Vivendi Universal Games a criminal corrupt company

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Wolverine

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I have always been an avid player of the Tribes franchise. However recent events in Tribes Vengeance have changed my mind. For the last 6 months the community has been waiting for a patch to come out to fix mant bugs that were broke due to rushed development. For a while VUG kept saying that the patch would be out shortly. After about a month of of falsely reporting it will only be a bit longer they stopped giving us any information whatsoever. We waited and wondered what was going on. A few weeks ago we were told there would be news about the patch within one week. That information never came, finally today VU announced it would not be releasing a patch ever.

<A HREF="http://community.vugames.com/WebX?14@9.rEvSejDdkbI.8999817@.1dd97873" target="_new">(guy.welch "Tribes: Vengeance 1.1 Update - Cancelled" 3/23/05 1:53pm)</A>

So basically we have been lied to and cheated by VU games. We were patient and kind but we can't take anymore. I am here to plead with you not to become a victim of VUgames. Don’t let them cheat you out of your hard earned money. It is no coincidence that their refund policy is 90 days after purchase and the cancellation of the patch is almost exactly 90 days after christmas. The Better Business Bureaus rated VUgames "F" there lowest score possible in customer satisfaction.

http://www.labbb.org/BBBWeb/Forms/Business/CompanyReportPage_Expository.aspx?CompanyID=13050668&hAKAID=13&hAddrID=10

So I beg you do not support a criminal and corrupt game company that cares more about money than its customers.

Wolverine
 

dhlucke

Polypheme
Anyone who can pass HL2 in 20 min is playing the demo.

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DFenn

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Whoa, Wolverine, 'Criminal & Corrupt' is pretty strong. I think you need to sit down and take a couple of valiums :) We all know the games industry is out there to screw us for every penny we have, VUG are not the only ones.

Sounds like you need to spend a little less time online and a little more time in the real world, buy a puppy, get a job, just chill man.....

L8r

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riser

Illustrious
Well, from what I heard/read about Tribes Vengeance is that it didn't really take off that well.. considering WoW is the top money maker.. they're probably going after that.
Btw, read your contract under Tribes Vengeance.
A quick check of Tribes through GameSpy yields an amazing 120 players during the day..
You might like the game, but apparently the community didn't..

Don't feel bad though.. I bought PlanetSide when it came out. It was cool for 2 hours.

Riser
 

pauldh

Illustrious
I never understand the comments about HL2 taking 20 minutes or 2 hours to play. I worked through it slowly, exploring everwhere imagineable. Plus it's fun being clever and using the physics/environment as a weapon rather than just popping everyone with a gun and running on by. If anywayone really finished HL2 in under a few hours, they ripped themselves off and have no reason to complain.

Man it's like back in the day way Sonic the hedgehog came out. Did you explore and get as many rings/free guys/shields as you could, or did you race to the finish each level. I explored first and then after finishing it went back and started seeing how fast I could complete levels. Anyway, that's my two cents. Get your money out of it and enjoy the games. HL2 was a 10-15 hour game for me and didn't dissapoint me one bit.



Edit: I typed more than I had expected; I guess this should have been directed at Xeon not you. :tongue:


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<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Pauldh on 03/24/05 01:01 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 

pauldh

Illustrious
I went and bought the European Empire Interactive version of Flatout because I didn't want to wait many months for Vivendi to release the US version.

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dhlucke

Polypheme
I still haven't even finished the game. Mostly because I had to start over, but I'm with you on this one. I suppose you could run through the game, but I kill everyone, find everything, and spend a few hours minimum on each level. That level with the sand spiders, where you have to walk through their nesting area or something without touching the ground....that alone can't be done in 20 minutes and that's only a fraction of one level.

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pauldh

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Sarcasm isn't your strong point. :wink: That sounds familiar for some reason. :tongue:



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mpasternak

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a game developer owes you nothing to update a game after it's release date.. once that game is released to store shelves, if a game producer wants, never needs to release further updates.

unless that is oyu pay a subscription and it's in the agreement (Like WOW). but as for a stand alone game, consider yourself lucky if the developer continues to update it
 

riser

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Tribes was a subscription game I believe.... the game stopped with the updates because it wasn't taking off and the money wasn't coming in.. effectively eliminating the game.
 

Wolfy

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A game developers owes it to his customer to update a game if after release it's realised it was a buggy piece of [-peep-] and shouldn't have been released in the first place.

I don't feel thankful when a patch is released, if mistakes are made in the game I EXPECT A PATCH TO BE RELEASED. If not then I will remember the company and avoid their stuff in future.

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lonelypauly

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That's like saying once a car is released on the market that's it, no recalls, repairs, no nothin'. If a product is defective in some way, it must be fixed or repaired.

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Wolfy

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It's usually better to click the "reply to this post" button on the post of the person you wanted to reply to.

"Its only when you look at ants closely with a magnifying glass on a sunny day that you realise how often they burst into flames"
 

riser

Illustrious
Can't compare the two.. a car has a warranty and regulated laws that force them to fix things.. when was the last time you heard someone die from a 'fatal error' in the coding?

I just need to mention 'Firestone' and I think you'll get the idea that you can't compare..

When games are released, they've done most of the testing.. that's the point of online subscriptions now.. you keep paying, they keep updating and fixing..

You have to look at it financially.. if sales are less than desirable, they're not going to put more money into fixing it.. they need to make more money than what they put into it.. if few people are buying it, then why update it?
 

Wolfy

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If people aren't buying the game then it's most likely a crap game.

"Its only when you look at ants closely with a magnifying glass on a sunny day that you realise how often they burst into flames"
 

BigMac

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When games are released, they've done most of the testing.. that's the point of online subscriptions now.. you keep paying, they keep updating and fixing..
online subscription is possible because something extra is delivered: an online persistent game world, something that is not delivered by single player games or online shooters. At least that's what most publishers/developers have done. Now there's Guild wars, which is a one time sale deal again and includes maintenance. However extension packs will be sold separately.

You have to look at it financially.. if sales are less than desirable, they're not going to put more money into fixing it.. they need to make more money than what they put into it.. if few people are buying it, then why update it?

If you want customers to buy the next game you are going to publish you better give appropriate service on games that you have published, and most publishers/developers do so. Of course there is a definite limit to the lifetime of a product, where the maintenance costs are covered at the moment of purchase but don't make the mistake of looking at the financial status per game, but look at the financials of the developer.

That's also where the analogy with a car breaks down, it is accepted that you pay for servicing a car (replacing parts that wear down by using them). Many people do not find it acceptable to pay for servicing software which does not wear down due to usage. And what game software developers call maintenance is actually improving the quality of a released product to par.



BigMac

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