Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: Spidey

Yo Erik, week's almost up. Just thought I'd let you know.

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ORIGINAL: Osito

But why?

I'm probably just as excited about DW Universe as you, and I want to know more about what's going on. I've even been playing the game with a Word document alongside in which I'm noting down all the things I want to mod in order to turn this from a bloody good game into a damn near perfect game (for me).

But my main point is this: there is so much in the computer gaming industry that sucks; there's TW Rome 2 (which I wasted my money on); there's X Rebirth (which I wasted my money on); there's Darks Souls 2 and its claim to provide a playable mouse and keyboard experience (which I didn't waste my money on). There's Legends of Pegasus, FFS! (which, thankfully, I didn't waste my money on).

And yet, you're complaining about a lack of information about DW Universe, which is not yet taking any money off you whatsoever. You can't buy Universe yet. You can't throw your money away on it. And I'm still hoping they'll provide enough information about the game before release for everyone to reach an educated view on whether it's worth throwing their money on the game.

Be patient. It will come to you. In the computer gaming industry there are far more worthy targets of your vitriol than Matrix.

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ORIGINAL: Spidey

Well, actually it's now saturday and if I'm not mistaken then we're something like 12 hours from being a full week off of when Erik said more info was coming, which I think is cutting it a bit close.

And I have to say that the marketing push for Universe just doesn't appear to be that heavy yet, which I think is a bit of a shame since a single package with all the DW content actually ought to be a reasonably competitive product despite the "old" 2d graphics and a relatively high price. There's a hell of a lot of depth and playtime in this game and it's amazingly stable as well. But the lack of pushing almost makes me think we're about to see another launch delay.

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ORIGINAL: CyclopsSlayer
I am finding myself becoming less tolerant of fools and foolishness.

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The simple facts of the entire DW:U are as follows.

1. Distant worlds is probably one of the best selling games for Matrix, I have not been able to find sales figures and do not believe Matrix publish their sales figures (Do not understand why the need to hide such information but another issue). This is based on observing DW to be the third ranking in forum topic numbers for an individual title series. The only two higher are WITP & WITE.

2. Distant worlds is one of if not the most expensive title in Matris Games library at this time. The total cost for ownership of the entire DW series is £65.66 for a digital edition. Other title series do go above this but many of them include stand alone games unlike DW which is made up of expansions requiring the previous to play.

3. There have been (I guess because I am loosing the will to actually verify) less than 10 official posts about DW:U and it has been put out to the larger gaming community of review sites in a zero capacity. The following sites all posted pretty much the same vague information (neoseeker, worthplaying, gamershell, spacegamejunkie, spacesector) on the 13/03/14. These all stated the release date of may '14. Note this is actually the pushed back date from the original one of March '14. This delay was also not notified until a few folks began posting regarding where DW:U was and it was finally admitted to being delayed on 03/04/14.

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ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Hi everyone,

The announcement didn't make this week's schedule, but I'll post something here today to keep my promise.

I think dialing things down a notch in terms of frustration would be appreciated. I realize you guys want to see more happening, but I do not have control over the marketing schedule, I only know that DWU will be promoted before release. Among the things we've been working on is a major international game press event that starts in two weeks where DWU will be one of the featured titles. There will also be a big announcement relating to DWU at that event, if not before.

We also have some AARs and a review of the new modding capabilities from one of our testers/modders in the works and we do plan on releasing the modding guide in whole or part before the release to help explain the new modding features.

Regards,

- Erik

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ORIGINAL: Nachodsk

quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Hi everyone,

The announcement didn't make this week's schedule, but I'll post something here today to keep my promise.

I think dialing things down a notch in terms of frustration would be appreciated. I realize you guys want to see more happening, but I do not have control over the marketing schedule, I only know that DWU will be promoted before release. Among the things we've been working on is a major international game press event that starts in two weeks where DWU will be one of the featured titles. There will also be a big announcement relating to DWU at that event, if not before.

We also have some AARs and a review of the new modding capabilities from one of our testers/modders in the works and we do plan on releasing the modding guide in whole or part before the release to help explain the new modding features.

Regards,

- Erik

Man, we really appreciate that you are the mainly face we all see around here to ask questions about upcoming games, etc..

Going directly to the point, please ASAP you get the info the AARs gonna be up here tell us, i'm dying to know more about what's coming in this Expansion (Universe)

PLEASE, ASAP YOU GET AARs release, GIVE US THE LINK! :D

Thanks for all the work you're putting into the forums!

Greetings,
Nacho.-

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ORIGINAL: Spidey

Just for good measure, Erik, I feel like stressing that I'm pretty sure nobody is actually blaming you directly, but you're the "face" we have access to and so you probably get to take more than your fair share of the frustrations some people have. And of course they're a bit frustrated. Some more than a bit, obviously.

I think the main problem is that it's so easy to get the feeling that absolutely nothing is happening. We know nothing about what's going on aside from when you're telling us, we don't know the specifics of Universe even though it was supposed to be released in March, and we're not really seeing you gentlemen at Matrix buzz around frantically. In your end, I'm sure you're not just slacking off and spending office hours eating pizza and browsing porn, but we're not seeing it. All we're seeing is a lot of static and silence, and I'm sure you know what that's like.

Suppose your computer had an entirely black screen during the entire booting process and all you had to rely on to know that your OS hadn't crashed were a few beeps here and there? Suppose your OS was doing some updating and HDD repair work without telling you and all you had was that black screen. Wouldn't that stress you out just ever so slightly, making you fear that your OS had crashed?

Aside from this, I personally think the information you're releasing sounds nice. I'm just not the most patient of men, I'm afraid, so the sooner it comes out, the happier I'll be.

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ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
Among the things we've been working on is a major international game press event that starts in two weeks where DWU will be one of the featured titles.

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ORIGINAL: Webbco

I read this yesterday and keep wondering why no one from Codeforce/Matrix has had similar opportunities with a site as big as PC Gamer? I consider DW gameplay and immersion to be far superior than Endless Space and Stardrive combined and I'm starting feel that Distant Worlds really is being held back somehow.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/04/25/interview-endless-space-and-stardrive-developers-talk-about-4x-design/

Maybe Elliot was invited to be part of this and declined?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Hi everyone,

The announcement didn't make this week's schedule, but I'll post something here today to keep my promise.

quote:

I think dialing things down a notch in terms of frustration would be appreciated. I realize you guys want to see more happening, but I do not have control over the marketing schedule, I only know that DWU will be promoted before release. Among the things we've been working on is a major international game press event that starts in two weeks where DWU will be one of the featured titles. There will also be a big announcement relating to DWU at that event, if not before.

quote:

We also have some AARs and a review of the new modding capabilities from one of our testers/modders in the works and we do plan on releasing the modding guide in whole or part before the release to help explain the new modding features.

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ORIGINAL: Icemania

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ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
Among the things we've been working on is a major international game press event that starts in two weeks where DWU will be one of the featured titles.

I assume you mean the Home of Wargamers Event. As this is the wrong genre for DW and you are expecting the press to come to you rather than getting on the front foot, do you really expect this will create more awareness than the status quo?

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ORIGINAL: feygan

Quick edit for one point I forgot. Some folks have mentioned just vote with your wallet and in theory this works just fine. But it is not really going to do any harm to a multi title publisher. Sadly the biggest sufferer of that action is the game developer. We know DW:U is pretty much a one man show and that guy could rely on their income for DW for his/her entire family finances. That is a real shame as this shody work ethic is going to hurt them in the end, and it is the developer that we really all want to support.