The War Z Shambles Back to Life on Steam

Cognimancer

Imperial Intelligence
Jun 13, 2012
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The War Z Shambles Back to Life on Steam



A new build of the game is available for purchase, with a less "misleading" description.

On December 17, 2012, Hammerpoint Interactive released an open-world zombie survival game called The War Z on Steam. The next day, Valve pulled the game from its store in response to overwhelming accusations of false advertising [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121178-Update-A-Rocky-Start-For-The-War-Z], with players reporting that the game was dramatically different from what its bullet points claimed it was. Now, more than two months later, the game has resurfaced on Steam with an updated build and a less impressive description.

Valve vouches for the new version of the game in a brief statement asserting that "Valve and Hammerpoint Interactive collaborated to address community feedback, update the Steam store page, and make the title available for purchase worldwide." The store page has indeed been tweaked in several ways to better reflect the true status of the game. Gone is the false claim of "Up to 100 Players per Game Server," as well as the bullet point labeling the game as "Single Purchase" - while the game could be played after one purchase, the in-game economy relied heavily on microtransactions. Likewise, the page no longer makes claims of "areas between 100 to 400 square kilometers," and has dropped any mention of skill trees, private servers, and friends lists. On the numerically accurate side of things, the page now shows The War Z's Metacritic rating: 23/100.

A patch has been released to update the game for those who already bought the game, while new buyers can choose from three prices that include varying amounts of in-game currency. Valve offered a refund [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121189-How-to-Get-Your-War-Z-Refund-From-Steam] to unhappy customers who paid for the original release; now that a more accurate edition of the game is up for sale, that offer has concluded.

Hammerpoint initially claimed that players had misread their totally valid information, but it seems they've learned that the best way to avoid accusations of false advertising is to only advertise for features that are actually in the game. As for the future of The War Z, it'll be tough to earn the gaming community's forgiveness after the disastrous initial launch, but at least the developers are attempting to correct their mistakes.

Source: PC Gamer [http://store.steampowered.com/news/10024/]

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lacktheknack

Je suis joined jewels.
Jan 19, 2009
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The "concluded offer" line implies that anyone will buy it at this point. Remember, this is the guy who made "Big Rigs: Over The Road Racing", and he apparently hasn't improved very much.
 

R.Nevermore

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Mar 28, 2008
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Gamers are a particularly bitter and begrudging consumer. It's game will not do well. Even if all of its issues were fixed and it was the greatest game under the sun, the game will flop.
 

Baldr

The Noble
Jan 6, 2010
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Let clear up some misconceptions:

The game did have 100 player servers, that came with a patch that was released a couple hours after it was released on Steam the first time.
The game DOES have private servers, that came in a patch a couple weeks ago.
In game does NOT heavily rely on game currency/micro-transactions(unless your buying a private server)
 

Abomination

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Dec 17, 2012
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23/100 on Metacritic with active micro-transactions. That's a new one.

Hammerpoint initially claimed that players had misread their totally valid information, but it seems they've learned that the best way to avoid accusations of false advertising is to only advertise for features that are actually in the game.
First, Hammerpoint are a bunch of cunts.
Second, it seems the way to not be accused of false advertising is by not employing false advertising.
 

Smooth Operator

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Oct 5, 2010
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They might have fixed some parts of the description but there is still plenty that isn't true, mainly the fact this game is not finished, and on top of that the screenshots are stuff you will never see in this game, at least they removed those that were stolen from other games but a half lie is still a lie.

Combined with the fact they never acknowledged there was any fault on their end I would avoid these guys like the plague.
 

VoidWanderer

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Sep 17, 2011
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...

I feel really sorry for Dean Hall, as he will have to go through this whole mess again when this game dies... again.
 

dragongit

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Feb 22, 2011
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I'll wait for the day z standalone instead, if I even want to get a game like that. The War Z has enough bad press behind it that I wouldn't want to even try.
 

UsefulPlayer 1

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Feb 22, 2008
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I feel like that must have been such an awkward meeting. Like a criminal and lawyer trying to meet half way or something.

"Like C'mon, you really did not take a single thing from the store without paying for it?"
 

Charli

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Nov 23, 2008
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The gaming community is a Harsh Mistress whom once scorned does not forgive easily. And this debacle was a right slap in the face from a developer who already had no standing and no trust in the community anyway, they're going to have to dig and wade through a metric ton of bile to have any hope of survival.
 

Baldr

The Noble
Jan 6, 2010
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Mr.K. said:
They might have fixed some parts of the description but there is still plenty that isn't true, mainly the fact this game is not finished, and on top of that the screenshots are stuff you will never see in this game, at least they removed those that were stolen from other games but a half lie is still a lie.

Combined with the fact they never acknowledged there was any fault on their end I would avoid these guys like the plague.
Tell me one game that was completely bug-free finished on release? They never claimed that the game 100% done. They misrepresented information about what was in the game and what was coming to the game the first time they went on steam. The only things missing from in-game now is the skill system. The community options and different maps they said were coming also.

They rotoscoped art work for their artwork from The Walking Dead for their website and in-game menus, but they never posted screenshots that were not taken in their engine.
 

Darks63

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Mar 8, 2010
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There is something to be said about first impressions and how you can only make them once. Day Z is gonna be out this year the War Z guys might as well pack it in rather than try at this late stage to woo people back.


VoidWanderer said:
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I feel really sorry for Dean Hall, as he will have to go through this whole mess again when this game dies... again.
Well he should have shot it in the head the first time it raised up :)
 

Twilight_guy

Sight, Sound, and Mind
Nov 24, 2008
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I would think there goal was to quickly introduce a fake, get some money and then run before people know what's going on. Actually making your game a real game works against the con people. Get the money, then run and hide.
 

GodzillaGuy92

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Jul 10, 2012
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Gone is the false claim of "Up to 100 Players per Game Server," as well as the bullet point labeling the game as "Single Purchase" - while the game could be played after one purchase, the in-game economy relied heavily on microtransactions. Likewise, the page no longer makes claims of "areas between 100 to 400 square kilometers," and has dropped any mention of skill trees, private servers, and friends lists.
I can't be the only one who finds this part of the article completely hilarious. Well done, Hammerpoint; you've gone from momentarily eclipsing EA as the most universally despised figure in gaming to releasing an MMO with highly limited players and area sizes, no depth in its gameplay or social aspects, and a continued reliance on whorish microtransactions that no one playing the game will be any less disgusted with because all of your potential customers remember precisely the crap you pulled last time. Keep reaching for the stars, guys.

Captcha: "It is different." Yeah, not this time.
 

KeyMaster45

Gone Gonzo
Jun 16, 2008
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Guess we should have double-tapped when the game went down in flames the first time. Nothing worse than a zombie that gets right back up just as you've forgotten about it.