EPIC detached from the Unreal community?

[JaFO]

The games have become more complicated as well ... so that IMHO is another reason why Epic hasn't released as many bonuspacks for UT2kx compared to UT'99.
Besides at least one of the UT'99 bonuspacks was made by DE (Hall of giants & exploding ammo mutator ?).

As for Dice/EA vs Epic/Atari. I think the real problem is that EA always had control over everything done/released by DICE since they got together, while Epic managed to maintain control. Then again ... Epic was big enough to be able to do that, while DICE was a mere bump on the road for EA. As a result I find it not that suprising that EA's products tend to lack a real heart for the communities whether it is BF-series or The Sims.

 

[-AEnubis-]

Really, the people who don't think Epic listens to the community are the people who see the community as the "majority" of people when they whine about something in particular. I've seen (in these forums) a lot of good ideas, the more intelligent and well thought out ones, get instated to game.

...and if you really wanna know more about why we don't hear directly from Epic guys much (although a lot of that is lost in forum trimming), do a search by user, for posts by them at INA. If CliffyB every posted anything in a thread, it became 8 pages long minimum, and he got quoted, and asked 30 questions, some repeats, all thinking they were gonna get "a reply directly from Cliffy." The funny thing was, most of the time the answer was implied by the statement, they just push to hear it spelled out for them, because they are simple. Or you get 8 million opinons of various garbage... bash here, kissass there... it's pretty rediculous.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

Plus every time they make a statement or an announcement they get flamed out the butt for it. I can't believe that there are so many whiners and flamers remaining in this community.

 

[Wowbagger]

Plus every time they make a statement or an announcement they get flamed out the butt for it. I can't believe that there are so many whiners and flamers remaining in this community.

Yes there are some that are VERY vocal but they ARE in minority and letting them win by saying what you just did is just wrong.

WE make the community.
If we let them behave like that we get the community we deserve.

And for the official forums it looks like the admins are pretty strict and if theyre not im sure Epic could solve that too

 

[Sir_Brizz]

Yes there are some that are VERY vocal but they ARE in minority and letting them win by saying what you just did is just wrong.

WE make the community.
If we let them behave like that we get the community we deserve.

And for the official forums it looks like the admins are pretty strict and if theyre not im sure Epic could solve that too

The problem is, looking at the INA forums that would not appear to be the case. I realize that the people who are vocal are more than likely a minority of the playerbase for Unreal, however they are the only group that seems to be making any noise.

I'm not saying let the flamers win, I'm saying that if the community response to a coporation making a statement is general flaming and whining, then what is the point of making those announcements? Especially on a public forum where anyone can wrap their "moron-tentacles" around you?

IMO, Epic is playing it smart. They are releasing enough information to keep people drooling at every chance they get, but they are not releaseing so much information that people have a chance to whine and complain about the game already (and you can see by several of the threads even here on BU that even with the miniscule amount of information they have released, people still flame and whine).

When Epic first released Unreal they were VERY community focused. The Epic MegaBoards were a pretty hopping place for several months before Unreal was released all the way until the then monikered Epic FlameBoards were taken offline. I remember posting there for a long time trying to defend Epic, but it doesn't reallydo any good for you or the company if all people are going to do is flame, which, IMO, is the main reason that Epic hasn't hosted Message Boards on their own until very recently. The point is that if Epic were to go off what they perceived from their official forums, it would seem that alot of people buy their games to whine and complain and flame about them, not to play them. I know that isn't hardly true, but what's the point of going to the community for every little thing when that particular sector of the community doesn't really want it?

 

[-AEnubis-]

Indeed. Actually, when I realized how most discussion there was handled, I made an account, not to plead to Epic, and post my ideas, but simply try to defend, and interpret theirs. Basically, they'd make a statement, people would reply with tons of idiocy, and I'd try to refute it, and tell them why they were idiots (without useing the word of course). I've gotten people to get themselves so many warning points there... it's great fun. I'll prolly go on another posting spree when more info, or a demo is released as well. Been pretty quiet lately though. That and I changed my email, and now can't access the boards...

 

[Bullet10k]

Oh, they read all of them.

Yea I know but what I meant was that they have accounts there so they could actually POST on a thread like this.

 

[hal]

Quite a few of them have accounts here too and can post should the mood strike them.

 

[edhe]

I personally would like to see them post in the ideas threads to say 'that's a nice idea that is'.

 

[Selerox]

Speak.

I personally would like to see them post in the ideas threads to say 'that's a nice idea that is'.

Agreed. Anything that at least proves to the community that the devs are reading what people think. It'll make people far more confident in the dev team.

 

[JaFO]

I personally would like to see them post in the ideas threads to say 'that's a nice idea that is'.

I wouldn't want to see them do that.
Why ?
Because a lot of people would interpret that as something they would add to the game.
So when the game is released and the 'nice idea' isn't promised they'd start to whine about how Epic had broken promises which they didn't even make in the first place.

Nope. I'm glad that Epic doesn't announce anything except through their official press-releases.
I find that a lot of the previews have a way of making people believe that Epic is doing a lot of stuff that they probably aren't even going to do for real.

Remember when one of the ideas for UT2kx was that seemed to imply that they'd have recharge-stations as in Unreal 2 ???
I rest my case.

 

[-AEnubis-]

Yeah, also, you gotta think about people wanting credit for their ideas...

Most times, even if they do think that, they are really good about applying an "idea" in a way that isn't too exagerated, or steep. Most people's ideas, even if in the right direction, are too drastic to be balanced anyways, so they have to be taken with a grain of salt.

 

[Steyr]

The way Epic's karma still stands after UT2003, they're coming back as dung beetles in their next lives

No, even worse, they'll work for EA! Muahahaha!

 

[edhe]

So when the game is released and the 'nice idea' isn't promised they'd start to whine about how Epic had broken promises which they didn't even make in the first place..

So we have to fear living in a world where stupid small-minded people whine about something they wanted in the game and it isn't? What's new about that? How about they don't promise, then nobody can say they have promised. And if people don't understand that, they get their IPs banned for being idiots.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

The demo should be out in about 2 more weeks.

Where's the promise? Yet this is the biggest joke about Mark Rein today.

 

[edhe]

Thankfully it became a huge joke, and not a huge whine.

Classic threads abound.

 

[Wowbagger]

Aw cmon so thats a reason NOT to have the PR dude setting aside some time for the community?
Im sure M. Rein is way thougher than that If not he can always have a look at his bankaccount

One thing that is really irritating is that people when i made this thread seems to assume that all 60 peeps at Epic should stop what theyre doing and start reading all the forums.
They have a PR guy (im pretty sure about that) its just a matter of priorities.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

Thankfully it became a huge joke, and not a huge whine.

Classic threads abound.

At the time it WAS a huge whine. It only subsided months after the retail game was released.

If an Epic PR guy popped in this forum and started saying stuff l;ike "That's a great idea!" etc, it would become yet ANOTHER big whine until months after the retail game is released. It's better to release information on your own schedule rather than just complementing people for theirs. It's not a matter of the PR people not being around, it's just that they don't make statements that could confuse their position on....well...anything.

 

[Wowbagger]

Yea youre correct there they have to be careful with what they say (and some needs to be kept secret) but the closer we get to the release date the more "set in stone features there will be. (im sure theres some already at this stage)

And commenting or discussing "some" of them should not be a problem, sure theres always someone who will be angry because weaponX got thrown out but thats to be expected.
When that guy starts to abuse the devs, thats when the forum moderators should kick in. Warning, and if that doesnt work, ban.

I can see that some will never agree with me and i feel like im going in circles here so let me end this with some facts,

Fact, Epic wants our input.

Fact, It IS possible to have a working discussion between the devs and the community. ( see Anet and all the fansites as proof )

Edit: Theres been alot of focus on the devs posting in forums issue but my initial post had more suggestions than that.

 

[fuegerstef]

The demo should be out in about 2 more weeks.

Where's the promise? Yet this is the biggest joke about Mark Rein today.

The funny thing is that Mark has said something like "Not before another two weeks" and not "IN two weeks". Ther former could mean 2 months, 2 years if you wanna stretch the statement to it's limits.
But the genral stupidity of some forumers made the rumors come up, that the demo will be out IN two weeks.


Some time later:

There was this chat where even Mark Rein said that the UT2004 demo will be out IN two weeks, making fun himself... ...and the demo for that game WAS out after two weeks.