen a big improvement for the company,
they are going to take the blame for Sin though. They did
rush it, but Ritual was to blame also. If ATVI would
of let them finish the game, they probably would of
dumped the Q2 engine, and rewrote it with the Unreal one.
The HG2 engine is getting good comments,it's nice to see
that. I was worried it was going to suck,now the company
has the hard part done, bring on the games.
Alex |
