Recent Review; A Cold Shot of (Needed) Water

[Mikan]

Ooh boy am I going to get red karma for this. And I was so close to that third box too.

Alot of people here are acting like childs.

You keep going on and on about how these folks weren't in the right to review the game. Their website wasn't good enough, they weren't professional enough, they didn't use a high enough level character, etc.

I'd like to tell you something: This was NGD some years ago.

This company is exactly like the NGD that we all knew and loved when the game was first going gold.

So I ask to show them a bit more respect, they did make an honest effort and you know what, if they felt that the game was so bad, maybe it was because they logged in, and look at all the crap that players constantly spew around, and realized hey, these people are unhappy. That would tend to make me unhappy and write a bad review too, without even taking time to look at the actual content.

Hate spreads hate. If you need to look at why this is such a bad review, first look at yourselves.

Even NGD has shown that you can't always be professional with emotions in the air. Kailer's action shows that much.

Kind regards.

[linearguild]

Originally Posted by Mikan

I'd like to tell you something: This was NGD some years ago.

This company is exactly like the NGD that we all knew and loved when the game was first going gold.

No, they're not. NGD has been more humble about their game developer status. NGD never started out (ineptly) criticizing other people's work. NGD are creators, and these people are critics putting on airs of being some big-shot review site when they still have a long way to go.

Personally, if they presented themselves as you describe--a small group trying to grow a new reviews site--then I would be more forgiving about the rough quality of the work. However, they are posturing as some important "media site", so in turn I expect for them to back up this image with quality in their website and their reviews.

I won't claim to know the motives of others (and by the way, neither should you).

[Nekoko]

Originally Posted by linearguild

Personally, if they presented themselves as you describe--a small group trying to grow a new reviews site--then I would be more forgiving about the rough quality of the work.

Translation: The reviewers should let off Regnum on the basis that it's "rough quality of the work", that's not exactly painting the game in a positive light either... Why a review site should be more forgiving and not compare a game they're reviewing to other games..? Why should they have to compromise their quality? I think if I was doing a review for my oh so little unimportant review site I'd still want to give the fairest review I could, comparing the game I'm reviewing to others I have reviewed.

I really can't blame the reviewers for this review the starting part of play Regnum is not fun. Again the starting part of Regnum is not fun! When the game started becoming fun for me was when I got into the War Zone. You need to be a decent level for this and I wouldn't expect a reviewer to spend that amount of time reviewing a game.

I hear things about them having a level 50 character but it's mixed things, I hear it was only avaiable to them on the test server, which is pretty not useful to test a game. If this is true I don't know why anyone is getting upset that they used a level 3 character to look at the War Zone it's not like the Waz Zone exists in some sort of playable form on the test server.

Guess I'll stop the ranting now.

[linearguild]

Originally Posted by Nekoko

Translation: The reviewers should let off Regnum on the basis that it's "rough quality of the work", that's not exactly painting the game in a positive light either... Why a review site should be more forgiving and not compare a game they're reviewing to other games..? Why should they have to compromise their quality? I think if I was doing a review for my oh so little unimportant review site I'd still want to give the fairest review I could, comparing the game I'm reviewing to others I have reviewed.

I see that I wasn't clear with my words so let me clarify:

Personally, if the reviewers presented themselves as you describe--a small group trying to grow a new site--then I would be more forgiving to the reviewers about the rough quality of their review and the unpolished nature of their site.

Reviews should be fair and I hope this makes it clear that I wasn't asking them to give Regnum a break. However, Mikan did ask us to give them a break because they're a small site, and the whole point of my post is to explain why I, personally, don't feel like giving them a break like that.

Again: Instead of being real about the nature of their site, these people put on airs to throw hissy fits about being "poorly treated" as a "media site". Since they want to be treated like some big corporate or well-known name, fine, I will look at their work ruthlessly with the same quality expectations that I have for the more established sites.

I don't wish them ill, but with such attitude I can't take them seriously because they fall so short of the quality mark.

If that still doesn't make sense then I apologize in advance for not expressing myself well enough. Also, maybe this is off topic so I'll take it to PMs or the Inn if you still want to discuss.

[wizardOfIgnis]

Originally Posted by Nekoko

Why should they have to compromise their quality?

This is what they already did by publishing a review that only describes Regnum's main feature (RvR) through hearsay, and where the description of other features (quests, classes) holds factual errors.

So basically, though it holds grains of truth the review doesn't even begin to give an insight into what Regnum is all about. Would you spend hours and hours in the game world they're describing? I wouldn't. But I do in Regnum.

They could repair some of the damage by redoing their review, doing it right this time.

[Mikan]

Originally Posted by wizardOfIgnis

This is what they already did by publishing a review that only describes Regnum's main feature (RvR) through hearsay, and where the description of other features (quests, classes) holds factual errors.

So basically, though it holds grains of truth the review doesn't even begin to give an insight into what Regnum is all about. Would you spend hours and hours in the game world they're describing? I wouldn't. But I do in Regnum.

They could repair some of the damage by redoing their review, doing it right this time.

Not only is this just your opinion, but you waste your first post to rant at another user.

Back on-topic:

About the level 50 character, it was given on RA, not Horus, and the reviewer probably just assumed that NGD lied about giving them one without knowing how the mechanics of logging in to diferent servers work (logging into Horus creates a new realm/character). It sounds more like an honest mistake to me, especially since NGD is never, EVER clear about the details of mechanics of the game.

A new player basically just has to assume everything, or they can go by the in-game text which is often horribly outdated and wrong. Skilled players may know what their doing, but I assure you noobs most certainly do not.

Even if he had used the level 50 character, he would've ran into this problem. And it's not his problem to begin with, it is caused by the game being overwhelmingly undocumented besides a hint here and there. If someone had pointed him to Regnum Wiki first, the review probably would've been alot more bright. But I stress, very strongly, that this is information created by fans and has not been provided for or confirmed by NGD in any way! So it cannot be considered part of "the game experience".

You just can't blame the guy for doing this the way he did without being a hippocrit. While we can overlook NGD's daily mistakes such as putting wrong information in the in-game interface, not making it clear what subclasses do (look around the forum at how many 'what is the point of my class in war' threads there are), and many other, as you say, "heresays", a new player, and especially a reviewer, WILL NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. And it's time for both NGD and us to face that, just as the thread title suggests.

But this is just *my* opinion, so take it for what you will. But I think I've been playing the game long enough to know.

Kind regards.

[Gideon_Slack]

Originally Posted by Mikan

[...]

And it's not his problem to begin with, it is caused by the game being overwhelmingly undocumented besides a hint here and there. If someone had pointed him to Regnum Wiki first, the review probably would've been alot more bright. But I stress, very strongly, that this is information created by fans and has not been provided for or confirmed by NGD in any way! So it cannot be considered part of "the game experience".

[...]

This is pretty much untrue. Most of the game is explained through quests as you level up. Like almost every other MMO out there, NGD has written quests that explain the basic mechanics, events, places etc. of Regnum as you play. Some other games, especially the larger ones (eg: Runescape) provide printed instructions; but what NGD does is by no means uncommon.

Some information is hidden (especially derived stats), but this is a design choice, not a bug. Some of this information has been added to the wiki through ingame research.

The basic problem with the review though was that is was just unprofessional. Can you imagine a reviewer at a reputable website like massively.com not being able to figure out his level 50 character might be on another server than the one he's playing? It beggars belief...

[Vythica]

@ Everyone
This guy's a hack and we're feeding him.

@WhateverUSMC,

This isn't about censorship at all. The review was wrongly censored by Kailer and Chilko fixed that. (Even though one could hardly call locking that thread censorship, the link still worked).

What the whole hullabaloo is about is a crap review written by 3 guys with a GoDaddy account and a Gateway© computer.

Bottom line why the review sucked; they didn't play the game, they sat around b.s.ing with the Dark Legion...

Also, talking to other players doesn't equate to doing your own research and testing of the game.

[Anyriand]

Originally Posted by Brihtwulf

I have to say that this treatment from the staff at NGD is insulting. It's insulting to the writers, insulting to the players of this game, and I take it as a direct insult that they would be so quick to close a topic about their review but so slow to respond to any public relations inquiries.

What I find most insulting in all of this is that you'd make a review on an RvR game based on half an hour of gameplay with a lvl 3 character. Your review of Regnum Online was very poor, shows lack of professionalism and it was completely biased.
Sure RO has lots of things that need to be worked on, and I have to agree the costumer support is not the best, but the way you imply you were treated does not give you the right to do such a review based on hear say and lies. You were given a lvl 50 char on RA, which is the most populated server in this game, why didn't you use it? How do you expect to have a say in the RvR aspect of this game if you played in wz with a lvl 3 character?

"I also have my doubts on the quality of these battles based on the lack of variety in character abilities. Basically, all characters of the same class are the same."
This is outrageous to say the least. You were not present in any battle, but somehow you think you can give such an opinion? Based on your oh so great experience in the wz...?

If you're doing a review on an RvR game, I would have expected you would at least have the decency to play the game.

[UmarilsStillHere]

Originally Posted by Anyriand

If you're doing a review on an RvR game, I would have expected you would at least have the decency to play the game.

This. To do so is like reviewing a Racer without ever driving anything in game ...