Hello, i've been playing video games for 27 years (i'm currently on my 37s).
As i work in the software industry too (i'm an IT engineer), i've noticed posts on this forum that are truly sincere, but truly mistaken too, about The Division.
Ubisoft has a long experience of the "better done than perfect" development method. I may be censored because i say it so abruptly, but it's a truth.
And Ubisoft has also a long experience of short term thinking, with the "we are creatives" as an excuse.
And is not experienced in "persistent massively online entertainment", as some other companies, as Blizzard (which is in my opinion the highest reference, so far). So it has to be humble.
We've seen it with Assassin's Creed Unity. The game was magnificent, with a strong story, strong actors, but crippled by flaws and bugs.
All the multiplayer mechanics were broken, from the beginning. Even the solo fights were laggy (i just have a 400 mbs fiber connection with 2-5 ms latency), some features were aborted (the historical side-story missions).
And more important, the basic features, as joining, leaving, managing a party, were utterly borked.
The result is that today, nobody wants to play the game, and it's not even re-playable, even though the solo campaign was enjoyable.
And Ubisoft has declared itself that Assassin's Creed Syndicate sales suffered from the bad reputation Unity has done to the franchise.
Having played Syndicate some hours, even if solo-only, the game suffered from the same bugs that the Assassin's Creed franchise (black screens on some missions, for example). Ubisoft didn't correct its mistakes.
Far Cry 4 was less buggy, but had some recurrent flaws too, and almost zero story. It was a "multiplayer game made solo", with Ubisoft's philosophy.
All that said, the recurring problems with The Division were fairly predictable. It's the way Ubisoft works, all along.
But in the world of "persistent massively online entertainment", it just doesn't cut it !
In The Division, the multiplayer is almost as borked as in Assassin's Creed Unity.
The matchmaking feature is simplist, the loading times are very long and sometimes unnecessary.
You get kicked from your group before you finish your loading.
You sometimes are not teleported on the mission when you join a party, wasting the party's gaming time, and when you are kicked because of long loading times, once you've finished to load the mission, you've got to reload your safe house one more.
Frequenty, if you manage to join a party, the mission can't and won't start, so you have to restart the whole process.
(i've installed The Division on a rocking fast SSD, by the way).
So we have a game which is, on the end game, not enjoyable as much as it should be, and which is buggy all along.
Players who enjoy the glitches are simply trying to improve their experience in the game.
What sounds like an insult is Ubisoft talking about "punishments for glitchers", when playing the actual game is a mix between pleasure (the game is addictive ...) and punishment (...but riddled with bugs).
Ubisoft SHOULD learn lessons from the persistent "massively online entertainment" industry's errors and try to not make them again.
If you take "Diablo 3" (and The Division has all the mechanics of a diablo-like game, despite the fps point of view), the launch was catastrophic, because of bugs, because of lack of mechanics, because of lack of end game content, etc.
And Blizzard suffered considerably from this launch, some key roles were simply fired (Jay Wilson at least).
Blizzard learned much from its errors, and now, Diablo 3 is a really refined and truly enjoyable product, although it never will have the success it would had if the launch wasn't so clumsy.
Ubisoft must do the same Blizzard did : stop adding new content, and try to improve what is already in the game.
Develop wise, secure, and not fast as you do.
Improve the basic multiplayer management.
Reduce loading times.
And take the time to test updates, to have a real f*cking QA (quality assurance) process !!!
Threatening players with punishments, as long as there's one glitch per day, is just plain stupid.
Players will always find the fastest way to obtain what they want, it's the developer's responsibility to ensure there's no glitches.
And furthermore, you CANNOT ask for players to invest hundreds of their gaming hours if the game is not of the highest quality.
Why should i play 100 hours on The Division, when i can play 20 hours with 5 different games, more diverse ?!
It only works when the gameplay is good, the game mechanics are smart, and the bugs are almost inexistent.
The glitchers are glitching because they know that at this particular moment, they won't invest these 100 hours you ask.
They want to make the smartest use of their gaming time (they've paid it), for the short time they will play the game (and as it will be short, they don't care about being banned)
In order to make persistent world like The Division work durably (and it's a persistent world), you must as much do quality as quantity.
I don't care if your game is the size of Alaska, if your game is as empty and annoying as Alaska.
The game is a persistent world, you want to sell extensions, so make the things right.
You have budget (it's a AAA game), stop wasting time and human resources correcting the consequences of your work, begin to attack the root problem, your work !
Stop being autists trapped in your own world, play games your concurrents in the industry make, to see what works and what doesn't work !
PS : sorry for my english, it's not my native language =)
PS 2 : i forgot to link the Forbes post, it's http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertco.../#1fb4180522e2
If Ubi really wants to save this Trademark they would have to do a "Realm Reborn" like FF 14. But they wont because they dont care. Heck i was banned for critizing the patches against the exploits that didnt work. even got infractions. they tried something it didnt work but made ton of money. and they dont have to refund. they could close their eyes and ears and sing LALALALALA cant hear you LALALALALA and nobody could do something.
I agree wholeheartedly with what you had said. Dont blame players for finding mistakes that you have made.
This is what I have to say about the entire thing :
1) Basic flaws in gameplay mechanics - Normal mode (Hard mode) for incursions effectively tells you nothing about how a strategy should work out in the challenge mode, apart form enemy spawns, un-natural pool size of health, the whole thing is a headless chicken which the most hardcore are only going to do. On top of that its boredom is another big reason why people have glitched the entire thing.
I was really surprised that the Incursions were soo poorly designed, considering both Warren Gate, Russian consulate, Times Square power relay and General assembly are such tense firefights.
2) Bugs - Getting locked out of a game is horrible, getting your character deleted is even worse. This is unacceptable and should not ever exist in the first place.
At the end season passes will not be bought, people would opt for a wait and watch policy with the game than plunk their money down on everything that comes rightaway.
Your loss Ubisoft!! Once again...
Of course, i can.Originally Posted by Ryou_Matsuo Go to original post
I've bought with my money Assassin's Creed Unity, i've bought with my money The Division.
If things aren't fixed, i will not make the mistake thrice.
It's the essence of capitalism ;-)
Exellent post, i enjoyed it, and it speks volumes.
I`m 34, and been playing since the late 80s, i have not once exploited or hacked in any game, but whit The Division, i used the Falcon Lost exploit, becouse that was about the worst update i have ever seen in a game, as you said, i whould rather have them added a few more Challanging missions, and used the reminder to fix all the bugs and exploits, and re-think the loot crafting etc mechanics in the game.
And i loled some when you had that "becouse it`s addictive" in there, becouse im soon rounding 300 hours, and this is about the most buggy and terrible (technicly) game i have ever had the missfortune of playing, but i still do, heck, i even have the damn DLC pack, and im sure i can get close too 400 if not more before i come to my senses, or any game i am curious about releases and i whould quit this, never to buy a Ubisoft game again (i only ever got FC 3 of Ubi, becouse i tried AC on my brothers PS, and i tought it was terrible)
And im quite tolerable of bugs, i have done beta and alpha testing for many years, for many games, and i somehwat understand what goes into a game, and how it all works, so bugs im fine whit, but what we have been serveed here, makes me cringe every time i have to reload to one of my 3 level 30 characters, becouse im sure a error whould pop up, or a never ending loading screen comes so i have to ALT + F4 the game, and what for the slow loading again. (and i got a rather quick SSD as well)
But good post, very well written.
Completely agree with you OP. This is exactly what is wrong and exactly what is needed.
Right. Aside from the fact that at least half of it is true, proven and searchable...which in itself that does not speak highly of your opinion....you also completely and utterly fail to back it up with anything substantial.Originally Posted by Scorpiodisc Go to original post
Everything? That's pretty idiotic....Originally Posted by Scorpiodisc Go to original post
Should have been pretty obvious that I was being facetious. I was joking about the BS credentials presented by the OP.Originally Posted by Ezilyamuz3d Go to original post
Just state your opinion like everyone else. Saying you work in IT on a video game forum is cliché AF. 99% of the people that claim to work in IT on video game forums are full of it.
They feel the need to say that they work in IT, to add some faux importance to their opinion.
All it does to me is cause meand then just ignore whatever proceeds that BS.
I almost fell for Ubisoft's hype. Almost. Held off for a few weeks, and am I glad I did. I keep coming back here to see if the game is getting better, and I find out it's quite the opposite. They're managing to screw it up even worse post-launch. Doesn't exactly bode well for the future of the game.