I gotta be honest about this game
ObedMarsh
Member Posts: 32
in Multiplayer
The only reason I'm not feeling completely screwed over in paying over 20+ bucks for this, is because it's baldurs gate.
How can you sell a game that (might have been optimized), but except for minor difference is the same damn thing and then neglect the only part that's worth paying for, multiplayer?
Patches are fine, but this is not an MMO where you "understand" why there are bugs. This is a single player game with TCP/IP settings, if I log into gamespy right now with any other player, anywhere, I can start a BG2 game and start playing (well no I can't cuz the channel is empty) but it would work since I've done it many times in the past and with several players. Yet this supposed "remake" can't even get a single game going without tons of settings and third party software?
Not a lazy idiot either, I know how to open ports and I did, but that doesn't make a difference anyway since there is no hub to meet people in. It's just some of us have lives and need to study and can't meet 3 times a week between 3 and 6 pm, same reason I don't play MMO's but just wanna multiplay this oldie once in a while, so we pay 20+ dollars cuz multiplayer is supposed to be improved and working and then we find out it's baldurs gate with slightly improved graphics and a zoom function and everything else is broken?
When did it become a trend to release buggy computer games, that aren't even close to ready and expect people to have eternal frickin patience?
So I am asking you honestly and hope for an honest answer, is the multiplayer hub several months away from being any kind of reality, should I even expect it to happen? And if yes can I have my money back?
With all due respect and don't get me wrong cuz I appreciate anyone who takes up and oldie like this and spends time nurturing it. But are you just using this game to make a quick buck or are you actually gonna give us a product that has any kind of value? Because right now it smells like you were just looking for a way to make some money, by abusing something that many people care greatly about (as much as you can care about a computer game anyways).
Thanks and I'm sorry if your offended, but let's face it... this isn't nearly worth 20+ bucks and you know it.
How can you sell a game that (might have been optimized), but except for minor difference is the same damn thing and then neglect the only part that's worth paying for, multiplayer?
Patches are fine, but this is not an MMO where you "understand" why there are bugs. This is a single player game with TCP/IP settings, if I log into gamespy right now with any other player, anywhere, I can start a BG2 game and start playing (well no I can't cuz the channel is empty) but it would work since I've done it many times in the past and with several players. Yet this supposed "remake" can't even get a single game going without tons of settings and third party software?
Not a lazy idiot either, I know how to open ports and I did, but that doesn't make a difference anyway since there is no hub to meet people in. It's just some of us have lives and need to study and can't meet 3 times a week between 3 and 6 pm, same reason I don't play MMO's but just wanna multiplay this oldie once in a while, so we pay 20+ dollars cuz multiplayer is supposed to be improved and working and then we find out it's baldurs gate with slightly improved graphics and a zoom function and everything else is broken?
When did it become a trend to release buggy computer games, that aren't even close to ready and expect people to have eternal frickin patience?
So I am asking you honestly and hope for an honest answer, is the multiplayer hub several months away from being any kind of reality, should I even expect it to happen? And if yes can I have my money back?
With all due respect and don't get me wrong cuz I appreciate anyone who takes up and oldie like this and spends time nurturing it. But are you just using this game to make a quick buck or are you actually gonna give us a product that has any kind of value? Because right now it smells like you were just looking for a way to make some money, by abusing something that many people care greatly about (as much as you can care about a computer game anyways).
Thanks and I'm sorry if your offended, but let's face it... this isn't nearly worth 20+ bucks and you know it.
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Comments
Find a schedule that does allow for it.
This game is more than worth the $20. They could have charged more than that and you still would have paid it.
Quote"When did it become a trend to release buggy computer games, that aren't even close to ready and expect people to have eternal frickin patience?"
It is because release deadlines are either overdue or in time for holidays. This game was to be released 3 months ago and it got pushed back. I'm glad they pushed it back to fix many things.
I might as well say When did it become a trend for people to jump all in (Purchase) for a game and then complain about it...without reading reviews? I've made responses like this one many times on other forums to users.
Quote "With all due respect and don't get me wrong cuz I appreciate anyone who takes up and oldie like this and spends time nurturing it. But are you just using this game to make a quick buck or are you actually gonna give us a product that has any kind of value? Because right now it smells like you were just looking for a way to make some money, by abusing something that many people care greatly about (as much as you can care about a computer game anyways)."
Battlefield 3 is a good example of that quote. I'm mad I wasted $60 last year and yet next year...is Battlefield 4. Games are released as long as it is playable. There had to have been something with the game's (Battlefield 3) code because EA marked down heavily on the game's expansions for a period of time before announcing Battlefield 4. Activision did something similar with the call of duty series after having issues with Infinity Ward (Creators of the game series) the last 2 years. Valve is also known for buggy games or software. When Valve released steam in 2003 it had numerous bugs and, it crashed on thousands of users. I am serious. The same goes for Valve's games released afterwards...namely Half-Life 2. The network in Steam didn't get fully patched until 2007-2008. Yes, I looked at the updates when their released.
Quote"So I am asking you honestly and hope for an honest answer, is the multiplayer hub several months away from being any kind of reality, should I even expect it to happen? And if yes can I have my money back?"
Why would it be several months away? The multiplayer works just fine as of a few days ago. I'd say 3 months is when it comes.
Note - None of this is personal.
Read this thread too. It might even help you.
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/8942/unbelievable#latest
This game is currently in Beta, at the very least partial Beta so I can understand the disappointment. I think we need to wait a bit and see what comes down the pipe.
I can understand not wanting to get ripped off, it was your 20 dollars so getting your money back would be important, but you know overhaul is making a longer investment with BG2:EE, I imagine, so I highly doubt they are going to leave us hanging if you know what I mean.
Long story short if you trust them to get the job done consider your 20 an investment and make do with what you got for now, or wipe your hands with it and remember the company that did you dirty, move on and try and get your money back.
My choice is to give them the benefit of the doubt and wait.
This is exactly what will happen to this game aswell, except... this isn't an mmo, when you release a remake/completely new game which is mainly a SP experience with MP functionality. People expect it to work, with only minor issues to be solved down the road. In bg2 which is a frickin old game these days, they had a gaming hub and easy to play functionality and all it required was for ppl to get the latest patch? How are you going to try and persuade me, that they couldn't put together a chat room and fix a multiplayer function? If you don't get the MP community goin from the beginning... good luck ever getting it to go anywhere. So yes it feels nostalgic to play this game, it's awesome and I'm just glad ANYONE is redoing it.. but come on. Without a multiplayer function that isn't a "maybe" and 3-6 months after launch this shouldn't go anywhere past 10 euro as a fair price.
Anyway I didn't post anything for a couple of reasons:
1)They have been releasing patches from the get go, and if you follow their comments you can tell they are really passionate about this game and they are working pretty hard to fix everything.
2)While I disagree with their "development choices" namely programming for certain number of platforms simultaneously, I think they did what was best business wise. The greater the number of copies sold the highest the chance of us getting a BG3, so releasing it just before the holidays was the best they could do within their time frame.
I have no doubts that they'll fix MP in time, and I know it is frustrating to wait, hell I was cursing the heavens when I found out it was still broken. I just want to point out that people creating excuses are not helpful at all and I'm not defending them but trying to be reasonable, so with that in mind I think everyone that encounters a crash should send them the dump files so they can fix it as soon as possible instead of either telling them off or sugar coating the situation.
I agree with your statement and zealer's.
I too was one of those people who waited for Star-Wars TOR. I took part in the beta and it was ok. Voice acting was the best part.
The developers were busy with the Mass Effect series as well trying to see how they were going to do Star-Wars TOR. EA even took the mythic developers (People who created Warhammer mmo. That game didn't continue to attract players) and merged them with Bio-Ware. The reason for the merge was those guys had experience in making an mmo.
Many players complained over the ending of Mass Effect 3 and over Star-Wars TOR. In response, 2 key members of Bio-Ware left the company. They were the last original founders of Bio-Ware that had stayed with the company.
Trent Oster knew those members when he was with Bio-Ware. He talks about them in the link below. He helped create Bio-Ware before leaving to create Overhaul Games.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/09/28/trent-oster-suggests-fan-negativity-may-have-proved-just-too-much-for-bioware-doctors/
Later, another key member of Bio-Ware left.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/119955-BioWare-Loses-Another-Key-Player
Have you guys tried using an iPad or an osx version to play with windows guys yet?
Due to version number differences they don't work at all, zero chance of it working.
I've been posting in the iPad forum since day one of the first patch....
The game worked just fine and then the patch made it so me and the 3 other friends who all bought the game to go through multiplayer doesn't match up.
Also does everyone not know about good old game who also sells the same baulders gate that works with non cross platform perfectly fine?
The thing that makes me mad is we can't get a single response from the developers about a time frame for a patch for all the other systems or when they will give it to apple to put in the App Store.
Here is the latest response from Developer Trent Oster towards those with Apple products. Quote "Cam is supposed to be uploading the update right now. It will likely be six days to clear Apple approval."
If communication from the developers seems spartan, it's because of one of two things:
A) They're too busy actually fixing the bugs to spend a half-hour crafting a post describing what they're doing;
The beta team knows a little bit about it, so we've been answering some questions, but a lot of the things that we do know about (such as "what's in the next patch?") are covered in the NDA, which means we can't reveal as much as people might like. And that's an important piece, too, because it means that if a "fix" isn't working as intended, it can be moved to the next patch without upsetting the end-users (because the end-users don't know about them).
The multiplayer features are currently in beta form. Trent and the other developers have been pretty up-front about that, although since most of their communications take place in Tweets, it's possible you might have missed it. My personal prediction is this:
Their first priority is getting the game to be stable for as many people as possible. No point in selling a game if people can't play it. And they're making some good progress there. (Note: If you still get crashes, send your .dmp files to beamdmp@gmail.com [that's my own email address] and I'll forward it directly to Cameron.)
Their second priority is to get the multiplayer functionality working the way they originally intended it to. Right now their multiplayer fixes are basically "hot-fixes", things to try to get the multiplayer working for people until they have time to devote to really making it work. This may take a while.
I won't split hairs, here. The full, shiny, complete multiplayer matching system that is going to be amazing will probably not be ready for at least another month. You'll see fixes to get the existing multiplayer working, so that will hopefully allow you to play with your friends, but if you're holding out for the chat rooms and the match-making, don't expect it tomorrow.
Now, I could be wrong. They don't tell us everything, and it's entirely possible that someone over there has been putting in some 36-hour days trying to get the multiplayer features up and running. But you asked a reasonable question, and so that's my answer.
As for a refund, naturally I don't want you to get a refund, because I think the single-player is still working just fine, and you should be able to enjoy that. But if it's a question of money, and you really only want to play multiplayer, and if the existing multiplayer is too frustrating for you to even attempt right now, then maybe waiting until it's polished isn't a bad idea.
SOrry but why we offer 20 buck for a game i already have on my computer ?
It's write MULTIPLAYER improved in main page...... i mean i can play multiplayer in gamespy with my old version but i wanted to play with IMPROVED Multiplayer Bg-ee evolued.
I have make friend to buy it for nothing. we all need money back for fake announce.
My post above yours explains the situation with Multiplayer. It will get better, but it's still in the beta stages (and this, as I stated above, has already been stated several times by Trent). The "product features" needs to be updated, but that bit was clarified before the game's release.
As it stands right now, the front page description of the multiplayer for this game is A COMPLETE LIE. From beginning to end, my multiplayer experience was riddled with bugs and crashes. I seriously would have been better off playing the original version. The multiplayer is in beta? Fine. How about you let people know that before they purchase it?
Maybe they didn't communicate that as thoroughly as they should have, but what part of "Trent said numerous times before the release that the multiplayer was in beta" doesn't mean "Trent said numerous times before the release that the multiplayer was in beta"?
Seriously, read what I wrote.
Not everyone followed this project. How should I know to follow Trent before buying this game? I don't even know who Trent is.
"Trent said numerous times before the release that the multiplayer was in beta" doesn't do me a fat lot of good if he doesn't say it where it needs to be said. Has he said "multiplayer is in beta" on the front page? On the features page? No, he hasn't. Any customer who goes to the official website to check the features of this game is currently being LIED to.
Seriously, understand what I wrote.
What I don't get is repeating the exact same complaint right after I posted the explanation. I understand people are frustrated, but when you don't accept the answers we give you, what are we supposed to do?
I thought I WAS following this game closely, and this still slapped me in the face. I don't follow twitter accounts and I thought "I mean, multiplayer was the whole reason I justified paying 20 dollars.
From the front page: It doesn't say "will be upgraded" or "might be upgraded". It says "has been upgraded". That sort of stuff really grinds my gears. Only game companies seem to be able to get away with these (release unfinished products then maybe support afterward) policies. Try to equate this product with any other product you might buy and It might help to realise how terrible of an idea that is. Ok, well I'm just ranting now. Aosaw says it will be fixed, and matchmaking will be in... eventually, so I guess i have to trick myself into thinking I "invested" 20 dollars and not bought a product with it until that happens.
They are STILL deceiving customers by having those claims up there. They STILL have not communicated this issue effectively. Customers are still coming to this site, seeing the claims on the front page, and dropping money under false information.
I understand how stressful and complicated making a game can be, but like it or not, the advertised multiplayer features for this game is a COMPLETE LIE. Why haven't they fixed this? Well, a more skeptical man might say they are notifying people on twitter and not on the front page intentionally so they can continue to deceive potential customers... A more skeptical man might think this is a case of false advertising, instead of just negligent communication practices. I don't like having these thought but the evidence is in the inaction.
I hope they prove me wrong and update the front page. Every day that goes by without them changing the claims on the official website makes them seem more guilty of false advertising in my eyes.
Outside of the Black Pits and extra NPCs (And portraits and voice packs, I suppose) I haven't seen any distinctions which didn't previously exist through long-standing mods (all of which were free). I'm also extremely disappointed with the lack of an update on the features page, considering a large part of why I bought this game was for its multiplayer support. Finding out later on that it's a WIP feature, rather than a finished one, was extremely disappointing. Dismissing this with the statement that there was a page which clarified the nature of this feature -- which wasn't / still isn't on the features page -- is unnerving.
All in all, I'm feeling some buyer's remorse right now, and hope that it will soon be rectified. I was intending to purchase this for my girlfriend so we could play together, but as it stands, I feel more inclined to head over to GOG.com, buy the ten-dollar copy, and just mod that instead. I'm somewhat optimistic about future updates and the like, but a lot of the things I'm seeing are not too enjoyable.
Major dislikes are:
- No HD interface option: The fact that several mods have achieved a smoother interface bothers me.
- Lack of clean mod-support: This was a stated priority, if I recall, but doesn't seem visible in any way?
- Classes over tuned for low levels: I suppose puritan design can excuse this. Still, it's a bit absurd at times.
- Arguably poor quality cinematics: The more I watch that opener, the more my heart hurts. Contradicts the above.
- Lack of improved multiplayer support: The proposed feature was the primary reason I bought the game, honestly.
Everything I enjoy, on the other hand, is largely to the credit of the original game, or mirror designs which mod-authors already achieved long before this came to be. So I often find myself asking: what exactly is enhanced here? Anyway, that's my feedback on the matter. Sorry it's not the most positive criticism.
As for the question on getting my money back, it's ok I don't want them. I consider the investment made and I'm certainly not petty about nickels and dimes, it's the principle of it I care about. I just wanted to see if you would be willing to give them back.
I support things I believe in, mainly because so much crap is released that it's hard to root through it all. It's like people don't know that the story of a game is the lifeblood of entertainment for people with an int stat higher than 6, even if it's a simple one it still has great value. So when I first heard about this game, only one word appeared in my mind "awesome" and I will consider you "not full of sh*t" if you fix all these things in a reasonable time frame.
I'm actually not an annoying whiny customer, but this sentence on your website was 99% of the reason I bought this right away.
"Improved Multiplayer
Online multiplayer has been upgraded to include matchmaking functionality, and games can be played across multiple platforms. Adventurers on iPad, Mac, PC and Android Tablets can all play Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition together."
Just saying...
EDIT: As for the int stat higher than 6 part. It's in no way meant to propose that people of lesser intelligence can't enjoy a good story. I was merely referring to the tendency that people who usually like rpg/in debt games, are people who require a more complicated/less simple form of entertainment.
I suspect the line in the ad was never removed simply because they didn't realize the tense used in that statement, and they still do intend to make the multiplayer better (I finished a session with some of the beta team just this afternoon, which went very well). I shot Trent a message earlier this evening to let him know about the current inaccuracy in the description, too; at the very least, the statement should be altered to read "Multiplayer will see many new and great improvements over the coming months". If it doesn't get changed, though, please don't take that to mean that they're intentionally deceiving you. It's more that they don't have a free moment to update the website.
(For clarification, I'm not on staff at Overhaul; I just put together the game's manual. Anything you hear from me is mostly just me intuiting from what I've read online.)
The original bg game had shitty multiplayer. If you don't believe me I'll send you my copy of original and you can see how shitty it actually was. Anything here that works differently then the original would be an improvement. I haven't tried it yet on the enhanced edition, but honestly I wouldn't want to play this game multi if it works like the original.
You want multiplayer goodness with this style of game get Icewind Dale. I've played those games from beginning to end without using pausing for multiplayer. Awesome game for multiplayer and you should spend time with it instead of this one.
One middle aged man just callin it like it is.
I understand that "Trent" stated that MP is in beta. Look at the screenshot. It's read and write
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj307/elitespriggen101/Baldr002.jpg
Customers only worry about the product at hand and whats advertising on the main site. If it says polished MP cross platforms then that's what they are going to buy.
They should have something on the main website saying that MP is still in beta and that it will be fixed by such and such date or eta.
It would have saved alot of headache involving money back returns and all that.
But that doesn't necessarily mean that it will take months to make it playable. It could be two weeks to make it playable, another week to get the match-making going, and then six weeks of steady improvements to the existing framework. Or some variation on that.
Or purely for multiplayer.
I too was hoping for a built in matchmaking system but im still enjoying the game solo, and will be happy to come back to it once multiplayer is working