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The Player 1 Podcast Topic
- Thread starter GhaleonQ
- Start date
SuperPac
Member
Thank you, thank you. I can now retire from writing intro lines having done all I can do with the medium.
HamPster PamPster
Member
Neuromancer
Member
I'm with Mike. I was thoroughly disappointed by Skyoshock and that ending... Woof.
Planet_JASE
Member
Thanks for the new episode, guys, despite your busy schedules / Easter / GDC / etc.
Much appreciated.
Much appreciated.
Not really
TheShampion
Member
The Molasses Flood thing not being a joke...whaaaaaaaaaaat...holy crap! P1P delivers!
SuperPac
Member
Running a bit late on that, I'll probably have it up tonight.
nckillthegrimace
Member
In elementary school, we spent an inordinate amount of time on the Great Molasses Flood. Maybe it's a regional thing.
SuperPac
Member
I thought Phil had previously referenced the Great Molasses Flood on the podcast. Maybe I'm just imagining that.
But if not, I think it's time for playeronepodcast.com/molassesflood, a page that archives the molasses flood episodes
I'm pretty sure we have talked about it before, but I can't recall when or if we were even recording during that.
Could be misremembering but we might've also talked about the Centralia mine fire then too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania And dead malls. Oh yes, dead malls. (http://deadmalls.com/)
Neuromancer
Member
Cheetah speed is still gone and the game itself is still completely broken in its sim aspects. I think a 4 is well deserved even after getting past the issue of not actually being able to play the game. Then again, it never should have been a 9 or whatever in the first place.
Good to know, although the Polygon review never took issue with the sim problems, so it's a bit unfair and/or misleading if they're keeping the score low on the basis of sim quality.
Before anyone goes insane, please note that I'm not passing judgment on the game or suggesting it's better than a 4/10 or whatever (I haven't played it and I've resolved to revisit SimCity 4 before I ever do -- once I'm back in the world of Windows) ... but if I'm a reader and I look at Polygon's living review, I see: "hey, it's a great game... downgraded on performance issues, leaderboards and lack of a gameplay speed. My friend Joe says it's more reliable now and I can totally live without Cheetah and leaderboards."
The 4 may be a totally valid score in the end, but how they appear to have reached it and the accompanying text does not appear to be serving readers very well. If they're going to maintain that score based on new information they should adjust their review text accordingly.
HamPster PamPster
Member
Mike already hit this issue on the head in a previous episode. It was never about providing a better service, correcting mistakes or what ever bullshit Gies was peddling on twitter. It was only about driving traffic - why post one review when you can post two in the first week. No one is interested in a Sim City review anymore so they won't bother updating their "living" review
HamPster PamPster
Member
Plus Polygon is too busy exploring the human angle to update their Sim City reviews
Whimsical Phil
Ninja School will help you
People thought I was joking about the molasses flood? Man, there are some things I don't joke about, and candy-based disasters is one of them.
Also, see how close the girl is to that wave? Given the rate that the molasses was moving, she and that dog didn't make it.
He's not crazy, guys.
Polygon monitoring P1P-related chatter confirmed: https://twitter.com/Wario64/status/319555742220816384
Neuromancer
Member
Gies was probably listening and was like, 'Oh right'; then used a random number generator to decide on today's score.
HamPster PamPster
Member
Updated so soon after I said they wouldn't... You win this round Polygon
SuperPac
Member
I like the idea of "living" reviews, but as pointed out (I think) by notch, they're not knocking down doors to re-review Minecraft even though there's been a large amount of stuff added to that game. It's just not something they'd be able to sustain in a DLC/update-heavy world except in examples like this where it's a high-profile game, on everyone's mind right after release, and changing the score can stir up the audience.
Also, the video from this episode will soon be here: http://youtu.be/l9ZERBNzx-k (in about 30 minutes)
The finish was pretty solid--mostly because it was a thirty-minute respite from shooting things. Pretty good game, overall. I'd definitely have enjoyed it more if they'd had the stones (or the time, or the inclination, or the forethought, whatever) to rid themselves of so many antiquated, vestigial elements of the ancient (in game years) original.
(And yeah, I was right about my prediction of the big revelation. And yeah, it's the kind of shenanigans I don't really go for in stories, generally)
Neuromancer
Member
I think I actually like the idea of updating review scores. If they can do it for (reasonably) everything, it would be interesting and preferable to keeping a high score for a game that doesn't deserve it.
But Polygon can't win here. If they kept the score they'd be mocked for having a high score. If they lower it they're mocked for changing scores.
Just in this thread, they were being insulted for keeping the 4.5 even though servers issues were mostly fixed. And after they changed it they are now being made fun of for changing it. What could Polygon have done here?
But Polygon can't win here. If they kept the score they'd be mocked for having a high score. If they lower it they're mocked for changing scores.
Just in this thread, they were being insulted for keeping the 4.5 even though servers issues were mostly fixed. And after they changed it they are now being made fun of for changing it. What could Polygon have done here?
Neuromancer
Member
Yeah this is the obvious solution. Another option is to stick to your guns as far as the score but maybe add a bit of text explaining the situation. Raising or lowering the score days after release doesn't help anyone but themselves as it drives more traffic to their site.
Also maybe don't have a rogue editor in chief telling people over Twitter that instead of criticising a game they should go make a better one themselves.
Sure but that's already done. At least there was some attempt to fix it.
Alternatively, they could have just ignored everything and not tried to improve.
They're not the only site to have scored the game higher than it deserved. And they're not the only people who didn't notice all the issues it had until the game was released to the masses. Review time probably isn't enough to notice small things that people with much more time to play leisurely do.
I don't know. I can see why people want to pile on. It is a little funny watching it play out and while it's a nice idea, it is fundamentally flawed as they can't do it for every game. But I would encourage these sites to try to improve where they are weak. And an attempt to be better is what I see here.
Sometimes it just seems like the only way to have won here was to wait for public opinion. And then score accordingly.
I just can't find it in myself to damn a reviewer (and their site) for enjoying a game. There are a lot of games I rate way higher than other people and many games I rate way lower.
EDIT: As for "driving traffic to their site". That's what all these things are. Everything ever posted on any of these sites is for traffic. If Polygon is providing a service to an audience that wants it. Awesome. No one has to look if they don't want to.
Alternatively, they could have just ignored everything and not tried to improve.
They're not the only site to have scored the game higher than it deserved. And they're not the only people who didn't notice all the issues it had until the game was released to the masses. Review time probably isn't enough to notice small things that people with much more time to play leisurely do.
I don't know. I can see why people want to pile on. It is a little funny watching it play out and while it's a nice idea, it is fundamentally flawed as they can't do it for every game. But I would encourage these sites to try to improve where they are weak. And an attempt to be better is what I see here.
Sometimes it just seems like the only way to have won here was to wait for public opinion. And then score accordingly.
I just can't find it in myself to damn a reviewer (and their site) for enjoying a game. There are a lot of games I rate way higher than other people and many games I rate way lower.
EDIT: As for "driving traffic to their site". That's what all these things are. Everything ever posted on any of these sites is for traffic. If Polygon is providing a service to an audience that wants it. Awesome. No one has to look if they don't want to.
SuperPac
Member
I might have missed where people were making fun of them for changing it. I wonder if they'll update it again when/if EA/Maxis fixes the remaining issues. Think it'll go back to a 9.5?
Maybe I'm just reading deeper into some of these posts than I should or misunderstanding? Or confusing it with the actual thread about this. I don't know. I'm dumb.
I think if the game experience to them is as it was when they reviewed it, then it should go back to the 9.5 they originally had. Otherwise there would be a question about how much influence there was from the negativity surrounding the game that shouldn't really affect how they felt previously.
Changing the score because you believe it deserves less as the game isn't what it was when you reviewed it I think can be interesting. Changing the score because the internet doesn't agree with you is less interesting and brings into question the integrity of the reviewer.
And unfortunately that's exactly what they've done here. They scored a game with a bunch of fundamental flaws way too high (not things they had to dig very deeply to find, mind you. Too many have made that excuse).
Then they lower the score based on the service part of the game being broken.
Then when the servers are pretty much fixed, they only raise the score back to 3 points below the original score. Why? If anything with patches the basic experience is actually a bit improved over what it was when they originally reviewed it. Unfortunately public opinion went completely against their original review, and by pulling the crap they did they essentially got to re-review the game and make sure their opinion is more in line with popular opinion.
And it doesn't help that your reviews editor has absolutely no humility and is openly and publicly hostile to his readers and his peers. It's amazing how far a "my bad" admission will go.
Neuromancer
Member
I don't think a game review should change each and every time something good or something bad happens. Imagine re-scoring a game every time a title update comes out, or every time servers are down; that's pretty much what's happened here and it would be insane and confusing if everyone did that for every game. I think their original review and score was pretty laughable but they're entitled to their opinions and they should have stuck by it.
And yes I'm aware that site traffic is important but this is not the right way to go about it.
I would hope so, because the new new new score still doesn't intimate that there are any problems with the game other than the online/server issues.
famousmortimer
Banned
Sewart nails it, of course.
The timeline of polygon's review of this thing and the explanations to why they were doing it never lined up with what the rest of the world experienced.
Review comes out: Game is a 9.5.
We get the game, servers are busted as fuck but you can eventually get on and within 10 minutes of playing it's completely apparent the AI is busted as fuck. Fires right next to our firestations are being ignored while 5 of our fire trucks are in a line trying to put out a fire in a shack somewhere. Traffic ignores certain roads and piles up on others. It's just shit.
Review score goes down, citing server issues.
Logging on after the first day or two was a pain in the ass but once you were on you could play. And as we played those issues became even more apparent.
Review score goes down even further, citing Cheetah speed being turned off.
Even those of us who really enjoyed the broken ass game (I have over 100 hours played ><) can't deal with it. The server issues get fixed pretty quickly. They patch some of the AI issues. Traffic gets better. AI services like firemen get better. The plot size and general lack of depth make it barely matter though.
Review score goes back up a bit.
Gies made a jackass out of himself on rebel FM talking about how he doesn't give a shit about the inconveniences of always online. Fine. He can take that stance and I can take the stance that I don't give a fuck about his review scores. But then everything that's happened with the SimCity review scores has everything to do with online and nothing to do with the game itself. And that's the biggest problem here. I don't care if they changed the score 100 times a day, the biggest thing they fucked up was the first thing they did: fellate the game saying it's a masterpiece and giving it a 9.5.
By the rationale that this game was a 9.5 on release day, whenever they turn cheetah speed back on, combined with the fixes they have made to the gameplay, I guess the next review should be 10.5.
Hmm. Thank you both for these explanations. I totally missed some things/perspectives.
Planet_JASE
Member
Every once in a while I listen to an old episode. Today is one such day. All I can say is:
I miss Greg Ford.
I miss Greg Ford.
Neuromancer
Member
No, I like to consume my Player One Podcasts on the go!
I do, and the next episode is gonna be (is) a mess
Whimsical Phil
Ninja School will help you
But an adorable mess!
Planet_JASE
Member
So.... a standard episode, then?
I'd like to but I just can't wrap my brain around appointment Internet TV. Also it'd be nice if YouTube alerted you when a channel you sub went live
HamPster PamPster
Member
They went live yesterday
Well what the fuck am I supposed to do on my Sunday night now
Well what the fuck am I supposed to do on my Sunday night now
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