How does a game with so many problems get released?

**crill** · 01-12-2012 01:53 PM

Just wanted to say that I'm well aware of the game breaking bugs people are experiencing. I don't read pro reviews anymore but all the reader reviews I came across (many of them) are split. Those who had no bugs say the game rocks. Those who did say it's unplayable. There's obviously something wrong here and I am not in denial.

It is probably because I played solo on the Xbox is the reason nothing bad happened.

I just ordered Divinity 2 for the Xbox 360. Never played it but all the glowing reader reviews I've read I won't let this one slip by me. I understand when it first came out it was buggy as they come. It took 8 months for the patches to fix this. Not saying this should be acceptable but if this game is good as they say this is exactly how I see WITN.

As far as being dishonest that can work both ways. I agree with above about demonizing developers. Maybe SB deserves it. I don't know how the system works or how long is too long for patches to come. Do you? Just trying to put things into perspective. That's all.

**pleasefixmybuggedgame** · 01-12-2012 02:25 PM

@HolyTemplarKnight

The layoffs happened 3 days after the game was released, don't believe me? This was written by a former Snowblind employee with friends still at the company

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/BenHo...nowblinded.php

Here's the first 3 paragraphs

On Friday, November 4, 2011, mere days after the release of their long-awaited title, The Lord Of The Rings: War In The North, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment broke the news to a whole lot of people at WB Games Seattle that their services were no longer required.

The actual numbers are not-yet confirmed as I write this, but my sources put them in the range of 40-80 full-time artists, designers, programmers and testers. That very morning, I happened to find my Snowblind Studios t-shirt – the black one with the penguin logo on the chest – and decided to wear it to work.

What was meant to be a personal tribute to my former employer ended up being a surprise memorial just hours later as I discovered the fate of so many of my former coworkers.

**Kindredbay** · 01-13-2012 02:04 AM

Originally Posted by pleasefixmybuggedgame

@HolyTemplarKnight

The layoffs happened 3 days after the game was released, don't believe me? This was written by a former Snowblind employee with friends still at the company

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/BenHo...nowblinded.php

This has been proven to be mere speculation by ONE employee who wasn't employed since 2010... Don't believe me? Read SnowblindTina's response here (yes, they actually respond to people on these forums, which in itself isn't common for most games as stated earlier by HolyTemplarKnight): http://www.warinthenorth.com/forums/...34&page=2[

It's clearly not accurate...

There are a few game-breaking bugs, one of which was fixed completely by the patch. Supposedly one that was supposed to be fixed by the patch and that I haven't experienced again seems to persist (Mirkwood)? But I can't say I know how. I have ran into severe game-breaking bugs and have found workarounds that work for each and every one. These include getting stuck at several different places (Nordinbad, Carn Dum, Rivendell), all more recently. Simply by playing an online game with someone's earlier save fixed all of them but the Carn Dum bug, which I fixed by making a new game and playing through to the end on a different file with the same character imported in as the second player. My game has not been broken and I have had this save file since the day the game came out. My post-patch saves have run into no issues whatsoever.

That being said, I see a lot of people whining and complaining (not going to name names) who simply quit when they find a game-breaking bug and slather a hefty wall of complaint text on the forums, which does nothing but aggravate everyone else. I doubt making an account named "pleasefixmybuggedgame" and whining is going to solve anything, just saying.. It's rather childish.

Workarounds exist, and they work. My copy of WITN is not sitting as a paperweight, Skyrim is... You know why? Because 40 hours in, excruciating lag literally makes the game unplayable on PS3... No workaround for lag, wish there was. That whole week of playing without any magic resistance was real great too, getting one hit by anything that uses magic, fun. I've run into plenty of times where I had to load a previous save in Skyrim because of getting stuck somewhere or the game bugging out.

Oh, and I'm sure someone will respond to this and say something like "..But saying that another game has more bugs and comparing the two is unethical in some way!". I get your point, it's like saying if one company does a bad practice then all companies have the right to, and I get it. However, I also think that it's unethical to say bugs are 100% unacceptable when this is Snowblind's first attempt at a third gen. console game. Oblivion had bugs, but Skyrim has many... MANY more bugs than Oblivion. They have clearly shown no improvement at all in that department of their industry. Slamming a game for bugs that's a first attempt is just as unethical, if not more so, than comparing and contrasting bugs between current games.

If you don't give other companies a chance, then you will just keep the gaming industry going in its current direction, where all games are somewhat the same and the ones that are hits don't really change much at all out of fear of backlash and losing money (COD, Elder Scrolls, Assassin's Creed). It's as if people think it's inhumane to make mistakes, when it's what makes us human. If you really, legitimately have a problem with the game, handle it maturely and just return it.

**pleasefixmybuggedgame** · 01-13-2012 05:52 AM

@Kindredbay

FYI, my name is meant to be sarcastic. "Please fix my bugged game" is the phrase I have heard most when dealing with this game at work. When someone calls or comes in and says "HI I bought LOTR WITN and I am stuck or this is happening and I don't know why" let's just say I can tell the customer they are in good company. Honestly, I told our manager when all of the problems first started appearing that we should put a disclaimer telling people what they were in for. If it wouldn't get me fired I would have told people buy the game, especially for the PS3, you really don't want to do this to yourself. Lastly, WITN and Skyrim launched within 10 days of each other. New copy of Skyrim still selling at full launch price, new copy of WITN selling at $20-$25 dollars off of launch price. That alone tells me something.

**testyourgamebeforerelease** · 01-13-2012 08:18 AM

"I have ran into severe game-breaking bugs and have found workarounds that work for each and every one. These include getting stuck at several different places (Nordinbad, Carn Dum, Rivendell), all more recently. Simply by playing an online game with someone's earlier save fixed all of them but the Carn Dum bug, which I fixed by making a new game and playing through to the end on a different file with the same character imported in as the second player. My game has not been broken and I have had this save file since the day the game came out. My post-patch saves have run into no issues whatsoever."

- Well, good for you - you have tons of free time hours to be able to go back and re-play everything again. I and others have limited free time. What would take some one afternoon of playing for 4 hours takes me a week because I can only play 30-60 mins every other night or so.

"That being said, I see a lot of people whining and complaining (not going to name names) who simply quit when they find a game-breaking bug and slather a hefty wall of complaint text on the forums, which does nothing but aggravate everyone else. I doubt making an account named "pleasefixmybuggedgame" and whining is going to solve anything, just saying.. It's rather childish."

- Shut up, keep quiet, you got ripped off but don't complain.

"Workarounds exist, and they work. My copy of WITN is not sitting as a paperweight, Skyrim is... You know why? Because 40 hours in, excruciating lag literally makes the game unplayable on PS3... No workaround for lag, wish there was. That whole week of playing without any magic resistance was real great too, getting one hit by anything that uses magic, fun. I've run into plenty of times where I had to load a previous save in Skyrim because of getting stuck somewhere or the game bugging out."

- That's neat and all but we're talking about WITN, not skyrim. "Domino's pizza sucks" "Yeah but Pizza Hut sucks too so you can't complain about Dominos." Huh?

Oh, and I'm sure someone will respond to this and say something like "..But saying that another game has more bugs and comparing the two is unethical in some way!". I get your point, it's like saying if one company does a bad practice then all companies have the right to, and I get it. However, I also think that it's unethical to say bugs are 100% unacceptable when this is Snowblind's first attempt at a third gen. console game. Oblivion had bugs, but Skyrim has many... MANY more bugs than Oblivion. They have clearly shown no improvement at all in that department of their industry. Slamming a game for bugs that's a first attempt is just as unethical, if not more so, than comparing and contrasting bugs between current games.

- We're not their mommies or little league coaches here to encourage them to buck up and try harder next time. We're customers who spent hard earned cash on a game that doesn't work. And Unethical??? Really? I guess I can see your point - as someone who doesn't mind paying for something that doesn't work - calling us whiners...but unethical? Unethical???

"If you don't give other companies a chance, then you will just keep the gaming industry going in its current direction, where all games are somewhat the same and the ones that are hits don't really change much at all out of fear of backlash and losing money (COD, Elder Scrolls, Assassin's Creed). It's as if people think it's inhumane to make mistakes, when it's what makes us human. If you really, legitimately have a problem with the game, handle it maturely and just return it.[/QUOTE]

- Again, we're not their life coaches here. We're customers. Our way of giving companies a chance is paying them money for their product. When the company blows that chance, people are gonna be ticked. Childish? Childish would be demanding a fix in a day for every little problem. It's been 10+ weeks and they still haven't fixed very big problems - aside from telling people "well just re-start and re-do all those prior levels and maybe it'll work this time." Why write here? Because a) I'd like to get what I pay for and this is a way to tell them to fix their game. Nobody's forcing you to read the posts titled "problem with X Y or Z." And b) letting other people know who haven't bought the game yet that they may want to save their money.

You're one of the lucky ones who either didn't have problems or didn't mind re-doing a bunch of levels in the hope the problems wouldn't be there when you got back to the problem point. Good for you. That doesn't make the rest of us who are ticked we didn't get close to what we paid for and want to warn others childish.

**J_I** · 01-13-2012 09:14 AM

Whoa. This discussion has turned incredibly volatile. I think everyone needs to take a step back for a second.

Here's the deal:

Some of us have games that do not function. Whether other games are buggy or not, whether other people have played the game and not run into problems or not, whether it was directly the fault of the developers or that of some other force - none of these things matter. No one is going to be happy to pay $60 for a game that does not function.

Some have been able to play the game to completion, and those people have enjoyed it a lot. They understandably don't want to see the developers be torn down or attacked. They are understandably defensive of a game that they enjoyed very much. The fact that some of us have bugged games is not going to change the experience of those with functioning games.

Personally, I'm extremely upset. I've already posted a thread about my experience, which was basically nothing but unending bugs. That doesn't mean I should be directly abusing Snowblind or any of the posters who enjoyed the game. I have tried very hard to keep a level head in that regard.

In return, no one should be attacking me, blaming me for the fact that my game doesn't function, accusing me of whining because I want the game that I purchased to work now instead of months from now.

If we can all just abide by these rather simple guidelines, I don't see why threads like this one should turn into flame wars.

**ukbeejay** · 01-13-2012 09:27 AM

@testyourgamebeforerelease,

I could not have put it any better myself. As I have previously stated on these forums I feel I was greatly mislead by all the pre release developer blogs and videos posted which told of the vast amount of time and effort that had been put into the making of this game. I awaited it's release with much anticipation and bought it the moment it became available here in the UK. Having now spent the best part of six weeks continually starting and restarting this game, playing through all the levels and side quests only to end up against the "Mirkwood" brick wall time and time again, I am now well and truly fed up with this game. The sad thing is that not only will I never have anything to do with any Snowblind / WBI product in the future but as a result of this experience I feel that I will no longer buy any video game on it's release. I will now bide my time, follow the reviews and comments in the magazines and the forums and wait and see. I can assure you that if any such future game generates anything like the same amount of "whining" this one has I will not be wasting my hard earned cash on it.

**Marveleg** · 01-13-2012 09:35 AM

I don't have WITN or had test it . By the looks , it is pretty nice . Addictive is the word which fits the best for the game . Unfortunatly , the game has some bugs , critical errors on some versions . This is bad , but that is called te be not lucky . It's merely frustrating , but most people don't have those glitches , except minors ones which are rather funny .

I don't think it's a good idea to keep up that topic alive since everyone here is giving his opinion and start flaming , I can smell it .

**Kindredbay** · 01-13-2012 04:45 PM