@DoYaSeeMe wrote:
"IF hackers would've actually breached the data servers, they would've done a lot more damage and demanded a huge ransom for restoring the game or maybe even save Titanfall themselves (yea right)."
>That's merely your guess, not fact.
It all depend on their goal and strategies
Smart move is to not make your goals obvious. Escalation/lateral movement are powerful ways to gain access.
"Before giving suggestions, you should get more informations. Respawn is not in the servers business and it's not EA providing game hosting for Apex. They use one of the biggest companies that specialize in game hosting, Multiplay. I'm pretty sure those guys know way more things about security than the entire playerbase in this forum."
>Well, they proved it. Also, since you seem pretty knowledgeable in the field, and that myself am interested, I guess that over 2M players, there are a few others.
Most obviously, there were, since they messed up with the servers
"As for the connection troubleshooting, most of the problems that players have come from their connection and from the network, which is normal, because clients have the least amount of experience with hardware & network stuff, while ISPs will always opt out for the most cost effective solutions and always prioritize more vital services."
Gamers are geeks. Geeks know their way around hardware and the things that are vital for them. When I call my ISP, I already have checklisted myself whatever level 1 garbage question the ISP staff could ask me. Because I don't need them for lowly educated guesses.
"There's no such thing as a 3 second change. Every addition or modification of a feature usually has a few versions, goes through a review phase, a new game build has to be made to include it which then goes to mandatory testing, bug fixing, fine tuning, legal check, marketing, etc. It's a pretty tedious process actually and , when it comes to cosmetics, the network/game logic engineers aren't usually involved, so don't panic, new skins don't take time and resources off of bug fixing."
That's some PR thing that was repeated in some discourses by a Respawn employee. That's utterly false when it concerns coloring. In any game engine, that's the thing you can change in a few clicks. What is there to test regarding colors? they pretty deliberately make some skins not viewable well so some will buy them as a distorted form of pay to win so it's not as they would care.
"I don't get this "they are fooling us" whining. If some people are so dumb dumb that they buy things they don't like, it's totally their problem. If you want more elaborated skins, just don't buy anything that doesn't convince you. Low sales are the best indicators for them to up their game, whining &buying will have the opposite effect."Did I say I did buy anything that would not convince me?
Or any skin, actually?
I would gladly pay for anything usefull in game, and I'm not talking about pay to win feats, just things like a good ranked mode with an hard as a rock anti cheat, good matchmaking really based on level and not on engagement*, good shooting range, solo pvp and pvE mode, possibility to make LaN or private servers and so on.
*(because "our goal is that you have fun" by Rick Lesauceur is a poorly worded way to say their goal is to make us spend time there, as the engagement component of SBMM proves). Because that is not for them to estimate that by staying more, I would enjoy better. Actually, people stay more because they are frustrated by bad conditions they wish to turn against.
But what they neglect is that whatever satisfaction I would have, as a player, I would play anyway. By wanting to maximise engagement for casual players, they will frustrate most people that play a lot and would keep on playing anyway.
Also, ethics and design: you design a game, you might want people to enjoy, instead of just engage, since this is shown they are not similar.
I fully understand the need and incentive to make money, but a game like Apex is easier to do than a game with a solo mode and missions and story with consistency to check and so on... "All they have to do" (not that this is easy) is to work on game balance, performance, security and new ideas to improve gameplay, for people to feel safe and enjoy.
Results, while people might enjoy, as I do, I won't deny it, they certainly don't feel safe, and while they may enjoy, some big unadressed problems spoil this (cheaters, bad/overload servers, all problems at each update/events).
That's 2 areas out of 4 where they fail big time. And some would add game balance (while I think they do pretty much fine and usually take both data and community ideas into account). As for ideas/content, they are quite good, too.
So, they 'd have only to get right on these for people naturally keep engaged and playing and staying there, where no other company indulge in security hence losing shares (see warzone). Because their new content like the great arenas are spoiled with cheaters and bad servers. How is it worth creating new things for them to be unplayable?
The problem being not that I am critical because I hate Respawn and am a whiny kid. I am critical because I am an engaged player, that I am pretty vocal about defending Respawn myself when I feel the argument are stupid, but in the end, I shall admit that myself can't tell everything is perfect, and that some critical thinking is needed, not to burn them to hell, but to show them they should act on some problems.
Because change start with admitting these problems. Not being unmovable deaf bricks.
So "before giving suggestions, you should get more informations", and not presume people are so much less uneducated or thinkful than you are.
I am not emotional, I am rational and I have seen more than one company mess up with their player base, as well as many promises lost in the winds of the gaming industry, vaporwares, disapointment and lost hopes. That's because I know that that I know we have to be fair to Respawn, but not blind to their shortcomings, with as much respect that I have for them as they provided up with such a great game.
