Why this hype train should of derailed long before release

[Hoboclown23]

So many of you thought that people trashing CSII before release were just haters or trolls or whatever else. Yet it seems we called it long before this flop.
As someone who has reviewed indie projects and many early access titles and given advice on whether to invest or stay away I saw this coming from the first trailer. I am not going to bash anyone for getting caught up in hype but will give you a recap of this train wreck and show you what to look out for in the future.

1. The concept trailer. Why it looked spectacular it was made in an engine that was a direct competitor to unity. We know that colossal order always uses unity and would be a stretch for them to use a different engine now. When a company is trying to sale you a product it is easier to sale you the fantasy rather than the truth. When I brought this up at first people called me an idiot ... yet this is my first red flag.

2. Buying the content creators. Yes they bought your favorite content creators with early access and NDAs. This prevents us the consumer from actual opinions from people we trust. They hired them for propaganda and now that the NDA has run its course and the backlash is hitting them , now and only now are you getting thier somewhat true opinions. When I brought this point up , I was given more of the protect the Dev and publisher fan boy attitudes. This was my second red flag

3. Dev dairies. These I didn't talk about in the forums , but if you notice they kept them pretty short and pretty close up. Reason being they had to show a vary small window so you didn't see the pile of trash in the next frame. These type of tactics are used alot by indie devs that are for a cash grab game. It is a way to make your fans fight your critics with if it's not really why do they have gameplay. While I'm not saying csII can't recover it is obvious they needed to fix the books at paradox and this cash grab beginning was what they needed.

4. The constant moving of the finish line. They are still doing it with the paradox mod platform and consoles. If you want a good place to mark the end of early access which is the nice thing to call this game , go with console release as at that point thier idea of a fully functioning game will be seen. Does that mean fixed hell no but enough for them to say it's thier vision of it.

5. Lashing out at the community. While this happened after release it is still a common thing those just trying to take your money with false promises do. Thier are not toxic for releasing an early access as a full release , you are for complaining about it. It's not thier fault you don't like the game. It's yours for playing a game not for you.

Honestly if paradox and collossal want to fix this, I have 3 things that need to be done.

1. Remove the CEO from both paradox, and CO

2. Give a timeline on when the game will be repaired or partial refunds for the base content

3. Humble themselves and have a truely open and honest q and a with the community awnsering the truely hard hitting questions , not just going with the easy ones.

This is how it to tell a bad release and how to repair from it. While I am sure most of you will probably say I'm wrong oh well this is my opinion based on history and if you follow it you won't be suckered into the hype train so easily.

[Slinbkk]

[Zero, Dark Knight]

Originally posted by Hoboclown23:

2. Buying the content creators. Yes they bought your favorite content creators with early access and NDAs. This prevents us the consumer from actual opinions from people we trust.

I think I found the problem here.

Reliance on other people to do your research and opinion forming for the majority. :/

also
found this little gem..

Originally posted by Hoboclown23:

1. Remove the CEO from both paradox, and CO

what whiny nonsense is this?
The CEOs are doing an amazing job, look how much profit they've brought in, that's their duty to the company, why would they be fired for that. lol

[Enterprofilenamehere]

For me the first hint of trouble was when the minimum specs were changed and the console release was delayed. I was still close to the recommendeds (though a little under on the GPU side), so I thought I'd still have no problem with it, and performance-wise, it still ran okay for me with some settings toned down.

What I didn't expect was that the economy would be broken and that the game would be filled with game-breaking bugs. In retrospect the spec changes and console delay should have been a sign that other things might not be going smoothly either, but I didn't consider that at the time and kept my preorder until release. I had fun with the game for a time until the bugs made it a frustrating mess.

What's particularly frustrating is that an amazing game is still in here somewhere. The road builder is amazing and a massive step up from CS1. The whole zone demand system would be great if it worked as intended. Traffic AI, for all the hate it gets, is still a big improvement on vanilla CS1, especially after some patches removed some of its bugs. The visuals are a big step up, albeit a little too smooth and grey.

[Hoboclown23]

Originally posted by Zero, Dark Knight:

Originally posted by Hoboclown23:

2. Buying the content creators. Yes they bought your favorite content creators with early access and NDAs. This prevents us the consumer from actual opinions from people we trust.

I think I found the problem here.

Reliance on other people to do your research and opinion forming for the majority. :/

also
found this little gem..

Originally posted by Hoboclown23:

1. Remove the CEO from both paradox, and CO

what whiny nonsense is this?
The CEOs are doing an amazing job, look how much profit they've brought in, that's their duty to the company, why would they be fired for that. lol

Actually if you look at thier stock which is what thier investors look at it is rushing down faster than moonshine down a rednecks gullet. And if they want to appease the public and save thier stock it is a viable solution to which they can say previous leadership was the issue here is what we are doing to fix it

[ste]

There is mothing worse than a company releasing something thats not up to standard, then complaining about the negative reaction, like we should be grateful for what we are given.

The warning sign for me was when they upped the systems specs, this was them pushing the blame from themselves and on to the hardware instead. Which is why they left it to the very last minute.

There was a lot of deceit involved and when it released they used the old tried and tested (and always backfires) toxic fan excuse these kind companies love so much and deflected and hid from all the criticism. Very classy.

I just hope it was worth the permanent damage to their reputation and long term future profits.

[Enterprofilenamehere]

Originally posted by ste:

There is mothing worse than a company releasing something thats not up to standard, then complaining about the negative reaction, like we should be grateful for what we are given.

The warning sign for me was when they upped the systems specs, this was them pushing the blame from themselves and on to the hardware instead. Which is why they left it to the very last minute.

There was a lot of deceit involved and when it released they used the old tried and tested (and always backfires) toxic fan excuse these kind companies love so much and deflected and hid from all the criticism. Very classy.

I just hope it was worth the permanent damage to their reputation and long term future profits.

They seem to forget that the $100 or so that many people spent on the ultimate edition is a lot of money to a lot of people. They are rightfully going to be upset when the thing they bought isn't as good as it was advertized to be.

[ste]

There may not be an apology for us now, and we may be just acting like entitled brats in their opinion for not accepting the game the way it is at the moment, and they might wish we would all shut up and go away,
But I'm sure the shameless, apologies and groveling and begging will be thick and sickening when they need us to buy the DLC,
At the minute we are moaning scum who need to be ignored, but DLC time we are valued customers whose feedback they respect. We just need to wait until the DLC like normal in these cases.

To me an apology is not the same or has the same value when it launches about the same time as some DLC or they want our money again. For me thats too late.

[Walker Boh]

[Zero, Dark Knight]

Originally posted by ste:

There may not be an apology for us now, and we may be just acting like entitled brats in their opinion for not accepting the game the way it is at the moment, and they might wish we would all shut up and go away,
But I'm sure the shameless, apologies and groveling and begging will be thick and sickening when they need us to buy the DLC,
At the minute we are moaning scum who need to be ignored, but DLC time we are valued customers whose feedback they respect. We just need to wait until the DLC like normal in these cases.

To me an apology is not the same or has the same value when it launches about the same time as some DLC or they want our money again. For me thats too late.

the problem is, people will believe them and forgive them xD
and the profits will roll in.

also to OP

shareholders don't care about share prices unless they're buying/selling
Only dividends matter

[ste]

Not everyone. Most games that have a poor launch never recover, you can only name 1 or 2 that did.
CO might not realise it yet but its already too late, the damage is done. And even if it eventually becomes the game it should have been it would have made alot more money in the long run if it started that way.

[bspawn]

I just realized i was kindof right when i said shortly before we got word that CS2 was in the works, that there isn't going to be CS2,
Maybe we'll get it eventually but that could be years down the road.

[Simon]

1. When they confirmed no mods, or custom assets and maps at launch
2. When they confirmed no Mac or Linux versions at launch, if ever.
3. When they confirmed no bicycles/cycling
4. Pre-announced DLC roadmap for a game that itself hadn’t even been released (reinforced concerns about cut features requiring payment later).
5. Strange blurriness of moving vehicles in the actual gameplay footage
6. Postponing of console releases
7. Short, 30-minute play sessions from YouTube “partners” (advertisers)

And then downhill with all the other things you mention, especially the last-minute spec change.

Really it was pretty obvious the game was a mess and far from ready to launch. Why so many people jumped in early, especially without mods and custom assets, remains a mystery to me.

[JimmysTheBestCop]

CO was 3 years behind schedule on cs2

[Apples]

Originally posted by JimmysTheBestCop:

CO was 3 years behind schedule on cs2

Well if you remember the Nvidia leaks, CS2 was on it, and it was a mostly accurate leak.

[Simon]

Originally posted by JimmysTheBestCop:

CO was 3 years behind schedule on cs2

And that is the strangest thing of all. We know for a fact CS1 was developed in under 3 years when they didn’t have anywhere near the same experience level.