General Godus discussion

that goes against everything in ethics in journalism, i think the uk has this www.nuj.org.uk/about/nuj-code/ 

also if an journalist is important enough they wont face the issue of beng unable to ask certain questions

Ofcourse the moment journalism stops being objective, it also stops being journalism and becomes advertising.

What should happen is that if a company pushes out faulty products and wants to muddle up the reviews - nobody should review them anymore.
Which in turn should send up some massive red flags because why does *company X* never get any reviews on their products when all other companies do?

And thats where it gets shady, because there are a lot of people that claim to be journalists and claim to do reviews - that really only do promotional pieces (paid or otherwise).

As a journalist or content reviewer, you really only have one job. Which is to accurately report on the product with facts. Regardless of whether this is good or bad.
The reality is far from that, because a lot of sites and papers don't want to end up on the "bad side" of the corporations and companies - they end up walking on eggshells and avoid reporting on things alltogether rather than give an honest review.


Which is part of the reason why I think that youtube and streaming are a really good addition to the information made available to the consumer. Because its REALLY HARD to stomp down on all the content that gets put out there.
The funny thing about this is that we're creating an environment where the consumer gets rewarded for waiting. Early adopters (I'm talking day 1 purchase/pre-order here, not early access) of many products get shafted with bugs and issues. While people who wait get better reviews, more content and discounts.

The only way the games industry can turn this around is by offering better quality support early on (make early adoption have perks over waiting) and provide other reasons NOT to wait. And in an industry that is driven by the initial period sales, I can see a lot of titles getting dropped because more and more gamers decide that its not worth purchasing on day 1 or pre-ordering anymore. But rather working through their backlog from sales and wait untill the game gets on sale or in a bundle itself.


Effectively the industry has shot itself in the foot by providing bad support on released products and intimidating review entities in not giving a fair judgement. Making it more favorable to simply wait.



As many issues as TotalBiscuit may have - this is one thing in which he makes some very solid points.
Transparant and honest review of content is *ESSENTIAL* in the consumer society. Especially with more and more garbage being shoved onto the market on a regular basis by companies trying to make some quick cash.

I agree, with the industry having a strong corporate centric focus (largely because of how console gaming and mainstream focus is setting the tone by the bigger companies) and with even some smaller devs and indies trying to walk that walk and talk that talk going for greed rather than quality - it is essential that the consumer is enabled to be properly informed BEFORE purchasing.

I'm of the opinion that when a developer puts an embargo in its release title then the only logical counter is to embargo the title itself. But ofcourse a large group of consumers out there will buy whatever is marketed. Whatever is popular and more importantly, whatever hits the front page of their go-to distribution platform.
Which is why we're seeing such a clusterfuck surrounding steam.

While I do agree that steam has some responsibility in curating its platform - most importantly, in policing its platform to ensure that people stay honest because bad titles in turn reflect poorly onto the steam platform.
The majority problem of bad games isn't so much on steam as it is on the people that blindly buy these games.
A secondary problem is reflected in titles such as Godus that do not deliver as expected - and we need to set some groundrules in these new development methods that prevent developers from running away with it, or rather, we need to ensure that they are legally accountable for what they are doing. Early access/crowdfunding or not, at the end of the day they get paid money for something and they have a responsibility to deliver a certain degree of quality. If they do not, there should be some steps that a customer can take - rather than the "oh well, its early access" what is happening right now.


As usual legal runs behind several decades on tech though. So its gonna take time before that catches up.
And the only way we can force these kinds of changes. Is to ensure that the audience as a whole is more discerning when it comes to their purchasing decisions.
Whether its the big AAA-titles or the small ones. Information is key. We helped dig our own graves getting here - we're equally responsible in digging our way out.

What? Somebody still does?

He Meant Finnish, followed by Swedish and Norwegian versions

He told RPS it'll be about six months. ~facepalm~

I just don't hold to account any deadlines that he utters any more; I'll see it when I see it. But you can best be assured that I'll not let him forget that he said that.


I actually only backed at the tier to receive one copy of Godus on Steam. Surprising that I've hung around this long, being on such a low pledge. It's mostly because I don't worry about the other games I pledged on - though I do keep track of them and visit the communities on occasion. Godus needed my attention.

Plus I enjoy the company here.

Sorry, Peter, but this isn't fucking Disneyland.

I too only backed at the entry-level 1 steam copy. I was keen on the official backers forum to see the game development process that Peter used for the games I loved so much. That I'm still here is a testament to *this* forum and passion of everyone.