My Argument on OWI's Questionable Practices (Discussions are Welcome)

[Plague Guy]

My Argument Against OWI's Practices

1. Bribing for Reviews:
It has come to light that Offworld Industries has engaged in unethical practices by encouraging positive reviews in exchange for incentives. This practice, reportedly orchestrated via their Discord, is a direct violation of Steam's Terms of Service (ToS). Such behavior undermines the trust and integrity of the review system, which is crucial for maintaining honest and transparent feedback from the player community. By manipulating reviews, OWI distorts the perception of the game, misleading potential buyers and existing players about the game's true quality and reception.

2. Turn and Burn Sales Tactics:
OWI's approach of heavily discounting "Squad" to boost sales and subsequently garner positive reviews is another questionable tactic. This strategy appears to be a reactive measure to counteract negative reviews rather than addressing the underlying issues that cause dissatisfaction among players. Such a practice not only devalues the game but also exploits new players by luring them into purchasing a game that may not meet their expectations. This cycle of discounting and review manipulation creates a false sense of improvement and stability, masking the real problems that need to be addressed.

3. Alienating Veteran Players:
In an attempt to attract a new player base, OWI has made significant changes to the game's shooting mechanics, which have been a staple since it's beta stages. These changes have alienated long-time players who preferred the original mechanics. Instead of creating a separate game mode to cater to both old and new playstyles, OWI has chosen to overhaul the core mechanics, disregarding the preferences of their loyal player base. This decision not only disrespects the community that helped build the game's foundation but also disrupts the experience for those who have invested considerable time and effort into mastering the original gameplay.

4. Cherry-Picking Questions in Q&A Sessions:
OWI's Q&A sessions have been criticized for selectively addressing easy questions while neglecting more challenging or critical ones. This selective approach avoids addressing the community's genuine concerns, particularly regarding the possibility of reverting a portion of the game to its "OG" version. By ignoring these pressing issues, OWI demonstrates a lack of transparency and accountability. Players deserve honest and comprehensive answers, especially when they express legitimate concerns about the direction of the game.

My Final Thoughts and Opinions:
Offworld Industries' recent practices raise serious concerns about their commitment to ethical conduct and community engagement. By bribing for reviews, exploiting sales tactics, alienating veteran players, and avoiding difficult questions, OWI risks losing the trust and support of their player base. For "Squad" to thrive and maintain its reputation, the developers must prioritize transparency, address player concerns authentically, and respect the foundation upon which the game's community was built. It's time for OWI to realign their practices with the values of integrity and player respect that originally garnered their success.

[Plague Guy]

I also wish to state that I would love to see this community come together, despite our differences in play styles, so that we may see life long bugs fixed. From things like Frame rates to fall damage (to name a short few). I feel we can all agree that many of these issues needed to be addressed a while ago, yet still plague this game.

[Beatlejuice]

Big fixes don't sell games like new features and additions apparently. They could have done a number of improvements but instead we get ICO and PiP scopes that make performance worse.

[Plague Guy]

Beatlejuice a écrit :

Big fixes don't sell games like new features and additions apparently. They could have done a number of improvements but instead we get ICO and PiP scopes that make performance worse.

Not fixing known bugs, doesn't sell games either. From my experience with steam, refunds are often a go to for new players when their high performance expectations are not met.

[Chungal Grease]

Plague Guy a écrit :

It's time for OWI to realign their practices with the values of integrity and player respect that originally garnered their success.

"Integrity" lmfao! Any integrity they had went bye bye when Merlin and IronTaxi sold out and bailed. Nevermind the fact that they entirely turned their backs on the comp scene that they themselves built the entire crowd funding of the game on in the first place.

Fast forward to the present day. So yeah, they sold out to Tencent, theres no actual physical brick and mortar studio left, they allegedly have a CEO but he's never said a single word to the community or any game media outlet about the future of the franchise or the company, they broke their original promises about no microtransactions, fixed wing aircraft and attack helis and the icing on the cake is the noodle arms ICO. Nevermind we've alienated 84,000 members of the community with the SCBL.

[Plague Guy]

Lance Rambert a écrit :

Plague Guy a écrit :

It's time for OWI to realign their practices with the values of integrity and player respect that originally garnered their success.

"Integrity" lmfao! Any integrity they had went bye bye when Merlin and IronTaxi sold out and bailed. Nevermind the fact that they entirely turned their backs on the comp scene that they themselves built the entire crowd funding of the game on in the first place.

Fast forward to the present day. So yeah, they sold out to Tencent, theres no actual physical brick and mortar studio left, they allegedly have a CEO but he's never said a single word to the community or any game media outlet about the future of the franchise or the company, they broke their original promises about no microtransactions, fixed wing aircraft and attack helis and the icing on the cake is the noodle arms ICO. Nevermind we've alienated 84,000 members of the community with the SCBL.

We can all understand that every game is also a business, in today's day and age. As well as every business needs to be profitable in order to continue being a business. So I can forgive the micro-transactions (to an extent), But only if it also ensures that the game can be updated and fixed as it goes forward. That hasn't been the case in terms with Squad. It feels like they run this on auto pilot, and pray nothing breaks in game to where they need to divest money away from their marketing team or CEO's pockets.

[Slim]

I don't feel as though they burned veteran players. I think the only people who got burned had the wrong expectations because Squad is suppose to be a modern Project Reality which has the same stamina/sway with the alignment bars and all. It's not fair to say they burned veteran players when the real ones came from a much harder game than this.

[Bakunin]

The ICO and Project Reality have very little in common despite the superficial surface level similarities. Yes PR is a hard game and infantry is slow, but the gunplay is completely different compared to ICO. The blur in PR is not excessive, there are no eye reflief issues, no aim punch, no flowting guns (in other words aim stays on target but there is a cone of fire), shooting position does heavily influence accuracy, sprinting does not automatically make your gun unusable as long as your stamina is all right and guns are not reloaded in slow-mo. On top of it ATs are deadly, machine guns are stable and deadly on a bipod, you have a grappling hook to go over obstacles and even breach buildings (so much to I cannot get over a wall let alone jumb down). I could go on.

Point is: ICO is an ill conceived mish-mash and Project Reality is not. So please don't compare an apple and an orange just because they have a rounded shape.

[Slim]

Bakunin a écrit :

Point is: ICO is an ill conceived mish-mash and Project Reality is not. So please don't compare and apple and orange just because they have a rounded shape.

You can't discount the developers aim to align the gunfights to PR. I think they did OK. Having the bullet always come from the gun takes out a lot of the cheese, adding the floating aim really didn't nerf point-shooting at all, it's useful for suppression.

Challenge yourself to next time when mid sprint, take aim at a tree from 75 m and try to hit it. I bet despite the complains most of us will hit the tree 2/3 times from 0% stamina. It's harder to acquire but the time to aim can be the same as before if you manage stam.

What you can't change is the aimpunch and blur, because that has been pivotal to ICO's success. Without that sort of effect, firefights just don't play out like they do IRL. Yes it's all exaggerated to a degree, but how else do you capture the feeling of being under fire?

For a game like Squad it works marvelously and it's insanely satisfying getting caught in some encounter, you immediately light up the direction, sending someone around to while t he guy is focused in the direction of gunfire, it's so much more authentic this way.

Despite the challenge that it is overcoming gunfire, or stamina, doing so any performing any task in this game has been made that much more rewarding, and while it's no fun to be under the effects of suppression or sway, it's massively more fun to dish it out.

[Billy Chadison]

Slim a écrit :

Bakunin a écrit :

What you can't change is the aimpunch and blur, because that has been pivotal to ICO's success. Without that sort of effect, firefights just don't play out like they do IRL. Yes it's all exaggerated to a degree, but how else do you capture the feeling of being under fire?

For a game like Squad it works marvelously and it's insanely satisfying getting caught in some encounter, you immediately light up the direction, sending someone around to while t he guy is focused in the direction of gunfire, it's so much more authentic this way.

I can deal with the blur, but there is nothing realistic about it being easier to shoot someone at 100m than 10m in any situation. I am a Former Infantry Marine and a current 2 gun competitive shooter. I promise I can sprint 50 yards and then accurately engage a target that is on the other side of a room from me in under a second 100% of the time. This noodle arm crap is like I am playing as a weak bodied recruit who picked up a gun for the first time yesterday. It's not fun, and it's not realistic. Nerfing basic combat skills is a stupid way to try and force a play style on people.

And if you think this soulless corporation is spending even one minute reading any of this instead of designing new worthless skins and emotes to squeeze every dime out of you blind fanboys then your kidding yourself. Not to mention for some reason they are heavy on this woke ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and force these servers to enforce rules about saying bad words in a game where we are running around murdering each other. It's complete and utter virtue signaling in the hopes of appeasing the woke mob. Problem is, the woke mob doesn't play hardcore war sims. A bunch of foul mouthed delinquents like me play this game. Anyone who has experienced the pregame at Main Base before rounds know exactly what I'm talking about.

The ICO completely ♥♥♥♥♥♥ this game. They should have just launched it under a different IP with a new skin. I would get a refund if Steam would let me. I don't care if I have a 1000 hours, they destroyed something I loved so screw em. I seriously can't wait for this company to go tits up. They DO NOT CARE about their community, and deserve to go bankrupt.

[Infinity]

Slim a écrit :

I don't feel as though they burned veteran players. I think the only people who got burned had the wrong expectations because Squad is suppose to be a modern Project Reality which has the same stamina/sway with the alignment bars and all. It's not fair to say they burned veteran players when the real ones came from a much harder game than this.

I really dont understand this sentiment...It was their development that took the game in this so called wrong direction.... every mistep was called out at the time, everytime they added an arcadey feel us vets called them out. Please dont forget the game they drastically changed was of their own design. You are bascically saying they spent nearly a decade developing in the wrong direction!

[Aegmar]

At least on the servers i play on the old players (including myself) are mostly still there, not sure if its an actual fact there are that many old players not playing anymore or only modded, some for sure, but maybe its a bit projection too.

Btw. some of us said for years that the pace of combat in Squad has always been a bit too fast to allow for much actual coordination and communication during combat and it came down to faster aim and reflexes, more of a "twitch shooter"..., its understandable they moved away from this given the stated goals what the game is supposed to be.

I do agree tho its a little late to do that - from my perspective better late than never, but still.

[Pvt.Donger]

Pete Mitchell a écrit :

Slim a écrit :

I can deal with the blur, but there is nothing realistic about it being easier to shoot someone at 100m than 10m in any situation. I am a Former Infantry Marine and a current 2 gun competitive shooter. I promise I can sprint 50 yards and then accurately engage a target that is on the other side of a room from me in under a second 100% of the time. This noodle arm crap is like I am playing as a weak bodied recruit who picked up a gun for the first time yesterday. It's not fun, and it's not realistic. Nerfing basic combat skills is a stupid way to try and force a play style on people.

And if you think this soulless corporation is spending even one minute reading any of this instead of designing new worthless skins and emotes to squeeze every dime out of you blind fanboys then your kidding yourself. Not to mention for some reason they are heavy on this woke ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and force these servers to enforce rules about saying bad words in a game where we are running around murdering each other. It's complete and utter virtue signaling in the hopes of appeasing the woke mob. Problem is, the woke mob doesn't play hardcore war sims. A bunch of foul mouthed delinquents like me play this game. Anyone who has experienced the pregame at Main Base before rounds know exactly what I'm talking about.

The ICO completely ♥♥♥♥♥♥ this game. They should have just launched it under a different IP with a new skin. I would get a refund if Steam would let me. I don't care if I have a 1000 hours, they destroyed something I loved so screw em. I seriously can't wait for this company to go tits up. They DO NOT CARE about their community, and deserve to go bankrupt.

slim thinks lean spamming is pre ico gameplay so i wouldn't use logic. its not very effective! the guy can't even finish his own statement without being like well the ico is great but it still needs tweak.... imagine calling the ico a success

[Plague Guy]

Slim a écrit :

I don't feel as though they burned veteran players. I think the only people who got burned had the wrong expectations because Squad is suppose to be a modern Project Reality which has the same stamina/sway with the alignment bars and all. It's not fair to say they burned veteran players when the real ones came from a much harder game than this.

I'm a veteran player, I and 'MANY' others felt absolutely burned, to the extent that we all left our bad reviews about our discontentment with the ICO, and uninstalled the game, on steam. A point you should probably take away from all this, (from OWI's disregard of OG player's concerns, review manipulation, and changing of core mechanic in game when it suits them) is, "If they did it to us, what's stopping them from doing it to you next?"

[Plague Guy]

Aegmar a écrit :

At least on the servers i play on the old players (including myself) are mostly still there, not sure if its an actual fact there are that many old players not playing anymore or only modded, some for sure, but maybe its a bit projection too.

Btw. some of us said for years that the pace of combat in Squad has always been a bit too fast to allow for much actual coordination and communication during combat and it came down to faster aim and reflexes, more of a "twitch shooter"..., its understandable they moved away from this given the stated goals what the game is supposed to be.

I do agree tho its a little late to do that - from my perspective better late than never, but still.

Happy that your server seems to have been unaffected. But the rest of the servers didn't fair so well, I know! I was apart of A LOT of them. Many Server owners were forced to shut down due to the ever growing lack interest from their community to play after the update dropped. The discords of all the servers I whitelisted to were full to the brim with hate for ICO. Many voiced their dissatisfaction in-game as well as in these forums, and many still do. I know you live in this bubble, with this, "if I don't feel it no one else can" mentality. But understand we are completely outraged. We just want to experience what we OG players enjoyed about the game, and OWI can bring that back, they are just to stupid to do so cause it's easier for them to throw rage bait trolls at a problem these days rather than fix the problem.

[Bakunin]

Slim a écrit :

Bakunin a écrit :

What you can't change is the aimpunch and blur, because that has been pivotal to ICO's success. Without that sort of effect, firefights just don't play out like they do IRL. Yes it's all exaggerated to a degree, but how else do you capture the feeling of being under fire?

The thing is you don't. You are not under fire and your life is not in danger. You are sitting in front of a computer mouse in hand. No blur, aimpunch or whatever will change that fact. "Realism" or "authentic expirience" does not exist in that sense.

This is exactly what I mean when I say the ICO caters to immersion larpers. No personal offense intended. Sorry if I come across that way.

Imo the gunplay is unenjoyable. You do not have to explain to anyone how to work with it.

PS: As someone said before. It is not more difficult to shoot a target 10m away than a target 100m away. So even the "realism" argument is flawed if you argue that with in terms of weapon sway etc. Each of us (including me) is talking about different realisms when we use the term. The argument there is highly selective and comes down to personal tast. If we really want to talk about realism in a game, we would have to define what we want to be "realistic" in game. And I assume you prefer a realistic feel or speed of combat. I thought Squad was realistic because MGs work like MGs in game, and assault rifles like assault rifles. ICO has non of that.