BioShock

Post by **xistence** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 12:50 am

Well, i think i can throw in my two cents about that:

As i'm knee deep in game-development myself, i can just say that this is the truth, testers dictate the development for a game mainly in the end of the development progress.
It is simple to explain (but also dumb): At the begin the producer gets lost in tons of plans and ideas how the game could be, with hundreds of features etc. Everything is fine, and work progress is slow but of high-quality. But as it is getting closer to the deadline, and the invested money gets low, the only statement you can hear is 'We need to make it simple, every feature just costs money and customers dont 'want' them (yeah, sure). And our customers might not be able to understand them...'.

Pure blabla and lies just to fnd a way to bring a great, but too much time-consuming game in development, to an end. But bringing things in progress to such a radical end, leads into tons of bugs and missing logic in the features themself. Now when betatests starts, most of the beta's are not good chosen in my eyes and experience, because a lot of them are weak computer users or even no real gamers.
The company administration say that this is good because this 'proofs' that the game can be used by a high amount of users, so we can hit the 'mainstream'. Pure crap if you ask me. Now those unqualified beta's, running around in a game full of bugs and unlogic, demanding this and that, the company administration gets afraid and just want to release the game to earn money, so they start to throw out whatever they can, just like a skining boat.

So you see, why games these days always starting promising but ending in such bug-disasters. Due to my own experiences it is a good explanation for myself.

YouTube · Post by **TronFAQ** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 11:53 am

Win, we finally have an answer about an SDK for Bioshock.

http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showth ... 506&page=4

The answer is no. Why am I not surprised.

Post by **zook_one** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 5:15 pm

it's funny you get the same thing in Architecture. Many people hire the design professional based on their portfolio but then they second guess or try to dictate every design decision. If your so good and know everything why don't you design the damn thing yourself?

Everybodies got to through in their 2 cents and everyone's a critic. People in leadership roles need to have the integrity to ignore unqualified peoples critisms.

YouTube · Post by **TronFAQ** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 5:41 pm

Not sure what you're trying to say, Zook? Are you saying the fans need to stop criticizing, or that 2K staff need to do their jobs properly?

Post by **Jademz** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 7:14 pm

It sounds like they(2k), would rather pay themselves to be ignorant. Sounds like the "community" is not proving the culture to PC gamers, since 2k is up in the trees looking for poo to fling, and developers for 2k are adding "putrid assholes" to thier portfolios, and pissing people off, to make the public numb, for the sake of laziness. Let's not forget, the public has consumer rights, and untill they have hitlers face on the box, we always will. :-x

Post by **zook_one** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 8:01 pm

tronfaq wrote:Not sure what you're trying to say, Zook? Are you saying the fans need to stop criticizing, or that 2K staff need to do their jobs properly?

I just think designers in leadership positions need to go with their guts sometimes and do what they think is best. Unqualified criticism gets to much value sometimes.

Post by **xistence** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 12:24 am

I just think designers in leadership positions...

It's true, but this is exactly the problem these days. The companies hire designers because of their 'knowledge' and 'experience', but as soon a designer tries to push things into the right position, the company administration blocks or show you how soon you can 'loose' your job because 'customer needs have to be fulfilled' (or: if you don't do what we want, even if it might be wrong, you're free to go). And in 80% of all cases you'll just find such companies. The money is too powerful.

Post by **zook_one** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 12:47 am

Maybe more Game Design companies need to publish their own games.

Post by **xistence** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 8:45 am

You speak some wise words mate

YouTube · Post by **TronFAQ** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 1:50 pm

http://www.2kgames.com/cultofrapture/cultofrapture.html

So, 2K is finally releasing a patch for the PC version of Bioshock. Over 3 months after release.

Hopefully, it will fix everything that people have been complaining about.

I don't like how 2K is being coy about what fixes the patch will contain, though. But they do mention that the patch will add new plasmids to the game. Which is kind of surprising. I think they originally intended for us to pay for those extras. But because of the huge controversy over the way they handled the PC release, I guess they decided to make them free to appease PC players.

It would be a nice surprise if the patch came with the SDK, but I really doubt that.