SD is doing a good job post release, that has always been their very best focus area. Great ideas in the article as well arstal.

For those that refuse to see any criticism as other than heresy:

Here is the thing, when someone with an ID number as low as Dethedrus has concerns it is best to take them very seriously. Folks like him are key core customers who do a lot of leg work, heavy lifting, and opinion shifting. He isn't just whistling dixie and he knows of what he speaks (has been here for nearly a freaking decade).

The poll that Brad put up here backs him up (I can't seem to find the poll thread anymore). When 43% of the people who come and register on your forums are disappointed it isn't just perception.

The SD folks have said as much as well. They *want* genuine unvarnished opinions of their products. I applaud that.

Poll is here. Here's the forum thread that goes with it.

I will give SD credit for not giving up.  However, why am I paying for a beta?  Why was the game released this early.  I have heard reports that SD rushed the release of the game by.... um... 2 days...  because retailers broke the street date.  So, it has been 4 complete days (counting Tuesday as day 0) and the start of the 5th.  Right now, this is the game it would have been at release.  Which is...  not a finished or polished game.  When StarCraft 2 released was the game in this state?

When Mass Effect 2 released was the game in this state?

When Dawn of War 2 released was the game in this state?

Why is the game in this state?  Is SD some small company that can not meet dates asked of them (put by them) months in advanced?  Did someone honestly believe this game was finished a year ago?  Do you believe that the game is finished as is now?  Honestly.

While I agree entirely and SD is getting a lot of slack from review sites due to their wealth of built of cred on these issues I think we probably got this point across to SD already.

Sorry but this just sounds like more whining and your just reiterating what has already been said. SD is a small company actually and obviously they couldn't meet their release date sufficiently for reasons which are somewhat known to us. Also, the way PC gaming seems to be now, we are always basically paying for betas and your comparing SD to much larger and more well financed companies The game should have been more balanced, if they had the time to do it, but they didn't so get over it. Either stick with it and try to help mold the further development so that the game is great or just move on to something else, no need to go crazy.

Also no need to be telling people to "get over it". That is also a pretty invalid response to legit criticism.

I agree. If a major studio released game in this condition they would have been raked over the coals. Even here on the SD forums it is a far more constructive discussion than what would be in evidence on many other forums should their games release like this.

I would disagree thought about the MP. Right now the game is in such a state - who would want to play MP with such a buggy unbalanced, crash-prone mess. Let's get the game fixed up for what most players bought it for (SP) before we add to the complexity of the problems inherent in that.

For a game in the $50- $60 I expected a LOT more polish rather than this. Right now SD is still being treated like the cute puppy no-one can get mad at but they basically blew all their street cred on this. Heck I bought Torchlight for $9.99 and found it to be far better in terms of polish and stability than EOWM.

FR

I agree with the overall sentiment presented in the responses here.  The game was obviously rushed out the door, and while it is playable it is certainly not "finished."  I'm a huge lover of all things Stardock...I recommend their products whenever I can, I recommend the company whenever I can, but seeing so many people argue that the game is largely fine and just needs minor tweaking astounds me.  Reality check to those few: The game is certainly still fun and mostly playable for the majority of people, but it has some major issues, and major holes in gameplay that should have been addressed before letting avid fans spend $50 on it.  Yes, most PC games now require a release-day patch, and bugs etc. continue to need working out, but it is VERY rarely to the extent that Elemental needs.  The two similar cases I can think of are World War 2 Online, which still goes down in my book as the worst release of all time(partly because the game was ahead of its time in terms of online play), and Hellgate: London...and we all know what the end result was there.  All it does is make dissatisfied customers (even if we're all willing to stick around because of the potential we see in the product) who will think twice about pre-ordering next time and supporting the product at launch. 

I very rarely go and buy a game on release day anymore for a multitude of reasons, this being one of them.  I was really looking forward to this launch, pre-ordered it because I had faith that Stardock would give me another stellar product, and later that evening I found myself playing what was/is essentially a beta version of the game(I've beta tested 10+ titles...this plays like a beta, not a releasable product).  I would hope that Stardock would do something similar to what the OP suggested to try and make things somewhat right with current Elemental owners...download vouchers for some DLC, or SOMETHING.  But I really feel like I spent $50 to help them public-beta the game at this point.  I'd be fine doing that for $20-30, but paying $50 for a product in this state/stage of development is disappointing.

I prefer Elemental: War on Gamers

Allow me to pose this question...would you rather they had not released the game, and waited 3 months while they work on it?  Or, pay and have the game now and at least be able to play it while they work on it and release patches...?  

My answer is definitely the latter.  I'll take the game now, and enjoy it (I'm not having the myriad issues some are) while SD improves it and releases updates.

I don't think anyone who values their money wants to spend it on a game that isn't finished. Some of us just don't have $50 to throw away.

I would like to think that, as gamers, we have a responsibility to communicate to game developers what constitutes a release-ready game. By adopting your attitude we are encouraging game companies to release paid betas.

Everybody who wanted to be able to play beta was able to. It stands to reason that some of the people who waited until release were doing so becaus they wanted to wait for the game to be in a polished, release state. For those people, delaying is indeed preferable.

Given what circumstances? That they didn't listen when we said the game wasn't ready? Day one supporters shouldn't have to endure the most, sorry.

I'm not going to stop buying stardock games, and I will cut Stardock a slack to finish this one. But I will make no other concession, I have many reasons not to.

I preordered, so it shouldn't matter, aside from the fact that I'm disappointed with what they call "release-ready"; I just hope that won't stop them from treating the game as a beta with lots of mechanics that need complete redesign.

But the problem isn't there. Those who have paid for the game should get a proper product, not this broken set of unfinished engines piled up upon each other. Those people could have done something else with that money, could have saved valuable time doing something else, and shouldn't be asked to have blind faith in Stardock just because we "guarantee that they'll fix the game".

In the end, this sort of behavior isn't much better than putting those DRMs that have been highly criticized right here on these forums and this website.

If I hadn't played Gal Civ 2 from day 1, I would probably feel pretty ambivalent about this purchase. However, if the track record set by Gal Civ is maintained on this game, and I believe it will be, this game and any expansions will be glorious pieces of work by the end. I can't see any game ever displacing Gal Civ 2 as the top space TBS game, it may happen, but it won't be for a long time. I expect Elemental will go the same route.

I would prefer the 3 month wait.  All of us who pre-ordered are somewhat 'fan boys' and we're in it for the long haul.  Releasing a product like this really hurts the reputation of Stardock and destroys any chances of really winning over the casual gaming community.  Case in point, Champions Online was released in an extremely horrible state and 3 months after launching the game world is empty, barren and desolate. Heck me and a few friends who purchased lifetime memberships won't even take the time to play the game with out monthly fees!!  Quite simply, fans with casual interest in Elemental : war of magic will give it a once over and dump it.  You're going to have to work extremely hard to re-win those gamers over in the future if you even can.

While this might seem extremely unimportant to dedicated fans, it's easy to blow them off and say 'we don't need them' but the truth of the matter is WE DO need them.  More customers is good for stardock and helps keep them in business.  We all need them as it's harder and harder to find turned base strategy games as it is.  A complete flop is easy for the media to simply blow it off as 'turn based games don't sale' but most of us know that's not the case, I've been dying for a good one for years now as many of you probably have been.  More people interested in Elementa = more people interested in Turn Based games and means more products for us to choose from and enjoy.