I'm not polluting the main page with this, but if I don't post it *somewhere* I'm gonna explode:
Tim Schafer accuses would be "fans" and reviewers of spewing "Ruined FOREVER!" over Brütal Legend being a multiplayer focused Action/RTS and not a single player platformer, while those who actually tried the multiplayer saw it for what it was and enjoyed it the most, and that reviews not only reflect it, but remain high regardless.
Tim Schafer:: When we showed the game to EA, they were interested but wanted to test the concept. In focus tests, the stage battles rated high. What's interesting is the people in those groups aren't told anything about the game and have no expectations for it. One of the things you notice looking at Metacritic ratings is that the highest scores come from those who really enjoyed the stage battles, and when you get down to the critics who didn't like the stage battles those reviews often center around their expectations about what we were going to make, instead of looking at the stage battles for what they are in a fresh way.
... the primary reason for this is probably that the demo WAS a single-player platformer that stopped with a "Buy the Game for More" screen long before the first tutorial for stage battles had begun. In other words, this wasn't Fan Dumb — this was people having the unfair expectation that the game would actually be similar to, or even the same GENRE as, its demo. If the demo depicted the game accurately (and thus attracted RTS fans instead of platformer fans) maybe people wouldn't have felt ripped off.
I'm not polluting the main page with this, but if I don't post it *somewhere* I'm gonna explode:
- Tim Schafer accuses would be "fans" and reviewers of spewing "Ruined FOREVER!" over Brütal Legend being a multiplayer focused Action/RTS and not a single player platformer, while those who actually tried the multiplayer saw it for what it was and enjoyed it the most, and that reviews not only reflect it, but remain high regardless.
Tim Schafer:: When we showed the game to EA, they were interested but wanted to test the concept. In focus tests, the stage battles rated high. What's interesting is the people in those groups aren't told anything about the game and have no expectations for it. One of the things you notice looking at Metacritic ratings is that the highest scores come from those who really enjoyed the stage battles, and when you get down to the critics who didn't like the stage battles those reviews often center around their expectations about what we were going to make, instead of looking at the stage battles for what they are in a fresh way.... the primary reason for this is probably that the demo WAS a single-player platformer that stopped with a "Buy the Game for More" screen long before the first tutorial for stage battles had begun. In other words, this wasn't Fan Dumb — this was people having the unfair expectation that the game would actually be similar to, or even the same GENRE as, its demo. If the demo depicted the game accurately (and thus attracted RTS fans instead of platformer fans) maybe people wouldn't have felt ripped off.