344 réponses à ce sujet

[vas1444]

AurorusBorealus wrote...

"Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment seemed to do just fine without EA's funding."

That was a different era for one thing. Secondly, Bioware was not simply a game company. They also developed software for the medical industy, which constituted the bulk of their revenue and funded them when they began work on Baldur's Gate. The production costs for a game were a fraction of what they are today.
Keep in mind, most businesses generate revenue each day. Game developing companies only generate significant revenue for a few months after a game is published. A game today is a large capital investment: tens of millions. In order to spend more in production on the next game, the money must come from proceeds from the last game, thus requiring a substantial profit if overall quality is to be improved. Furthermore, publishers have had a long history of breaking game developers, and Bioware experienced a lot of problems with Interplay (the publisher of Baldur's Gate) as they tried to produce Neverwinter Nights, eventually having the game published by Infogrames (who also caused problems).
There are 2 real culprits here. The first is EAs insistence on publishing release dates nearly a year in advance. They are treating Bioware's products akin to the next installment of Madden Football, which are nothing more than minor annual upgrades to an already finished product. The second culprit is the Star Wars MMORPG. Development of this game is bleeding all revenue and demanding ever more. Once Star Wars is finally released, it will, hopefully, drive revenue such that the DA and ME franchises will not be under such production pressures, and we will get more finished products (as a small shareholder in EA, I certainly hope Star Wars drives revenues, or I will lose some money myself).

What you wrote has nothing to do with the fact that paying customers expect quality products for their money. The fact that in the software industry you can't get the money back is obviously a major problem in a situation like this, as I suspect many people would want their money refunded for DA2. 

I preordered DA2 based on bioware's reputation. Has this game been made by a company I didn't use to trust this much, I would not have preordered and definetely would not have bought a game that has a 4.3 metacritic user score. 

[mcsupersport]

Shade Bagel wrote...

Ashii6 wrote...

I really hope that this patch will fix slow motion bug :F

With how crippling that bug is, I wish they would just relaease a quicky patch that fixes just that.  The other bugs can wait.  Though it's good to know the patch is coming along.

Posted in another thread, but they said they are pretty sure the slom mo bug is tied into the same systemic problem with the maker's sigh potion issue.  There is more at work causing the issue than simply one independent buggy skill/effect.  If it was just one buggy skill they probably would have issued a hotfix of just it, but as is, the issue is bound up with other skills/engine and thus is probably a whole lot harder to stomp the bug.  Getting 100 fixes is great, and I can't wait.  Hopefully they will have some other balance issues as well, but we will just have to wait and see.

You also know they will not release the fix late in the week to prevent an issue from happening over the weekend, so either early this week, or next week should be the targets.

[SteveGarbage]

Here's to hoping it will fix the PhysX problem I'm still dealing with...

[Karginnnn]

I am haveing the slow mo problem and I can't realy play the game. So I'd like EA bio or who ever to give me my money back till the game is fixed and then  when it is I would glady hand said money  back .

[Silver]

Karginnnn wrote...

I am haveing the slow mo problem and I can't realy play the game. So I'd like EA bio or who ever to give me my money back till the game is fixed and then  when it is I would glady hand said money  back .

Won't happen, and you know that... unless you ordered your game through Amazon or something as far as I heard... no offense intended.

[herwin1]

mcsupersport wrote...

Shade Bagel wrote...

Ashii6 wrote...

I really hope that this patch will fix slow motion bug :F

With how crippling that bug is, I wish they would just relaease a quicky patch that fixes just that.  The other bugs can wait.  Though it's good to know the patch is coming along.

Posted in another thread, but they said they are pretty sure the slom mo bug is tied into the same systemic problem with the maker's sigh potion issue.  There is more at work causing the issue than simply one independent buggy skill/effect.  If it was just one buggy skill they probably would have issued a hotfix of just it, but as is, the issue is bound up with other skills/engine and thus is probably a whole lot harder to stomp the bug.  Getting 100 fixes is great, and I can't wait.  Hopefully they will have some other balance issues as well, but we will just have to wait and see.

You also know they will not release the fix late in the week to prevent an issue from happening over the weekend, so either early this week, or next week should be the targets.

They changed some fields in the data structure they used to represent the character, and it looks like they didn't run down all the places they had to change the references. I thank the Good Lord for the invention of refactoring, which provides an automatically disciplined and reliable way of doing that in a number of languages, but isn't easily applicable to C or C++.

[Kajan451]

Chris Priestly wrote...
I almost waited until Monday to post this to avoid the thought of a prank, but I know many of you are waiting for word and didn't want to delay it anymore.

I for one do wait for this word. And i'd say: Took you long enough. It would be a surprise to see it certified within the next 5 days, and even then... 1 month after release to wait to fix (or at least i hope so) gamebreaking stuff like the Friendbonuses or Quests not continuing without savegame editing on the players side... thats a bit, harsch.

Less is more at times, you know? Instead of 100 fixes after a month.. it maybe had been better to have 20-30 fixes every week.

[TrueIceD]

It's bioware. According to my experience, they will _probably_ fix major issues (like slow bug) and story quests during next few months. Don't expect more from them. 100 fixes? Come on. I posted this link already:

http://www.baldurdas...s/TOBfixes.html

Take a look at post-final-patch fixes for BG2:ToB.

[vania z]

2 Kajan451
Actualy, 30 fixes per week results in 120+ fixes per month:D
________________
I bought dragon age 2 dvd box for my parents and sent it to them, hoping that by april 8 it will be fixed. It seems that by the time it arrives, it still will be unplayable.

[BTCentral]

Kajan451 wrote...

Less is more at times, you know? Instead of 100 fixes after a month.. it maybe had been better to have 20-30 fixes every week.

If they were only developing for the PC, then maybe that'd be a realistic expectation.

Console patches are a real pain because they have to be tested by QA, EA and then certified by MS/Sony (MS/Sony cerification alone can take 2 weeks). Due to this they make big patches instead of lots of smaller ones and unfortunately it's easiest for them to do the same with PC patches.

Even if they'd only fixed 2 game breaking issues for example, it would have still more than likely been a minimum of 3 weeks before it could be released across all platforms - so they may as well take a little longer and fix a lot at once, IMHO.

Gone are the days of Neverwinter Nights style patching.

Modifié par BTCentral, 03 avril 2011 - 02:43 .

[JediMB]

^ In addition to BTCentral's points, Microsoft also has limits for how many free updates a developer is allowed to release for a game. Not sure if Sony has something similar, though.

[vania z]

"In addition to BTCentral's points, Microsoft also has limits for how many free updates a developer is allowed to release for a game. Not sure if Sony has something similar, though."
do you have anything to confirm this?

[Chairon de Celeste]

I'd be most happy with a gui menu option for the downloadable content
wich allows to de- and re-activate installed content via checkbox.

Same for a patch uninstaller - the damage 1.01 single core fixes add
to the game on quad core are quite unnerving.

on rank 3 is a fix for the broken 'rescue' quest.

Modifié par Chairon de Celeste, 03 avril 2011 - 04:44 .

[JediMB]

vania z wrote...

"In addition to BTCentral's points, Microsoft also has limits for how many free updates a developer is allowed to release for a game. Not sure if Sony has something similar, though."
do you have anything to confirm this?

Honestly can't recall where I read it, since it has been such a long time. It was a developer interview of some sort.

Fact is, though, that Microsoft has all sorts of restrictions for content-distribution that doesn't allow them to charge the customer money.

[fastidiou5]

Thanks for the information, it's a relief just to know that there are fixes on the way.

[Dr.Goodspeed]

So...

Are you still not willing to give us an ETA? This can't be the first time you're sending something to EA/Sony/Microsoft for certification.

If for whatever reason you cannot give us an ETA, would you be so kind as to tell us if the PC customers also have to wait for Sony/Microsoft certification or just for EA?

[_000Darkstar]

Dr.Goodspeed wrote...

So...

Are you still not willing to give us an ETA? This can't be the first time you're sending something to EA/Sony/Microsoft for certification.

If for whatever reason you cannot give us an ETA, would you be so kind as to tell us if the PC customers also have to wait for Sony/Microsoft certification or just for EA?

ETA: 1.5-3 weeks. Depends on how long Sony and MS take to get it certified. 

Yes PC users have to wait.

You're welcome.

[woloif]

1-3 weeks, translated as 3-6 weeks. always always always, expect the worst and hope for the best!

[Dr.Goodspeed]

_000Darkstar wrote...

Dr.Goodspeed wrote...

So...

Are you still not willing to give us an ETA? This can't be the first time you're sending something to EA/Sony/Microsoft for certification.

If for whatever reason you cannot give us an ETA, would you be so kind as to tell us if the PC customers also have to wait for Sony/Microsoft certification or just for EA?

ETA: 1.5-3 weeks. Depends on how long Sony and MS take to get it certified. 

Yes PC users have to wait.

You're welcome.

How do you know that? I was hoping for a little more official answer...

[Silver]

There won't be any official answers anymore I guess, at some point in the next few weeks, we will get a patch and that's it.
New Information ? I wouldn't count on it, but that is just my opinion...

[Merwanor]

vania z wrote...

"In addition to BTCentral's points, Microsoft also has limits for how many free updates a developer is allowed to release for a game. Not sure if Sony has something similar, though."
do you have anything to confirm this?

I know they limit free DLC but never heard about limiting patches.

[PSUHammer]

vas1444 wrote...

What you wrote has nothing to do with the fact that paying customers expect quality products for their money. The fact that in the software industry you can't get the money back is obviously a major problem in a situation like this, as I suspect many people would want their money refunded for DA2. 

I preordered DA2 based on bioware's reputation. Has this game been made by a company I didn't use to trust this much, I would not have preordered and definetely would not have bought a game that has a 4.3 metacritic user score. 

If every customer of entertainment media (movies, music and games) were able to return them just because they didn't live up to their individual expectations (or any other reason), the media industry would grind to a halt.  It's all subjective.  What consumers need to do is hold off on buying things on release day or preordering.  How many movies did you go to see with the whole family only to realize they stunk.  Would you be able to get your money back?  Nope.

What you are suggesting just isn't grounded in reality from a business sense.  It will never happen.

How many people who paid to see The Phantom Menace would take the option of having their money back?  Plesae raise your hand!! 

Modifié par Hammer6767, 03 avril 2011 - 10:35 .

[fusilero1]

100 bugs, that's a great number ;D

[Mongoose22]

silverhammer08 wrote...

There won't be any official answers anymore I guess, at some point in the next few weeks, we will get a patch and that's it.
New Information ? I wouldn't count on it, but that is just my opinion...

At this point your guess is as good as theirs.  Bioware's got no control over the certification process.

[TheAgarrar]

edit removed post

Modifié par TheAgarrar, 04 avril 2011 - 12:25 .