tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-942059813481083566.post4850328648454682182..comments2023-10-25T07:19:08.019-05:00Comments on The Nosy Gamer: EVE's Six Week Release Cycle: A First Look At ResultsNoizyGamerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17315716516032999133noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-942059813481083566.post-51943086806735839902014-09-17T11:27:49.794-05:002014-09-17T11:27:49.794-05:00Wait, what? I'm throwing around adhoms? Comi...Wait, what? I'm throwing around adhoms? Coming from the guy who has taken me saying "I think 2 big releases a year generated mroe news than a small release every 6 weeks", and using that to deduce that I must know nothing at all about standard development principles?<br /><br />Simply put, yes, agile development can be positive (though is certainly not the be all and end all of development). But the thing is, regardless of how they do their development, the same issues are rife because the core codebase is still ancient legacy code and they've stated outright that won't be changing. It's not like they have got rid of the bugs and release issues, and it's not like prior to the 6 weekly cycle, they were unable to release patches outside of their expansions. The game was already constantly patched with small changes, fixes and balance alterations. The only difference now is they've done away with the publicity boost that comes with expansions.<br /><br />And while I don't believe for a second that they started all their changes with Incarna (mainly because I was at fanfest when they explained their motivations for change and spoke to the devs) it's completely totally and utterly irrelevant, since my entire opinion is not even remotely based around how they develop, it's based around *how they release*, which change with Crius.<br /><br />But I get it mate, you like to argue which is why you completely ignored what I actually stated and instead started to whine on about the development principles you prefer. *clap clap clap* You discovered wikipedia.Lucas Kellhttp://indecisivenoob.blogspot.co.uk/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-942059813481083566.post-25849840500786125282014-09-17T09:24:01.525-05:002014-09-17T09:24:01.525-05:00So you allegedly work as a developer but have no i...So you allegedly work as a developer but have no idea whatsoever about agile development methods, why they have become so popular, what's involved, why they work very well in long term / continual development projects and why they often result in a superior and more efficient end product. No clue about the concepts of technical debt and the resulting high maintenance costs, slower reaction times, terrible flexibility, poorer code quality etc. that misplaced or poor (or non-existent!) development processes can induce.<br /><br />Please accept my profuse apology. The evidence was overwhelming in pointing to the person behind Lucas Kell as being someone with little or no experience of today's IT industry. The evidence still says that, but I'll just have to take you word for it, that you are in fact a professional developer.<br /><br />That you claim the only difference is "CCP releasing the same expansions but in parts" is damning evidence of your ignorance regarding CCP's changes in development processes / your understanding of these processes.<br /><br />That you believe CCP's approach changed with Crius a few months back is concrete evidence of your ignorance regarding this. (TL;DR CCP started their internal process changes several years back post-Incarna. The short release cycle is the culmination of those changes.)<br /><br />Given your lack of knowledge about this I didn't expect you to take what I said as fact given that it completely destroys your argument. So I asked you to do some research to confirm what I said is accurate and in accordance with the IT industry's view. I even provided you with a link to get you started. Clearly I was asking way too much of you as you preferred to wallow in your ignorance and throw adhom attacks at me instead.<br /><br />Ultimately, you are refusing to educate yourself in the subject of this discussion, preferring to throw out adhom attacks instead. To that end, there is little point in entertaining your juvenile manner. Goodbye Lucas Kell.CMIVnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-942059813481083566.post-61028018933908304312014-09-17T06:06:31.868-05:002014-09-17T06:06:31.868-05:00The problem there is that the trickle of informati...The problem there is that the trickle of information is only really interesting to those of us that play, and retaining old players isn't EVEs problem. The problem is gaining and retaining new players, many of whom have decided EVE is boring. Getting to them needs big news of big changes to excite and entice them.<br /><br /><br />Think about it, what gamers are sitting around reading patch notes for games they have no intent of playing? Small changes to games, new dungeons, levels, characters, etc, those pretty much go by with only the players of the games really taking an interest. An expansion though? Those you hear about.Lucas Kellhttp://indecisivenoob.blogspot.co.uk/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-942059813481083566.post-69333581093901845562014-09-17T05:57:29.305-05:002014-09-17T05:57:29.305-05:00As a matter of fact, I am a developer. It seems l...As a matter of fact, I am a developer. It seems like you think I must suck at it though. A random on the internet called me wrong, I feel so hurt.<br /><br />And mate, it DID work. EVE is not a new game, and their 2 releases a year led them through year on year growth. You can't just leap in and say "it didn't work" without providing any evidence of same. Those bugs still occur, so switching up to a shorter release cycle clearly isn't helping. In fact, it now means that they have to have something of merit to deliver every 6 weeks, so arguably they are under even more pressure. Added onto that, they now have to split large features down into independently implementable blocks which is a hard thing to do while maintaining balance. The sov rebalance will probably be a disaster.<br /><br />"I have little doubt that EvE would now be close to unplayable with little to no cohesion or integration between it's many large and distinct expansions."<br />How? You think that if they stuck to twice yearly expansions, then CCP would be unplayable by now? What exactly would have changed enough by now to kill EVE? Basically you are saying that if Crius and Hyperion hadn't been released, EVE would be unplayable.<br /><br />And thanks for letting me know I'm free to hold my own opinions. I plan on doing exactly that. Clearly you have YOUR opinions on the matter which are exactly that they are opinions. You aren't some oracle just because you assume you are.Lucas Kellhttp://indecisivenoob.blogspot.co.uk/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-942059813481083566.post-67780467723305844952014-09-16T18:55:08.072-05:002014-09-16T18:55:08.072-05:00You don't read sites like Massively a lot, do ...You don't read sites like Massively a lot, do you. Their writers are always looking for content so they lap up any press release or public statement that game companies make. CCP doesn't need huge surges of publicity. They just need that steady trickle of information indicating that new stuff is coming out to keep the game in the eyes of the consumer. Compared to other companies, CCP has really been poor at doing that in the past.NoizyGamerhttp://nosygamer.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-942059813481083566.post-57578075388614411022014-09-16T17:52:51.146-05:002014-09-16T17:52:51.146-05:00I'm not saying they could properly sustain the...I'm not saying they could properly sustain them, but they so far haven't properly sustained the 6 week ones either. The same release issues are rife, the difference being that there's not so much hype over these ones. I can't see major gaming sites wanting to make a huge deal every 6 weeks, so they've lost that edge, and for what?<br /><br /><br />And what are they doing differently? All they are doing is releasing the same expansions in parts. The industry revamp will be in 3 or 4 pieces of which Crius was the first, undoubtedly having to revisit balance with each feature change. The only thing different is there's going to be no big bang with each release.<br /><br /><br />And yes, the 2 expansions a year worked. It got the game this far. You can't pick out a couple of crappy expansions and use them to deny that the system worked.Lucas Kellhttp://indecisivenoob.blogspot.co.uk/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-942059813481083566.post-32126162061157560362014-09-16T10:37:34.451-05:002014-09-16T10:37:34.451-05:00You're not exactly a historian are you?
"...You're not exactly a historian are you?<br /><br />"Personally, I think they should have stuck with the 2 expansions a year"<br /><br />Because that worked so well over the pre-Incarna years?<br /><br />"but made sure they actually worked first time"<br /><br /><br /><br />I'm fairly sure CCP were trying to do this. I doubt they were wanting to release buggy and underwhelming "expansions" (hard to call Incarna an expansion). <br /><br /><br />Given that CCP could not properly sustain 2 expansions a year pre-Incarna, what makes you think it would be a good idea now? It's precisely because of the whole "must release 2 jesus features a year" thing that CCP now have to catch up on 7 years of missed patches (and they're actually doing quite a good job imho).CMIVnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-942059813481083566.post-35515327987687486572014-09-15T09:17:13.671-05:002014-09-15T09:17:13.671-05:00The biggest issue I see with the new cycle is the ...The biggest issue I see with the new cycle is the decreased BANG factor. Previously expansions were built up to and added a whole heap of new stuff which got people talking. With the new release cycle that is lost, and the releases already out seem to be a bit... meh. Crius added a fancy new UI and mixed up manufacture a bit, but it was only half an update. Invention and POS mechanic improvements are yet to be released, leaving it feeling half done. the next one (is it Hyperion? See, I can't even remember the names of these things) may as well have been a standard patch.<br /><br /><br />Personally, I think they should have stuck with the 2 expansions a year, but made sure they actually worked first time. A whole array of new features and tweaks without 3 weeks of additional downtimes would be far more exciting than half built content.Lucas Kellhttp://indecisivenoob.blogspot.co.uk/noreply@blogger.com