The sad state of affairs

[Close2nd]

Hi All,

Long time lurker, first time poster.
To keep it short I hope this game gets released.
I hope for a sound final product.
If all of the above is not possible I'd like to thank UV team for their effort and Paradox for being honest about their standards ( which is always hard for a company if their product has been widely promoted over the last few years).

[SerialCereal]

you mean publishers right?

That to, but I'm not really happy with anything they have developed they have produced for a while, unfortunately.

[pizi]

That to, but I'm not really happy with anything they have developed they have produced for a while, unfortunately.

I'm very happy about CK2.

[SerialCereal]

I'm very happy about CK2.

I'm not. The demo never particularly grasped my attention because it lacks a decent amount of strategic depth.

[KPJ]

Hey, I know it's a long thread with lots of back-and-forth but I just wanted to put in that I'm very interested in MMtG, it's actually the only game in the 'Upcoming Games' section that interests me at all (Napoleon's Campaigns looks okay).

I really think it would be wonderful if the game were released at some point, in some playable state. If you have to axe some features, sure. Especially multiplayer. I find it really annoying and hypocritical when it's unusual for any Paradox-developed games to be played online due to their requiring quite a bit of setup and technical know-how (I've recently spent hours trying to get online with my girlfriend for CK2, still haven't been successful), yet they won't axe multiplayer for MMtG.

Furthermore, Paradox took over the beta testing of this game from UV, so shouldn't they have been able to intervene earlier?

I understand Paradox's position, it seems that they have given plenty of inches and had many miles taken from them, as far as setting deadlines and expectations to UV team. Still I wish they could grab it from UV and shake the bugs out and release it to us

I will gladly pre-order or whatever needs to be done, I've been a fan of this project for a very long time. I hope Paradox can see that while CK2 will be more profitable, game of dwarves might bring in young fans, cartel will be something unusual; Magna Mundi the Game is a sort of expansion and continuation of EU3 that hardcore fans deserve. There is a niche of Paradox gamers who have been playing these games for years and years (I'm not one, I'm a newcomer in 2008 or so), people who love the idea of the plenty of features in MMtG, who want the most difficult and complicated strategy game. I think Paradox should do what they can to please these fans, within reason.

Thanks for letting me have the soapbox for a minute, best wishes to everybody involved.

[PreciousTritium]

I am inclined to believe the level of colourfulness is dependent upon on one's location within the demographics. That's all I'd say without being too specific. But to make a point, this thread had little to do with historical discussions.

Wait, what? By color are you referring specifically to ethnicity or race? Are you defaulting to an anglo or Euro centric perspective? Do you mean age? Am I missing the point entirely?

[Kaarle XII]

...and I will never buy another game developed by Paradox Interactive.

Talk about overreacting.

[Meanmanturbo]

Wait, what? By color are you referring specifically to ethnicity or race? Are you defaulting to an anglo or Euro centric perspective? Do you mean age? Am I missing the point entirely?

I believe he meant colorfulnesses of the personality. Saying interesting things in an intriguing way and all that jazz.

[Konstantinos XV]

Wait, what? By color are you referring specifically to ethnicity or race? Are you defaulting to an anglo or Euro centric perspective? Do you mean age? Am I missing the point entirely?

I think you do. Ywhtptgtfo meant a vivid (colorful) internet image Helius elaborately crafted for himself.

Speaking of Helius, I am surprised he's a history professor. I've talked to a lot of professors when I was in research and I'd imagine none of them would have such a... colourful personality on a web forum.

[yastrux]

just to show support to developer team, would buy the game in any state if thats the only way it will get published, but only if dev. team promises constant support and patches

[skinkyskating]

After much thinking, and trying my hardest to not be a blind fanboy the only conclusion I can draw is that Universo Virtual has lied to it's fans. Whilst I still support the project I have to say that this will be the only game I am going to buy from the studio, and I will never buy another game developed by Paradox Interactive. I just feel that both companies have hugely let down all sides that have had an interest in this project. I see now that Universo did in fact overreach and that they should never have tried to implement the vast amount of features that they did, such a game would be a difficult task for any professional developer, let alone first time developers, working part time, and across the planet. However, I still applaud them for attempting to accomplish it, I only wish that they had been more honest with the fans, instead of trying to make it seem like everything was hunk-dory, with reguards to the game. Paradox, on the other hand, just screwed up beyond belief and any respect I ever had for them as developers has dissapeared over the last year.

Thumbs up.

[ywhtptgtfo]

"May" is not the same as "Will"

It's just basic principles of probability. Consider the concept of CTD being an event with MTTH of 50 years.

I believe he meant colorfulnesses of the personality. Saying interesting things in an intriguing way and all that jazz.

That's not what I meant, but whatever.

Paradox, on the other hand, just screwed up beyond belief and any respect I ever had for them as developers has dissapeared over the last year.

What do you think Paradox should've done? I think they've dealt with this quite professionally.

[SerialCereal]

What do you think Paradox should've done? I think they've dealt with this quite professionally.

To be professional, one's policies need to be consistent. Paradox lack consistency in the past year. Furthermore, it is now evident to me that the game has been in a state like this for a while. Surely Paradox knew of the problems with the project, they should have taken strict action sooner. When they failed the first release candidate, why was there no such actions taken then? Instead, they were quite happy with letting the developers hype up a game that was failing. It is just not acceptable. This is mostly speculation, but I just think that Paradox left it far too late.

[Kroisistan]

It's just basic principles of probability. Consider the concept of CTD being an event with MTTH of 50 years.

I keep seeing this repeated, but that's not how I read what the UV folks said at all. They said that they've been testing, on average, 30-50 year periods, and not experiencing regular CTDs in that period. That's a totally different concept than a guaranteed CTD every 50 years.

From k_merse, post #90: "Let me answer that: It means that the game runs without CTDs in our 30-50 year test periods. We don't have the time ATM to run longer test scenarios." Post #59: "But what this really means that we don't have the time to run longer test scenarios right now, but those work without CTD."

[Woody Man]

To be professional, one's policies need to be consistent. Paradox lack consistency in the past year. Furthermore, it is now evident to me that the game has been in a state like this for a while. Surely Paradox knew of the problems with the project, they should have taken strict action sooner. When they failed the first release candidate, why was there no such actions taken then? Instead, they were quite happy with letting the developers hype up a game that was failing. It is just not acceptable. This is mostly speculation, but I just think that Paradox left it far too late.

I think you're totally wrong. Paradox as publishers obviously want this game published, they've put money into it, they want some sort of return, it's only sensible. Moreover, they want it to be a good game, they've extended deadlines so that UV can get their game in order for a release candidate, but now see no alternative than to say: "either get it done, or we'll have to pull out". Paradox have been very generous, UV would be hardpressed to find a publisher good enough to lend them the framework for the game, and then try their best to let UV get MM out. However, we've consistently seen Ubik hype up the game, say its ready for release (at which point Pdox stepped in to correct him), and present very vague Developer Diaries. The only reason this thread is so full of fail is because of the finger pointing going on between the ridiculously fractured employees of UV.

[Jaidal]

Devs can't sell preorders without Paradox.
But just a general fundraising campaign... Why not?

I mean, i'm not even a fan of a series, and i can give 10-20$ for nothing (in addition to buying the game later) so to help finish Magna Mundi. Face it, strategy games like Magna Mundi are one of the cheapeast entertainment per hour in a developed countries (if you have the hardware already), and game community has a big average age, so they mostly aren't some school kids or students or something, they have money. If there are really so many fans here, surely they can spend some extra money on the next release of a flagship Paradox title, right? If even i, not being a fan, can do it?

So, i think a fundraising campaign isn't a bad idea, if extra money will help to release MMtG.

I would love it that were possible as well.

[flame7926]

To be professional, one's policies need to be consistent. Paradox lack consistency in the past year. Furthermore, it is now evident to me that the game has been in a state like this for a while. Surely Paradox knew of the problems with the project, they should have taken strict action sooner. When they failed the first release candidate, why was there no such actions taken then? Instead, they were quite happy with letting the developers hype up a game that was failing. It is just not acceptable. This is mostly speculation, but I just think that Paradox left it far too late.

Policies don't need to be consistent, for example they shouldn't release buggy games now just because they did in the past. Yes, they lacked consistency in the quality of their published games, which they are trying to improve upon. As someone else said, they probably saw them, slowly realized that it would take more than just one more release candidate, and decided to post this telling fans. I feel that it is a developers job to hype the game, while still being honest, they want sales. And yes, what you are saying is mostly speculation.

[SerialCereal]

I think you're totally wrong. Paradox as publishers obviously want this game published, they've put money into it, they want some sort of return, it's only sensible. Moreover, they want it to be a good game, they've extended deadlines so that UV can get their game in order for a release candidate, but now see no alternative than to say: "either get it done, or we'll have to pull out". Paradox have been very generous, UV would be hardpressed to find a publisher good enough to lend them the framework for the game, and then try their best to let UV get MM out. However, we've consistently seen Ubik hype up the game, say its ready for release (at which point Pdox stepped in to correct him), and present very vague Developer Diaries. The only reason this thread is so full of fail is because of the finger pointing going on between the ridiculously fractured employees of UV.

Read my original post here. I think both companies have handled the situation terribly, but out of the two I would have expected Paradox to handle it better. All that I was saying is that Paradox should have taken hold of the situation at a much earlier stage. Perhaps creating a ruckus like this a while ago would have subverted some of the management problems that UV has evidently experienced, they would have taken stock of the situation and realised that if the didn't get there act together then the shit would hit the fan. I want this game to be released, and I am going to buy it reguardless of the state it is released in, but I think that it could, and should, be getting released on better terms than it currently is.

[James The 1st]

The only thing I know from all of this is Ubik doesn't seem know what he is doing.

[Konstantinos XV]

Practice is the mother of all skills.
And Ubik seems to have subtly accepted the lightning rod role. Which is quite sensible. Your ordinary ego-maniac would've started placing blame left and right long ago. (From which we can only conclude that Ubik is an extraordinary ego-maniac. )