Developers miss dates all the time. Almost no one else has two or three other stakeholders with contracts that they have to deal with before communicating with their audience. All this screaming about when the announcement was made is sending a very clear message: don't try to remake releases from other companies. It is a no win situation for Beamdog. There was clearly an unforeseen circumstance and they did the best they could in a bad situation.
I for one want to see more updates on old games. And unless the original IP holder does the work, this situation may happen again. I hope the emotional responses here don't scare them off. Somebody probably screwed up. Good for you if you've never made a mistake. But most of us have made one or two. And if you have to get three different lawyers from three different companies to sign off before you announce your mistake it looks even worse. Maybe you want to tar and feather the poor guy/gal. But I bet they are as sorry as they need to be without the hysterics.
I want them to nail this - not perfect out of the gate necessarily but something that has impact to bring more of these remakes/revitalizations to market.
My worst case scenario is not a late launch but a buggy failure that prevents BG2:EE, et. al.
All the economic incentives are for an on-time launch so I am fairly certain there is a design reason for the pushback. The delay will hurt the launch some, but inconsequentially compared to not having the product ready to go.
In short, while I dislike the delay I will play my existing BG software while I keep the faith that they are generating a materially superior product to what they have today. This isn't the end of the world or some great morale catastophe.
I don't really understand the huge rage. It's not a massive delay. I'm happy to wait. Patience all :P
Agreed. I think some people are having issues separating whatever industry they're involved in with the gaming industry... having worked on a few gaming contracts myself I can tell you they never have 'time is of the essence' clauses for this very reason. Also, although naturally anyone does not wish to be parted with their money I consider that a polished, detailed, unbuggy game is fairly good bang for my buck.
I can understand people are a little annoyed, perhaps a little miffed at how close to the previous release date this info was relayed to them, but raging, really? What a waste of energy! Imagine complaining like this in a gaming store! They'd laugh you out, and probably rightly so given that people seem to be frothing at the mouth over a simple delay over a video game.
You are, again, ignoring the fact that it seems morally reprehensible to be delaying a mere four days before the scheduled release date.
Do they have to do it? Whatever, sure. The way they have done it? Really unforgiveable.
Unforgivable? Gee, you might be on to something here. Picket outside of their offices. Start your own "Never Forgive Beamdog" club and charge dues until you collect your pre-order's worth. Write a letter to your congressman to push a bill prohibiting the forgiving of this delay. These are just a couple ideas for your campaign, by all means go to town here.
Alternately, you could take a step back, stop trying to take you anger out on someone and look at the big picture. Or at least realize that actions speak louder than words: stop clucking about this and do something about it. In the words of Christopher Titus, "Climb on down from the cross, use the wood to build a bridge and get over it."
Unforgivable? Inexcusable? Really? So no matter what, even if they apologied for the delay you would never ever accept their apology?
They already did apologize for the delay. It's the poor manner in which it was communicated to fans (and the lack of proper communication in general) that they should be apologizing for - though the answer to your question would be "No."
On a side note, why does it seem that a previous post of mine has disappeared from this thread? - though it is still listed as being among my comments in my account info.
I don't think anyone is asking you to excuse the poor communication. People are going to feel how they feel, and I don't think anyone would try to say that waiting until four days prior to the projected release date is a "good plan".
So rage about the lack of communication, sure. But when it comes to the delay itself, you won't find me or any beta tester (or anyone on the development team) regretting the decision. The delay needed to happen, so they made sure it did.
It could have been handled better (although I maintain that this is more the fault of the numerous signatures required to approve the delay itself, and then a further number of signatures require to approve the announcement of said delay; and it seems that during the month of August, a lot of people were mysteriously unavailable for things like negotiating boxed editions or delaying releases). No one's disputing that.
But I won't stand for flaming members of the community for choosing to trust the decision that was made. If you want to discuss it or debate it in a manner that is considerate of others, then feel free to do so.
Flaming will be treated as such. Carry on.
--PS: "Gift from Ao"? I don't remember giving anyone anything. You must have me confused with someone else.
I'd rather all the nerdragers did get their refund and bugger off into the mists never to be heard from again. That way I can be sure not to run across them in multiplayer. I'd prefer to meet and interact with the mature and more awesome people who understand that shit happens and deal with it.
Yes I'm disappointed. Big deal. If it wasn't for Beamdog you wouldn't be getting anything at all.
They probably did see this coming earlier than 4 days before release, but had various hoops to jump through to get an extension let alone be allowed to release the information itself. I am bummed it is not coming out sooner. I am not bummed by the thought of them working hard at it for another 2 months.
Just because people support Beamdog's decision doesn't mean they're apologists. Just because they're critical of the situation doesn't mean they're rabid angry fascists.
Does it appear unprofessional for a game to be delayed for *months* a mere *days* before projected release, especially with pre-orders at this stage? Yes. No matter the internal reasoning (approval process and so forth), it's shoddy. Am I going to wait? Of course.
I'm in no hurry, I have to many awesome games to play to, but... my concern over the delay 4 days before release makes me wonder if there even competent enough to do it at all? after all the "Game" has existed since 1998 yeah there making alot of changes, but it's not like there were any surprises, or if there we're then that seems indicative of not so good at what your doing.
I kinda thought this was a project of love from dedicated old-school pros, but the delay and language of the announcement seems to point to yet another big nameless corp rushing the project and overworked under payed people trying their best up to the last minute afraid to admit it's not ready and finally it comes out 4 days before launch.
eh, whatever, all in all, I don't really care, I just hope they don't screw up a game that didn't have any problems.
Everyone is saying how great it is that there is a delay.
My problem with this thread is: Who is actually doing this? I see a whole heck of a lot of people saying, "well, this sucks, but okay. I'm going to trust them, because they clearly really care about the game enough to not want to rush it and release something half-baked." I don't see people saying "how great it is that there is a delay," as you said.
Look, it's a small miracle someone even took the time work on this project and we should be happy that it's being done in the first place. They clearly love the original game and want to do it justice. I can seriously understand that and I can also wait two more months for it.
When it's November and the game comes out, you won't even remember this and you'll be glad they took the time to do whatever they felt was necessary for the game. Just cool off for now.
Does anyone else think throwing the word apologist as an insult to someone is kind of funny. I can think of worse insults to say to people, but apologist isn't one of them.
I'm telling my mother on you, You namby pamby apologist!
LMAO
lol It made me think of the political insults people on news sites are so fond of these days. Everyone knows the apologist agenda is about punishing the true patriotic gamers, an excuse to keep those devs on the payrolls, when they are clearly inefficient and should be replaced. Also paid minimum wage to make our games cheaper.
(It might not make sense to people outside of the US. Or anyone for that matter, its 4am here...)
Larger companies make much longer delays. Blizzard in their 20 years run delayed each of their game. And the delays used to be even years.
And what was the result?
Nothing more than nearly completely bug free, top games with the largest, massive sales and independence in the times when it is nearly impossible.
You have right to be angry, but go as far as causing such a bad atmosphere in these boards and wanting a refund? You mean you won´t be playing the game because it was delayed?
I don't understand why they can't release the game as it is now, and then just have us re-download it again later when they're finished with the updates.
I don't care if I have to start a new game two months from now.
But that's just me. :P I'm cuh-razy like that.
Because if it was released in this state, there would be worse and many more trolls appearing all around claiming refund.
I love these threads that someone makes, to go and tell people what they should be doing to match his tastes.
We're all pissed that they decided to postpone the release 4 days before it, and for 2,5 months later. Do we need to bitch about it or whine or RAGE or whatever?
That's up to us, and our personalities, don't pass your opinion as a fact.
Making a thread about your personal rage about it is legitimate and understandable.
Making a thread to patronize people about how their reactions should be?
verdegreen, it's just a game. Don't you have anything better to do than whining? Like it's gonna change anything. The world didn't collapse because of that delay. They're gonna ship the game later, so get busy with something else. Get a life, for example.
Because having a delay for the sake of having a delay with no good reason has no benefit and only hurts the devs' reputation. There has to be a "hole" that needs to be filled before the product is satisfactory. A delay doesn't happen just because.
Now whether this hole exist for valid "benign" reasons or due to negligence/miscalculation is another matter but it's there and we're better off without it.
Not to mention it would be a complete waste of money and time. makes no sense to delay with no reason
Comments
I for one want to see more updates on old games. And unless the original IP holder does the work, this situation may happen again. I hope the emotional responses here don't scare them off. Somebody probably screwed up. Good for you if you've never made a mistake. But most of us have made one or two. And if you have to get three different lawyers from three different companies to sign off before you announce your mistake it looks even worse. Maybe you want to tar and feather the poor guy/gal. But I bet they are as sorry as they need to be without the hysterics.
My worst case scenario is not a late launch but a buggy failure that prevents BG2:EE, et. al.
All the economic incentives are for an on-time launch so I am fairly certain there is a design reason for the pushback. The delay will hurt the launch some, but inconsequentially compared to not having the product ready to go.
In short, while I dislike the delay I will play my existing BG software while I keep the faith that they are generating a materially superior product to what they have today. This isn't the end of the world or some great morale catastophe.
I can understand people are a little annoyed, perhaps a little miffed at how close to the previous release date this info was relayed to them, but raging, really? What a waste of energy! Imagine complaining like this in a gaming store! They'd laugh you out, and probably rightly so given that people seem to be frothing at the mouth over a simple delay over a video game.
Er, apologist has a different meaning to what you think it does.
Alternately, you could take a step back, stop trying to take you anger out on someone and look at the big picture. Or at least realize that actions speak louder than words: stop clucking about this and do something about it. In the words of Christopher Titus, "Climb on down from the cross, use the wood to build a bridge and get over it."
Also agreed.
I don't doubt that they had a good reason for delaying the release of the game, but they way they went about this is inexcusable.
On a side note, why does it seem that a previous post of mine has disappeared from this thread? - though it is still listed as being among my comments in my account info.
So rage about the lack of communication, sure. But when it comes to the delay itself, you won't find me or any beta tester (or anyone on the development team) regretting the decision. The delay needed to happen, so they made sure it did.
It could have been handled better (although I maintain that this is more the fault of the numerous signatures required to approve the delay itself, and then a further number of signatures require to approve the announcement of said delay; and it seems that during the month of August, a lot of people were mysteriously unavailable for things like negotiating boxed editions or delaying releases). No one's disputing that.
But I won't stand for flaming members of the community for choosing to trust the decision that was made. If you want to discuss it or debate it in a manner that is considerate of others, then feel free to do so.
Flaming will be treated as such. Carry on.
--PS: "Gift from Ao"? I don't remember giving anyone anything. You must have me confused with someone else.
Yes I'm disappointed. Big deal. If it wasn't for Beamdog you wouldn't be getting anything at all.
Does it appear unprofessional for a game to be delayed for *months* a mere *days* before projected release, especially with pre-orders at this stage? Yes. No matter the internal reasoning (approval process and so forth), it's shoddy. Am I going to wait? Of course.
I kinda thought this was a project of love from dedicated old-school pros, but the delay and language of the announcement seems to point to yet another big nameless corp rushing the project and overworked under payed people trying their best up to the last minute afraid to admit it's not ready and finally it comes out 4 days before launch.
eh, whatever, all in all, I don't really care, I just hope they don't screw up a game that didn't have any problems.
When it's November and the game comes out, you won't even remember this and you'll be glad they took the time to do whatever they felt was necessary for the game. Just cool off for now.
(It might not make sense to people outside of the US. Or anyone for that matter, its 4am here...)
And what was the result?
Nothing more than nearly completely bug free, top games with the largest, massive sales and independence in the times when it is nearly impossible.
You have right to be angry, but go as far as causing such a bad atmosphere in these boards and wanting a refund? You mean you won´t be playing the game because it was delayed?
If 20 $ could ruin your world, you should get a job...
Lets rejoin, and just have a little patience.
We're all pissed that they decided to postpone the release 4 days before it, and for 2,5 months later. Do we need to bitch about it or whine or RAGE or whatever?
That's up to us, and our personalities, don't pass your opinion as a fact.
Making a thread about your personal rage about it is legitimate and understandable.
Making a thread to patronize people about how their reactions should be?
Why? They betrayed your LAWAAWWA?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=2aaubVlhNK4&feature=fvwp
UBAJAYDALAWWW!
Seriously -_-