EA Predicted APB's Poor Reception

[junkmanuk]

I got into the game.

Played the Tutorial and was like "Alright neat."

Got into the WORLD and almost immediately was blown to hell by a couple of guys with, what looked like, automatic shotguns.

I respawned...they were still outside.

"Hmmm...I could continue playing this game and get nowhere or go play any other MMO and have fun."

I chose the latter :/. I really hate forced PVP. That's why I quit wow initially, before someone slapped me in the face (metaphorically) and said "Hey artard you don't have to play a PVP server."

those are exploiters. they have been there since beta. unless you get 5 friends to play, don't bother.

I read an article from a player on ripten saying exactly this - the problem he and his team perceived was the amount of hacking, exploiting and forum trolling which the company weren't doing enough to stamp on. Interestingly enough this was posted the day before the announcement.

http://www.ripten.com/2010/08/15/all-points-bulletin-is-apb-dying-demi-a/

So nice of them to kick a person when they are down, and now try to make them selves look like industry experts.

While I agree to an extent (some people just 'like' trolling!) I think the gamer community is probably the critic most worth listening to, after all they're the ones buying the end product.

edit: Or are you talking about E.A.?

 

[Locko96]

Shit... i was really looking forward to this and I liked Crackdown from Realtime Worlds.

 

[Chipperz]

If they had of had more servers to accomodate the australasian market, and released it for the 360, they would of had a chance.

ummm 360?

yeah no that wouldnt of helped

Oooh yes it would. It was based around third person combat, and a controller and a standardised hardware set would have made everything a LOT smoother.

It's a shame APB tanked, I enjoyed it for a while before the crippling bugs and the vastly underdeveloped matchmaking forced me to leave...

 

[viciouspen]

I was so disappointed in how this game turned out.
I'd been looking forward to playing it, was totally blown away by the videos of the character customisation and player created content abilities.
Then I started getting reports from a member in my supergroup in Champions online about how incredibly horrible it was, made it sound like a tiny griefing cage online.

So sad, could and should have been a fantastic new option on the MMO scene. Real time had a chance to make a significant splash, and all they did was drop the ball in one of those "good frig what were they smoking" ways.

 

[squid5580]

Ok I don't see the point of offering that. You mean to tell me they were worried about people not being able to afford the extra 3 bucks? Or that they would take advantage of using in game money for more hours? That seems like a waste to be honest. It defeats the whole purpose of getting loot in the first place. You would just wind up in a circle of getting loot to trade for hours to get more loot to get more hours.

All in all that article sent alarms off in my mind and I wouldn't go near it.

No. Its called choices. People aren't always playing an MMO at a consistent basis, they understood that, so they offered a payment method that could accommodate that. If you knew you were going to play more than 20hrs in that one month, or for a few, you could sign up for the 3month time. If you hit a point where you had no clue how long you'd be able to pay, you could just pay for the 20hrs for 7$ and not worry about the "wasted time" you can suffer from from most other P2P mmos.

And no, in-game currency wasn't used to buy game time.

The pricing plan also allows for players to trade their customizations and rewards to other players, or place them on the Marketplace, where they will earn Realtime World (RTW) points, which can then be converted into game time or in-game money.

In the marketplace, you could sell your customization items (cars, clothing, that kind of stuff), for RTW points, which in turn allows you to trade them in for game-time, or in-game currency, there is no currency->point->time conversions.

I'm sorry but stressing over the 3 bucks you might not have used that month is silly. When you said by the hour I thought you meant by the hour. What if I only play 17 hours I am in the exact same position I am if I pay monthly. The difference being I have to worry about going over 20 hours. Hardly a choice. The only ones I could see benefiting from this is MMO widows and parents who don't have the gonads to say "hey time is up, shut it down."

I don't know how the whole customization works but my big fear would be that most people will be in there customizing to get money or time while the actual game part lies dormant. That is why I wouldn't touch it.

 

[Chris Spray]

APB RIP.

 

[squid5580]

I'm sorry but stressing over the 3 bucks you might not have used that month is silly. When you said by the hour I thought you meant by the hour. What if I only play 17 hours I am in the exact same position I am if I pay monthly. The difference being I have to worry about going over 20 hours. Hardly a choice. The only ones I could see benefiting from this is MMO widows and parents who don't have the gonads to say "hey time is up, shut it down."

I don't know how the whole customization works but my big fear would be that most people will be in there customizing to get money or time while the actual game part lies dormant. That is why I wouldn't touch it.

If you paid for the 20hrs, and only used 17 hrs in a month, you wouldn't be in the same position. Its 20hrs total, not for that one month. Those 3hrs will carry over for next month, and month after next even if not used.

And, if you stopped being so narrow-minded, you'd see why the 20hr pack isn't bad. Not everyone plays just one MMO, some play several, and for random times. I have friends who like to play a couple of p2p mmos, they might play one for a couple weeks, then the other for a week, take a break, play another couple of weeks, then go back to the fist.

What the 7$ option allows is an option that doesn't charge you when you aren't playing the game. Its perfect for those who know their gameplay time is split, and know they won't play much APB, that means that 7$ for 20hrs, could very well end up covering 2-3months of gameplay on extremes.

Sometimes the best way to compete in an industry, is to go for a small spot that others in that market don't cover. I don't see WoW, or Aion, or any other MMO outside of Korea let you pay just for gametime, not monthly access. It lets APB become a side-line game, one you just play when you feel like. The only other MMO that currently competes with this bit of market is Guild Wars, but the two games play so differently that it doesn't matter, since the target audience wouldn't be bothered by the other, and they don't exactly mix as well.

Well maybe if you had communicated it better I might not have appeared so narrow minded. I'll tell you what. You send me the 50 bucks or whatever the game costs or a copy of the game itself and I will gladly give it a chance. But there is no way in hell I am going to spend my money on a game the publisher has no faith in. That is the bottom line.

 

[Delusibeta]

Ultimately one of the major problems APB had was the pricing system. As demonstrated in the thread, it was too complicated and prompted much in the way of confusion. *insert insult to the marketers here for failing to point out you can pay by the hour OR by the month*
Although personally, I wouldn't have stumped up the monthly money myself.

 

[Alandoril]

Probably due to the fact EA pushed through the premature relaease and forced the unusual payment scheme...sorry, even WoW doesnt muster the power to justify a buy the game, and pay for the time you actually play scheme.

Take note designers, most players dont want to be arsed with fancy pay per hour shite, most would merely ask how much per month and then tell you to STFU till the next billing. Mess with the formulae and you already take a huge hit in popularity, so if the product dont match the audicity of the payment scheme... welcome to the dole.

That payment scheme is exactly what stopped me buying the game.

 

[Delusibeta]

Alas, the payment scheme was a damn good idea if you understood it. Having a per-hour solution (as in: you play for 20 hours, and I don't give a damn what calendar month you play in) would have suited my better than the traditional per-calendar-month scheme. Sadly, that's one innovation in MMOs that's probably going to killed off by APB's failure.

 

[ultimateownage]

Well maybe you should have advertised it more, you stupid sods.

 

[DTWolfwood]

always ez to say "I told you so" after the fact lol

Probably would have done better if they advertised it more. I literally had no idea it released until i saw it on sale for Steam. Before that I had no idea what the game was like. No news, nothing to peek my interest (granted i didnt go looking for news, but i shouldnt have to). They never ramped up the hype train.

 

[Woodsey]

Probably due to the fact EA pushed through the premature relaease and forced the unusual payment scheme...sorry, even WoW doesnt muster the power to justify a buy the game, and pay for the time you actually play scheme.

Take note designers, most players dont want to be arsed with fancy pay per hour shite, most would merely ask how much per month and then tell you to STFU till the next billing. Mess with the formulae and you already take a huge hit in popularity, so if the product dont match the audicity of the payment scheme... welcome to the dole.

APB had a pay-per-month model as well. The pay-for-hours model came about because it's quite a different game to WoW. And how do you know EA pushed the payment model? EA Partners just invest the money as far as I'm aware; the developer does what they want with it.

 

[4484448444844484]

First of all they could have changed the name.

ummm what?

do you even know what apb stands for... ALL POINTS BULLITEN


the game revoles around the name apb a-dhur

I know but it's hard to remember.

 

[Phoenixlight]

Well it would be a lot more successfull if you didn't have to pay for it monthly.

 

[Lord_Gremlin]

And it is better then Saints Row 2 co-op because?

Anyway, I think it was killed by 2 flaws: freedom for griefing and no real storyline.

 

[Lord Krunk]

Shame. I saw a few of the ads for this game around and it looked pretty cool.

 

[Leroy Frederick]

It is a shame, the character creation system was easily the best and most in-depth I've ever seen in a game. I wish all involve success with finding new jobs / new pastures.

 

[Pinguin]

Shame EA couldn't force them to fix the crappy controls. And the poor maps. And the rubbish, superficial missions. If so they might've given the otherwise excellent character and vehicle customisation a point.

But they didn't, so that just left the second-rate third person shooter experience. No-one's going to pay a subscription for that.

 

[Echo136]

I got into the game.

Played the Tutorial and was like "Alright neat."

Got into the WORLD and almost immediately was blown to hell by a couple of guys with, what looked like, automatic shotguns.

I respawned...they were still outside.

"Hmmm...I could continue playing this game and get nowhere or go play any other MMO and have fun."

I chose the latter :/. I really hate forced PVP. That's why I quit wow initially, before someone slapped me in the face (metaphorically) and said "Hey artard you don't have to play a PVP server."

You must really like throwing away money if you didnt bother more than that.