Alstein
5301
The lesson I’m taking away is that refund policies for developers are a stupid idea- hasn’t helped Stardock one bit here.
Serious question - for those who got refunds- would you EVER consider buying a future Stardock game?
Maybe, definitely not pre-order. I would need a demo, at least 20 gameplay videos, a manual, several 9+/10 reviews, and a price under $20. Then maybe.
Of course.
But I won’t pre-order next time. I’ll wait for reviews.
Nephrinn
5304
Serious question - for those who got refunds- would you EVER consider buying a future Stardock game?
I preordered the CE like a blind idiot fanboy when it first was announced and I will be extremely cautious about buying any future Stardock games after this fiasco. Anyone remember Brad McQuaid hyping up Vanguard to hell and back? Yeah, fell for that one too. I’m a natural born sucker I guess.
That their customers can be shit on and will still hand over their hard earned dollars.
There’s a simple solution here, don’t pre-order, you’re just buying a potential hassle.
Sarkus
5307
I’m not going to be returning my copy, but I have to say that all this talk about major rewrites of major game systems has me worried. Completely changing the magic system, UI, and combat system means a) the game is essentially going to be something else and b) it may be quite awhile before it’s all balanced. It’s going to suck if at the end of this process the version of Elemental we end up with loses the things that I’m enjoying in its current form. In other words, I’m not sure that having a bad launch means that Brad & co. should completely change their minds on major design decisions.
Obviously the game in its current form needs lots of work. But there is a difference between doing a lot of work to fix that and throwing stuff out to start over with a different approach.
I personally didn’t enjoy much of the game that i played when it came out so i’m ok with a big overhaul.
MattKeil
5309
One! One Batman! Ah-ha-ha!
zenblack
5311
I still haven’t gotten a refund even though I have Emailed customer service twice now. Seems the ol’ dodge and maybe they will forget about giving us their money routine.
Stardock is simply not the company I have supported over the years, I don’t know what changed but it bad.
ducker
5312
with all this talk about pre-ordering and shelf space and having to get it out… I’m surprised that I still haven’t seen a boxed copy on the shelves at Target.
Alstein
5313
The building, adventurting, and somewhat the diplomatic sides of the side I consider to be good to real good right now. It could use expansion, but the core mechanics in those areas are fine to me. Magic needs work, which will be 1.1, and warfare needs work. If they make those parts of the game fine, and finish fixing the engine issues (1.07 is a fairly big improvement over launch)- then this will end up at a minimum being more then worth what I paid.
Given Stardock’s history with GC2 and the positive changes there, I’m optimisitc.
That said, if this Stardock customer service rage is typical for Stardock, they REALLY need work in that area.
Agreed. Brad’s made some nice shows of contrition in public, but their sales support drones are just chugging along in absolute business-as-usual mode. They finally got back to me (6 days after my request), and they’re trying to get me to go through the whole charade of technical support, as though this was just an ordinary game launch that should be covered by their ordinary return policy.
As Jack says above, it just feels like hoops and roadblocks for the sake of trying to get people to give up. Delay, deny, and defer everything for multiple rounds of e-mails, and a good fraction of the burned customers may just let Stardock keep their money.
Jab
5316
For a conclusion to my LE quest, it finally came today, according to the box it was shipped out on 8/24, ironically the sales rep I spoke to finally responded saying that it must have gotten lost in the mail and they already shipped me out another LE.
Is on second base. Who’s on first.
