Publishers that suck
by Erik Madison · in General Discussion · 09/29/2004 (12:10 pm) · 15 replies
This being the eleventy-hundredth time this has happened, I need to vent.
I don't care about your publishing company, I don't care which games you've chosen to fund. I care only about the games I buy. So why the hell does every install attempt to look like this? C:/Program Files/Activision/Some subsidiary of Activision/Company that plans to buy Activision/CoolGame
That makes it so difficult to maintain order on my HDD. When its time to uninstall your game, and it won't complete due to my save files which requires manually finishing it, I can never find the right dir.
And to the marketers of said games. F**k flash, shockwave, and whatever else crap you can shove into your webpage. When I hear of a new game, of course I search for the homesite looking for screenshots, overviews etc. I'm really glad you found a 15 year old who only charged $15000 for the killer flash intro, but hey. It _doesn't_ frigging work when the net or your site is congested. That 'skip intro' button is nice, but that too rarely works. Save your marketing crap for the press, I just want to see what you're offering. If your site loads slow, your game probably does to. Bye bye.
I don't care about your publishing company, I don't care which games you've chosen to fund. I care only about the games I buy. So why the hell does every install attempt to look like this? C:/Program Files/Activision/Some subsidiary of Activision/Company that plans to buy Activision/CoolGame
That makes it so difficult to maintain order on my HDD. When its time to uninstall your game, and it won't complete due to my save files which requires manually finishing it, I can never find the right dir.
And to the marketers of said games. F**k flash, shockwave, and whatever else crap you can shove into your webpage. When I hear of a new game, of course I search for the homesite looking for screenshots, overviews etc. I'm really glad you found a 15 year old who only charged $15000 for the killer flash intro, but hey. It _doesn't_ frigging work when the net or your site is congested. That 'skip intro' button is nice, but that too rarely works. Save your marketing crap for the press, I just want to see what you're offering. If your site loads slow, your game probably does to. Bye bye.
About the author
#2
09/29/2004 (12:20 pm)
Maybe it's time to get ADSL or cable.
#3
09/29/2004 (12:28 pm)
I have cable, and its damn good. I get 3-6 Mbps. And still many of those flash sites take forever to load. I realize its because the game is new, and umpteen billion are trying to view the same site, which is exactly why they need to tone down the flashy crap. Ever wonder why Google became number one? 
#4
09/29/2004 (12:34 pm)
A man after my own heart!
#5
09/29/2004 (12:37 pm)
You can change where the games are installed to...I put most of my games directly under c:\, but c:\games\ would work too.
#6
Re Flash sites that take too long, can you show some examples? Cause I've never been to a game site where the flash takes too long to load... usaully, if there's an intro, I don't mind waiting a while to see it, cause it might be good... but you can tell if it's going to be crap usually and just skip it. Personally, I don't think it's a good idea to have intros... you should just go right to the main menu and, if anything, have something playing in the background.... like a DVD movie menu.
09/29/2004 (1:08 pm)
Yeah, just put it in a different directory, you have that option during installation. They're only providing you with a default to keep everything organized.Re Flash sites that take too long, can you show some examples? Cause I've never been to a game site where the flash takes too long to load... usaully, if there's an intro, I don't mind waiting a while to see it, cause it might be good... but you can tell if it's going to be crap usually and just skip it. Personally, I don't think it's a good idea to have intros... you should just go right to the main menu and, if anything, have something playing in the background.... like a DVD movie menu.
#9
C: - OS only
D: - Applications
E: - Games
F: - This is my working directory, projects, etc.
When it comes to backups I need only backup F: since everything else can be reinstalled. Within these partitions I install everything at root. So, Doom3 for example would go straight to F:/Doom3. I generally cut off the publisher's name and any other garbage to keep it simple.
09/30/2004 (4:16 am)
I never install anything where it wants to go by default. I've got the following setup:C: - OS only
D: - Applications
E: - Games
F: - This is my working directory, projects, etc.
When it comes to backups I need only backup F: since everything else can be reinstalled. Within these partitions I install everything at root. So, Doom3 for example would go straight to F:/Doom3. I generally cut off the publisher's name and any other garbage to keep it simple.
#10
its sometimes good to have a developer/publisher name for a game if you have like 2-many games of theirs... i.e my Infinity Engine games are cept @ Prog files / Black Isle
09/30/2004 (5:12 am)
Doom 3 didnt have a publisher/developer name for it...its sometimes good to have a developer/publisher name for a game if you have like 2-many games of theirs... i.e my Infinity Engine games are cept @ Prog files / Black Isle
#11
Yes, I am aware I can install these things where I wish, and I do. All I'm saying, is defaults should be C:\Program Files\Gamename.
The intro example that set off this rant, was trying to find info on Starlancer, which I saw briefly mentioned in a forum. It's an MS game, so extremely slow loading of _anything_ they do is to be expected, but this is a bit much.
09/30/2004 (11:58 am)
@Drew, Will, KevinYes, I am aware I can install these things where I wish, and I do. All I'm saying, is defaults should be C:\Program Files\Gamename.
The intro example that set off this rant, was trying to find info on Starlancer, which I saw briefly mentioned in a forum. It's an MS game, so extremely slow loading of _anything_ they do is to be expected, but this is a bit much.
#12
I would want it to default to
C:\Program Files\Game Company\Gamename
Guess you can't please everyone. :-)
09/30/2004 (12:32 pm)
Quote:
defaults should be C:\Program Files\Gamename
I would want it to default to
C:\Program Files\Game Company\Gamename
Guess you can't please everyone. :-)
#13
09/30/2004 (1:07 pm)
I had a lot of fun online with Starlancer on my Dreamcast!
#14
Back on topic: Why didn't you just hit the "skip intro" at the bottom on that page?
09/30/2004 (2:16 pm)
I just bought Starlancer a few weeks ago. I love it. :) The PC version is down to only $10US. It does sometimes crash in WinXP, and I don't know why--but that's just occasional (still frustrating). I think the ship and planet graphics hold up well for a game several years old. The skybox and saturn's rings didn't, but you won't really notice it in the middle of a dogfight. Back on topic: Why didn't you just hit the "skip intro" at the bottom on that page?
#15
@Josh, The Doom3 Page (flash one) is so bad. I thought all webdesigners have finally understood that 'Mystery Icon Navigation' is about the worst thing you can do for a site. Oh well, nothing really shocks me anymore if it comes to flash, the software is complete crap and so is most of the work done with it. (there are some experimental exceptions) [http://www.amontobin.com/index2.html ; http://yugop.com/ (try 01:Border)]
-Sascha
10/01/2004 (2:24 am)
Hmmm, Starlancer Page is lightning fast here. And i am only on 2Mbit.@Josh, The Doom3 Page (flash one) is so bad. I thought all webdesigners have finally understood that 'Mystery Icon Navigation' is about the worst thing you can do for a site. Oh well, nothing really shocks me anymore if it comes to flash, the software is complete crap and so is most of the work done with it. (there are some experimental exceptions) [http://www.amontobin.com/index2.html ; http://yugop.com/ (try 01:Border)]
-Sascha
Torque Owner Stefan