No thanks. Steam is already good enough for me. I don't wanna have to install and run 10 different kinds of gaming platform to play exclusive games on PC. There's already GOG, uPlay, Origin, UWP, Battle.net, Bethesda.net with their own platform exclusive games. I don't wanna contribute to another one. PC is an open platform free from exclusives or restrictions unlike consoles. So these kind of moves can and will hamper that.
I get it that making video games is hard. Harder than making movies as you have to make everything from scratch. Everything. A lot of manpower, hours and money have to be put into making a high production quality video game. And yea, that could mean spending more time in the office than your standard 9-5 hours as every piece of work is critical to the progression of said quality game. On top of that, most video game companies are public meaning you have shareholders to manage, to keep them happy and confident in their investment. If something goes wrong, the shareholders could panic and pull out their investment. Just look at Telltale Games and what happened to them.
When you really think about it, the companies who make video games have a tough job. I don't envy the higher-ups who manages all this and have great respect for all the developers / employees who does the hard job, puts their valuable time and effort into making video games for our entertainment. However, with all that being said and done, all these extra time / overtime hours these developers put in making video games, it should come from their passion to make video games, not from a mandatory schedule set by the company. A burnt out worker will be less efficient in his / her job and subsequently the video game will suffer for it. But we do have to meet certain realities. Crunch hour / overtime happens in all kinds of firms / businesses, not just in video game industry. Its sometimes a necessary part of work life to get something done on time. Companies don't have unlimited time or money to keep a project running indefinitely. So certain deadlines have to be met.
Companies who are smart can manage all this in a happy, healthy and efficient way. But those who cannot, companies who has to rely on overtime to get something done, all the employees / developers who participate in it should be compensated accordingly for it. Its only fair for them as at the end of the day, they have families to tend to and lives to lead. When everything is said and done, when we finally buy a quality video game and start playing it, we tend to praise the company more than all the individual developers who worked hard on it. They for the most part, remain the unsung heroes even if their names are listed in the credit scene at the end.
Therefore, it is imperative for companies, especially video game companies to keep the workers happy, to give them fair compensation for their work. A company is only as strong or famous as its people. If talented workers / developers leave a company due to stress / unpaid dues, the company and the video game itself will suffer for it. It is good that Rockstar is being transparent with us and are letting the developer speak about their work experience under Rockstar. Most video game companies would not be so transparent and would try to shove these kinds of accusations under the rig. It those cases, it is up to us, the gamers, the honest journalists / medias to band up together and give them the voice that they cannot speak for themselves so they in turn can be treated better as people / employees and at the end of the day, product better quality video games for it.
@ccgod: Yes it did but we found out AFTER the game was released. Star Citizen has made lots of promises but hasn't shown everything and more importantly, hasn't been released yet. So the possibility still exists. No Man's Sky is a cautionary tale that we need to learn from going forward. I'm not saying Star Citizen will follow similar paths but...until we get the final product in our hands, anything's possible.
@ccgod: Yea it be publishers at times but not always. No Man's Sky was made by an independent company and look how that panned out. Incidents like these will make skeptics of even the most diehard believers.
@ccgod: Been following the game even since it was announced. I myself am a big fan of space sim genre as it is quite niche in the gaming industry. What we're seeing here, is a AAA quality big budget space sim title that has never been attempted before. With the size, scope, attention to detail and ambition, I understand it can take time to perfect and finish. I'm not asking for them to rush out this out as it can and will hamper the overall game experience...HOWEVER, I've seen times where too much ambition can fail and lead to downfall for various reasons. Other times, we get promised great many innovative and exciting things in video games only for it to fall flat on release. I'm sure we'd all like to see Star Citizen succeed and release one day in a polished fully fledged state but...seeing all the negative gaming industry trends we do see from time to time, and subsequent failed promises / projects, one cannot help but be skeptical. I myself have learned to tamper my expectations / hype in check because as we know, if something's too good to be true...it probably is. There are exceptions to this rule and I would very much like Star Citizen to be one of that exception but not until we see the finished product in our hands. Still, its good that the devs have been open about their development process and walks us through step by step.
@ccgod: Yes it is quite depressing to see all the backers of Star Citizen spending thousands of dollars on individual game modules, assets, alpha builds of the game and holding on hope for a promise of a final game without getting the final product in their hands 7 years after the game's announcement. There's a term for this. Its called "Vaporware". Maybe someday Chris Roberts will write a book about it titled "How I Easily Scammed Gamers and Became a Millionaire". Or maybe someday the game will indeed be launched as a full product. Either way, its gamers who will lose if things go wrong and Chris Roberts will walk away with all the cash.
@nofreikinleoms: The animation quality is absolutely horrible. It feels like we're controlling string puppets. Its sad to see cause even early Assassin's Creed games (AC1, 2, 3) had fluid and realistic animation system. Ubisoft has gone downhill with each new AC game.
@dlCHIEF58: Its cool. Although now we know that the main reason why Telltale went under is because some of the investors pulled out of their deals at the last second. Still, Telltale should've managed their resources better than to spend all their money on making too many games too fast. They went quantity over quality using the same outdated engine with little to no variation in gameplay or actual choice driven story as well as overworking their staffs till 3 AM almost everyday. In part, they're to blame for this. They set themselves up for failure.
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