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[The M.O.B]

dat overreacting on reddit

Seems to be NeoGAF too.


I want to add I spent ~400 odd hours playing DayZmod and only 3hrs on DayZ since buying it the first week. I don't feel cheated in the slightest. I knew from the beginning that I was in for the long run with this one. As long as Dean rides DayZ into Beta then I am completely fine with him leaving. He gave me ~400 hrs of entertainment for free, the least I could do is support his idea a little further even if it IS flawed.

I was being hyperbolic, which you must know is something I do since you took the time to look at my steam account. I'd imagine you must be one of the C tier guys from DayZ GAF or something.

$30 was paid to help fund development with the expectation that Dean Hall would be involved in full capacity. Announcing a YEAR IN ADVANCE that he's leaving tells me that he doesn't care about the project anymore and is already thinking about what he'd rather be doing.

It doesn't matter if I never played it or played 1000 hours, I have reason to believe that the investment made isn't going to pay off and ideally would want it to be returned. It's not even my $30, I was gifted the game. I would want it returned to that person.

1.5 million people have invested money into a product that he's called a flawed concept. It's an incredible slap in the face to everyone, especially those who are going to now be doing most of the work and oversight on the product going forward.

Dramatic reading worthy

Money? I take that.
Flawed concepts? I make that.
Perfect multiplayer? I chase that.

But I'm not a developer.

GOAT Junior post worthy

 

[TheLetdown]

Money? I take that.
Flawed concepts? I make that.
Perfect multiplayer? I chase that.

But I'm not a developer.

Spoiler

In actuality, I can see both sides of this. I understand the sort of betrayal the fans could feel, but I also see Mr. Hall's side where he wants to live in his home and sees this more like taking the training wheels off the bike he built.

 

[soontroll]

I was being hyperbolic, which you must know is something I do since you took the time to look at my steam account. I'd imagine you must be one of the C tier guys from DayZ GAF or something.

$30 was paid to help fund development with the expectation that Dean Hall would be involved in full capacity. Announcing a YEAR IN ADVANCE that he's leaving tells me that he doesn't care about the project anymore and is already thinking about what he'd rather be doing.

It doesn't matter if I never played it or played 1000 hours, I have reason to believe that the investment made isn't going to pay off and ideally would want it to be returned. It's not even my $30, I was gifted the game. I would want it returned to that person.

1.5 million people have invested money into a product that he's called a flawed concept. It's an incredible slap in the face to everyone, especially those who are going to now be doing most of the work and oversight on the product going forward.

He's talking in terms of his own goals of making the 'ultimate multiplayer experience'.
This is what he said regarding the 'flaws':

However, they don't detract from the game at all, and indeed to change these would dramatically change the game and not necessarily for the better (for example: I could just be completely wrong). The DayZ game should head in the direction it is, but any future game I make should take into account what I feel are flaws in my previous design(s).

It just seems he is critical of his work and recognising what he feels are mistakes in his game design.

 

[Clearos]

50 hours in and will easily get another 50+ in the game.

I paid money, already made it under a dollar per hour of entertainment. If the game goes to shit at the start of 2015, no problem here I already got my money's worth and 10 months is a long time.


...at least I up'ed my post count with a speculating opinion as we can't tell what the future holds.

 

[Burger]

I was being hyperbolic, which you must know is something I do since you took the time to look at my steam account. I'd imagine you must be one of the C tier guys from DayZ GAF or something.

$30 was paid to help fund development with the expectation that Dean Hall would be involved in full capacity. Announcing a YEAR IN ADVANCE that he's leaving tells me that he doesn't care about the project anymore and is already thinking about what he'd rather be doing.

It doesn't matter if I never played it or played 1000 hours, I have reason to believe that the investment made isn't going to pay off and ideally would want it to be returned. It's not even my $30, I was gifted the game. I would want it returned to that person.

1.5 million people have invested money into a product that he's called a flawed concept. It's an incredible slap in the face to everyone, especially those who are going to now be doing most of the work and oversight on the product going forward.

Jesus. 52 hours for $30 is what, 57 cents per hour of gameplay? You didn't even pay for it so that's divide by zero levels of crazy talk.

All he said was he wants to go home to his family in 2015. Just read what the guy is saying before you put your hand out.

 

[MikeE21286]

I'd be upset if I was an early access purchaser.

Lead guy behind it gets rich and leaves.....wtf..

 

[Foffy]

Damn, this is a little grimy. He was essentially given his own team to make the game, and he's more or less bailing? When even now all he's showcased is more or less a proof of concept that made a ton of fucking money?

 

[Atomski]

Wow at the reaction in this thread.. he plans on leaving in a year which is also when they planned to have most the features in the game. Once that stuff is in all you need is some code monkeys to keep working on bugs and such.

I dont see why everyone is freaking out..

 

[DJ Crimson]

I don't see why anyone would have faith in them completing all those tasks by the end of year. Especially considering how long it took for them to release it in just this state alone. No wonder he has such a defeatist attitude about the game. Oh well; hopefully it works out in the end.

 

[soontroll]

Dean:

"if I'm still needed I'm still involved

https://twitter.com/rocket2guns/status/437957490601246720

 

[Atomski]

Dean:


https://twitter.com/rocket2guns/status/437957490601246720

Put down those pitchforks people..

 

[gutterboy44]

Put down those pitchforks people..

What did he expect? People were, and still are highly skeptical about Day Z SA delivering on even half of the promises. People were shocked the alpha even managed to see the light of day. Pitchforks or not, is is bad PR and pissing off a lot of people who already bought in to Day Z.

He probably should have waited until the game was released before giving a postmortem interview on it.

 

[Chabbles]

I'd have less of a problem reading this if the game was in beta and nearing full release, rather then just after releasing in early alpha a couple months ago.

Then again i remember reading a comment from Dean in an interview, or on reddit not so long ago, where he was showing excitement about having a bunch of ideas for other games.. sounded like he'd had his mind on new ideas and had already moved on from Dayz.. now we have confirmation.

 

[legacyzero]

Dean:


https://twitter.com/rocket2guns/status/437957490601246720

I think this is fine. But let the game become a game first. It's why I havn't bothered to Buy DayZ yet. I loved the mod, but when you go on a 3 day haul, only to have it ripped away by a hacker, it creates buyers remorse QUICK.

 

[Whompa]

I don't blame people for reacting negatively towards this AT ALL.

This game will never get out of Alpha. There is no end goal in sight.

 

[Crimsonclaw111]

I don't blame people for reacting negatively towards this AT ALL.

This game will never get out of Alpha. There is no end goal in sight.

They said it'll be a 1 year alpha at least, right?

 

[-MD-]

This game will never get out of Alpha.

Where can I get my own crystal ball?

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

Good for him. Does this mean I get a refund for DayZ SA?

I'd like to pretend that the game will get along fine, but when the leader/creator of a project leaves when a game is barely into alpha, it usually doesn't bode well for the rest of the project. Even if he's staying on for the rest of the year, SA has a long way to go.

Yep

 

[sp3000]

Where can I get my own crystal ball?

You can start by using common sense.

 

[balladofwindfishes]

Wow, this kind of exploded all over the place. He should have just quietly announced this next year and leave a week later or something, he didn't need to announce it a year in advance, it just served to make people upset and hurt game sales.

Why did he announce it a year in advance? I completely understand why he's leaving, but... just seems like unneeded PR problems.

 

[Burt]

Can't blame him. He seems intent on leaving the game in good hands, which is the most important thing.

I've always thought that if I was in that sort of position, I would leave before I got burnt out as well. I'm sure he has a million game ideas in his head, and DayZ has provided him with the financial security and opportunity to act on them. He's not obligated to focus on one game for the rest of his life. The game will be fine, and so will he.

Good for him.

 

[Slavik81]

Youch. This why PR people exist. If he'd instead said something more like "when the game is mostly feature complete, Bohemia will take over ongoing development while I start laying the groundwork for a new project. We're thinking we have about a year's worth of work to reach that point."

It doesn't matter if ultimately he said the same thing. From a PR perspective, it's too little, too late. He needed to have focused on what customers cared about. Consider your audience and speak to their perspective. When talking to them, their concerns need to be addressed front and centre. That's not a moral imperative; it's more important than that. It's a pragmatic imperative for self-preservation.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

Youch. This why PR people exist. If he'd instead said something more like "when the game is mostly feature complete, Bohemia will take over ongoing development while I start laying the groundwork for a new project. We're thinking we have about a year's worth of work to reach that point."

It doesn't matter if ultimately he said the same thing. From a PR perspective, it's too little, too late. He needed to have focused on what customers cared about. Consider your audience and speak to their perspective. When talking to them, their concerns need to be addressed front and centre. That's not a moral imperative; it's more important than that. It's a pragmatic imperative for self-preservation.

"I actually think DayZ is pretty crappy and I don't want to make it anymore, but I guess I'm obligated to work on it for another year-ish."
How could you possibly think this isn't a good sentiment to give the fans? PR is for losers amirite?

 

[FunkyMunkey]

LOL he just takes people's money and bails (With "working" on it for 1 more year... haha right! On a laptop while on vacation I'm sure). I called it months ago. One of the flaws of early access is removing incentive for devs to polish and refine a game.

Love how he calls it a flawed project too. Great attitude to have after making a killing by convincing people into buying it via promises of grandeur. And this comes just a few weeks/months after him bragging on twitter about how many copies they've sold too. Fucking disgusting.

I wouldn't be surprised if the game is still a janky piece of crap in 2-3 years. I'm sure he appreciates the donations from all the gamers for him to go climb mountains and travel the world.

Can't blame him. He seems intent on leaving the game in good hands, which is the most important thing.

I've always thought that if I was in that sort of position, I would leave before I got burnt out as well. I'm sure he has a million game ideas in his head, and DayZ has provided him with the financial security and opportunity to act on them. He's not obligated to focus on one game for the rest of his life. The game will be fine, and so will he.

Good for him.

By this, you mean collected millions in revenue from thousands and thousands of gamers for an unfinished product. I'm sure I would leave at that point too. Hard to enjoy that money when you're actually working.

 

[akaoni]

I love his honesty, looking forward to his new ideas. I guess that's what he is at heart - an idea guy, and as such his work really is done here.

 

[subrock]

he sounds like a generally depressed/malcontent dude. Maybe someone with some life to them will add a spark and love to the game development again.

 

[Curufinwe]

LOL he just takes people's money and bails (With "working" on it for 1 more year... haha right! On a laptop while on vacation I'm sure). I called it months ago. One of the flaws of early access is removing incentive for devs to polish and refine a game.

Love how he calls it a flawed project too. Great attitude to have after making a killing by convincing people into buying it via promises of grandeur. And this comes just a few weeks/months after him bragging on twitter about how many copies they've sold too. Fucking disgusting.

I wouldn't be surprised if the game is still a janky piece of crap in 2-3 years. I'm sure he appreciates the donations from all the gamers for him to go climb mountains and travel the world.



By this, you mean collected millions in revenue from thousands and thousands of gamers for an unfinished product. I'm sure I would leave at that point too. Hard to enjoy that money when you're actually working.

So much salty bitterness. Hall has no obligation to spend another three years devoting his life to this game. He's entitled to go home after another year and doesn't owe people like you anything.

 

[Grief.exe]

Its an interesting thread. I see rational thoughts and the complete opposite, almost a 50/50 mix.

Good for him. Does this mean I get a refund for DayZ SA?

I'd like to pretend that the game will get along fine, but when the leader/creator of a project leaves when a game is barely into alpha, it usually doesn't bode well for the rest of the project. Even if he's staying on for the rest of the year, SA has a long way to go.

He is not leaving for another 10-12 months minimum. Keep in mind that is the same amount of time it took them to develop DayZ SA in its entirety.

 

[ZoddGutts]

He owes us a finish game. He has 9 months to do so.

 

[Burt]

LOL he just takes people's money and bails (With "working" on it for 1 more year... haha right! On a laptop while on vacation I'm sure). I called it months ago. One of the flaws of early access is removing incentive for devs to polish and refine a game.

Love how he calls it a flawed project too. Great attitude to have after making a killing by convincing people into buying it via promises of grandeur. And this comes just a few weeks/months after him bragging on twitter about how many copies they've sold too. Fucking disgusting.

I wouldn't be surprised if the game is still a janky piece of crap in 2-3 years. I'm sure he appreciates the donations from all the gamers for him to go climb mountains and travel the world.



By this, you mean collected millions in revenue from thousands and thousands of gamers for an unfinished product. I'm sure I would leave at that point too. Hard to enjoy that money when you're actually working.

First of all, you can't blame anyone other than yourself if you bought an unfinished product from someone stated that it was an unfinished product and who has no legal obligation to complete it. More importantly though, he's still working there for a year, and even after he leaves the game is going to be in the hands of the same team, which certainly has plenty of financial incentive to complete it.

The irony of having enough confidence in Dean to drop $30 on a game that he literally said was incomplete and not worth buying in its current form, and then refusing to believe him when he unambiguously states that he'll sincerely work on the game for the rest of his time with it is a little much for me. So is the uproar about him saying that a game based off of a mod isn't capable of being what he considers the perfect multiplayer game. What insanity!

But part of me does wish that his next update comes from a beach in the Bahamas, solely to rile up the people that are freaking out over this.

 

[Grief.exe]

First of all, you can't blame anyone other than yourself if you bought an unfinished product from someone stated that it was an unfinished product and who has no legal obligation to complete it. More importantly though, he's still working there for a year, and even after he leaves the game is going to be in the hands of the same team, which certainly has plenty of financial incentive to complete it.

The irony of having enough confidence in Dean to drop $30 on a game that he literally said was incomplete and not worth buying in its current form, and then refusing to believe him when he unambiguously states that he'll sincerely work on the game for the rest of his time with it is a little much for me. So is the uproar about him stating that a game based off of a mod isn't capable of being what he considers the perfect multiplayer game. What insanity!

But part of me does wish that his next update comes from a beach in the Bahamas, solely to rile up the people that are freaking out over this.

He hasn't tried to hide the fact that he is going to leave once he considers the game to be in a complete state.

If you check his Twitter, Reddit, or forum posts you will see him, near constantly, talk of his plans for the future.

There will come a time where Dean isn't necessary for the game's development, and if you have been following DayZ for a long time than you are actually looking forward to this. Some of his ideas are a little far out there and don't fit well with the game as a whole.

 

[GodofWine]

I'm on the "this doesn't bother me at all" aside of the fence on this...but I'm curious if any one has any idea what rockets share of the revenue is, i know its his idea but it is bohemias game? Right?

If we get more and better zombies, vehicles and base building I'm happy. I've already gotten my monies worth from the day z stand alone experience even on its bare bone status. perhaps it has been more of a social experiment so far, but its been eye opening and made my usual battle field evenings seem shallow.

 

[Chabbles]

I love his honesty, looking forward to his new ideas. I guess that's what he is at heart - an idea guy, and as such his work really is done here.

Its easy to be "honest" after the game has done insanely well on steam over the last few months. Real honesty would of been revealing his true plans a week before the SA launched on steam, while reassuring the fans how he would continue to work with the team for another year. Although that could of hurt sales, so keeping quiet until now when theres not much to lose, since the game has done so well and remains in the steam top sellers.. seems like much less a risk... then again, its possible his plans to leave weren't fully decided until after the SA success.


Edit,
Looks like Dean did actually mention leaving last summer.
Q - I know it’s hard to predict, but how long do you see yourself working on DayZ?
A - Hall: I think right now, realistically, the next 12 months. Particularly if a console port came in—or ports, if there were changes to certain consoles. I’d say I’m probably being realistic there, to deal with that.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/06/21/interview-dean-hall-dayz-standalone-mountaineering-everest-game/

 

[Mario]

then again, its possible his plans to leave weren't fully decided until after the SA success.

I spoke to Dean today. He doesn't even have any specific plans regarding "the next thing" yet, so he hasn't really fully decided anything other than he'd like to move on within a year.

People are making a lot of assumptions.

 

[Oreoleo]

He hasn't tried to hide the fact that he is going to leave once he considers the game to be in a complete state.

And yet we have a whole thread of faux outrage from people because they think he's just taking his ball and our money and going home.

The timing of his announcement is poor, definitely. But a lot of people are jumping to conclusions that fly in the face of everything Dean has said recently or ever.

This thread is annoying.

 

[Chabbles]

I spoke to Dean today. He doesn't even have any specific plans regarding "the next thing" yet, so he hasn't really fully decided anything other than he'd like to move on within a year.

The guys free to do what he wants, and i wish him the best of success in whatever he decides to do. But this is still abit of a shocker being so soon after the alpha launch and so far from a finished product, regardless of when he made his mind up to leave Dayz.

 

[FunkyMunkey]

So much salty bitterness. Hall has no obligation to spend another three years devoting his life to this game. He's entitled to go home after another year and doesn't owe people like you anything.

If I actually bought the pre-alpha game on the steam release, you can beat your ass he'd (or the team if they actually live up to his promises) owe me. But hey, I'm smarter than that and don't like throwing money away to donate to someone's vacation . Honestly, I just think this sets an amazing precedent for future early access games. Start a team, release super buggy version of game, promise a ton of amazing updates that would blow minds, sell a lot of copies based on those promises, then bail-out with some $$$ and leave the team to deal with it. It's actually a genius strategy.

Edit: My earlier reply was an overreaction, but I stand by saying this is a worrisome thing to do. I guess time will tell.

 

[komplanen]

I won't hate on him leaving until I see what state the game is in when he actually quits.

 

[Etnos]

I bought into DayZ early access and I have a lot of respect for Dean, We need more guys like him in the industry.

I don't mind him leaving for personal/creative reasons, We all choose our path based on what we can and want to do.

Said so I do think he opened his mouth more than necessary: "Fundamentally Flawed Game", does read like a middle finger for early access purchasers and Bohemia.

DayZ runs under Bohemia tech, that engine has its quirks but I haven't seen open world environments as impressive as the ones in Arma 2, Arma 3 and DayZ, let alone support for multiplayer, loot, server side zoombies... Technically DayZ is an impressive game.

Maybe is just perception but seems to me Dean owns more respect to to Bohemia, like if I were a member in the DayZ team right now I would be like... fuck you dude, We are here developing your fundamentally flawed game so you can learn and do the ultimate multiplayer experience?... Do you need to say that? Seems arrogant, as I said It may be just perception, but he definitely talked to much this time.

 

[Prophet Steve]

This doesn't make any sense. The game isn't being abandoned, so who is to say that it won't reach the promises made? Not to mention, if he doesn't plan on leaving till the end of the year, the odds are he doesn't plan on leaving until DayZ gets out of Early Access.

I must admit that I hadn't read it was only at the end of the year he would step down.

And there are already angry comments, this doesn't bring a whole lot of confidence to fans.