Elemental all-purpose thread

[JM1]

They’re already getting crucified.

[The_Punch_Line]

They’re already getting crucified.

No, it could be worse.

[JM1]

No, not really. It’s getting smashed by reviewers and the word of mouth is horrendous.

p.s. the OP of that thread should be sectioned.

[TimJames]

It’s not much of a “plot”, it’s just standard shitbird spin to make the best of what he felt like was the best plan for the company, namely to release a game so they could get the revenue. They simply decided that releasing something crap now was financially more prudent than releasing something better six months later, which adds to costs. It’s not exactly a recipe for success, but they forecasted it to be less of a failure.

It’s not like no company has ever done this before.

Keep it simple. This isn’t Ford Motor Company. When you’ve got one human being running a small business, sometimes it’s merely a fuckup.

[Razgon]

No, it could be worse.

Man, its a game…get over the anger and move on.

[KevinC]

To think Brad Wardell would have gotten away with it all if it weren’t for those damn kids!

[Kebooo]

JM, it seems some won’t be happy until Brad’s head is on a pike, being marched down Times Square as part of a victorious parade ceremony.

[Stepsongrapes]

They did fail abysmally, sure. But they also knew it, and the evidence of that is there. They are just trying to make the best of it now, as the truth would get them crucified.

Now I want my money back- that wasn’t much of an evil plot. No sharks with friggin’ lasers.

Certainly not much of a “Punch Line”, given the wind-up making me expect some truly nefarious scheming.

[vyshka]

JM, it seems some won’t be happy until Brad’s head is on a pike, being marched down Times Square as part of a victorious parade ceremony.

They apparently thought the planning committee was meeting here.

[Razgon]

You know, its a textbook case back from when I was studying business administration and economics - Small company grows - director still wants to do everything himself and oversee and actually produce whatever the company produces himself, while also being in charge. Usually, that leads to bad things™

[kerzain]

You know, its a textbook case back from when I was studying business administration and economics - Small company grows - director still wants to do everything himself and oversee and actually produce whatever the company produces himself, while also being in charge. Usually, that leads to bad things™

And writing a 544 page novel on top of it all, wth? Blonde Ambition.

[Mordrak]

Keep it simple. This isn’t Ford Motor Company. When you’ve got one human being running a small business, sometimes it’s merely a fuckup.

His motives don’t really matter as the game is in the shape it’s in regardless and that’s the overall problem. Still, just because it’s a small business does not mean its owner is incapable of thinking like that or does not, so let’s keep the folksy propaganda to minimum as well.

I’ve worked for tenacious and ruthless small business owners. I’m also surprised at how much leeway someone like Brad can get by his customers, but god forbid if their order is fucked up for some reason at McDonalds.

[Stepsongrapes]

Usually, that leads to bad things™

With or without the twirling of moustaches?!

[Blackadar]

It’s not much of a “plot”, it’s just standard shitbird spin to make the best of what he felt like was the best plan for the company, namely to release a game so they could get the revenue. They simply decided that releasing something crap now was financially more prudent than releasing something better six months later, which adds to costs. It’s not exactly a recipe for success, but they forecasted it to be less of a failure.

It’s not like no company has ever done this before.

This mea culpa salvages them some amount of goodwill from you and your fellow suckers for future releases.

They did fail abysmally, sure. But they also knew it, and the evidence of that is there. They are just trying to make the best of it now, as the truth would get them crucified.

Dude, there’s probably few people on this forum that dislike BW more than I and even I have to give Brad some props for his post. In 30 years of gaming, I’ve never seen a post that brutally honest by a developer/CEO. So, it IS like no company (at least in this industry) has done this before. I could spin Stardock’s position. That isn’t spin - obviously you don’t even know the definition of the word.

Furthermore, your financial point flies in the face of all evidence. If they’d already broken even from pre-orders before launch, why would it be financially more prudent to release now? They already had the money! Given the large number of refunds asked for in this thread, is certainly seems more prudent to wait to release.

He’s admitting they did fail abysmally. How is this not the truth? What, should Brad get down on his hands and knees and offer you a blow job? I suppose if he didn’t apologize, you’d castigate him for that too? So why don’t you exactly tell us what Bradley should do at this exact point for his customers? Oh, at the same time you’re formulating that post, get a grip…or a life.

[Stepsongrapes]

And writing a 544 page novel on top of it all, wth? Blonde Ambition.

Go big or go home (to your castle).

[The_Punch_Line]

It seems some people are willing to let themselves be fooled twice in order to make themselves feel like they weren’t fooled once.

“Oh, they didn’t know how bad the game was? Now I am exonerated for believing his pre-release hype. I will believe him now even though it’s pretty obvious he’s lying again, because it will make me feel better.”

[JM1]

Shut the fuck up already.

[Lazy_Shiftless_Basta]

It seems some people are willing to let themselves be fooled twice in order to make themselves feel like they weren’t fooled once.

“Oh, they didn’t know how bad the game was? Now I am exonerated for believing his pre-release hype. I will believe him now even though it’s pretty obvious he’s lying again, because it will make me feel better.”

[Telefrog]

It’s pretty insane. I’m as angry/disappointed/disillusioned by Elemental’s launch as I thought anyone could be, but I take his mea culpa as being pretty sincere. I don’t think Brad is lying or spinning the bad launch. I think he really did get blinded by his own enthusiasm. He wrote a book, for gosh sake, even in the face of what he had to know would be withering criticism! He lashed out at a friend on this board! It seems to me that this was his baby and he did let it get to him.

That doesn’t make anything better. It doesn’t give him a pass. From the customer standpoint a broken game is a broken game no mattter the reason.

Hopefully, he can use this realization to do what he needs to do to get Elemental into better shape.

The people seeing Brad as some kind of nefarious cackling evil-doer that posts fake apologies to sucker more sales may be projecting.

[Robert_Sharp]

Blackadar makes some great points. Giving refunds is bad business. In fact, the process of providing a refund not only makes you lose that sale, but costs you the equivalent of at least another sale (in profits, anyway). It’s expensive to have a bunch of people working at refunding orders and responding to complaints, etc. There’s NO WAY that a company like Stardock would intentionally do something like this. Wardell would have to be so stupid that he couldn’t put his own pants on. Whatever you might think about his politics or other positions in life, he’s not an idiot.