Let my tell you a little story, if you are willing to listen...er...read.
I like fantasy and roleplay (obviously) and I loved the pc game known as Neverwinter Nights. Naturally, I was interested in Neverwinter Nights 2. Now, my computer is by no means a powerful machine, but on their site it was mentioned that performance would be no issue (i did online benchmark test, and read the list of minimum requirements). Especially my geforce 5900 card would be an issue, i assumed, but on their site (prior to the release) there was a post saying that the game supported all the way down to 5400 cards. Neverwinter Nights 2 was made by a different developer. Some of my friends noted that the game might be a bit disappointing. How prophetic they were.
When I purchased it, the box stated as requirement on the back of the case a 128 mb 3d card, which I have. When I came home, I went to the official forums to check things out. That's when I was shocked. There were tons of people complaining about poor performance, and bugs, and whatnot. Looking at the supported list again, i noted that some cards were 'scrapped', and the list now only went down to 5600 cards. That's life.
Installing the game and playing. At the very minimum settings, and with pretty much every other program disabled (virus scan, firewall... networking service
) I had terrible frame rate (about 9-15 outdoors and 0.5-6 indoors... standing still). That's life.
On the forums, things had pretty much exploded. Everyone was asking about the performance, with one developer response in 4 days, saying they were looking into it. New patch released, a little improvement. Checked the 3d card list, more removed, including my own 5900. That's life.
After spending the last days tweaking and messing with my computer in vain, I decided to give up. I gave the game away. I also posted on the forums asking a bit of explanation (trying to remain civil... or at least more civil than the others). THAT is life....
You see, it turns out the moderators there, though you would expect them to remain professional, are just laughing at the people. Please, allow me to show you a moderate example of their behaviour and respect for the paying customers:
Charming fellow, isn't he? I mean, come on, he even said 'waaah'...
That post made me really mad. I felt ripped off, just like hundreds of people before me. I made a complaining post, asking about the 'fixing' of the 3d card list, and they simply replied like this:
That's nice. Take time to note his friendly explanation of the box. Remember how I said that the box only stated a 128MB card? Yeah. Actually, while the game came just in a dvd case, the preordered special edition came in a box. Turns out they assume everyone likes to pay extra. Strangely enough, the topic was locked before I could reply again. So there it is. 50 bucks down the drain. That's life.
So, what have I learned:
-The customer is not always right, even when he is.
-As soon as a company has their/your money, they don't care what happens next, and they're not afraid to show it.
-Some companies like to fix a lack of respect with a bigger lack of respect.
-Some companies aren't ashamed to 'fix' their flaws by lying about past data
-Arguing on the internet really IS like running in the special olympics
To make a long (and boring, I am sure) story short, I am never buying a pc game again.
PS: if this post offended you in any way, I apologise. Except if you work for Obsidian "Entertainment", in which case sod off.
I like fantasy and roleplay (obviously) and I loved the pc game known as Neverwinter Nights. Naturally, I was interested in Neverwinter Nights 2. Now, my computer is by no means a powerful machine, but on their site it was mentioned that performance would be no issue (i did online benchmark test, and read the list of minimum requirements). Especially my geforce 5900 card would be an issue, i assumed, but on their site (prior to the release) there was a post saying that the game supported all the way down to 5400 cards. Neverwinter Nights 2 was made by a different developer. Some of my friends noted that the game might be a bit disappointing. How prophetic they were.
When I purchased it, the box stated as requirement on the back of the case a 128 mb 3d card, which I have. When I came home, I went to the official forums to check things out. That's when I was shocked. There were tons of people complaining about poor performance, and bugs, and whatnot. Looking at the supported list again, i noted that some cards were 'scrapped', and the list now only went down to 5600 cards. That's life.
Installing the game and playing. At the very minimum settings, and with pretty much every other program disabled (virus scan, firewall... networking service
) I had terrible frame rate (about 9-15 outdoors and 0.5-6 indoors... standing still). That's life.On the forums, things had pretty much exploded. Everyone was asking about the performance, with one developer response in 4 days, saying they were looking into it. New patch released, a little improvement. Checked the 3d card list, more removed, including my own 5900. That's life.
After spending the last days tweaking and messing with my computer in vain, I decided to give up. I gave the game away. I also posted on the forums asking a bit of explanation (trying to remain civil... or at least more civil than the others). THAT is life....
You see, it turns out the moderators there, though you would expect them to remain professional, are just laughing at the people. Please, allow me to show you a moderate example of their behaviour and respect for the paying customers:
Charming fellow, isn't he? I mean, come on, he even said 'waaah'...
That post made me really mad. I felt ripped off, just like hundreds of people before me. I made a complaining post, asking about the 'fixing' of the 3d card list, and they simply replied like this:
That's nice. Take time to note his friendly explanation of the box. Remember how I said that the box only stated a 128MB card? Yeah. Actually, while the game came just in a dvd case, the preordered special edition came in a box. Turns out they assume everyone likes to pay extra. Strangely enough, the topic was locked before I could reply again. So there it is. 50 bucks down the drain. That's life.
So, what have I learned:
-The customer is not always right, even when he is.
-As soon as a company has their/your money, they don't care what happens next, and they're not afraid to show it.
-Some companies like to fix a lack of respect with a bigger lack of respect.
-Some companies aren't ashamed to 'fix' their flaws by lying about past data
-Arguing on the internet really IS like running in the special olympics
To make a long (and boring, I am sure) story short, I am never buying a pc game again.
PS: if this post offended you in any way, I apologise. Except if you work for Obsidian "Entertainment", in which case sod off.
