I really hope you guys don't ban me for this

[Shams]

https://33.media.tumblr.com/3120a2e6cc596e9e82c105895ded43ec/tumblr_nbu52yt2vO1tj9fguo1_500.jpg :rofl:

I'm going to bite. Tell me what games you feel this is true about.

We go to great lengths to make our base games full game experiences with tons of content. Base games that we keep updating and adding stuff to for free - see CK2 and Eu4 (both I see you are an owner of) as an example. Along side this we release tons of DLC - cosmetic and gameplay expanding. The key word being expanding - ie not integral to the core experience. It's entirely optional. Vote with your wallet. You feel you should be getting these DLC's for free

I think your joke is unfair and a cheap one at that.

Do better next time.

/shams

 

[Shams]

15€ for playing Mohamedians
15€ for playing Pagans
15€ for the Indians
5€ for africans in africa
5€ for the right historical dynasties
yeah, people put work in that but I thouhgt that I've had full game after paying 40€ (50$-370SEK)

The game is called Crusader Kings - as in Christian kings that crusade - that's what the core game is about.

It's not called Muslim Kings 2, Pagan Kings 2 etc - those are offshoots to the main game and not integral to the core of the game - which again is Kings that crusade.

I don't know why you're under the impression that the other areas together should constitute a "full game". Ask yourself - do I get a fun gaming experience from the core CK2 game? and is that worth the price. If you then don't like DLC don't buy them.


/shams

 

[Shams]

EU4

I can not afford the DLCs, but due to the publicity - and the clearly missing/inactive options/buttons I can see - I know exactly what I'm missing out on.

I find it hard to enjoy a game when every third screen just reminds me I'm poor.

This I can relate to - but that's life no? On my way to work I pass lots of beautiful cars I would love to own - I don't get bent out of shape or blame the car companies or the people owning these no?

The silver lining is the games and DLC are put on deep discounts on a semi-regular basis - so there absolutely ways to get the DLC for a fraction of their cost. This is of course in addition to all the free stuff you get in the game.

This is more off topic - but in general this works for me - I try to focus more on what I have - rather than what I don't have. There will always be tons of stuff I can't get - and the more I think about it the more frustrated I become - the more I focus on the things I do have the more grateful I am for them and thus happier.

/shams

 

[Shams]

I'm still mad that Paradox removed content from a released game and added it in DLC.

Also Shams can you justify that a paid DLC was not working for half a year?
Or that the Cross platform multiplayer that EU4 was and is advertised for does not work?

paid DLC not working for even a day is very uncool. I'm looking into this.


/shams

 

[Shams]

Not sure if you are being serious or sarcastic (Hard to tell over the internet). It's definitely not funny that American Dream DLC is not working properly with Conquest of Paradise.

It's also not funny that cross-platform multiplayer is still not working. The game has been advertised and is still advertised with multiplayer.

I was serious.

 

[Shams]

But every time they fix 5 bugs they add 10 new.

Dude, that's so not true.

Check out the patch notes for real. We plug holes as much as we can. Do we plug every single one? No, but we sure as hell try - these are pretty complex games.

/shams

 

[Shams]

It's not about Paradox making DLCs. I'm glad that they add new content. The issue is that Paradox rarely releases a patch that fixes bugs. The only time we get bug fixes is when a new DLC gets releases and that's not a customer friendly policy. We have to deal with countless of bugs in EU IV and have been told that many have long been fixed in some mysterious dev version. In my opinion Paradox should release a bug fix patch at least once a month. That's not too much to ask for.

http://www.eu4wiki.com/Patches

Maybe we have different definitions of rarely. We could absolutely patch more - but this is a balanced approach - patches and new content features. I don't think it's too much ask for regular patches - but expecting/demanding or saying we do it "rarely" I think borderlines on entitlement.

The process of patching games is very time consuming and thus costly. Some bugs can take 5 minutes to fix - others 5 days. Additionally each patch carries with it a certain amount of overhead. Writing patch notes, coordinating across the company, planning and doing QA etc etc (the whole magical act of publishing). The more frequent patching the less substantial they will be. By releasing major patches with major DLC reduces some of that overhead and allows us to give you more free stuff and fixes.

Listen - give us a bit of credit - we're not douchebags - we play our games ourselves (and experience bugs first hand) and really try to do the best we can - but there are a lot of limitations - many of which you don't see from the outside. The development teams supporting the games are miniscule.

We always strive to be better - being grateful and supportive of what we do motivates us even more than saying we don't patch stuff enough when our patch rate is among the absolute best in the industry for strategy games of this caliber. And I'm not saying "don't be negative or you won't get anything" - but being more constructive helps me at least in these kind of discussions.

Lastly - regarding bugs QA (having started my career in QA I have a bit of insight); bug triage (prioritization) is a very delicate balancing act. Bug severity x bug occurrence rate x impact on other features = bug priority - it's not an exact science but that's roughly how it works.

There might be a big that's very, very annoying and severe for you - but if the player base as a large doesn't suffer from it it's probably not going to get the highest priority. As a great ancestor of mine once said - the need of the many outweigh the need of the few, or the one.

and again - yes we can do better - we always strive to.

/shams