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Gamasutra-EA downplays Dungeon Keeper free-to-play criticism/rate it 1-4 stars?

E

ekim

Member
DK.jpg

Want to rate it 1-4 stars, this happens:
BfySvZIIYAAjmsa.png


http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/210168/EA_downplays_Dungeon_Keeper_freetoplay_criticisms.php

Now senior producer Skalski has told Tab Times that his team is "very aware" of the online outcry, but that he believes its simply down to the fact that people hold such a fond memory of the original, that they were always going to complain about a reboot.

"It's important to emphasize that we designed a game that is built around the typical mobile play patterns," he explains. "This means Dungeon Keeper is meant to be played on the go multiple times a day with a few minutes here or there."

Skalski says that, regardless of what is being said online, the majority of players are still enjoying and engaging with the game -- indeed, the game currently has more than a four out of five rating on both the App Store and Google Play.

"We're also seeing a lot of game downloads and in-game engagement so that tells us there is a large group of people who are playing and enjoying the game," he notes. "Obviously, this is counter to some of the angry reactions we’ve seen around the internet, so we’re still trying to look at all of these data points."

Rather, it's simply a case that some gamers "have fond memories" of the original, and they were never going to be completely happy about this mobile version.

"Our intention with the mobile version was to give as many people as possible a taste of that original Dungeon Keeper experience," he adds, "and for some people, that's not the way they want to re-visit the franchise."
Click to expand...

smh
 
D

dmr87

Member
Saw people talking about the rating shenanigans in the Eurogamer thread, deserves to be in the spotlight. This is the Android version, don't know how it is on iOS.

"I think any time you re-make anything that is much beloved and has a great sense of nostalgia for people—be it a game, a movie, or whatever—people are going to be very protective of it."


Since the reboot of the classic Bullfrog strategy game launched on mobile last week, both critics and players have kicked up quite a fuss over the game's limiting microtransactions.

Now senior producer Skalski has told Tab Times that his team is "very aware" of the online outcry, but that he believes its simply down to the fact that people hold such a fond memory of the original, that they were always going to complain about a reboot.

"It's important to emphasize that we designed a game that is built around the typical mobile play patterns," he explains. "This means Dungeon Keeper is meant to be played on the go multiple times a day with a few minutes here or there."

Skalski says that, regardless of what is being said online, the majority of players are still enjoying and engaging with the game -- indeed, the game currently has more than a four out of five rating on both the App Store and Google Play.


As confirmed by Gamasutra, EA has employed a rather sneaky system for rating the game. As spotted by Mike Robinson on Twitter, when Dungeon Keeper asks you to rate the game on Android and you choose to give it less than 5 stars, the game doesn't allow you to do so, and instead asks you to message the company with your feedback.

Note that when you choose 5-stars, the game takes you to the Google Play store, so you can potentially still choose a different rating -- and you can, of course, still rate the game less than 5 stars via Google Play.

Gamasutra has contacted EA regarding the move, and contacted Google to find out whether this is against the rules of the Google Play store.

"We're also seeing a lot of game downloads and in-game engagement so that tells us there is a large group of people who are playing and enjoying the game," he notes. "Obviously, this is counter to some of the angry reactions we’ve seen around the internet, so we’re still trying to look at all of these data points."

Rather, it's simply a case that some gamers "have fond memories" of the original, and they were never going to be completely happy about this mobile version.

"Our intention with the mobile version was to give as many people as possible a taste of that original Dungeon Keeper experience," he adds, "and for some people, that's not the way they want to re-visit the franchise."

This isn't the first time that EA has had to defend microtransactions in its free-to-play games -- for example, there was public outcry when both Madden NFL and Real Racing 3 launched for mobile.
Click to expand...

kU7.png

lU7.png
Click to expand...

https://twitter.com/mike_robbo/status/431381007393357824
https://twitter.com/mike_robbo/status/431380840892092416
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/210168/EA_downplays_Dungeon_Keeper_freetoplay_criticisms.php
 
P

Phediuk

Member
Remember that brief period in 08-09 when EA looked like it was listening to feedback and becoming a cool company?
 
P

Phediuk

Member
I'm becoming nostalgic for the days when Activision was the boogieman of the industry and Call of Duty was the thing that everyone hated.
 
F

FlyingSaucer

Banned
Executive blaming nostalgia for outrage, and conveniently missing the point of the really pertinent criticisms. How surprising.
 
J

Jamie OD

Member
Another day, another embarrassment for EA. They're probably already making too much money from the game to care.
 
T

Triggerhappytel

Member
Alcotholic said:
It really is ignorance to turn a blind eye to this.
Click to expand...

It's not ignorance; they must be well aware of the vile business model behind the game. But to the wider audience this kind of shit is perfectly fine, so they don't give a flying fuck about what we vocal Internet minority think or say unless it filters out so broadly it begins to affect their margins.
 
D

Dougald

Member
Phediuk said:
Remember that brief period in 08-09 when EA looked like it was listening to feedback and becoming a cool company?
Click to expand...

I miss that. EA was taking risks on franchises, bought out Brutal Legend, gave us Dead Space, Mirrors Edge, Mass Effect...


Opiate said:
You mean that period when EA lost billions of dollars? Sure do!
Click to expand...

Opiate
Depressingly Realistic
(Today, 04:32 PM)
 
S

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Vote nagging is pretty disgusting; doing it in a non-standard way to deliberately skew people who don't like your game away from voting is extra disgusting. Of course plenty of companies buy votes, which is also disgusting.

This is a tumblr that documents some of the many weaselly ways that companies try to manipulate reviewing (note that the "No, Thanks" option is interpreted as "Remind me later" for almost every app, even though it's listed separately):
http://effyr.tumblr.com/
 
S

Shambles

Member
Oh you people just need to support EA. They're just a company. Stop being such rabid fanboys and install Origin.

/s
 
Z

Zaph

Member
Kinda sad that this is what Mythic is reduced to. Those guys made Dark Age of Camelot for crying out loud (no doubt most of the people who worked on it are long gone).

Look forward to more Paul Barnett stories on Giant Bomb "...and then, we captured all the 1-4star feedback and put it in a toaster!".

"We're also seeing a lot of game downloads and in-game engagement so that tells us there is a large group of people who are playing and enjoying the game," he notes. "Obviously, this is counter to some of the angry reactions we’ve seen around the internet, so we’re still trying to look at all of these data points."
Click to expand...
Game sounds like it was made by robots for robots. Here's a data point for you - you took all the worst elements of F2P, combined it with a beloved IP from a developer your publishing overlords killed long ago, and forgot to actually include any game in your...'game'.
 
M

mclem

Member
The bit that bothers me about this is that it's making the majority of the raters of a game a self-selected group consisting of those who already (claim to) like it, and that's inherently going to bias things. Then again, this becoming public might well cause the internet hordes who haven't even played the game to downrate it in protest, which, well, I also object to in principle, but I can't help but feel there's a hint of reaping what you sow.
 
B

brotkasten

Member
Dougald said:
I miss that. EA was taking risks on franchises, bought out Brutal Legend, gave us Dead Space, Mirrors Edge, Mass Effect...
Click to expand...

And more importantly to me right now, because I finally got around to start playing it: They published a sequel to Alice. Out of nowhere (to me at least). Total insanity.
 
S

sinxtanx

Member
"Five-star ratings from you help us provide free updates!"

sounds like

"EA is going to fucking murder us if we don't get good ratings. They will drive up to our building, enter our offices and have some fun with a chainsaw. Send help."
 
S

SwiftDeath

Member
Thread title should be changed to better show the article is made by gamasutra about EA, not that gamasutra and EA has some weird fusion thing going on

Gamasutra: "EA downplays Dungeon Keeper free-to-play criticism/rate it 1-4 stars?"

For instance
 
S

SatelliteOfLove

Member
Old swagger, new dick.

FlyingSaucer said:
Executive blaming nostalgia for outrage, and conveniently missing the point of the really pertinent criticisms. How surprising.
Click to expand...

Control the message. You know those forum goers are a bunch of hateful trolls and these article writers are a bunch of nostalgic luddites!
 
S

Sciz

Member
At least for once they're making it clear that you're dealing with the devil. They could stand to be this transparent in all their products.
 
S

Saganator

Member
Google and Apple need to do something about this kind of practice. It ruins the integrity of their rating system. Disgusting. Makes me not want to buy Titanfall.
 
D

Deadbeat

Banned
Im surprised we havent had some game journalists come out and defend this. Maybe they are writing the articles right now.
 
M

mclem

Member
SwiftDeath said:
Thread title should be changed to better show the article is made by gamasutra about EA, not that gamasutra and EA has some weird fusion thing going on

Gamasutra: "EA downplays Dungeon Keeper free-to-play criticism/rate it 1-4 stars?"

For instance
Click to expand...

I do agree with this. When I read the title at first, I thought Gamasutra were in some way complicit in the downplaying, but they're just reporting it objectively.
 
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