The Chronicles of Spellborn

For me I like honest people,It seems now that devs are getting to be more and more dishonest.

I was really looking forward to this title from just before Christmas 2006,since then we have had the "normal"delay's but since the start of the year it has got ,lets say a bit strange(but at the same time what is becomming normal)

At q1 this game was still on course for the release as posted by the devs,nearer the time it got delayed for "final polishing" and we were told"game is ready to go and complete"--->q2.

So Q2 came and again it was all positive"finishing touches" etc etc.delayed till q4.

So they got the (maybe)US publisher,got the fat cheque and will go for worldwide release,Hey thats great but why oh why they cant release in europe now if indeed the game is "ready for release and needing just final polishing" and thats from Q1?

Releasing a game that is great in europe would only help sell the US version,but no they wont release and why you ask,Hey I glad you did ask..

http://www.massively.com/2008/04/03/a-glimpse-into-quarterstone-the-jewel-of-spellborn/

So was this game actually ready or did they indeed just want to release an unfinshed product and build from there?

Ok I have played MMo's long enough to know that they have to be built up,But ffs be honest about it,How about a "ok guys we have just got some more cash in and we want to finish the game so wont be releasing in euorpe until the end of the year and try to finish this game"

Instead we get.."we are in talks with US publisher (etc etc) as for the european launch we will use this delay till q4 to polish it more"

I know I may get flamed but I really hope you can see some logic in this post,I dont mind a delay or 2 but with this game now over a year delayed and we still get told in q1 that the game is done and just polishing till the end of the year still polishing,These guys just aint being honest,so why believe them at anytime?

ps,When I tell my wife I am going to do some polishing around the house,I dont mean I will build that piece of furniture 1st then polish it....

I brought that up in a post in another thread on this forum, I wouldnt say they are dishonest just that I think from the sounds of their latest report they were planning to release the game early which is always worrying.

I think they probably were going to release, and the US publisher said they would like to do a simultanous release which for a lot of gamers that is a plus for competitive reasons. So Spellborn probably saw the chance to give us a better game as well as get the incentives of a simultaneous release, so they have taken it.

I believe it is better for a company to delay a game at the end of the day than to have it released early, in this industry you will never get your reputation back if you mess up release, you rarely get second chances as well, so they need to release only when they are ready. I think a solid release even for say a game like Darkfall which has a terrible reputation (that is deserved) will make people forget or overlook their constant delays.

Most likely they did not tell anyone that they were planning to delay the game due to simply not knowing, or not having a confimation on the US publisher. To be honest I think that the string of updates coming up to the announcement is their way of softening the blow so to speak. I am pretty sure they have never said they were going to release either just that they were aiming for a Q1release which was then changed to a possible Q2 release.

I think Scriar did a great job of summing it up.  Well said. 

I agree with the mindset of  launch with a great product rather than launch early with a so-so product. 

If you like the good old stuff, Warhammer is right there for you and it is raw. Combat is like as it was ten years ago and it's raw as in half-baked. That doesn't prevent them from hyping it to the max. And there is Age of Conan, the even more hype title. The most people probably still believe it has the features, it aggressivly agitated daily for ages, because they missed the meek statements that their action combat won't have that much action because of technical problems and such. You get more some more blood, but no drunken brawling. Both games have been delayed several times. And then you have Spellborn. The comparing is almost odd. Two big hype gorillaz with hordes of fans and the puny arty game from europe in between. It indeed looks suspicious that they always seem to push the date back, when the release day comes closer. But, they also announce that they found publishers and such, so they seem to grow everytime, where the gorilla titles always have worldwide partners built-in anyway.

Its apparently true, people stick to heavy advertisement of even scapped features and extolments of how great and über-next-gen their game is, especially when there is the US label sticking somewhere (IP or company). If a game ramps up, without that much false promises and vapour features, like TCOS, it has to make its way first. People = Dumb Sheep. Devs learn: lie, manipulate, hype, announce vapour features. People gonna buy that.

Well, people will buy it yea. But how long will they stick too it?

I was waiting for LOTRO first, and it prommised fun and fast combat. That didnt come true, so it felt like a huge disapointment. So I left and other people did too.

Maybe  same will happen with WAR, AoC?

Originally posted by MetaSeven

If you like the good old stuff, Warhammer is right there for you and it is raw. Combat is like as it was ten years ago and it's raw as in half-baked. That doesn't prevent them from hyping it to the max. And there is Age of Conan, the even more hype title. The most people probably still believe it has the features, it aggressivly agitated daily for ages, because they missed the meek statements that their action combat won't have that much action because of technical problems and such. You get more some more blood, but no drunken brawling. Both games have been delayed several times. And then you have Spellborn. The comparing is almost odd. Two big hype gorillaz with hordes of fans and the puny arty game from europe in between. It indeed looks suspicious that they always seem to push the date back, when the release day comes closer. But, they also announce that they found publishers and such, so they seem to grow everytime, where the gorilla titles always have worldwide partners built-in anyway.

Its apparently true, people stick to heavy advertisement of even scapped features and extolments of how great and über-next-gen their game is, especially when there is the US label sticking somewhere (IP or company). If a game ramps up, without that much false promises and vapour features, like TCOS, it has to make its way first. People = Dumb Sheep. Devs learn: lie, manipulate, hype, announce vapour features. People gonna buy that.

To the OP: too bad games are being delayed.  If only we can play WAR and TCoS and AoC now.  If only.  Now that we have to accept the fact, and the likelihood that delays will keep coming, what about one of the existing games as a stop gap measure.  Or you do it like me, find a life elsewhere till the good game comes.

Take a corollary.  You have a date with June the fair lady and she promised to meet you on 1st June.  Suddenly yesterday she called explaining that she has to do XYZ in June and postpone the date to July.  What do you do?  Maybe you date May the neighbor, or maybe you go watch NBA till July and hope June is ready then.

This game promises some of the same combat mechanics Hellgate did but they didn't exactly deliver. The video's I've seen look pretty good, but when it comes to aim based combat server lag and bugs tend to ruin it. Granted Hellgate has a homing style just like Tabula Rasa, but if you're smart you see a trend there. There hasn't been an aimed based combat game that has had much level of success yet, other than maybe Planetside but its a pure shooter. The fact that they just now secured a US publisher seems sketchy to me, but eh what do I know.

while it is certainly possible that they are not ready at all or that they have borked something, it seems highly unlikely to me.  more likely, is that the us pub's letter of intent included a period of time for them to examine the game more fully and for tcos to clean up any loose ends.

as for the difficulty in finding a us pub: the game appears different enough from anything out there that they and any pub are going to be taking a significant risk with this game.  and dont forget the walmart of mmo's is currently defining the genre and will for some time to come.

Hype for this game has dropped significantly.

The delays have hurt interest.

The flip flop to use heavy instancing from the original plans has chased many potential players away.

But the most significant reason for lack of interest is that the developers do a piss poor job of communicating with the players who do show an interest in this game. It's amazing that none of them post on this site, in this forum, and they rarely respond on the official forums.

If they can release a good game and deliver on their promises, then the lack of hype wont matter.  Start of with a small group of dedicated players and let the game build from there.  EVE is a very good example.

To be honest though, the instancing and "quest based" design do worry me.  But, Im willing to wait for more info before drawing any conclusions there.