Elemental, are you really surprised?

[Zechnophobe]

So, I played Demigod back when it first came out. And it was a disaster. Terrible release, lots of apologetics by the company, and then it fizzled into nothingness. Demigod wasn't MADE by Stardock, just distributed by them. But they handled the online services for it... which were the worst part of the game.

During that time, Stardock was working on Elemental. And those who followed the company well got little updates and releases of info about it. You also got to know a bit about Brad Wardell, lead designer for Stardock. After seeing one video made by him, I knew Elemental would flop. That video is at this link:

http://forums.stardock.com/371166

He's the designer, the one who is going to be crafting the gameplay experience. But listen how he talks about this game. This is not the wise words of someone illuminating the hidden subtleties of a great game, it is the random lip flailings of a person who just liked it but seems to have no idea why. The is the exact thing I don't want to see someone do.

It'd be like a chef talking about a meal he is going to prepare, and so he tells you about this great Roast his Mom made him once. And then he just says how it was like, tasty, and there was gravy and asparagus on the side, and I just couldn't stop eating it. Great, so... that's your indepth analysis of this food? That there was some gravy? No comparison of flavors and stuff?

Anyhow, after the fact I really wanted to refind that video again to share. See if it makes the whole experience a little more understandable.

 

[GoodGame]

Based on the goodness of GalCiv 1 & 2, I expected Elemental to have half a chance. Demigod was a flop because they really were new to doing online gaming. They though being good at online distribution = good at online gaming, but they erred.

I think Elemental was in their usual domain, it was just rushed; 1 year was probably too short for the amount of staff they had. Kind of shows that in-house early beta is just a gimmick if they don't keep an even tempo on the development. GalCiv2 worked well I felt, since development was really closer to 3 years long.

 

[Rub'Rum]

The way Frogboy talked about the failure, it seems more years wouldn't have helped. He basically said they were blind and thought they had a great game. So one more year of being blind wouldn't have been that much more helpful. The only way to improve games for Stardock is apparently submitting them to their 50$ beta testing. Pretty much the same for Paradox.

 

[GoodGame]

I wouldn't conclude you have to buy in to be heard. They had open forums for discussing regardless of whether or not you paid in early. And the development discussions were open to the public as far as I could tell. Just go to Elemental.com and read the forums.

 

[Rub'Rum]

Unrelated to whether you paid or not. I mean, you have to buy the game to play it, which is still the beta test for now (or at least it was for the first months)

 

[DirtyFinger]

After seeing one video made by him, I knew Elemental would flop. That video is at this link:

http://forums.stardock.com/371166

He's the designer, the one who is going to be crafting the gameplay experience. But listen how he talks about this game. This is not the wise words of someone illuminating the hidden subtleties of a great game, it is the random lip flailings of a person who just liked it but seems to have no idea why. The is the exact thing I don't want to see someone do.

Hah, I knew that video, but I never viewed at it quite the way you did - I just thought he sucks at MoM.
You are right though.

I once asked him in chat how Elemental is anything like MoM (since he always flaunted it as some kind of MoM successor). Quickly got the troll-hammer for daring to appear critical, while his fanboys cheered him on.

That's when I knew that the game was gonna suck.