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05-27-12, 07:14 AM | #1 | |
Ocean Warrior
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Canada, eh?
Posts: 2,537
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I want to know where the faith we're supposed to be putting into this forthcoming product is supposed to meterialize from? The experience we've had over the last 3 Silent Hunter products has been a pattern of declining quality. The faith of the sim community has been steadily abused and taken for granted. Publishers have taken talented developers and quashed their creative potential by placing unrealistic development timelines on them, steadily reducing the overall quality of the released product. Past that they've also through this policy of rapid development turnover left us with steadily less and less polished final products becuase of more and more limited patching. The product we buy isn't getting better, and when they make a new one its not getting better either. They sell us a more bitter lemon with every new release. If you bought apples from a grocer and every time the apples got mushier and tasted more bland and got more bruised, why should you have any faith that the next batch is going to be worth your money? Now, we're not only seeing yet another hurried develoment title but we're seeing it gutted of its inherent credibility as a sim because of this MMO F2P nonsense. These games are rarely in any sense of the term "Realistic" nor are they particularly cerebral. They also afford the end user absolutely ZERO ability to modify the game whatsoever. On top of that the pricing scale is designed to force us to pay even more money than a flat purchase gives us. Where in this entire scheme of the ongoing development of the Silent Hunter brand are we supposed to see the light at the end of the tunnel? The only shred of optimism one can pray before in this bitter recounting of my favourite sim's recent history is one of pure delusion and wishful thinking. This is all about simple deductive reasoning. The entire business strategy of Ubisoft of late has shown itself to be against the better interests of this kind of community. Their strategy is all about money. Myself, as a consumer, my strategy is all about getting for my money the value I seek. I see a diametrically opposed set of intersts at play here. Why do we have to give the people trying to find the fastest way to the bottom our pocket the benefit of the doubt? Given their recent track record if anything THEY have to prove to us that its worth anything, that is if they still care about us which I don't think they do. They went MMO because they want the cash from mainstream buyers. If thats the case, which it very likely is, then basically the product is now outside the parameters that attracts most of us to the brand in the first place. There are so many reasons to be skeptical of SHO that I don't know which one to even put on the top of the list. |
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05-27-12, 07:55 AM | #2 |
Eternal Patrol
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Thank you, P_Funk. An excellent summation of the way most of us feel, and probably the best post on the subject to date.
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05-27-12, 09:22 AM | #3 | |
Canadian Wolf
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Won't be rushing to SHO. Ubisoft simply does not listen to it's customers-core base. I am long past tired of it. |
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05-27-12, 10:09 AM | #4 |
Black Magic
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If I was a developer of software I would research the company giving me an offer to develop something for them first before committing to it. Maybe this developer will learn a hard lesson When all you see is $ and greed takes over common sense goes out the window...
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06-02-12, 01:20 PM | #5 |
Samurai Navy
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 592
Downloads: 199
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That is gaming and those developing it as of now, anyone developing outside this 'rule' is quickly bought up which again points to greed. Its not going to change anytime soon because it has become the normal and business. Long run for corporate is quick profit....
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06-02-12, 06:06 PM | #6 |
Nub
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 2
Downloads: 135
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This is going to fail harder than the fourth crusade. Ubisoft has alienated the core SH fanbase to the point where most have given up hope for the franchise and just play GWX or SH4 with one of the supermods. Meanwhile the casual gamers are going to walk the other way as soon as they hear "submarine simulation". There is no way in hell this is going to take off.
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07-05-13, 09:06 PM | #7 | |
Engineer
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Perth, Australia
Posts: 213
Downloads: 58
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Partly due to the Ubiquitous uptake of personal technology (see what I did there? Wasn't that good? Nah, your right. Sorry. Won't do it again.), the MARKET has shifted to one of smorgasbord grazing and nanno-second attention spans Angry Birds today, Virus Boy tomorrow (OMG. I just made that up, relax. You haven't missed the Next Big Thing.) So, here is what I know about modern media - movies, music and gaming. ALL of these 'industries' have moved to a model where the profitability and return on investment is essentially calculated to be made WITHIN 2 WEEKS OF RELEASE! The market now buys music one song at a time, and there is a 3 second loyalty factor. Have a look at free-to-air TV. Sport, News and reality shows (cheap and quick to produce). And check the demise of Newspapers and Magazines. Maybe what I am suggesting is a bit of a black-armband view of 'culture', but can I suggest that maybe the reason that quality games are a dying breed is because WE are a dying breed. Companies everywhere are casting around desperately looking for a way to 'Monetise' us (how I LOATHE that term!). We got used to free stuff on line, including news, but now they discover they can't pay for decent journalists to report or uncover it, so now we live in the world of press-release and propaganda. So, if you look at the squillions of on-line Apps that are churned out by pimple-faced kids in their mom's basement, some of which become mega-hits and make a bomb for them, no wonder that looks tempting. The problem for the Boards and Committees making decisions on what to fund and how much to invest, no-one can ever tell you exactly WHY one app or movie or game will have that X-factor that takes it on to be massively profitable. In such a market, especially if you have a short-term view and no longer care about building and protecting a brand, churn something (anything) out and cross your fingers that enough gullible types will pay for a download before the word gets out and, who knows, maybe we will have a hit on our hands for no apparent rational reason? But, so as not to seem totally negative and cynical, have you noticed that LP records are making a come-back? Sales are growing (whereas CD sales are crashing). In 10 years there will be NO Video stores it will all be online. So, how does a company manage this transition and retain quality and interactivity? What role for the modder in the MMO universe? Gryff |
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07-05-13, 10:58 PM | #8 |
Airplane Nerd
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I haven't even bothered to follow the SHO Disaster after the first gameplay video was posted of the German Beta.
Even before that I didn't care. But....I do have one question. When is the predicted/actual release date? ...or do they even know yet?
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07-05-13, 11:49 PM | #9 |
Eternal Patrol
Join Date: May 2012
Location: mod soup bar and grill
Posts: 1,756
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probably late august early September.
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07-06-13, 02:04 AM | #10 |
Airplane Nerd
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Ah... I don't care. I won't play it. Can't with this bad internet anyway.
The one thing that I see happening though... Everybody says "Oh. I won't play it. I hate Ubi. I won't have any part of it" but do you know what you guys are going to do when it releases? "Oh. I'll try it out I guess. Might as well see how bad it is" and then some of you will want to play more... And you'll just be giving Ubi what it wants. A Drone Army of Arcade "Simmers" who will pay 2$ everytime they refit their boat. ---- End of my not so well informed rant. Micropayments might not even be part of the game for all I know even though I have a strong suspicion that they will be.
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07-06-13, 08:41 AM | #11 | |
Eternal Patrol
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As for micropayments, they've already said they will be there, at least to purchase new stuff faster, so your suspicions were acknowledged before you ever had them. That's the whole purpose of a game like this.
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“Never do anything you can't take back.” —Rocky Russo |
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07-06-13, 11:31 AM | #12 | ||
Airplane Nerd
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11-08-13, 10:44 AM | #13 | |
Nub
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: N. California
Posts: 3
Downloads: 71
Uploads: 0
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Way off topic. I just wanted to complement you on that Kitty that comes up and takes the close button away. Hahahaha that's great! |
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