169 réponses à ce sujet

[GordianKnot42]

Bryan Johnson wrote...

Let's be frank for a moment here, most games do not get support for a year. Who knows when we will be done.

This.

I am a-STOUNDED at the support ME3 MP has seen in the last year, both in terms of fixes and new DLC... for FREE, no less. And to think Halo used to charge $5 just for a couple of new maps (that you weren't even guaranteed to be able to play).

ME3 = Best. Purchase. Ever.

[Bushido Effect]

DullahansXMark wrote...

Distilled Poison wrote...

thatdamnlobster wrote...

methinks this is the first mp game you really played

I could throw a controller at my game library and not hit a game with as many bugs as ME3. Which is a bit of a feat considering I have 112 games in my trophy list. And that's only the games I've owned on PS3.

I don't like quoting Bryan with such a negative post right after he got back. He was unfairly dogpiled before, but I just wanted to address the statement. Most games don't get a year of support because they don't need it.

To put this into perspective, not that many multiplayer games are quite as complex as this. With more complexity comes more bugs.

How does Gears 3 Horde mode compare? I never played it.

[randomfoo]

metaempiricist wrote...

randomfoo wrote...

Bleachrude wrote...

Mp-Ryan, that's because most MP gams are PC only...It costs Valve nothing to update a game anytime they find a bug...

Sony and MS charge EA/Bioware 40k for each patch....We've had 5 patches for each console I believe, the first patch both Sony and MS give for free...which means that Bioware/EA has had to spend $320K

(Anyone want to double check my math...pretty sure I'm right though).

That's not paying the actual people doing the testing/coding..that's just pure money they had to give Sony/MS.

In the future I hope Bioware takes advantage of free PC updates to shake out the bugs in their patches. It took like what, 3 patches and 6 months to finally fix the ULM bug? Almost every time the community was able to determine that it was still not working almost immediately.

...

While I'm very appreciative of the continued support and content that's been offered, and like others that are still playing it a year later, I've been pleasantly surprised and impressed by all that the team has done,  it seems like it the reception/longevity could have been even better if the devs were able to have been more aggressive in ironing out a lot of the more serious issues earlier (remember, it took 6mo for 1.04 to come up, which fixed the Vanguard and many other lag/net issues; in between that time, dev participation in the forums was few and far between (probably mostly due to the SP response, admittedly...).

funny how people think it is "free pc updating" nothing is free and it doesn't just happen by itself. You need to pay people for their time and energy and expertice. So yeah maybe cheaper but this is a port to pc FROM console and the console fanbase dwarfs the pc one. So like it or not we need to wait for all platforms.

The point of advanced/more frequent PC releases isn't that it wouldn't cost anything to develop, but that you could have broader QA for fixes *before* you spend money on certification on consoles.  If you released a patch on the PC for an issue and you could see that it didn't work, you would save your money certifying the patch on the consoles/fix it before submitting, significantly reducing your cycle times.

Now, this doesn't work if, as Bryan has mentioned elsewhere, if different versions require a completely different set of accounts/servers and as we've seen if different versions aren't compatible w/ each other, but these are architectural decisions (that will hopefully be taken into account), not inherent technical or business issues.

My background is in consumer internet tech and I've written and seen lots of stuff used by millions of people and regularly dealt w/ much more complex versioning, user segmentation, and protocol/heterogeneous stack issues.

There are ways to be much more agile, but a lot of it is based on technical/process decisions that are understandably way too late to change.  Hence, my hope that the lessons learned w/ ME3MP are applied in the future...

(tl;dr it's possible to work smarter and faster for the same cost)

[xx DJ ONE xx]

Heri wrote...

...I'm just frustrated with this game and will actually be looking forward to the day that EA's server for it go offline...

Dear Heri,

 Your frustration has been researched & identified. There is a simple solution available.

1. Turn on your PC or gaming console

2. Assuming there is no disc in the drive/tray, do not place the ME3 game disc in your device

3. (Optional) Avoid the ME3 MP Discussion Board as it may remind you that other people exist enjoy the game

Hope this helps and as always, your individual happiness is all that matters.

Sincerely,

the rest of the people living on your the planet

[Ultimo_Cleric01]

xx DJ ONE xx wrote...

Heri wrote...

...I'm just frustrated with this game and will actually be looking forward to the day that EA's server for it go offline...

Dear Heri,

 Your frustration has been researched & identified. There is a simple solution available.

1. Turn on your PC or gaming console

2. Assuming there is no disc in the drive/tray, do not place the ME3 game disc in your device

3. (Optional) Avoid the ME3 MP Discussion Board as it may remind you that other people exist enjoy the game

Hope this helps and as always, your individual happiness is all that matters.

Sincerely,

the rest of the people living on your the planet

Also, I couldnt help but notice that Heri has played pretty much all of Bioware's games as they are all registered under his avatar.

If you hate the games so much, why did you buy them all, surely a normal human being would stop aftet finding the first game bad.

Btw, just because you hate the game so much, do go hating on all us "fanboys" because we all think Bioware has done a great job. Yes there are bugs, but there are bugs in loads of other games too. UMMM SKYRIM?!?!?!

Bryan, please ignore this guy. The majority of us think you and your team have done a great job. Thanks mate.

[stysiaq]

Wait, why is this thread still ongoing? The OP didn't seem like a good start.

[nanotm]

this is probably late to the party and no i cba'd to read all those pages, but i'm a go ahread and guess its become more of a how dare you be so nasty v shut it fanboi type of thread and ignor it all


anyway my 2 pence worth,


the mp side of the game was an added bonus created as an experiment by a studio that had no idea if it would work at all or not (yet they did it anyway)

the level of support for the game has been pretty amazing (given that its not a fully fledged mmo like World Of Wanchors ) the game play is perhaps a little buggy (but far less so than say UT (any version) on whose engine the game is built (so the base code is buggy and that was perhaps a bad choice to start with as it made the overall product buggy) however there more "annoying side traps" than game breaking (asside from the dodgy health gate in 1.04)

they get fixed with relative speed once identified, of course some are more difficult to fix (like missile glitching) but the BW team does keep trying with there much smaller support team (something most companies wouldnt bother with)

some of the balance changes to me seem a little strange some seem fine some are downright decent (i'll never understand the nerf thing in a non pvp game) however theres things that perhaps "could of been fixed" which are somewhat frustraighting as a player, but at least unlike a lot of games on release day you could go from start to finish without hitting a break loop (in ut2004 the sp campaign required a patch 4 tiems in the first month so you could actually get to the end of it, doom3 required 2 patches to fix dead end bugs in the first week as did so many others)

the bw team has thankfully adopted the microtransaction model so those who want to can pay there way and those who dont can grind it (neither getting any real advantage as there all the same gear) instead of asking for 30~50$ for an update like some games (why people are dumb enough ot play those games is beyond me but then i'm too broke to fork out that kind of money anyway)

i love the game play of me3, i really like the mp (even with it being a lag fest at times), i would like it a lot more if the mp netcode was adjusted on a game by game basis to prevent the problems of time delay but it is at least fair for everyone at the moment (were all equally at the mercy of it)

i'm hopeing that some of the reason BW has supported the mp as heavily as they have done is them gathering infromation towards creating ME4 to ensure it doesnt have the same problems, i'm also hopeing that they provide the game on at least the 3 platforms they started with for me3

all in all i'm happy with the game (yes i whine about certain parts but who the hell doesnt find something to whine about) i supported the game through microtransactions, an di hope the studio goes on for many more years and continues to develope games that follow both the me3 style and the da/dao/da2 styles

oh and whilst i like to complain (who doesnt) i try to be civil to the bw guys at the very least cos whilst there here for us (in terms of support nad feedback) there not employed by us and we each would be paying thousands a month if that werre the case ....

[Bleachrude]

only problem randomfoo is that as mentioned, ME is a console port from the 360 and it would look bad that the console version gets updated/patched AFTER the PC....

As a PC player, I notice we constantly complain about how consoles are a drag on our favourite PC titles (almost all PC players can name a game franchise where a latter game we think got screwed over because of trying to appeal to the console crowds)

It is then hypocritical of us to turn around and complain about a game that was a console exclusive because it doesnt focus on the PC market....

[sobit]

Wow, this thread was actually pretty informative, thanks BroJo.

now I have to say this anyway, even if nobody cares: This game (the MP at least) really has a lot of bugs or general desing flaws, at least in my opinion. At a certain point, I didn't really try to get better anymore, but only to circumvent those bad desings. If you want it I will point them out but I doubt it. But the game has been fun anyway and I really hope you guys at BW will learn from the feedback and treat this game as what it really was: a year long beta. I also really hope there will be a ME4, just to see what you can do with all this experience in a new, better multiplayer.

[Edorian27]

Bryan Johnson wrote...

Let's be frank for a moment here, most games do not get support for a year. Who knows when we will be done.

Just a question to that statement, Bryan: Do you refer to online multiplayer games (like WoW) cause this is what I'd compare ME3 MP to.

[SofaJockey]

randomfoo wrote...

...

IMO, anyone who's ranting or raving (discussion is one thing, hyperbole is another) is either lacking in maturity or perspective. Or should get over it, stop playing and leave the community be.

Nicely said.

"It doesn't matter if the glass is half empty or half full. Be thankful that you have a glass and grateful that there's something in it."...

[Xain88]

Bryan Johnson wrote...

Let's be frank for a moment here, most games do not get support for a year. Who knows when we will be done.

You guys are among my favorite Dev's/franchise now, just wish the servers were better though.

1 MGO (Metal Gear Online)
2 ME3
3 Demon/Dark Souls.

[kipac]

I'm surprised this thread isn't locked.
It looks pretty obvious it's going the wrong way again because of certain individuals.

[4ut0b4hn5child27]

I think people need to low their own expectation.

No all game are considered 'perfect'

yeah sure there is so many bugs and fixes.

but look at the bigger picture. If not because of Fan's support. This MP will be dead less than a year.

I think some of you who still making a ruckus with this game should thanks to BioWare BIG TIME!!! why?
1. Free MP DLC
2. Patch, hell even they revamp some power behaviour
3. etc...etc....and etc....

Please, don't become an impolite person who don't know about giving thanks.

[Charaxan]

First : fanboys.

Fanboys have "no" opinion. We find them on every game. They are ready to defend with their life the devs of their favorited game. The two reasons of the "fanboyism" is :
1 : I bought a game, so it must be good, if not I wouldn't have buy it. So I must try to defend the devs and the game at all cost
2 : I am glad to be part of a big community and to be "friend" with the "actors" of the "big society". Devs are Stars

Fanboys have no opinion. It is emotional based response and behaviour. Never trust a fanboy. Conrdad Vermer is the illustration

Second : the bugs. Please. Don't be hard on devs about that. (No, I AM NOT A FANBOY ! ) Mass Effect is bugged, yes, but they are most of them non-critical bugs. Take any bethesda game and you'll understand what I mean. Blue screen of the death (before) and ctd are still common in those games. FLawed mission because you took an object triggering a quest, but the quest didn't start because you didn't speak to the right person, and then you speak to the right person but the quest didn't finish because you "didn't find the object". Main quest failure etc. Got that on any elderscrolls, any fallout.
Sega/Creative assembly with all the total wars. You still have the same bugs in Shogun II Total War that where in Shogun Total War first of the name. In Medieval total war, Rome total war, Medieval II total war, Empire Total war and Shogun II total war, you have NO evolution of the critical bugs (ctd, freezes) and IG bugs (ennemy can't attack your castle, because of bad waypath....

Anybody who played those two big series of games know what I am talking about. Those games are not finished. They are well made, good ideas, good scenarii, good directing, even, but they are not finished.

Mass Effect series are, at least, finished. I never experienced any CTD with ME, ,1 2, or 3. The games are tested and they work. They may be not always "well mades", there are flaws but they don't stop us from playing the game. Hell, even vanguard bug was not critical as bethesda's or Sega/Creative Assembly's where. You could leave the party and start back. It was a stupid bug, it should not have been there, but compared to a bug where the entire game crashes or (!) the entire computer crashes, that's intellectual flaw to state that the Mass Effect games have more bugs than others. I may have more scratches in my skin, but at least I am not stabbed hard.

Third : about the time ME3MP will endure :

Of course in the history of multiplayer games (May I remind you Newerwinter nights 1, which was patched during more than two years ! (and more !) after the release of the last add-on !) the devs supported the game more than a year. Of course it was often the sp games that was not supported more than a year. I think we all understand that and should remind the fact that ME3MP would have no excuses other than "it is not profitable anymore". Considering the SP timeline for a MP game is flawed thinking.

Conclusion :

In my opinion, I think devs' have two choices as soon as the game is not profitable :

1 : forget about Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer and work on other projects
2 : try to make the game more attractive to win money over this again.

If microtransactions are not enough to make you live (I must remind to all here that dev's are payed with a salary and it COST !), maybe try some think like non-essential bonuses in mp (more customization of weapons/characters) for money and money only. More weapons (as soon as they are not god mode weapons... if so, you would break the balance and "pay" users would have more chance to win than "non-pay" users) and/or more mods and type of consumables.

Not any payed dlc (if so you would break the base of players, those wo can pay can continue to play and the others would stop) nor new maps (same problem, you saw that in a lot of mp games...) but only "show-off" things that a lot of people are ready to pay, even if a lot of bsn users don't care about.

Of course, I think personally that it is the solution, because I don't want to see MP disapearing.

If you had the only choice but to stop MP support, I beg you to make the mp possible to play in the old fashion "sever-client" way, not with the EA severs only.
In that case, any fan of the mp would be able to play mp with each others and have fun once more, maybe without any features but at least it could be a pleasure to find each others once more.

[nicethugbert]

Sheeple look at horrible support then get warm and fuzzy at mediocre support.

[HolyAvenger]

I think most people are surprised/happy at the length of the MP support because no one expected it to be this popular and it probably wasn't planned to be so at the start of the projec/

[CBGB]

As a relative newcomer to Multiplayer, I've been impressed with

• how friendly the community is to new players
• how many other new players have started, even this long after release
• how good the quality of play is. I tend to be a single-player gamer, and never expected to like MP this much.

I'm sure glad the support has lasted this long, and more is gravy.