Who is going to wait till the first update before playing?

[Gairnulf]

 

Unless the game is seriously broken, I really do not see myself waiting a month or two for it. Even New Vegas was playable at the time, it cannot be worse.

Oh, it certainly could.  I made the mistake of picking up wasteland 2 on launch, and even discounting the bugs, the game itself was so horribly lacking that even after multiple 1 gig patches, I'm disinclined to pick it back up.

Their QA team simply isn't large enough to cover everything that could go wrong in a game of this size, they have admitted as much. For that reason I highly doubt the release version will be without a few glaring bugs and typos.

Then, quite honestly, they should have waited and not committed to a date.

 

Then the game would have been even better at release, but in the strange world that we live in, this doesn't necessarily mean it would sell better. And in a perfect world you don't need to pay the team when you put off the release for another few months, but we don't know what's the situation at Obsidian right now.

 

 

 

Their QA team simply isn't large enough to cover everything that could go wrong in a game of this size, they have admitted as much. For that reason I highly doubt the release version will be without a few glaring bugs and typos.

Then, quite honestly, they should have waited and not committed to a date.

 

 

This tells me you've never coded in your life and therefore don't understand complexity in fixing bugs. Fact of the matter is that on a PC platform, with its myriad of possible configurations compared to consoles, makes it insanely difficult to stamp out all bugs. There will always be bugs.

 

Not all bugs are equal, and I kinda agree with Voss, but it's not about the bugs. I imagine it's more about running out of budget and having negotiated a release date with your publisher. IMO, many signs point to the release being a rough landing. I hope for the best though, and that the game gets as good reception as possible from the casual crowd (I hate that term but it's so convenient) everyone outside of our forums here. It's this that will make it a success, I think it should be a success for all its quality creative ideas and a setting which personally I already see becoming a classic. There are bugs which will irritate guys like us and then there are bugs which will turn away the general public, and I'd rather have the general public happy and us waiting for patches for the things which the general public wouldn't even notice, than us very happy at release and the general public indifferent to the game. Weigh those two outcomes and you'll see I'm right.

[gladestone]

Since i saw the part of the kickstarter campaign an the cries of green shirt girl..Ive been eagerly waiting this great game made bye my favorite devs..Why would i wait for a patch or two..Ive always been confident in obsidian the team..Even with alpha protocol, wish i wish they would revisit one day even though in my heart of hearts i know they will not..Great game with all the bugs guys, if yall havent touched it play it..Enjoyed tremendously..South park i couldnt stop laughing all the way through the end, funniest game ever i mean that with all my heart..Fallout new vegas was one of the best fallout games in a long time better than fallout 3..Now im looking forward to the return of the baldurs gate era..Ill enjoy pillars with extreme enthusiasm thank god for spell check i butchered that lol..Any how im also looking forward to that tank game there working on..Im not a big tank guy but it looks fun..Love supporting them also..WIll anticipate there next great game afterwords...Guys good job on poe so far looking forward to playing it all the way through..Love ya guys ...

[BlueLion]

I'm away for a month and half from release! I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not but it will be frustrating seeing all the Let's Play uploads.

[Lord Wafflebum]

Waiting for Chinese.

Totally can't understand those complex English words...

Do not feel bad. Most people that speak English as their first language do not understand many words in english.

[Luckmann]

 

Waiting for Chinese.

Totally can't understand those complex English words...

 

Do not feel bad. Most people that speak English as their first language do not understand many words in english.

 

 

My girlfriend came home from school the other day (she's studying basic English for reasons, even though she's German, living in Sweden, and we speak fluent English at home) and I just learned the word "genial". Which apparently has nothing to do with genius.

 

English (and most languages, really) have an astonishing amount of words to describe almost anything, and when it doesn't, it's soon to borrow it from a language that does. I consider myself fairly adept at my own language, yet damn, I keep running into new words.

[Snoozer]

 

 

 

Their QA team simply isn't large enough to cover everything that could go wrong in a game of this size, they have admitted as much. For that reason I highly doubt the release version will be without a few glaring bugs and typos.

Then, quite honestly, they should have waited and not committed to a date.

 

 

This tells me you've never coded in your life and therefore don't understand complexity in fixing bugs. Fact of the matter is that on a PC platform, with its myriad of possible configurations compared to consoles, makes it insanely difficult to stamp out all bugs. There will always be bugs.

 

Not all bugs are equal, and I kinda agree with Voss, but it's not about the bugs. I imagine it's more about running out of budget and having negotiated a release date with your publisher. IMO, many signs point to the release being a rough landing. I hope for the best though, and that the game gets as good reception as possible from the casual crowd (I hate that term but it's so convenient) everyone outside of our forums here. It's this that will make it a success, I think it should be a success for all its quality creative ideas and a setting which personally I already see becoming a classic. There are bugs which will irritate guys like us and then there are bugs which will turn away the general public, and I'd rather have the general public happy and us waiting for patches for the things which the general public wouldn't even notice, than us very happy at release and the general public indifferent to the game. Weigh those two outcomes and you'll see I'm right.

 

 

This is a niche product, advertised as a niche product and satisfying a niche audience. Hence, the Kickstarter nostalgia campaign targeting isometric RPG buffs.

 

To Obsidian's QA team, there is no difference between bugs that will piss off "gamers" and "casuals". People will complain regardless of issue. As I've stated before, there will always be bugs, always unsatisfied customers. Voss is right the game breaking bugs take precedence over others; however I don't believe any game is ever "ready" and bug free. I'll still play day one and I'll be expecting a day one patch too.

[Gairnulf]

It won't be regarded as a niche product after the reviews start coming out in mainstream sites, where the audience wouldn't have heard of the game if it hadn't read about it in the mainstream site. CKII was also a niche game, until it sold extremely well. Why not wish for the same here.

[Osvir]

To play or not to play it, that's the question.

I will play ASAP, and finish the game, and report bugs on the forums along the way, or take notes in either the Journal or in notepad or similar (and give a review & report list when I've finished the game). I might not be on these forums much until I have finished it.

 

A) I don't want to spoil

B) I want to be focused on the game (and not buzz or fuzz from the forums), to be able to immerse myself

 

Though, I'll probably give a brief "Narrative/World First Impression/Feedback" of the real thing after 1 or 2 hours of game time (as I p. much know most of the mechanics already).

[Snoozer]

It won't be regarded as a niche product after the reviews start coming out in mainstream sites, where the audience wouldn't have heard of the game if it hadn't read about it in the mainstream site. CKII was also a niche game, until it sold extremely well. Why not wish for the same here.

CKII has sold over a million copies since September 2014 and considered a success. Resident Evil 6 sold 5 million plus copies and was considered a failure. You have to understand this as a matter of return on investment. Obsidian has a target number they want to hit; anything higher is gravy. Plenty of coverage on "mainstream" sites does not correlate to better sales. I have never said the game won't sell well, I just temper my expectations and don't buy into hype.

[Gairnulf]

When it comes to guessing how the QA team is prioritizing bugs, I believe they are prioritizing bugs more likely to be experienced by players. The "hardcore"/regular player differentiation makes more sense to be used when deciding on implementing new features.

 

I've pointed out issues in the past which I consider minor issues when looking at them through the perspective of a new player, but more of a letdown to an old player. The lack of map annotation for example - it's something I've hardly ever used in the IE games, where it was present at all, but I'll still miss it in PoE. A newcomer most probably wouldn't care.

[Valmy]

 

It won't be regarded as a niche product after the reviews start coming out in mainstream sites, where the audience wouldn't have heard of the game if it hadn't read about it in the mainstream site. CKII was also a niche game, until it sold extremely well. Why not wish for the same here.

CKII has sold over a million copies since September 2014 and considered a success. Resident Evil 6 sold 5 million plus copies and was considered a failure. You have to understand this as a matter of return on investment. Obsidian has a target number they want to hit; anything higher is gravy. Plenty of coverage on "mainstream" sites does not correlate to better sales. I have never said the game won't sell well, I just temper my expectations and don't buy into hype.

 

 

Wow really?  CK2, a game that came out in 2012, has sold 1 million copies since Sept 2014?  Amazing.  Go Paradox!

Edited February 15, 2015 by Valmy

[Gairnulf]

I was not clear with the CKII example I guess - it was Paradox' best-selling game until then (I'm leaving the inspection of their pre-CKII titles to you), and I think it was a surprise to them as well. In addition to revenue from sales of the base game, Paradox also made a lot of money from DLC and expansions, which isn't taken into account in a simple measure of game copies sold.

 

So the situations are really different, and take my CKII comparison just as an example of a game that was intended for a niche audience but ended up selling surprisingly well for the company that made it.

 

BTW, I haven't seen any evidence PoE is indeed directed to a niche audience only and not directed towards non-grognard audience, which Snoozer seems to take for a fact.

[Bryy]

First patch?

 

I'm playing right now.

 

Cause Uptown Funk gonna give it to ya!

 

*dance break*

[The Guilty Party]

Normally I do a playthrough right away because I can't wait, and then wait for a beefy patch to do it again.

 

However, this time I'm leaving on vacation a day before it comes out, so here's hoping for some awesome week 1 and 2 patches!

[Hassat Hunter]

It won't be regarded as a niche product after the reviews start coming out in mainstream sites, where the audience wouldn't have heard of the game if it hadn't read about it in the mainstream site. CKII was also a niche game, until it sold extremely well. Why not wish for the same here.

 

*cough* Divinity: Original Sin *cough*

Also of course Shadowrun and Wastelands 2. RPG games don't seem so niche now...

 

And a bug-less release of anything, OS/Game/Software etc. is impossible. Don't even try, you can't. You can't even patch out everything. Such is the way of software.

[Luckmann]

 

It won't be regarded as a niche product after the reviews start coming out in mainstream sites, where the audience wouldn't have heard of the game if it hadn't read about it in the mainstream site. CKII was also a niche game, until it sold extremely well. Why not wish for the same here.

 

*cough* Divinity: Original Sin *cough*

Also of course Shadowrun and Wastelands 2. RPG games don't seem so niche now...

 

And a bug-less release of anything, OS/Game/Software etc. is impossible. Don't even try, you can't. You can't even patch out everything. Such is the way of software.

 

 

Well to be fair here, try is exactly what you should do. You just shouldn't expect to succeed. But you should absolutely, definitely, positively try.

[talharbash]

FTL released with pretty much zero bugs. I was in the beta and they quickly patched things up during that time.

 

It's possible to release a polished product. Look at Blizzard.

Edited February 16, 2015 by talharbash

[Hassat Hunter]

Polished != bugfree

 

And yeah, Luckmann you would be right. However if perfection is set as goal, you will always fail, and the neverending development cycle wont do your software any good.

[bleedthefreak]

I'm not going to wait.  Patches are for the second play through!

[Lephys]

 

Waiting for Chinese.

Totally can't understand those complex English words...

Do not feel bad. Most people that speak English as their first language do not understand many words in english.

 

That, and you have crazy idiots like that Lephys guy, always jumping in with confusing homonym-based jokes, like "I don't understand mini words in English, either. They're far too small."

 

Gyah... who does that guy think he is?!

[Silent Winter]

 

 

Waiting for Chinese.

Totally can't understand those complex English words...

Do not feel bad. Most people that speak English as their first language do not understand many words in english.

 

That, and you have crazy idiots like that Lephys guy, always jumping in with confusing homonym-based jokes, like "I don't understand mini words in English, either. They're far too small."

 

Gyah... who does that guy think he is?!

 

^apparently he thinks he's some kind of puns myth ... which is an existential dilemma if ever I saw one ... (which of course, I haven't).

Edited February 17, 2015 by Silent Winter

[Hassat Hunter]

That, and you have crazy idiots like that Lephys guy, always jumping in with confusing homonym-based jokes, like "I don't understand mini words in English, either. They're far too small."

 

Gyah... who does that guy think he is?!

Indeed. *slaps Lephys on the head...

Oh darn, wrong thread.

[613 The Evil]

I'll probably wait for the expansions, based on the White March experience...

[firkraag888]

I'll be playing asap

 

I stilll have fond memories in pillars 1 of my Barbarian letting rip with the jolting touch stiletto with carnage and wiping out the entire screen before the devs caught onto it and nerfed my awesome power.

[Obsidian sucks]

So I installed my disc version of the game a while back, I am happy with the game but can anyone say if updating to current build is worth it? I honestly often hate updates because they always screw with the balance of the game, a balance I am usually quite happy with.