What Kind of Dev Are You?

[ensouls]

P.S. Fig is a crowdfunding platform that Schafer is a founder of, and now he's running a game through it? That smacks of conflict of interest to the extreme right there. Would anyone here fund an EA game run through a crowdfunding service that EA founded? I thought not.

I for one would laugh so hard vital organs would spew across the room.

I also have yet to see anyone praising AAA studios for being slow af (maybe because so many still put out a broken game to boot), so I'm not sure who this comic is complaining about. The important difference is in what kind of guarantee you're getting for your money. Buying a published game - pretty solid. It may suck in a general way, but A)it exists and B) if enough people complain about broken elements, a decent chance for a fix/refund.
With Kickstarter, you're handing over money for something that doesn't exist yet, but offers at least a chance of refund if the developer completely bows out.
With Fig.. [trombone noise]

I'm gonna throw this out there for people too, just because I saw it today and find it interesting: https://www.kickstarter.com/fulfillment?ref=hero

 

[And Man]

Well, yeah, obviously people are going to be more critical when they have personally put their own money towards it. That's compounded by the fact that, because of the way Kickstarter works, Kickstarter games often promise more features, etc., and promise much more specific features, so when a game doesn't deliver as intended, someone can go to the Kickstarter page and literally just point out on the page all of the missing features. But even ignoring that, you picked two very poor examples.

Broken Age received over 8 times the funding, almost $3 million more, than its initial funding goal. Of course people are going to become upset when the game is late and over budget when the funding surpassed the original proposed budget by 800%.

Peter Molyneux has been getting shit for unfinished games and unfulfilled promises long before his Kickstarter, so this isn't a Kickstarter-exclusive thing in his case.

 

[GUIGUI]

The big difference is that when big dev delay a game, they do it wit their money. people still haven't give anything for the game yet. A delay just mean waiting more.

For a kickstarter, they are using the backer's money, not their, they haven't any. So when they delay they more naturally go "WTF are you doing with our money".

 

[Lightknight]

Yep, when your consumers are also your publisher then they're going to think of your failures more like a publisher would and less like your regular consumers would. For once, they actually are entitled to something.

 

[2cool4u]

What Kind of Dev Are You?

I've spoken to corporate and it's time we cut you.

Read Full Article

prehaps.... the actual truth... is the oposite?!!?!?!?!?!!?!??????????????

 

[XDSkyFreak]

And as usual the truth is somewhere in the middle. What backers of Schafer are experiencing is what the publishers whogave him money for psychonauts experienced so long ago. This is what happens when you give someone X money to do Y in timeframe Z and not ony does he go over timeframe Z, but also demands W extra over the X you gave him. So maybe now people can start to understand how a publisher views devs who go over schedule and overbudget from an investor perspective.

Mind you, this doesn't excuse the shit practices of investors and publishers regarding rushing games, cutting content for DLC and whatnot. However, maybe we can stop idealizing devs who go over budget and over schedule as some sort of artistic geniuses who must not suffer the constraints of reality, and maybe start realizing that despite what they create, they might just need a bit more discipline and a little reality check here and there.

 

[boag]

No, Tim Schafer really mishandles money.

pretty blatantly.

http://i.imgur.com/kJf0L2v.jpg

 

[boag]

What Kind of Dev Are You?

I've spoken to corporate and it's time we cut you.

Read Full Article

oh hey, I fixed your strawman.

 

[TallanKhan]

So are we just not getting any more Critical Miss? Its been almost 3 weeks since this strip so even accounting for Christmas it seems like this has just stopped?

 

[Toastngravy]

EDIT: I doofed up (wrong quote so now my motivation [and interest] has gone)

 

[JimB]

Oh hey, I fixed your strawman.

Who specifically are the creators strawmanning, boag?

I have to do a double-take every single time I look at that second panel because no matter how many times I look, before I take that second look, my eyes are convinced the dev is shoveling babies into that furnace.

I'd also like some information on this, as we're in the dark. I assumed holiday, but we're getting pretty far into it with nothing. I did attempt to navigate Grey's Twitter but I can't physically make myself scroll down anymore (an obnoxious amount of Tweets daily, the majority of which are him trying super hard to be edgy in what I'd almost consider an "come fight me bro" attitude. But I suppose that's hardly the point: Can't find shit about shit, is the idea).

Er, did you mean to quote me here? Because I don't think my weird mental impressions really require the creators to comment.

 

[Eric the Orange]

What Kind of Dev Are You?

I've spoken to corporate and it's time we cut you.

Read Full Article

oh hey, I fixed your strawman.

I don't think you know what a strawman is.

 

[faefrost]

No, Tim Schafer really mishandles money.

I'm not sure "mishandles" is the right term anymore. At least not after reading some of the stuff reported to be in the FIG agreements and reports. Mishandles leaves open the posibility that he is simply incompetant with the financial side of things. That he spends badly and mismanages money. FIG however... yeah, no. There is no accident going on there. That is deliberate intent.

 

[faefrost]

And as usual the truth is somewhere in the middle. What backers of Schafer are experiencing is what the publishers whogave him money for psychonauts experienced so long ago. This is what happens when you give someone X money to do Y in timeframe Z and not ony does he go over timeframe Z, but also demands W extra over the X you gave him. So maybe now people can start to understand how a publisher views devs who go over schedule and overbudget from an investor perspective.

Mind you, this doesn't excuse the shit practices of investors and publishers regarding rushing games, cutting content for DLC and whatnot. However, maybe we can stop idealizing devs who go over budget and over schedule as some sort of artistic geniuses who must not suffer the constraints of reality, and maybe start realizing that despite what they create, they might just need a bit more discipline and a little reality check here and there.

I've long been of the opinion that Gamers fail to appreciate what exactly publishers do bring to the equation. They bring discipline. They are the ones who at the end of the day demand results. They are the group that through their investment and financial risk (and the protection of such) turn 'Art" into "Product". and we forget for all the high falutin talk of "games as art", really what we are all here for is Product. Shit on Bobby Kotick all you want. But never forget that regardless of his verbal diarrhea he is remarkably good at ushering successful games that people are willing to pay for to market.

 

[Crash_7]

So are we just not getting any more Critical Miss? Its been almost 3 weeks since this strip so even accounting for Christmas it seems like this has just stopped?

I was wondering that myself. Even the other strip (which I haven't read for a while) hasn't had a new one since 12/14.

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

So are we just not getting any more Critical Miss? Its been almost 3 weeks since this strip so even accounting for Christmas it seems like this has just stopped?

I was wondering that myself. Even the other strip (which I haven't read for a while) hasn't had a new one since 12/14.

Checked the twitters, Cory has been out of town for a while and they said they will get back to work soon, he was flying aboard I think so that's why it's taking so long.