Just a few numbers to contemplate here.
Post-Launch numbers from November 30 through today (December 1) yield 49%. Imagine if the there wasn’t a pre-launch period where people left positive ratings?
As it is, we went from 78% overall down to 72% currently (and dropping).
Have a good day everyone!
Okay. So?
IMO the performance from the CBT and OBT progressively got worse. Some say the servers are struggling, others blame Tencent and the “cosmetic” shop making the macro-sales a priority. History lessons point out that very few 40k video games do well. Steam is rampant with entitled trolls who feel their opinions are important, ignore them. I never experienced the VT series or their troubles, although one would think the past lessons would give them some experience in their shortcomings. The artist and programmers did a great job. Most of these problems are a management issue reassigning monetary priorities for a P2P game instead of functionality and performance. It will get better but its going to be a serious niche crowd that’s left to purge the heretics.
I’ve seen this with big releases lately, Victoria 3 for instance was Mostly Positive initially and is now mixed.
Also of note presently, most of the reviews are still from the pre-order beta. Partly this indicates that fans who are predisposed to positive reviews buy games earlier, but the slow influx of additional reviews also indicates that the pre-order beta may have shifted most of the sales volume to the pre-order.
It seems to me that the pre-order beta state of the game was generally better than the release version (even putting aside the shop). It seems like performance got WORSE for many people, stability has dropped, and many of the gameplay fixes and balance efforts have ended up with glitches or other unintended consequences that have made things worse.
There have a been some positives with the release version: The detailed weapon stats are cool and dodging was un-nerfed. But when you factor in that many hoped for “full game features” like the other 75% of the crafting system, the ability to play solo/private lobbies, choose your own maps, remaining weapons featured in gameplay videos, etc. was all not going to happen on release… AND… combine this is the handling of the cosmetic MTX shop it’s pretty clear people’s expectations we’re NOT (edit) being met very well at all.
Still falling… 44%
Wake up Fatshark!
It’s close to midnight, I’m pretty sure they’re all asleep now.
What do you expect, though? I mean honestly? Development takes time. It can be a few days before the next patch drops (although to be fair we got a new hotfix every day so far).
As has always been. The casual crowd never sticks around either way. Question is only do they depart 2 hours or 20 hours into game time.
Wish posts like this would just get nuked off the forum, it doesn’t add anything, it doesn’t provide any feedback. It’s just here to spread negativity and fuel the hate train because people enjoy dogpiling on companies I guess.
Communication. An apology. A plan for corrective action.
This was incredibly predictable. This is Fatsharks fault. This is anti-consumer. I know many gamers these days have grown up with predatory practices but it’s not inevitable. They could fix this if they wanted to.
The reason this is happening is because they have prioritized milking microtransactions over delivering on their promises and producing a quality product. Someone high up is killing this company for short term growth. They don’t care because they can easily flit to the next project but Fatshark as a company will be destroyed. I don’t want to see that.
I am not an overly negative person. If you look at my feedback during the beta tests I generally made an effort to be charitable. But there is a line. Negativity is a necessary response to bad practices. If you are positive about everything these companies will take advantage of you and laugh all the way to the bank. The review score is completely deserved. Negativity is necessary.
Yes, we must censor the opinions of people, that is the answer: as if that’s ever worked so well. Especially towards those who’ve been burned by a highly anticipated title. Yes that’s what we need right now. A controversy of censorship during a period where an enormous amount of people are dissatisfied with Fatshark’s performance in regards to Darktide and looking for further grievances to humiliate the developer; all of which, by the way, are completely of Fatshark’s making and not of ours.
Taking people on for a ride by making vague promises of features, improving performance, all to seal pre-order sells. They could have delayed instead of advancing forward with this unrealistic release window. They could have not slapped us in the face by showcasing where their priorities are at by implementing a cash shop with mtx on day one. Need I remind you how unfair that is towards the people who’ve been defending this company?
The original author does raise a fantastic point of your average consumer not being pleased with state of game. Most of our legitimate criticisms during pre-“beta” (I am referring to steam reviews) were drowned down by all the positivity. Or in some cases, humiliated for daring to thumbs down a game - I am referring to that damnable ubiquitous jester award.
I’m an oddball, then.
The day after launch, I changed my negative rating to positive. In beta, I crashed at least twice an hour. In live, I’ve had one crash in… an embarrassingly high number of hours. The game has stabilized for me.
I still want more classes, crafting and a hard look at psyker buffs. But DT is darn good right now.
The anti-consumer tagline is so overused, it makes me roll my eyes nowadays and I’m usually all for “fair consumerism”.
I’m sorry, but this whole “predatory practices” means just that people are too weak-willed to even resist a cash shop, which is not even that tempting here or baked into the game. You can buy two alternative sets for your current character, you can also have a number of different ones unlocked or bought with ingame currency.
Wow. Such predatory. Much meanie weenie Fatshark. Burn them at the stake!!1
I’m sorry, but are you serious? How are you or any of the others going to survive in this world if a simple interface with a bunch of pixels is giving you such a hard time already?
There is exactly one singular “anti-consumer” thing here and that is the technical issues upon release. Even then, not that malicious. They had their own sticky thread up acknowledging the issue beforehand, both here in the forums and in the Steam forums. It was not a big secret or anything. They did not hide any of these issues or even attempt deceiving people about them. Instead they allowed everyone to take an early look and people were able to get refunds - Having played the game up and down for over 100 hours (!). How is that anti-consumer?
They did not pull an Electronics Arts. They did not pull an Ubisoft. They did not pull an Activision Blizzard. It is, unironically, the most pro-consumer thing from a dev I have seen in a while:
A) They showcased you the goods.
B) They allowed you to test the goods to your heart’s content.
C) They allowed you to return the goods if unsatisfied.
D) They said upfront what the goods were and what content they would include.
E) They delivered exactly the goods they said they were going to.
F) They said what issues are currently related to the goods and that they work on it, can’t promise more.
I don’t see any Malice, so putting them into that anti-consumerist box when the game didn’t even release full price, either, is incredibly dishonest in my mind.
They’re not anti-consumer. They are a bit ditzy and unorganized for messing up the release. But they’re not anti-consumer. Not in the least. Not when we’re talking about the backdrop of an industry that is used to intentional malpractice, deception and falsified statements as well as trailers.
I agree. This cash shop is in no way ‘predatory.’ It’s just a few cosmetics. Of course, it’s the internet, and every issue ends up as a war crime to some people.
If people think this shop is ‘predatory,’ what word do they use for Diablo Immortal? ‘Apocalyptic?’
Idk are people too weak willed to resist manipulative advertising, addictive drugs and gambling. Are these not predatory practices? The system is designed to encourage impulsive, poorly considered purchases.
D and E are incorrect. They did not deliver what they promised. Neither explicitly or implicitly.
Regarding A, some of the things they showcased are not in the game.
The game is incomplete and Hedge is denying that which is absurd.
The game still has consistent crashes and performance issues.
A complete product is usually required to be feature complete and reasonably reliable.
Darktide is neither of these things.
Critique the game all you want but these doomsayer posts are just toxic and don’t help further anyone’s point
Yes, yes they are. That is exactly what I’m thinking.
People have gotten (well, have been groomed to be) ever softer, weaker and unable to cope with anything in a healthy manner.
Drifting shortly off into the real world: We’re about to experience real end game. There will be more chaos and war these coming years than we’ve had in the last 70 or so years. I have absolutely no idea how these people want to be able to handle any of that, when they can’t even deal with tiny temptations in day to day life.
I partially disagree.
D and E are right. Look at the store page. Every single selling point has been met:
High Octane Hybrid Combat:
Check. Melee and Ranged combat is in the game and functional.
Die Alone Or Suffer Together:
Check. Game encourages teamplay and is hardly manageable alone.
Your Character. Your Playstyle:
Check. You can customize your character and choose different playstyles just as advertized.
Tertium - A Hive City On The Brink Of Collapse:
Check. The advertized backdrop is provided and well presented.
As for point A, true what picture and video material is concerned. But trailer content never makes it 100% into release. You do probably mean the teased weapons, though. I’m sure they were meant to be done, but I can’t deny that it was strategically not sound to tease some of the most exciting gear and then have it not ready at launch. You win this point.
Everything else was teased as “We will try to get it done til launch” and “We’re working on it”. Never was there a statement saying “Full Crafting on Release” or such. Unless of course such statements were made in Discord, in which case - Disclaimer: I’m not on Fatshark’s Discord. So I admit I might not have the full picture. I saw the forum posts here for the most part and the store page.
Well, if you go by the store page he is actually right, it’s feature complete by the features they mentioned on that store page.
Again, I don’t know if any other promises were made elsewhere - Which if they were, not good. But going by the Promo Material out there, they did not lie.
As for the crashes and performance issues - Yes, you are correct. The currently unreliable nature of the Software can’t be denied and that’s something I’m not going to contest.
I disagree.
#1) I’m frustrated by the state of things, and venting in a post like this and hearing from others in the community that they feel the same brings some comfort. Those of us who are frustrated are not alone (heck there’s a lot of us).
#2) I framed the data in this post specifically because I think it’s important. What if the 48% rating was all a prospective buyer saw, instead of the inflated rating from the pre-order reviews? Intentional or not, the pre-order reviews were a stroke of genius to pad the game’s review score and look good on launch. Potential buyers should know the real story and peoples overall opinion on the released product.
#3) This topic was written to be inflammatory. Being inflammatory, it drivers engagement and conversation, as we’re having now. Whether the devs care or not to listen is beside the point. We, as in the community, can discuss snd debate and work to come to a common understanding of our differing perspectives. Something the entire world needs to be doing more of. Talking and engaging respectfully with those you disagree with and trying to find common ground.
#4) There is a lot to love about DARKTIDE and it’s potential. I hope it gets where I want to it be. But DARKTIDE is also a commercial product and it is not immune to criticism or to having a light shined on its faults. Products and companies don’t get “better” in terms of customer satisfaction if everyone were to just accept things as they are and not express displeasure. If you go to a restaurant and get a rotten piece of food served to you, do you send it back or just swollow it down?
#5) Game development isn’t easy. But if developers can’t handle the (entirely predictable) criticism then they aren’t going to improve and they are hurting their brand. It’s also entirely possible that the devs are fully aware of all of these issues AND JUST DONT CARE because they are making the financial gains they want. Either way, using the “protection” of the developers feelings as a shield to deflect criticism doesn’t help anything. In fact, airing these concerns might actually help empower people at the company to speak up if they don’t agree with the direction of the game. Something to think about.
#6) Predatory marketing practices in many different arenas have been found to be exploitive and manipulative. I’m glad that many of you have the fortitude to resist (or the financial resources to not be bothered by) the way the MTXs are marketed - but many people do not. Practices similar to this have been determined to be illegal or deemed as gambling in some countries. I’m not saying this is definitively the case here with DARKTIDE, but it has parallels and it’s a shitty trend. It IS anti-consumer because the “overage” your paying by buying their intermediate currency is being held by the company as if they were a bank. Except you aren’t allowed to draw the money back out except by buying their product. It’s crazy that this even has to be explained.
There is nothing to argue over here though, you just made a loose observation of the steam ratings and pointed out that it went down 6 points since November 30th. There is no topic here it’s just not productive. It would be a lot better to formulate your thoughts and point out the systems that you disagree with. This topic is just doomsaying, that’s all
I get your frustration I’m also unhappy about the state of a few things (just check some of my posts and you can see which ones) but these kind of posts just muddy the water and make people like me lose faith in the arguments made on the forum
Nah it’s just that if you’ve spent a single day functioning as an adult the tone of posts like this are tedious AF
With all due respect, If a topic is of no interest to you, ignore it, and move on. This is precisely what a “functioning adult” will do. I don’t read every single topic I see on here.
As I’ve mentioned earlier, the author raised a great point about pre-“beta” reviews inflating the score prior to release. It’s the fundamentals of capitalizing on your community’s support to secure a positive reception irregardless of the quality of said product. This is the fallacy of hype driven sales based neither on reality nor on merits of product; but by the devotion people have towards the company.