Breadman86
10-06-2004, 01:44 PM
I love the Tribes series. It's my favorite series of all time (including the past Earthsiege/Starsiege games). Tribes: Vengeance is a great game as well. A rabid community with an overall high intellect (though low tolerance) has helped keep this masterpiece of a series alive, but I fear the complete failure of this series as a whole due the extraordinary incompetance of its publisher.
A lack of media attention will plague our T:V servers with few players, just like the past two games. I've seen few adds and big previews in most major magazines, when past Tribes games have used 10-page foldouts for adds. The last cover Tribes had was over a year ago before T:V even began to take shape. On top of that, the only previews in a magazine I've read have been no more than half a page (exception being the cover issue) of playtesting from idiots that don't know a grenade from a mine.
The online advertising has been week as well. I'll admit I've seen a good many previews from high rated sites, and big-name downloads on services like Fileplanet. Still, I've seen very very very few ads for the game online. It's just plain week publicity.
On top of that the publisher created a horrid box cover. The pre-order box had the wrong screenshot from a previous game on th eback even! I'm staring at the freakin box right now! Incompetancy and a lack of caring for the series is the only explanation.
What else could they do wrong? CD sleeves, that's what. It's lame, it's cheap, and it's as if this is a low-budget title that no one cares about. The last CD sleeve I got was years ago and you know what, I don't even know what tha game is. I'm staring at my stack of game CDs/cases and I don't see crap there. Must not have been a very special game!
No DVD edition is another complaint, though a mild one seeing as how such high profile games as Doom3 and Far Cry didn't have DVD editions. I guess they figured those games could sell themselves. I'm sorry but I don't think Tribes: Vengeance can. Its lackluster performance in the second rendition of the series scarred the series as a whole and its gonna affect this game whether you like it or not.
Tribes: Vengeance is a great great game. I love it. But unless a miracle happens, I would expect this to be the last box we ever receive with the name "Tribes" on it. I'm being negative and I hope I'm wrong. I respect every dev at Irrational and think they did an awesome job. It's the publishers problem, and after this mess, all I can say is that they are completely ignorant to what quality actually is.
Tell me I'm wrong.
EDIT: It's true everything I said does have a negative effect on the game but yes, it's also true that just because of all this the game won't fail. We still have hope. We just have to get this game out to people in the same way original CS sucked in so many players.
If vivendi isn't gonna support the game themselves, then hopefuly the community and possibly devs themselves will truely make this game hold up against the best of them.
What can be done? Tell your friends, invite people over to play, every chance you get mention the game other places, support the game with maps/mods etc, and make this relatively small community flex its chest to the point where we look just as big as Half-Life. Likely? No, but it is possible and we can do it.
----------------
Cliffs:
- No DVD edition
- CD sleeves
- Screenshots from a different game on the box
- Horrid cover art
- Lack of magazine advertisments
- Lack of internet advertisements
- Short, lackluster previews in magazines and online
- Failure of the previous game
- Patch the day before the release
Conclusion: Destined to fail, unless the community does somethinga bout it.
A lack of media attention will plague our T:V servers with few players, just like the past two games. I've seen few adds and big previews in most major magazines, when past Tribes games have used 10-page foldouts for adds. The last cover Tribes had was over a year ago before T:V even began to take shape. On top of that, the only previews in a magazine I've read have been no more than half a page (exception being the cover issue) of playtesting from idiots that don't know a grenade from a mine.
The online advertising has been week as well. I'll admit I've seen a good many previews from high rated sites, and big-name downloads on services like Fileplanet. Still, I've seen very very very few ads for the game online. It's just plain week publicity.
On top of that the publisher created a horrid box cover. The pre-order box had the wrong screenshot from a previous game on th eback even! I'm staring at the freakin box right now! Incompetancy and a lack of caring for the series is the only explanation.
What else could they do wrong? CD sleeves, that's what. It's lame, it's cheap, and it's as if this is a low-budget title that no one cares about. The last CD sleeve I got was years ago and you know what, I don't even know what tha game is. I'm staring at my stack of game CDs/cases and I don't see crap there. Must not have been a very special game!
No DVD edition is another complaint, though a mild one seeing as how such high profile games as Doom3 and Far Cry didn't have DVD editions. I guess they figured those games could sell themselves. I'm sorry but I don't think Tribes: Vengeance can. Its lackluster performance in the second rendition of the series scarred the series as a whole and its gonna affect this game whether you like it or not.
Tribes: Vengeance is a great great game. I love it. But unless a miracle happens, I would expect this to be the last box we ever receive with the name "Tribes" on it. I'm being negative and I hope I'm wrong. I respect every dev at Irrational and think they did an awesome job. It's the publishers problem, and after this mess, all I can say is that they are completely ignorant to what quality actually is.
Tell me I'm wrong.
EDIT: It's true everything I said does have a negative effect on the game but yes, it's also true that just because of all this the game won't fail. We still have hope. We just have to get this game out to people in the same way original CS sucked in so many players.
If vivendi isn't gonna support the game themselves, then hopefuly the community and possibly devs themselves will truely make this game hold up against the best of them.
What can be done? Tell your friends, invite people over to play, every chance you get mention the game other places, support the game with maps/mods etc, and make this relatively small community flex its chest to the point where we look just as big as Half-Life. Likely? No, but it is possible and we can do it.
----------------
Cliffs:
- No DVD edition
- CD sleeves
- Screenshots from a different game on the box
- Horrid cover art
- Lack of magazine advertisments
- Lack of internet advertisements
- Short, lackluster previews in magazines and online
- Failure of the previous game
- Patch the day before the release
Conclusion: Destined to fail, unless the community does somethinga bout it.