• Lvxferre@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    For context, look at the negative reviews in Steam. Cities Skylines 2 developers promised the sky and a bit more for their game; suckers pre-ordered the game like there was no tomorrow, because CS1 was a good game; and the devs (Colossal Order) released some rushed mess, full of bugs, with performance issues, missing features that players expected from CS1 + dev promising “CS2 will be berrurr, chrust us”, and shallow gameplay.

    The comment being linked is corporate “we are sorry for your inconvenience” babble trying (and failing) to address player outrage.

    Relevant detail: Colossal Order has strong ties with Paradox Interactive, a company known for its awful DLC policies and buggy DLC releases (cough Europa Universalis IV: Golden Century cough cough). And guess who does quality assessment for Colossal Order? Paradox.

    Note to self: put CO in the same “don’t buy” blacklist as EA and Paradox.

    • HarkMahlberg@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      The developer is closely linked to Swedish publisher Paradox Interactive, which tests, markets, sells, distributes, and owns the intellectual property of all games by Colossal Order.

      You do realize it was very likely not CO’s decision to release the game in this state, right? Paradox owns the IP, they’re publishing the game, they decide when it gets to ship, or else they won’t pay CO. Game companies have absolutely died by going against the publisher and going bankrupt from withheld funding, e.g. Free Radical Design and Lucasarts.

      Like have you ever worked as a software engineer before? Clients always set the deadline, and they’re almost always unrealistically short time-frames. CD Projekt Red self-published, they had no excuse to release Cyberpunk the way they did. But we’re not talking about a developer in charge of their own destiny here. We’re talking about a developer with a client: Paradox. You’ve got the actual antagonist staring you in the face, but you’re going to blame the developers?

      • Lvxferre@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        You do realize it was very likely not CO’s decision to release the game in this state, right?

        Contrariwise to your “I assoome that you’re ignorant, so let me enlighten you”, I’m aware of that, as shown in the very excerpt of my comment that you’re quoting. And my point still stands.

        The company likely responsible for the decision to ship the game (Paradox Interactive) was the exact same company responsible for its QA. It knew that the game was a buggy mess and it still decided to ship the game like this. CO relies on Paradox even to breathe; it shows that CO is not to be trusted, regardless of being their fault or not, given how it depends on a cancerous company.

        Even then Colossal Order is still at fault, alongside Paradox. Think on why. [Hint: “teeth controversy”]

        Game companies have absolutely died by going against the publisher and going bankrupt from withheld funding, e.g. Free Radical Design and Lucasarts.

        That only further reinforces my point, it does not contradict it. And it makes me wonder if you actually got it on first place.

        Like have you ever […]

        This is almost a textbook example of genetic fallacy=brainfart. As such, I won’t bother with it.


        DISCLAIMER: before anyone vomits further assumptions or idiocy like “ur sayin dat cuz…”, I am not among the people who bought the game. It doesn’t even run in my system (for further reasons than the ones why it doesn’t run on you all’s). As such I have no direct emotional or monetary involvement on this matter, OK?

    • DarkThoughts@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I’m so tired of those apologies at this point. We’ve had shitty and rushed releases for the past decade already, just like we had half asses apologies that didn’t mean anything. Everyone knows by now what a release like this means. They knew full well what type of response they’d get. They should save themselves the words at this point and just do better releases. Rebuilding trust my ass. They already planned in the time for servicing the game but now they can use this No Man’s SKy & Cyberpunk like marketing trick to claim that they have done some sort of magical comeback for their fans and be praised for their initial shortcomings. It’s all bullshit for gullible people.

      • Lvxferre@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        What makes this matter messier is that you got two parties to blame here - developers and publishers: Colossal Order and Paradox

        Hallikainen (co_martsu)'s apology would have sounded sincere if she, among other things, showed that CO did its best, and that Paradox is to blame for the issues; she’d be feeding Paradox to the wolves/userbase, but there are ways to do that without losing face. She didn’t - and in the process she’s issuing that corporate apology to protect the butts of both companies at the same time.

        It’s all bullshit for gullible people.

        Yup, full agree on that. But the gullible people keep pre-ordering their bloody games, and here’s the result.

    • Ilflish@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      There’s a bit of bias here, they may have promised the world but they actually warned people it was going to have some issues on release, so it’s not like hardcore preorders were blindsided if they were following it

      Warning signs

  • The Octonaut@mander.xyz
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    1 year ago

    Should never have shacked up with Paradox. They had plenty of DLC before, and putting trams in a snow map pack was despicable, but now we know to wait 3 or 4 years for a humble bundle of most stuff needed for a complete game. And if they don’t get those 3 or 4 years, it will have been their own fault.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Eh, I thought the base C:S was pretty fun, and I honestly didn’t mind the idea of buying a DLC every so often to fund continued development.

      That said, I don’t really like the way they organize their DLC. Imo, they should work more like Paradox’s other games, with most core mechanics landing in a free patch and nice to have features being restricted to DLC (missions, unit packs, etc). For example, trams should’ve been a free feature, and the maps, scenarios, and cosmetic changes should have been part of the DLC. Or trams should’ve become available if you owned either Snowfall or Mass Transit.

      That said, I still don’t own Snowfall and don’t really miss trams, I mostly use subways, monorails, and buses, and sometimes play with trains.