I Told Data Design Interactive That Their Games Sucked & Got A Rep

[CockroachMan]

Here is some fun circular reasoning!!!

Their games suck and we don't want to buy them because they don't have good programmers/time/development, they don't have good people/time/development because they aren't paid well, they aren't paid well because we pirate their games, we pirate their games because they suck and we don't want to buy them

Which came first the shovelware or the pirate?

Konami, Capcom, Ubisoft, etc.. also have people pirating their games.. and we don't see them doing crap like this..

Also, people usually pirate good games..

 

[Hadrian]

Hi Stewert, thank you for replying to my email, not something I expected as I thought companies didn't really care what their customers thought as long and they can get the "monies". I now have a little more respect for you for doing that and taking the time to write to me.

The games I played and the problems I had:

Ninjabread Man: First off, great cover! I like the idea of a "Ninjabread Man" but for me this game was really really bad. The controls were broken, now the Wii remote is at times off but with this game they hardly ever seemed to be on. It starts of with some cumbersome menu screens, badly designed ones that lack any style at all, some real bad presentation all the way actually. Then you get to play the Ninjabread fellow with a pretty generic training level. The Ninjabread Man moves too pretty damn quick, I'm trying to walk around with some sense of direction but failing miserably. I am supposed to flip the nunchuck to jump but after ten minutes my wrist gets sore and I have to go with the Z jump to jump instead, which is nice but kinda defeats the point of adding motion controls, if it can't be done properly then don't do it at all. I tried "putting down some smack down" on some enemies by moving the Wiimote in a sword like fashion, the game hardly registers it and when it does it seems to have some delay. There is nothing wrong with my Wiimote or sensor bar, other games work very well (you should see me shoot zombies on RE) just with this and you're other games they don't seem to correspond properly. The controls in this game are just so bad, its easy to tell that this game was meant for the PS2 and not Wii. Now on with the length, there's three levels...three levels, is that all? I know its a budget title but for £19.99 I expect a lot more, you do know that Geometry Wars is £19.99 over here? Now that's a game that spills quality and is still worth playing once you finished it (which takes less than an hour by the way). Its a damn shame because I love the main character and I would buy a sequel IF there was more time and money spent on it, and I'm sure it would have sold a lot better if reviews for it (which sadly were out a month after I bought the game) were more positive, looking on gamestats it average 1.5/10 on press but 3.1/10 from gamers.


Rock 'n' Roll Adventures: I didn't actually buy this it was a present for me. Now this is how you probably make money, from misinformed people who see a cover and think "holy cow he'll love this". The game is basically Ninjabread man but with a a Elvis style character and a different theme! The exact same problems follow but this time the camera seems to be operated by a something that is so bored of being in these games that it just wants to do its own thing instead of following the character like it should. Ok you can press down to centre the camera but it kinda reminds me of the time I had to look after this cat with a weak bladder and making sure that it didn't wander off. I tried to finish it but the game is so damn bland and mundane and so broken that it was hard to. Looking at Gamestats the game has an average of 3/10 from press and 0.2/10 from gamers.


Billy The Wizard - Rocket Broomstick Racing. Again its the same game as the other two but you can fly on a stick. The exact same problems, bad controls etc. I fail to see the point in writing more about it.


Don't you have playtesters at all to tell you if something in a game is broken? I'm not surprised that you sell "hundreds of thousands" of games as they do appeal to people who buy games for others. You seem to have flooded the Wii/PC/PS2/PSP with 22 titles on each with cheaply made games with no quality at all. The Wii seemed to have gotten the really bad end of the stick, with two year old ports, sure Capcom did RE4 for the Wii but at least it seemed like they spent time on making sure the controls work and at least RE4 is a classic. The same badly designed engine for each game, with the same HUD on each. Ok Valve & Epic use the same engines for their games but their engines WORK and at least they put different gameplay elements into each game. Obviously you make money out of this but don't you realise that if these games were better designed and were tested properly that they would get better reviews and therefore a better chance at selling more?

You said that you've had no problems with other customers, well on the various forums I visited lately it seems that everyone agrees with me with you're games, it seems that they regard DDI as one of the worst game publishers out there, that's not a good rep is it? They get the impression that you are just releasing games for profit with very little intention on giving gamers a good game.

I know you're games on the Wii have a RRP of £19.99 but I don't think that excuses the fact that the games are clearly not playtested properly. Endless Ocean for example is only £19.99 but it has polish and clearly had a lot of testing to make sure nothing was broken. Same can be said about Trauma Center: Second Opinion & Geometry Wars. Do you plan on releasing stuff for Wiiware? I'm sure you could keep costs down and then up the quality somewhat.


Sorry I had to complain about you're games but you did ask, I wish I could be more positive I do ensure you that if I did like you're games that I would commend you, sadly I can't as there's no way anyone can enjoy a broken badly designed game.

Yours Hadrian


If I get a reply, which I'm sure I won't this time I'll post it.

 

[.TakaM]

I sent him an email :3

Just mainly about how nice it was to see an actual response, most devs don't care about receiving compliments- let alone criticisms.
And reusing graphics, they could find some young talented artists on deviantart who would work for peanuts, just getting your work in a published game is worth more to a portfolio than a few dollars to a pocket

 

[jalaneme]

very good post Hadrian, did you send it off to them?

 

[Hadrian]

very good post Hadrian, did you send it off to them?

I sent it probably an hour before I posted it here, no reply but then some people don't work Saturdays.

 

[Awdofgum]

lol don't they read their IGN and Gamespot Reviews? 1.5/10, 2/10, 0.5/10...

 

[Westside]

Thank you Hadrian for being a jerk.

 

[juggernaut911]

leave.valve.alone.

i find that source is a very good engine.... the only downside is dumbass AI rebels that follow into deadend tunnels... no voice command for,
"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY OR I'LL FEED YOU TO A STRIDER, MOTHERFUCKER!!"

they annoy me

 

[Awdofgum]

no one is putting down valve, they are just using valve to prove their point that games with the same engine could still be great.

 

[Hadrian]

leave.valve.alone.

i find that source is a very good engine.... the only downside is dumbass AI rebels that follow into deadend tunnels... no voice command for,
"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY OR I'LL FEED YOU TO A STRIDER, MOTHERFUCKER!!"

they annoy me
What awdofgum said, just pointing out that games CAN be good and still have different gameplay ideas even if they use the same engine. I love what Valve do and they are one of my favourite developers out there.

QUOTE(Westside @ Apr 5 2008, 03:45 PM) Thank you Hadrian for being a jerk.

Well someone has to be a farglebush.

 

[Salamantis]

Man I really want to see what DDI has to reply to your second email, Hadrian

 

[Sonicslasher]

lol, who are they?

 

[benchma®k]

I think you're wasting your time. Stewart was obviously bored of steering clear of the NSFW threads that day.. youtube was down, his IM friends were busy... whatever. Its obvious they're just a money grubber company who arent really bothered about producing good games. They're just cashing in on the wii while the goings still hot..

..i'd like to be proven wrong obviously, but dont hold your breath

 

[coolbho3000]

Hadrian, you used the wrong form of "your" several times in your email.

Just pointing that out.

 

[Awdofgum]

Hadrian, you used the wrong form of "your" several times in your email.

Just pointing that out.

now they're definitely not replying,

Hadrian, you've inspired me to email a game developer and complain

 

[Hadrian]

Hadrian, you used the wrong form of "your" several times in your email.

Just pointing that out.

How the fuck that happened?

At first I thought you meant "your" instead of "you're" but no other way round.

*Hangs head in shame*

 

[Westside]

Hadrian, you used the wrong form of "your" several times in your email.

Just pointing that out.

How the fuck that happened?

At first I thought you meant "your" instead of "you're" but no other way round.

*Hangs head in shame*

This forum will lose most of it's gayness now...

 

[Hadrian]

GBAtemp, now 80% less gay.

 

[funem]

It may be me using logic here, but if like he said they were re-using code and graphics to keep the price down you would have thought they would at least make sure the initial code and control method worked correctly before using it as a template for futher games. If this was the case then that fact alone would have increased their base scores on most of their games as they would not be so broken.

Just a though.

 

[DrediKnight]

Did you sign that as 'Hadrian'? Not that it would really cause any problems but googling Hadrian + Wii brings up your profile on this (pirating) site as the first hit.