Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Rate This Thread
Hop To
#4557647 - 02/25/21 11:19 AM Why some game devs should be covered in molasses and thrown on ant hills  
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 3,742
HeinKill Offline
Senior Member
HeinKill  Offline
Senior Member

Joined: May 2006
Posts: 3,742
Cloud based
[RANT/ON>RANTWARNING/OFF]

Today I started MSFS 2020 to be told I need another 'mandatory' 128GB (3 to 6 hour) reinstall. Games these days drive me MENTAL because:

- I don't play all day every day so when I do decide to play I click on a game and first STEAM/ORIGIN/EPIC or whatever installer has to do an update, then
- The game won't play, because it has to also load some complete PITA update which is RARELY an actual improvement to the game but is most likely a new way for the devs to MAKE MONEY in their shops
- OR some oblique and useless add on I don't even bloody want (new compulsory map update to BOLIVIA! 10GB! Loading... ... ... ... ... ... ...). Apologies to any Bolivianians.
- OR they sold me a game which was such a POS at launch they have to keep patching it into infinity.

JAZOOZ, please just give me a game that is stable at launch, which may well be a minimum viable product but actually is VIABLE and let me choose my own dashed updates or roll back to an old version if I don't like how it screws up my PC and seriously I don't mind waiting an extra day month year for a game that is actually playable.

AND while I'm at it any game developer who sits in a meeting and says 'we should make this game so it requires an always on internet connection or it won't work' should be thrown out the bloody window. Naked. After being covered in molasses. Onto an ant hill. Daily.

AND the same for game industry reviewers on Youtube who get to play a pre-release version of a game at the devs HQ on a perfectly tuned PC provided by the devs after being plied with shrimp and champagne and then give the game 5 bloody stars. Onto the ant hill with them. And throw hornets nests at them.

[RANT/OFF]


[Linked Image]
Inline advert (2nd and 3rd post)

#4557658 - 02/25/21 12:35 PM Re: Why some game devs should be covered in molasses and thrown on ant hills [Re: HeinKill]  
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 121,345
PanzerMeyer Offline
Pro-Consul of Florida
PanzerMeyer  Offline
Pro-Consul of Florida
King Crimson - SimHQ's Top Poster

Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 121,345
Miami, FL USA
I definitely understand your frustrations but unfortunately these trends are part of the industry now. There will be no reverting back to games that don't require an internet connection or games that don't lose many features if you are not online. Your only option there is to play legacy games that pre-date this trend.

Concerning game reviews, I generally ignore them. I buy games pretty much only based on whether I'm interested in the premise or not. That method has worked out quite well for me since there have only been a couple of games I have regretted buying over the past 15 years or so.


“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
#4557664 - 02/25/21 01:21 PM Re: Why some game devs should be covered in molasses and thrown on ant hills [Re: HeinKill]  
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 25,138
RSColonel_131st Offline
Lifer
RSColonel_131st  Offline
Lifer

Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 25,138
Vienna, 2nd rock left.
Just to contradict a little (in good spirit :)) the point PM makes...

Currently have installed 28 games, ten of which are less than three years old, only one of which is older than five years (approx), i.e. the majority of titles were released between 2016 and 2017, with some 18-19-20 (inc. AAA quality) thrown in.

None of them do any automatic updates, require a client or an internet connection... the installer files sit doubled up on two identical external hard disks from where they can be moved to any PC.

I would be technically able to run synced cloud saves trough my own software and server, but I haven't bothered yet to set that up.

So, there are ways, some technically not so legal (though I want to stress the point, I have paid for all of them), some very legal. And yes, I regularly miss interesting titles or have to wait a bit for them to show up, that's the price I pay for my autonomy from the digitial overlords.



I do fully agree with the Anthill idea, except maybe that it may be cruel to the ants.



Oh, and needless to say, my windows install doesn't do any updates either unless I permit them. The problem is not that it's not possible to have this amount of self-reliant control, but that the market moved where the customers wanted their convenience to be... and that is with systems which decide what is best for you.





#4557668 - 02/25/21 01:25 PM Re: Why some game devs should be covered in molasses and thrown on ant hills [Re: HeinKill]  
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 3,502
DM Offline
Senior Member
DM  Offline
Senior Member

Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 3,502
Prague
Eh, sounds like you're having a bad time smile and if it happened to me I'd feel bad too. But I have to say my experience with it has been nothing but positive so far, I really, really like it.

It's possible to run it without internet though right? The landscape is populated with less-than-optimal building placements etc but it can be done? Even so, this is one of very few cases where internet connection for best experience is probably more than justified.

For me at least, it wasn't a PoS at launch, it worked pretty well. I was very surprised I could get it to even work, let alone work well on my > 11 year old PC. It worked OK on medium settings and with a RAM + graphic card update I run on high settings. But I'm old-school and regard frames per second as.... negotiable wink


"They might look the same, but they don't taste the same."
#4557697 - 02/25/21 03:41 PM Re: Why some game devs should be covered in molasses and thrown on ant hills [Re: DM]  
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 3,742
HeinKill Offline
Senior Member
HeinKill  Offline
Senior Member

Joined: May 2006
Posts: 3,742
Cloud based
Originally Posted by DM
It's possible to run it without internet though right? The landscape is populated with less-than-optimal building placements etc but it can be done? Even so, this is one of very few cases where internet connection for best experience is probably more than justified.


Yup. As usual when I am in rant mode, I am ranting about more than one game :P

MSFS can run without internet and it runs fine on my machine. But I have had to reinstall this huge game four times so far, the last time because of a 'mandatory' update which was basically a complete reinstall.

The plague of the 'always on' internet requirement is for HITMAN 3. Great game but if your internet connection hiccups (I am on 5G and it is usually stable but...) it kicks you out of the game.

The game that was a PITA POS at launch and I have given up on and taken the refund was CYBERPUNK, as was my angst as far as reviews went ... so many prelaunch reviews from reputable sources giving it 9 or 10/10 but it was a bug ridden mess

The plague of updates which are just intended to sell product not improve the game is AC VALHALLA. Two major (free...) updates so far, both bug ridden and mostly intended to sell stuff in their store.

So, yeah, its a new world and Idonlikeit. Will be more discerning with my purchases in future I guess!


[Linked Image]
#4557698 - 02/25/21 03:45 PM Re: Why some game devs should be covered in molasses and thrown on ant hills [Re: HeinKill]  
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 121,345
PanzerMeyer Offline
Pro-Consul of Florida
PanzerMeyer  Offline
Pro-Consul of Florida
King Crimson - SimHQ's Top Poster

Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 121,345
Miami, FL USA
Originally Posted by HeinKill


The game that was a PITA POS at launch and I have given up on and taken the refund was CYBERPUNK, as was my angst as far as reviews went ... so many prelaunch reviews from reputable sources giving it 9 or 10/10 but it was a bug ridden mess




The release PC version did indeed have some problems but at least for me those issues were resolved after the first 2 hot-fixes. What hurt the game the most was the insane amount of pre-release hype which caused expectations to be unreasonably sky-high in my opinion.



Last edited by PanzerMeyer; 02/25/21 03:49 PM.

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
#4557700 - 02/25/21 04:02 PM Re: Why some game devs should be covered in molasses and thrown on ant hills [Re: HeinKill]  
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 3,502
DM Offline
Senior Member
DM  Offline
Senior Member

Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 3,502
Prague
Originally Posted by HeinKill
The plague of the 'always on' internet requirement is for HITMAN 3. Great game but if your internet connection hiccups (I am on 5G and it is usually stable but...) it kicks you out of the game.


Oh yeah, I agree with that, of course I do smile online DRM for SP games can go suck it.

There is also a more serious side to all that, anything that can be described as "games as a service", in that in the worst cases (i.e. almost all of them) it's basically a game you've bought that will one day definitely die.



"They might look the same, but they don't taste the same."
#4557702 - 02/25/21 04:04 PM Re: Why some game devs should be covered in molasses and thrown on ant hills [Re: HeinKill]  
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 2,288
Herman Offline
Member
Herman  Offline
Member

Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 2,288
More importantly, you know how the developers and Steam act. Why are you still sending them money? If they fail to satisfy your needs, the easy solution is to just stop supporting them.


ScenShare Guidelines :

1) Enjoy creating it
2) Enjoy playing it
3) Enjoy sharing it

The PlayersDB - The Harpoon community's #1 choice

Harpoon3 Frequently Asked Questions
#4557703 - 02/25/21 04:05 PM Re: Why some game devs should be covered in molasses and thrown on ant hills [Re: HeinKill]  
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 9,703
Blade_RJ Offline
Simhq Weather man, dropping rain in your parade
Blade_RJ  Offline
Simhq Weather man, dropping rain in your parade
Hotshot

Joined: May 2005
Posts: 9,703
brasil
dont blame devs, blame the PUBLISHERS they are the ones making a mint, case in point :


Anthem Next was CANCELED but EA says dont worry we care about the playerbase, we will keep the servers up, wich begs the question, were they even considering shut them off ? big lawsuit was waiting if that was the case, this after 2 years of promises, they cut content from the game to devote time to fix it and now they call it quits blaming covid LOL. but dont worry now they will focus on dragon age and mass effect..........also they cut content and canceled andromeda post development to concentrate on anthem release.....see a pattern here ? it is very likely new mass effect will be game as service since they sold a #%&*$# ton of dlcs with that game series that basically cosmetic and power ups, why shy now ? but dragon age is a different beast, if they do that there, they will #%&*$# on their own face with their rpg comunity.

Cyberpunk magic fix all your problems patch 1.12 delayed to maaaaaybe late march, it was suposed to come next week and only now they say this. who want to be they will delay it again or release a fix most on the nose bugs, and then another small fix and then let it die ?

Last edited by Blade_RJ; 02/25/21 04:08 PM.
#4557706 - 02/25/21 04:13 PM Re: Why some game devs should be covered in molasses and thrown on ant hills [Re: HeinKill]  
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 9,541
Mr_Blastman Offline
Hotshot
Mr_Blastman  Offline
Hotshot

Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 9,541
Atlanta, GA
This is why games and mods such as Brutal Doom exist, for when you want to rip someone's head off, you can, in video game form.

Doom is almost thirty years old and still a great therapy tool!







#4557707 - 02/25/21 04:25 PM Re: Why some game devs should be covered in molasses and thrown on ant hills [Re: HeinKill]  
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 12,481
MarkG Offline
Veteran
MarkG  Offline
Veteran

Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 12,481
The Bayou
^ 1:26 rofl

I MUST HAVE THIS!!!



The rusty wire that holds the cork that keeps the anger in
Gives way and suddenly it’s day again
The sun is in the east
Even though the day is done
Two suns in the sunset, hmph
Could be the human race is run
#4557709 - 02/25/21 04:33 PM Re: Why some game devs should be covered in molasses and thrown on ant hills [Re: HeinKill]  
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 9,541
Mr_Blastman Offline
Hotshot
Mr_Blastman  Offline
Hotshot

Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 9,541
Atlanta, GA
If you grab Brutal Doom, I highly recommend the Doom Metal volume 4 addon, too. Live metal bands do all the Doom music. smile

https://www.moddb.com/addons/doom-metal-soundtrack-mod-volume-4-high-quality

Works great with Brutal Doom.

Last edited by Mr_Blastman; 02/25/21 04:33 PM.
#4558189 - 03/01/21 01:41 PM Re: Why some game devs should be covered in molasses and thrown on ant hills [Re: HeinKill]  
Joined: Aug 2013
Posts: 1,963
wormfood Offline
Member
wormfood  Offline
Member

Joined: Aug 2013
Posts: 1,963
Texas
Originally Posted by HeinKill
[RANT/ON>RANTWARNING/OFF]

Today I started MSFS 2020 to be told I need another 'mandatory' 128GB (3 to 6 hour) reinstall. Games these days drive me MENTAL because:

- I don't play all day every day so when I do decide to play I click on a game and first STEAM/ORIGIN/EPIC or whatever installer has to do an update, then
- The game won't play, because it has to also load some complete PITA update which is RARELY an actual improvement to the game but is most likely a new way for the devs to MAKE MONEY in their shops
- OR some oblique and useless add on I don't even bloody want (new compulsory map update to BOLIVIA! 10GB! Loading... ... ... ... ... ... ...). Apologies to any Bolivianians.
- OR they sold me a game which was such a POS at launch they have to keep patching it into infinity.

JAZOOZ, please just give me a game that is stable at launch, which may well be a minimum viable product but actually is VIABLE and let me choose my own dashed updates or roll back to an old version if I don't like how it screws up my PC and seriously I don't mind waiting an extra day month year for a game that is actually playable.

AND while I'm at it any game developer who sits in a meeting and says 'we should make this game so it requires an always on internet connection or it won't work' should be thrown out the bloody window. Naked. After being covered in molasses. Onto an ant hill. Daily.

AND the same for game industry reviewers on Youtube who get to play a pre-release version of a game at the devs HQ on a perfectly tuned PC provided by the devs after being plied with shrimp and champagne and then give the game 5 bloody stars. Onto the ant hill with them. And throw hornets nests at them.

[RANT/OFF]

After you install a game and run; it once on Steam, put steam in offline mode. It will then not check for updates to either the game or launcher.
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3160-agcb-2555


Moderated by  RacerGT 

Quick Search
Recent Articles
Support SimHQ

If you shop on Amazon use this Amazon link to support SimHQ
.
Social


Recent Topics
Grown ups joke time
by NoFlyBoy. 03/18/24 10:34 PM
Anyone Heard from Nimits?
by F4UDash4. 03/18/24 10:01 PM
RIP Gemini/Apollo astronaut Tom Stafford
by semmern. 03/18/24 02:14 PM
10 years after 3/8/2014
by NoFlyBoy. 03/17/24 10:25 AM
Hans Zimmer North American concert tour 2024
by NoFlyBoy. 03/16/24 10:54 PM
Steam Spring Sale.
by RedToo. 03/15/24 09:09 PM
Starship Attempt Three
by F4UDash4. 03/14/24 12:06 PM
This is one cool turbofan model
by Zamzow. 03/14/24 02:41 AM
Map Errors
by F4UDash4. 03/13/24 11:25 AM
Copyright 1997-2016, SimHQ Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.6.0