6341

So when does the beta start for this completely different game?

6342

Stardock has a content patch planned for 1.3.

6343

Not sure there’s a release date yet. (Boom boom)

6344

Right, but the linked document above makes it clear they are only going so far with War of Magic. They may spruce it up to some extent, but ultimately their passion is clearly going to be for the new game.

6345

If** that’s the case, hopefully Fallen turns out to be what we all wanted out of Elemental, and Stardock/Wardell stick to their promise to make it free for those of us who wasted our $$$ last year and not hide behind legalese. I’ll gladly give Fallen a chance, but won’t pay for it. Wardell got $70 out of me last year and after months of promising to make good has now walked away from what is still essentially a horribly broken product.

6346

So, basically people who bought Elemental after the free expansion deal was over, got screwed.

6347

No more than buying any other average game. By all accounts, Element isn’t bad anymore, it’s just not all that great.

6348

I’m kind of finding it hard to believe a company is going to dole out free copies of their stand-alone new game too, but, again, hope I’m wrong there.

6349

Except at one point, there was this claim by Stardock they they were attempting to, you know, lead the industry in the direction that didn’t screw paying customers. Elemental by itself isn’t the worst thing in the world, being released by a company trying to claim superiority in gamers’ rights and how different they are from other “evil empire” companies that mess up and cut and run… makes it worse. What a joke.

6350

What do you want them to do? Give the game away free to everyone?

6351

Yeah, I don’t get the criticism on that account. The Stardock report above makes it clear that anyone who bought E:WoM last year gets the new game for free and that people who buy E:WoM later will get some sort of discount. Compare that to just about every other publisher/developer, where if the first game has serious flaws they usually either rush out a major expansion (and want you to pay for it) or a sequel (and want you to pay for it.) In that regard Stardock is treating buyers of E:WoM pretty good.

My only point is that by going the “reimagining” from scratch approach, they are basically telling me there is little point in bothering with the first game while I wait for my free copy of the second.

6352

Other devs/publishers don’t publish stuff like Gamer’s Bill of Rights either. It’s like the Republican party having yet another closeted homosexual in their midst who party leadership knew was chasing after underage aides. . .put yourself up on that moral high ground and fail to live up to it, you take a worse hit over the inevitable fall. Wardell also promised for month to ‘fix’ Elemental, and now it sounds like it’s being essentially abandoned.

6353

It’s fixed, it’s just not a particularly good game.

6354

But who loses from this approach, really? Abandoning the flawed from the start Elemental is not the same as when another developer abandons a flawed from the start game. Because in this case you are getting the new game without being asked to pay more.

I’m not sure where this equates to being screwed.

6355

Who here thinks Elemental meets those expectations? And does Stardock as a brand name now stand for quality and continued support?

6356

Elemental basically isn’t salvageable, and they’ve finally admitted that. They’re putting out one more content patch, then they’re releasing what seems to be the game that Elemental should have been, free to anyone who bought Elemental within a certain time period.

Anyone who bought Elemental after that time period would’ve gotten a game without the technical problems that the release game did, that provides a much improved experience (but still, in my opinion, a pretty lousy one), and most importantly would’ve been able to find out very easily whether the game was any good or not by the huge number of reviews and articles absolutely slating it.

Realistically they have to have a cut-off date on free stuff.

6357

Like I said, I hope Enchantress is that MoM-clone we were all hoping for last year, and I hope Stardock honors its promise for those who bought WoM in 2010. If this happens I think screwed doesn’t apply. I’m just saying I’m not willing to give Wardell much trust at this point until he proves otherwise. Because abandoning Elemental at this point is yet another broken promise from Brad (though one I can understand from an economic perspective).

6358

They can start by not trying to set industry standards they don’t hold themselves accountable to. Don’t publicly list he GBOR of rights and then quietly rewrite them after near a failed launch. Don’t spin a failed, broken launch for months after the launch. And lastly, don’t act like August didn’t happen and the the auto response out of the Stardock camp was rainbows instead of the fu you all and anyone who questions us that actually happened.

6359

Well, they allowed a whole bunch of people to get refunds after release, so I’m not sure where you think they are dropping the ball on the Gamer’s Bill of Rights. People have had plenty of options at various points.

6360

All of this has been dealt with, and argued over in great detail on this very thread. The question is what do you expect Stardock to do about the clusterfuck that they created, not what should they have done right from the start. The latter is easily answered but completely irrelevant at this point.

And lastly, don’t act like August didn’t happen and the the auto response out of the Stardock camp was rainbows instead of the fu you all and anyone who questions us that actually happened.

I don’t quite understand this statement. Brad & Stardock’s reaction and behaviour following the release of Elemental was pretty poor, but they have since admitted their failings.