Topic

Rock, Paper, Shotgun reviews Glitch

Wot I Think: Glitch | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

The review is a mixed bag. I think the reviewer's right about some stuff, but a bit hyperbolic about the timesink aspects of the game.

Posted 15 months ago by ShaggyZed Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • It's an MMO. What MMO doesn't have time sinks/grinding?
    Posted 15 months ago by Draron Subscriber! | Permalink
  • it feels like the reviewer never got pass the initial learning phrase - he does not write like he has a house or experience things like alchemy, rube... etc. 

    and the word 'build' has only appear in his view ONCE which is a huge element in this game (i played this game for 3 days).

    this is a social game, not a generic linear RPG/FPS game - comparing this game with with games of other genre (as it did in the review) is simply not good portrayal of how this 'game' can be 'played'. 
    Posted 15 months ago by homersan Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The reviewer seems to completely lack a sense of humor.  I laughed out loud when I had to get my permit from the lizards.
    Posted 15 months ago by Lucille Ball Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Guy sounds like he played for 10 minutes, got mad he had to do things that didn't involve kicking in doors and busting heads, and decided that the whole thing was crap. Either that, or he heard the buzz and decided he was gonna show up and prove the buzz wrong by any means necessary. It also sounds a little like he expected everything to be spoon-fed to him, which is a really odd way to go about Glitch; clearly you're not gonna like it if that's your approach.
    Posted 15 months ago by Djabriil Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I thought the review was a bit harsh.  Of course, I'm not a "gamer" by definition...but I have played a few games in my day.  It's as if the author wanted to rush to some ends in the game, and I guess I just don't play that way.  What is the point of the game if you can't play it long-term?  What's wrong with being patient and taking some time to get things done?  
    When I pay for a video game and can beat it in one day, I feel cheated.  There is no satisfaction in that.

    IMO, you have to have a certain sense of humor and possibly even a certain political view to really get into and love this game.  I must have those views, because I'm having a blast playing Glitch.  I have been here one week and I can only think of a few things that I would like to see changed.  

    Also, the game is still evolving and being created as we are playing it.  There will be changes, additions, fixes, etc...  So, I expect that it will only get better from here on out.  

    That reviewer was just being nit-picky and a crank!!  :-p

    EDIT:  @Lucille Ball:  I laughed too.  It made me think about what happens in real life when you go to get your driver's license or anything like that.  I thought it was hilarious that you had to wait for no apparent reason.  
    Posted 15 months ago by Poppy of Detwoit Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Sounds like another person who played for 20 minutes, got frustrated, and ragequit. Probably not part of the target audience. Glitch is a nice, low-stress, casual sort of game. There's no point in comparing it to other MMOs because Glitch isn't like other MMOs. There's no point in rushing/grinding because the game doesn't end, so why try to reach this non-end faster?
    Posted 15 months ago by Augustana Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Well, it seems the reviewer was expecting more action... more PvP. Glad, this game does not have PvP.
    Posted 15 months ago by Worath Subscriber! | Permalink
  • That article was just silly imo, while Glitch might not be combat oriented it is no more of a grind than any other mmo out there....And the comment about the skill learning, would he also say that Eve Online isn't a game either?  I'm sure the many players of Eve would highly disagree.

    To me the article sounds like it was written by someone who is trying to hide their biased towards a game that is more social but still has many mmo elements associated with it.  
    Posted 15 months ago by Diskonekted Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I couldn't even finish reading the article. If you don't like the game, then you don't like the game. Everything is not for everyone that is why we have choices and that is what makes us individual. 

    I suspect they didn't really play the game. I got to level 23 in beta and I just got to level 24. The past few days I have discovered things in the game I had no idea existed. They haven't played the game fully, I can tell. 
    Posted 15 months ago by Eye Wonder Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I posted a link to this last night. My post was removed sometime between 1am and 9am. I have no idea why. 
    Posted 15 months ago by Jarhaven Subscriber! | Permalink
  • To be honest, I stopped reading reviews. I love this game and the people who play it. And I'm really not interested in what "reviewers" think of it.
    Posted 15 months ago by Victoria Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Ive reviewed games under a deadline before. It's weird; you're rushing and maybe you don't love the game, fine, but rushing makes everything even worse, especially with a game like this one. Longterm, I'm worried about glitch's numerous challenges TS must tackle. Short term, if you "get it", glitch is a blast! :)
    Posted 15 months ago by FlirtyvonSexenhaven Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I just cannot take seriously anything said by a person who uses "wot". 
    End of story.
    Posted 15 months ago by Zany Serendipity Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Zany, "Wot I Think" is RPS's standard title they use on their reviews. In general the site is pretty good, and their reviews are fair. I've followed them for a long time now. I think this particular reviewer is new, though, and really didn't give Glitch a fair shake.
    Posted 15 months ago by ShaggyZed Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The fact that he mentions cows concerns me. There is no place in all of Ur that mentions them. Just because "Herdkeeping" is a skill does not mean there are creatures you can't see until you learn it.

    Then he rags on Hell. We are not friends.

    I agree with those of you that said this guy must not have a sense of humor. The wit in this game is amazing and a large part of why I love it so much.
    Posted 15 months ago by Avery♥ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I just cannot take seriously anything said by a person who uses "wot". 
    End of story. -
    Zany Serendipity

    Same here.


    To be honest, I stopped reading reviews. I love this game and the people who play it. And I'm really not interested in what "reviewers" think of it.
    - Victoria

    Awwwwww. I made a review. :'(

    I do feel his issue on mining is spot on. (just repeating a topic on the Ideas forum)
    Posted 15 months ago by The Black Chicken Subscriber! | Permalink
  • This is the most factually incorrect review I've ever seen on a game. Was he watching TV the whole 5 minutes he (tried to) play?

    1. Cows? Orly!
    2. Meats, not ham
    3. You don't have to pet chickens before you squeeze them, so knock 5 seconds off there.
    4. An ear of corn from squeezing chickens? Get your glasses checked, because that's definitely grain.
    5. Street projects are already open!

    Are you sure you played Glitch? You can just admit you looked at some screenshots...
    Posted 15 months ago by moowi Subscriber! | Permalink
  • YAY! I read that review and got all mad. And then I read this thread and got all cheerful. :D You people rock.

    Lucille Ball, exactimundo. It's funny. The point isn't to make you wait, it's to make you laugh, which, if you've got any sense of humor whatsoever, it will.

    This guy obviously hasn't really played the game. This:

    "Food, then. As a quick starter, let’s rustle up the first food item the game gives you in the tutorial: a simple hamburger. You’ll need a bun, some ham and a frying pan and you can cook that right up (5 seconds and a progress bar). What’s that, no ham? Then you’ll have to walk around aimlessly until you stumble upon a road that has a pig wandering around. Pet it (5 seconds) and then you can nibble it (another 5 seconds, another progress bar), and you’ve got some ham. But what’s that? No bun? Then go walking around until you find a chicken. Pet it (5 seconds), then squeeze it (5 seconds), and it gives you an ear of corn. Great. Now find four more chickens and do that four more times (10 seconds of waiting each, remember). Take out your chopping board and turn the corn into flour (5 seconds, progress bar). Then go and find a spice tree, though there is actually part of the world where spice trees bloom, so that’s thankfully straightforward, as long as you’re anywhere near that neighbourhood. Pick some allspice (5 seconds), take out your spice grinder and grind it into salt (5 seconds with a chance to fail). Fry the salt and the flour in your frying pan and you’ve got a bun, which you can then turn into a hamburger, which gives you enough energy to mine two more times."

    First of all, all the errors moowi listed. And second, once you learn even the most basic type of those skills, the waiting times decrease dramatically. And third, "Then go and find a spice tree, though there is actually part of the world where spice trees bloom, so that’s thankfully straightforward, as long as you’re anywhere near that neighbourhood." OMG! I HAVE TO GO FIND A SPICE TREE? IT ISN'T HANDED TO ME? IN A GAME THAT'S BASED AROUND EXPLORATION? OMG. OMG. ACK.
    Posted 15 months ago by Cupcake Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The guy missed the entire point.  Obviously used to being a lazy game player.  While I am all for questing, I don't think its the only thing important in a game and the one thing I've learned from Glitch is that the freedoms we have to do whatever silly thing our imaginations can create is what makes this game stand out and is one of my favorite games.  It's like some people just can't get out of the box, even when its clearly labelled!
    Posted 14 months ago by Laurali Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm sort of hilarified (word? is now) by the concept he has that finding a pig to nibble is some kind of epic quest: "What’s that, no ham? Then you’ll have to walk around aimlessly until you stumble upon a road that has a pig wandering around." Because pigs are such rare beasties in Glitch. I know how that 20 seconds of looking for pig can just drag. Poor guy.
    And how did the fact that one of the bureaucrocs appears to be playing a Farmville-like game at work (while ignoring the waiting Glitch) escape him? It's pretty hard to miss, and makes me laugh every time I see it. This tells me that he didn't pay much attention to anything whilst waiting in line (oh, the humorless drudgery! For shame! Such "sadistic intent"!). Or to much while doing much else, either, as far as I can tell, considering that, no matter how full his inventory apparently was, it never occurred to him to, say, buy a bigger bag or, y'know, something elementary like that.
    Posted 14 months ago by Djabriil Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Jarhaven's thread is here in the ideas forum (it includes ideas for better mining):
    http://www.glitch.com/forum/ideas/8401/

    I posted a thread earlier today inquiring about what happened to it.   When I came back I couldn't even find mine.  Thought I was losing my mind, but then I found mine in the off-topic category. 
    At first I was really alarmed that the two threads might have been deleted because of the link to the negative review.  Anyway, it appears to belong in the ideas category/off topic catagory.   Hopefully, all "idea" type threads will be moved there (a lot of work!) so that it won't appear  that Jarhaven's wasn't singled out for the link.  

    Anyway, I thought that the reviewer made some valid points but he lost me when he couldn't see the humor in the business of getting papers.   

    During beta I was really too scared to say anything negative about the game because so many beta players loved it.  Now the new players might (hopefully) be out-numbering the beta players and if a lot of them feel like this guy does, then something must be wrong.

    BTW. this thread is becoming quite negative.   For the record, I thought Jarhaven's thread approached the review much more tactfully, guiding  us to discuss the positive aspects of the review, with suggestions of what could be done to improve mining wait time.   

    Not suggesting that shaggyZed has encouraged anyone to be negative but the thread has taken a nasty turn.
    Posted 14 months ago by Treesa Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Wow they roasted glitch, but haters gonna hate :P
    Posted 14 months ago by Chances Subscriber! | Permalink
  • the review got a ton of things right, and articulates some interesting ideas. whether or not they remembered piggies produce meats and not hams is barely relevant. the game needs to be fun from minute one. expecting people to "wait it out" before forming opinions and then dismissing their opinions based on time-of-play criteria creates tunnel vision. i know. i used to do it.

    someone came into global chat one day in the beta [this was months ago] at like, level 4, complaining about the grindiness, lack of compelling end-game and general lack of innovation and novelty. i trotted out all my old saws about sim city from the inside out and continuous player created world and how the game as it was was only the starting point for something far more engaging and that they didn't know anything about the game if they've only played 4 levels and all the excuses for poor gameplay and world building that i see paraded here in this response topic... but that new player, in their 4 levels of play, figured out more about the underlying problems and deficiencies in Glitch than i had picked up in a year, and future developments bore out nearly every single one of their assumptions. someone once told me that i have a pathological hate on for Glitch and that i have never had my mind changed in an argument, but damn did that 4th level player cause me to shed many unjustified positive biases toward Glitch.

    it's been a long beta, and the lack of evolution in the gameplay over that time has been very disappointing. more elaborate variations on click the resource node, watch the progress bar, get the thing. increasingly discouraging.

    still, Glitch has a lot of promise and the review prominently mentions a lot of that promise. it offers strong praise for the level of artistry in the illustrations and street design. the artists and musicians deserve this praise. the technical developers have done great work in putting out an API capable of supporting something like Zog's tools and JS avatar animations and Glitch Mash and hopefully many more interesting experiments and tools. the improvement in flash client performance has been staggering.

    but at the end of the day, the game is *currently* little more than the sum of these parts, plus a chat room. there is no gestalt value created by marrying this technical and artistic excellence with innovative, compelling gameplay. i even began to think that maybe the whole point was for the game to be ridiculously and self-consciously banal, so that players would be forced to join up the parts themselves .. but then the customization options have been limited, the world building predetermined and the various resource gathering/conversion modes have been entirely prescriptive.

    my hope has always been that once the technical issues got sorted out and the underlying transactional systems built out that all the tools would be in place to combine in various interesting ways in order to build out the more innovative play elements - presuming those innovative play elements were impossible to develop until the underlying structures were in place. now my worry is that by launching the game immediately after the technical foundation was solid, the developers will be so busy regulating existing behaviors for the sake of balance that the larger picture will become lost or difficult to work on through the distractions.

    anyway, it is pretty easy to be cynical at 2am, and the game is on a fine trajectory in some respects, but i did want to take issue with some of the wholesale dismissal of the linked review. TS can only ignore that kind of feedback at their own peril.
    Posted 14 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • dudes. Im famous. 3rd pic down. oh so famous.
    Posted 14 months ago by fishFUNK Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Addicted as I am, I agree with striatic.  Several of my friends who love games, online and off, have tried the game and just not got into it at all, commonly citing confusion and impatience with the waiting as reasons for not bothering with it long enough to even progress to level 2.  And why should they?  They're under no obligation to play the game, nor even to give it what glitchens might consider a fair chance.  I believe that it's good that that criticisms of the game are fed back to Tiny Speck because then they have the opportunity to address them, if they wish.  And if they never hear from people whom the game has failed to engage then how will they ever learn what went wrong?  However, it may be that the game is engaging exactly the audience that Tiny Speck are after and the reviewer and my friends just happen to not fall into that target group.
    Posted 14 months ago by martian-b Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I should write a long text as well if I had the time, but I would just agree with striatic here (and a lot of points in the review).
    As a matter of fact, I guess I'm still playing just to be ready for what the future of Glitch (may) holds.
    In my opinion, having this kind of review from time to time is more valuable for TS than the usual flow of fan comments, that while certainly brings motivation, doesn't bring much constructive critics to the game.
    Posted 14 months ago by Lemo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The review is right.  So he thought the game had cows.  I thought that too when I saw "remote herdkeeping" because who the hell keeps herds of pigs?  Pigs don't herd anyway, they just kind of wander around.  The point is, he's right.  There is a LOT of potential here but it gets pissed away by the distinctly childlike feel and complete lack of challenge or conflict.

    Controls are sluggish and the gameplay is boring.  He's correct, it is mostly holding down right or left arrow key, interspersed with hitting enter once or twice, and that's it.  Unless you want to chat, which--he's right, again--requires your character to stand there blinking, doing nothing.

    The world is boring.  The same endless streets and trees.  They only differ aesthetically, and then only in a few varieties.

    Progress bars makes the game feel like Progress Quest.  There is no actual requirement to level up a skill--you just push "learn this skill."  No sacrifice, no actual learning.

    There is zero conflict.  I know, it's a "casual" game about "cooperating," but I can't even point out how interesting it is that auction prices go up during certain project phases without a bunch of people making disparaging comments about capitalism and "greed."  Good lord.  Get a grip.  Economies function on conflict.  Conflict is human nature.  If you don't like struggle (or at least overcoming it) then you don't like being alive.  Zero conflict means zero challenge.  Zero fun to break up the monotony.  No story, book, movie, legend, whatever is good unless there is a conflict.  If there is one coming the devs need to get the lead out and publish it.

    Same with some kind of comprehensive canon.  If it is out there I can't find it.  The mythology sounds fascinating, but where the heck is it?  There is a GREAT story in here somewhere.  The devs just need to bring it out.

    Questing is broken.  No quest board, not even for simple penny-ante fetch quests.  I know, quests need to be activated by making X number of bean soups or whatnot.  That is ridiculous.  That kind of crap is why I stopped playing mafia wars.  Quests need to be meaningful and relevant, if at least in a tangential way, to the main plot--which doesn't even exist, as I pointed out.

    There is much good here but much work to do on improvements still.  I'll keep on playing but unless it becomes more rewarding soon I will eventually lose interest.
    Posted 14 months ago by Mako6 Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Have you been through the tower or seen a Rook attack yet, Mako6? There is alot more to the game then what you see on the surface--you just have to explore to find it.
    Posted 14 months ago by Shepherdmoon Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I wish this thread could be permanently tied to the newer thread containing a link to Beau's review on Massively, because they each represent such perfectly opposing reactions to the game--both completely valid, I think.

    I fall on the side of Beau's review, because I have reacted to Glitch in such an emotional fashion.  For me, Glitch is a giant to-do list with social benefits and while I realize how shitty that makes it sound, that is actually not a problem; there is an immense amount of pleasure in planning skills, accomplishing quests and enjoying the served up aspects of the game (for example, I found the Bureaucratic Hall hilarious, not irritating).  I think that reducing Glitch's social aspect to a "chat room" ignores the fact that it actually does the heavy lifting for the game right now.  For people who get tired of the to-do list aspect of the gameplay, which happens extremely soon for many, not having the deeper hook of social activities (shenanigans) in the game makes it very easy to walk away from.  And the social aspect is much wider and more varied than just a chat room, that is abundantly clear--it's just that all that is part of the "wait and see" part of Glitch.

    I don't agree that people have to be engaged from the first moment they enter the game, or that people should "give it a chance", because those are just reactions from a wide array of reactions that just exist for anything.  You get it now, you get it later, you don't ever get it...ultimately these are all the same things.   I think the real question is, is Glitch getting enough people now and later for them to be meeting whatever kind of targets are in place?

    I do know that many players are in a wait and see mode with a much longer reach backwards than new players who are wondering when they are going to understand what all the fuss is about.  There are hints at a larger story, at conflict, at epic-ness, that have barely been uncovered--at least, the optimists hope that they are looking at the tip of an iceberg and not the whole of it.  The game can stay afloat for a long time with the energy provided by new players, while the "culture" of Glitch makes and remakes itself over and over again, but that's not what long time players are sticking around for.  At least, not this one...
    Posted 14 months ago by Nanookie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Rook attacks are not conflict.
    They're triggered randomly and aren't connected at all with players behaviours.
    There has to be more cause-to-effect factors, and at a global scale.
    Posted 14 months ago by Lemo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "There is zero conflict.  I know, it's a "casual" game about "cooperating," but I can't even point out how interesting it is that auction prices go up during certain project phases without a bunch of people making disparaging comments about capitalism and "greed."  Good lord.  Get a grip.  Economies function on conflict.  Conflict is human nature.  If you don't like struggle (or at least overcoming it) then you don't like being alive.  Zero conflict means zero challenge.  Zero fun to break up the monotony.  No story, book, movie, legend, whatever is good unless there is a conflict.  If there is one coming the devs need to get the lead out and publish it."

    This is a really good point. It's really difficult to make anything interesting happen in the game people people care so much about the "niceness" and the monotony - the competitive tree wars thread got POUNCED on by a rabid mob, even though it's the most fun suggesting I'd seen for ages. That's not the way a game should work, that's why progress quest is a parody... Games need variation, games need competing interests. Games should be stimulating. Lots of people don't want to feel like a clickbot, even a kind smiling one...
    Posted 14 months ago by Saro Subscriber! | Permalink