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GAF Votes FOTY 2012 Thread: Fail Of The Year

1. Vita- never in my wildest imagination did I see Sony screwing the pooch as hard as they did. I always thought the PSP successor wouldn't do great in the west, but basically being below 10k a week in Japan for most of the year was pathetic.

2. Nintendo E3 2012- building up all that hype only to not announce anything outside of the launch window and then act like people are supposed to be excited about year old more expensive games that look worse.

3. THQ as a whole
 
1) WiiU - Confusion abound. Even sales people and thieves don't know what it is. Shipped with little of the promised "apps" which were then tacked on with a giant day 1 patch. I'm a little reluctant to pick this as number one as I think they can still turn things around, but shit, what a fucked launch.

2) 38 Studios - A web of financial lies that cost the state of RI millions.

3) Doritosgate - The years people spend bitching about games journalism becomes validated. - Honorable mention.
 
Halo 4

Good reviews be damned, the game gutted or rolled back features key to the series since 2007 (theater, scoring, Forge, file share, online support, customization), created the only Halo campaign I never want to play again, replaced Firefight with a a feature-lite mode that is alternately frustrating and boring, and wreaked the Multiplayer design across the board. Spartan Ops was a terrible trade for Firefight, the new maps look awful (I have not played them), the LE a let down, the handling of Specializations a clusterfuck.

The Crimson Map Pack fiasco could be its own category, but I'll just lump it in with Halo 4 as a whole.

That sounds harsh, and it is, but as someone who has loved the series since its inception, it's heartbreaking to see what has been done to it.
 
38 Studios, THQ, the Wainright mess, the lack of Vita support, all these should be considered well before fucking ME3 ending is even thought of. Personally I thought the fans whining for the ending to be changed and Bioware capitulating to be worse than the original ending.
 
It's got to be Keighley and the Halo 4, Doritos-Dew promotion. What put it over the top was how much was uncovered in such a short amount of time; how that single interview cost people jobs, yet, continued the conversation about just how deep the rabbit hole goes with games coverage and mouth pieces for promoting products.

The best part about this story: It's still on-going.

The worst part about this story: Those in the media who tried to make lite of the situation and brush it off as a non-story.
 
ShockingAlberto said:
Doritogate wasn't even the big deal. The Florence/Wainright stuff was the big scandal, in my opinion.
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I don't understand what Doritosgate is. I read shagg's summary of the events in the thread, and all I gathered was that the Florence/Wainwright thing showed some shady shit. I was asking what Doritosgate even had to do with that. Are they separate incidents entirely?
 
PS Vita

Sucks as it's a great piece of hardware, but I doubt Sony will ever make a handheld again.





Syrinx said:
I don't understand what Doritosgate is. I read shagg's summary of the events in the thread, and all I gathered was that the Florence/Wainwright thing showed some shady shit. I was asking what Doritosgate even had to do with that. Are they separate incidents entirely?
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The original article that kicked off the whole thing used that picture as an example when press and pr get too cosy. Geoff didn't really do anything scammy, it just made a good snapshot. And we here love a good pic to have some fun with.
 
I reckon I can name a few:

1. Halo 4 launch/bannings/DLC debacle.
2. The Wainright/PR masquerading as reviews incident. Not just her involved, but many many people. She was just 'unlucky' to be caught in the act. Rab Florence is the hero of the year.
3. Resident Evil 6. I have never been so disappointed in a game in such a classic series. Absolutely disgusting effort.
 
1. Curt Schilling / 38 Studios
2. Doritosgate (all of it)
3. Mass Effect 3 ending

War Z gets an honorable mention from me. There is some super shady shit going on, but it's too recent for me to feel like I can accurately judge it.
 
Puppet Shadow said:
PS Vita

Sucks as it's a great piece of hardware, but I doubt Sony will ever make a handheld again.





The original article that kicked off the whole thing used that picture as an example when press and pr get too cosy. Geoff didn't really do anything scammy, it just made a good snapshot. And we here love a good pic to have some fun with.
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What? Have you watched the "interview"? It's as sleazy and unprincipled as it gets.

The transcript of the juicy part:

Geoff Keighley said:
Part of what I'm talking about today is the double XP program that Mountain Dew and Doritos are bringing back which actually allow gamers to rank up inside of War Games in Halo 4 by purchasing Mountain Dew or Doritos. So, that's a great example of a brand saying: "Hey, we actually want to give benefit and value to gamers." So if you buy, uh, you know, uh, if you buy, uh, Mountain Dew, you buy Doritos, you get a code, you go to dewxp dot com or doritosxp dot com, enter that code, link it to your gamer tag and then you're gonna get some experience in the game. So, it's-it's, uh, it's a good partnership.
Click to expand...
 
Syrinx said:
I don't understand what Doritosgate is. I read shagg's summary of the events in the thread, and all I gathered was that the Florence/Wainwright thing showed some shady shit. I was asking what Doritosgate even had to do with that. Are they separate incidents entirely?
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i consider it all one big clusterfuck.
 
Number 1 bolded. 2nd is probably ME3 as a package.
-Doritosgate
-38 Studios financial debacle
-WarZ
-Mass Effect 3's ending and Day 1 PAID DLC
-Halo 4's missing features and the DLC fiasco
-Vita sales
-Denis Dyack again
 
Can't decide between

Playstation Vita games support (Vita means life)

Games Journalists getting exposed during the Wainwright fiasco

Gameloft and Zynga still allowed to do business (though Zynga seems to be in some trouble), which is a definite win

THQ dying (one of the biggest publisher deaths we've had in the industry so far)

NNID and purchases being tied to one (1) physical console
 
I thought of a couple more.

From Software's Dark Souls PC port, one of the worst this generation.

Kickstarter scammers getting away with the money and (possibly) tarnishing the reputation of this great idea.

Diablo 3's Real Money Auction House. Such a terrible precedent. :(

Nintendo's WiiU eshop time restrictions in EU. Valid reactions range from insulting (if you don't know the reason) to being bewildered at Nintendo's readiness to inconvenience their customers to save them some extra work.
 
Haunted said:
Diablo 3's Real Money Auction House. Such a terrible precedent. :(
Click to expand...

While I hate what it did to the game, and I wholeheartedly agree with your second statement, I made like $350+ from just playing the game, so can't say it was all bad.
 
So many fails this year! This has to be a record! *relishes*

But in all seriousness, 38 Studios is definitely Fail of the Year. It's not a funny fail. It's definitely not pretty. It's upsetting. It's disappointing. But mainly, it was dangerous: so many people's lives jeopardised due to the incompetence, arrogance and greed of one man who started a multi-multi-millionaire and ended in a well deserved bankruptcy.

And as much as we may feel scandalous games 'journalism' or shoddy business models directly affect us, I feel we owe it to Curt Schilling's victims to highlight his disaster as a warning to others.
 
Funchameleon said:
This thread. The word "fail" as anything but a verb. Poll threads. All threads. The world. You.

Me.

The "-gate" suffix in the hands of this generation.

Journalism in scarequotes.

"Dat"

This industry.

Any industry.

Everything.
Click to expand...

Can we be friends?

It's amazing that the Vita and Wii U launches can't top 38 Studios' nonsense. Hey, big companies? If you're going to crowd out the little ones, don't mess up and ruin things for everyone AGAIN.
 
Haunted said:
Diablo 3's Real Money Auction House. Such a terrible precedent. :(
Click to expand...

Hasn't this been done before? Do you mean that the precedent is, "Integrated insultingly into a massively popular product that already cost money to purchase and is developed by a company that doesn't 'need' it to grow quickly?"

Funchameleon said:
Yes but don't fool me around on this thing. I won't be hurt again.

I won't.
Click to expand...

Fun-y, you ride with the stallions and you're bound to get trampled. Now, let's get out of this joint...

and play, I don't know, Virtua Fighter 5. Fun game, that.
 
inky said:
While I hate what it did to the game, and I wholeheartedly agree with your second statement, I made like $350+ from just playing the game, so can't say it was all bad.
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Heh, good that you got something out of it. :)

But honestly, what it did to the loot design and balance was terrible. Most of the patching they've done since then basically reverted/lessened decisions that were all made due to the impact of the RM auction house. Diablo 3 could've been a much better game without it.


GhaleonQ said:
Hasn't this been done before? Do you mean that the precedent is, "Integrated insultingly into a massively popular product that already cost money to purchase and is developed by a company that doesn't 'need' it to grow quickly?"
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I.. uh... yeah, sure. Precedent wasn't the right word to use, it was just the particularly egregious implementation from Blizzard.
 
Vita.

Would say Wii U is runner up, but it's just barely a month out from launch. We're not going to see the impact (if any) of the launch shenanigans and Nintendo's insane secrecy surrounding the console and its lineup until next year.
 
38 Studios definitely. I mean to have the whole business just die in the worst way possible after just one game. Especially when that one game wasn't that bad, meaning the whole problem was just a business and financial one.
 
38 Studios and maybe the premise of the subscription MMO and developers on those projects in general.

Man, people are really blowing the Doritos thing out of proportion.
 
Crewnh said:
Well when I say doritosgate, I mean the whole clusterfuck that proceeded along after it as well. Probably should specify I guess.
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The best thing about doritosgate was that geoff keighley came out in one piece while others were ripped to shreds.
 
1. PS Vita ; it sucks to see the system struggle in sales and you know it's bad when it didn't pick up at all during Holiday season in Japan which is handheld land.
2. Denis Dyack ; destroyed SK
3. Resident Evil 6 ; while I think this game is 'above average' it was a huge letdown considering it was a mainline RE game. By far it's my least favorite in the series.
 
1- SFxTEKKEN = I dont know where to start, but it ends with shit.
300px-Street_Fighter_X_Tekken_Cover.jpg


2- Resident Evil 6 = Some of the worst design decision ever, all in one hit package
RE6-GR.jpg
 
Dyack, Dyack, Dyack. He failed in a way you only see in old cartoons, confidently driving 120 mph into a wall without a seat belt.


diffusionx said:
I know GAF can't stand the man, but is hiring your own wife to run a part of the business really some great outrage? Have the people outraged by this ever worked in a company before? What if she is qualified to be the company HR coordinator?
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When it comes to HR, there could be a conflict of interest, especially when the company's problem is your husband.

Mama Robotnik suggests in this great post-mortem of silicon knights piece, without citing a source, that his wife shared with Dyack the criticisms of his employees.
 
ME3 ending.

The build up to it being 3 games in the making, the glaring inadequacies of the ending, and the fallout that resulted from it made for a hyper c-c-combo of failure that was unmatched this year by any singular gaming experience.
 
Oh boy, Its a tough choice between War Z and Doritos gate. Well I suppose that Doritos gate while being a symbol for the regression of the industry and just being darn hilarious could definitely pass for the FOTY for those reasons alone, I still believe that War Z is the actual embodiement of gaming woes. With lies, stealing, microtransactions up the ass, and just being generally abusive to their customers, it really is the worst thing to come out of 2012.

So War Z.
 
Capcpom

From SFxTk and the DLC fiasco, being downgraded by the BBB and scorned by fans. Resident Evil 6 being mediocre critically and universally panned by most fans is especially bad. The spelling mistakes were also pretty bad.
 
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