Over-rated Developer Syndrome

[theSovietConnection]

Over-rated Developer Syndrome is a term I've coined for something I'm seeing more and more of lately, complete denial of the poor quality of a game based on either the developer or the series. This first showed itself with Halo 3 among my group of friends. They would overlook aspects of the game I knew would in any other game have driven them nuts simply because they refused to believe Halo could do any wrong. Again ODS reared it's ugly head when Fable 2 came out, although eventually they began accepting that Fable 2 was nowhere near as good as they were willing it to be.

I bring this here to the Escapist to ask you, has anyone else encountered this (maybe it's just the air or the water around where I am), and could you see this becoming a problem with developers like Blizzard or Valve, companies we so desperately want to see make good products we might blind ourselves to poor quality in any of their games.

 

[Souplex]

The most common is half life.

 

[santaandy]

All successful devs are probably have been guilty of this at some point, and some still are.

 

[Jarc42]

I'm happy that I never will myself to like things only because a certain developer made them. I call 'em like I see 'em.

Most of my friends don't relate many games to their developers; if we played Left 4 Dead and loved it, we wouldn't love Half Life 2 just because it's made by the same developer. Also, I think Valve and Blizzard have earned the dedicated fanbase, based on the quality games they produce.

 

[Noamuth]

SqaureSoft/Enix would have to be the worst one I've seen. I personally don't have the problem, but so much of the fanbase seems a bit.. Delusional. It is a little scary.

 

[Avatar Roku]

I think that Valve has certainly earned it's fanbase (as Jarc said) but it isn't as flawless as people say. Still, it'll be my choice for March Mayhem.

 

[Duh]

well, valve games are good, even though im not the biggest FPS fan but i admit i enjoy them

usualy i would say that everything made by Nintendo was grossly overrated EXCEPT Pikmin 1 and dont you dare say otherwise (if its the second one fire at will)

 

[GothmogII]

Incidentally...as has been pointed out, most devs have released a sub-par product at some point in their existence, the basic understanding being that most of everything can and will be crap and all that. Which is fine, personally. It enriches that which is great and provides something with which one can measure it against. (That and without the crap where would all our deliciously snarky and hilarious reviews come from?)

However, I really don't think it should matter a flying f....ish on what other people think of the games they play. That is, yes, it should matter to the devs, they're the ones trying to sell the product. They're the ones who need to make sure they release a good product. But, that's it. If you enjoy a game, or if you hate a game, that's up to you no matter how many reviews, write-ups, angry forum posts or overly enthusiastic forum posts try and tell you otherwise. Sheesh.

Ratings suck, good or bad. Overatedness is a concept that should have no real valid bearing when making arguments against something. I mean, it's practically coming out and saying: I hate this because lots of other people like it.

 

[Avatar Roku]

A thought just occurred to me: I don't think Valve has ever released a mediocre game. True, that's likely because you could count their games on your fingers, but it still should count for something!

 

[Krakyn]

SqaureSoft/Enix would have to be the worst one I've seen. I personally don't have the problem, but so much of the fanbase seems a bit.. Delusional. It is a little scary.

I agree. Sometimes I feel sad to lump myself in with them as a fanboy. I can honestly say that not everything they make is gold. I hated XII terribly, and even though FFVII is my favorite game, I can find flaws in it.

 

[gmer412]

The most common is half life.

Huh? HL or HL2? HL had quite a few problems in my book. One of the biggest was that the story was almost nonexistant. You learned bits and pieces from people, but it basically came down to "get across the base, shoot everyone between you and the lambda complex." Oh, and something about a resonance cascade, too. HL2, however, I find to be one of the best shooters ever made.

In any case, Valve has earned its spot at the top of the "awesome devs" list.

 

[oliveira8]

Well Valve and Blizzard(despite they both my favourite devs.) Did earn their fanbase and respect.

Valve has never released a bad game, yes they have few games, but the few they have are ALL amazing. Up to a couple of years ago they were "The dudes from Half Life and Counter-Strike." Now they are "The dudes from Half Life, Counter-Strike, Portal, Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead".

As for Blizzard well...they do have some poor quality games in their catalog, but since the debut of Warcraft they be making gold. From making great RTS like WC 1/2/3 and SC to some of the most addicting games ever Diablo 1 & 2. And making the MMO market a popular market with WOW. (yeah it was WoW folks not Evercrack.)

As to go more on-topic. I think Square-enix as become a victim of its own franchise. Final Fantasy is no longer what it used to be. And many fans are becoming defranchised fast. I think its a good time to stop making FF games and give more time to their other J-RPG's that dont come under the FF title.

 

[oliveira8]

The most common is half life.

Huh? HL or HL2? HL had quite a few problems in my book. One of the biggest was that the story was almost nonexistant. You learned bits and pieces from people, but it basically came down to "get across the base, shoot everyone between you and the lambda complex." Oh, and something about a resonance cascade, too. HL2, however, I find to be one of the best shooters ever made.

In any case, Valve has earned its spot at the top of the "awesome devs" list.

Actually that is the major selling point in terms of story telling in HL series. You the player must put the pieces together by what you see,read and ear. Half Life 1 has alot of story most of it only becomes apparent when playing the sequels or reading the fan sites. But the thing is all there waiting to be found. (Yes I played HL1 too much.^^)

 

[Lawlhat]

Well Valve did release Left 4 Dead, which seems slightly below their high-quality standard. Mostly the people I see suffering ODS are Epic (Gears of War series) and Bungie (Halo series)

Square Enix is also up there for me.

Blizzard was good up until World of Warcraft. Instantly lost all respect from me.

 

[hagaya]

Bungie comes to mind. Halo 3 has lost almost all value to me, and I don't want to get Halo Wars without a proper remake with a true RTS experience on the PC. The original was great, especially on the mac, but its boiled down severely.
Valve has never made a bad game, but I think Portal's value is really overrated. I love the game heart-and -soul, but after playing through it 3 times, to equal the length of HL2 episode 1, I put it down and spent time with TF2, my favorite game on the orange box.
Squeenix is dying, as there are many great RPGs (Valkyrie Profile, anyone?) out there, but FF was the best, and is among the worst with recent installments and spin-offs (minus XII in a few respects). Unfortunately, it isn't stopping them from milking this cash cow (double entente), so we won't see a good end for this. Ah, well, back into the pits of "cult following."

 

[Aramax]

Rockstar. You can feel it everytime you play one of their new games... Over-rated Developer Syndrome is going to kill them. It's like they can't be allowed to release a mediocre title or else the fans are going to burn them at the stake.

Execution by burning for making games that are no fun to play = Hardcore game developing.

 

[Noamuth]

SqaureSoft/Enix would have to be the worst one I've seen. I personally don't have the problem, but so much of the fanbase seems a bit.. Delusional. It is a little scary.

I agree. Sometimes I feel sad to lump myself in with them as a fanboy. I can honestly say that not everything they make is gold. I hated XII terribly, and even though FFVII is my favorite game, I can find flaws in it.

As long as you can think like that, you're fine, and not as bad as the rest of the fanbase.

 

[Flying-Emu]

SqaureSoft/Enix would have to be the worst one I've seen. I personally don't have the problem, but so much of the fanbase seems a bit.. Delusional. It is a little scary.

Yeah, this.

Squaresoft or SquarEnix or Enix or Enixbox or whatever the hell they're called now have some nutty fans.

 

[Drachknouir]

I think that in the last 5 years devs have been getting more presher to release games and operating sys way to soon best example is connan.give connan 2 years and it will be a great game .

 

[Samurai Goomba]

The only one I can think of is Square Enix. I have played only one game by those fuckers that I actually liked....

Yep. For me it was FF6 and FFT that I liked, but that was the old Squaresoft that made those games. Since then... Nothing.