While I was at the front page I noticed a rather funny thing. The most recent post was this one and the one right under was the newsbit with the interview Bernd Beyreuther saying that Radon Labs went under due to too few sales for Drakensang: River of Time despite good reviews. I've read some bad posts about that game, but that's neither here no there. I just found it funny that one catastrophic decision by Stardock and they're not closing up shop and calling it quits, but Radeon just couldn't survive ONE expansion release that didn't sell well. Contrary to what some other people have said about Brad and Stardock, that tells me they at least know how to weather storms like this one. People will get laid off, their marketing brand will take a hit in the consumers eye, but they are still sticking with Elemental.
I know there is a big difference between Stardock and Radeon, but there it is anyways. Stardock takes a huge hit after releasing an unfinished game, but keeps right on trucking (hopefully). Some people will need to be laid off, but time is the great healer in everything. If they can fix this game maybe their brand name will be restored to what it once was. I look at Jowood a lot differently now that they fixed Gothic 3 (or rather the community fixed it with their blessing
). If Brad does exactly what he said they are going to do then a year or more likely 3 years down the road this will be over with.
I like stardock and buy through impulse whenever I can, but even I with my rose tinted glasses on couldn't have fun with this game and that is all that matters to me. Not if it's realtime/turnbased, RPG, Action, FPS, Adventure, hell I don't even care if there are a few bugs in the game that will be patched later. I always find ways around them somehow. I only care if it's fun, unfortunately this game is not that. Sure during the new and shiny parts of the game I enjoyed it, but after two days of really playing this thing even I had to say BULLSHIT on this one or more accurately, I'm bored……
Unlike others I do see the potential for this game. They'll have to basically rework the whole thing from the ground up by putting in a different combat system, better ai, skill tweaking, race…..well you guys know what needs to be fixed. If they did that and realesed it in another 6 months or so, then screw it. I'm a beta tester
What the hell, it's not like we haven't been screwed over before with games like Dungeon Lords or *burrr*Mistmare*burr* Those freaken jerks didn't say anything like Brad and they left us with what they released. Technically Dungeon Lords made you buy ANOTHER game to get the almost finished product, but you had to buy it again.
Yes, developers/publishers are going to screw up. It's human nature after all, but he seems to be going about this the right way. Staying in contact with the community, I believe people are getting refunds if they want them and promising to keep the project alive until it's truly finished.
Well that's my take on this. I'm not happy about it, but what the hell, I've been playing games for longer than I can remember now and this is one of the few times I've seen a company admitting their mistakes and trying to fix them. I'm still waiting for an apology from EA for Ultima IX and a promise to fix that mess. I think I'll be waiting a very long time for that.
