Dead State - DoubleBear Review Controversy

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Many bugs were related to scripts, that makes them likely to be seen by many players.
I could not tell for sure as I did not play the required releases between the Release and early access releases, I suspected though that many scripted bugs were known beforehand and not killed before the Release.
The above list confirmed it: they were known and let in the Release.
Some of the bugs could be corrected (if not fixed) by editing the associated scripts.

After digging into the reviews, releasing in the current state could have prevented this mess. Many reviews focus on the buggy side (that no longer suit the depiction of the product), only a few focus on the lacking gameplay.

Releasing a good looking faced shell might be the future of gaming.


The power that anonymity gives small people.
Small guy opposed to who?
 
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Many consumers are probably dicks, but a developer calling them as such in a public format is inexcusable. Considering that Brian and Anne are not new of these antics, they deserve the bad rep.

But in the end what really matters is that the game was released with a ton of known issues, probably to try to grab the winter sales... On top of that, after a while the game is repetitive, boring, offers no challenges (zombies are statues, other humans are brain dead - how many times I was able to lure them one by one out of their hiding place? too many - and the survival challenges are not challenging at all after the first 7-10 days), and it is based on a derivative story... about zombies... zzzzz.....

So, a total failure in all fronts. Not worthy of any controversy, to say the truth.
 
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The guy they banned was being an entitled prick in my opinion. One of the developers thought so too and made some regretful posts about it. Is this enough to fuck with people's livelihood?

I had to fire someone a couple weeks ago over some real nonsense. Right before Christmas. I took all my vacation and I'm seriously thinking about not going back. I don't mind firing people when they had it coming and have been counseled numerous times but this was nonsense. And the timing was awful. One person thinks work is Beverly Hills 90210 and needs constant drama and she got someone fired and was all smiles when the person who was fired was cleaning her desk out. Messing with people's livelihoods is a big deal.

A company being destroyed is a big deal. These are real people with feelings and emotions. One person did something regrettable (but understandable in my opinion) and now the whole company is being destroyed. Anyone who thinks people's livelihoods should be destroyed because one person made a mistake is a dick. Maybe the majority of people are dicks and that's why I'm in the minority. I'm all for messing with people, and hell, I'm even down for a good old fashion fight, but when it comes to something that has serious repercussions to someone's life and livelihood I don't take that lightly, and I think people are way too ready and willing to seriously hurt people's lives over nonsense.

Umm, being banned from a forum does not equate to doing anything wrong and doesn't reflect the profanity that you are spewing. Heavy handed admins are very common on forums…ESPECIALLY the forums of game companies. Look at the evidence here. Look how they are handling it when they can't just delete posts and ban someone that doesn't tow the party line. They have a dev flag a review, they spew vitriol (without ever even attempting to address the actual argument). They are as unprofessional and amateur as can be.

Yeah, these are real people, and you know what? So are the people that spend their money! Developers aren't magical or immune to criticism. Why should customers' money be worthless in your eyes and only the developers?

It isn't over "nonsense." You show your clear bias here. He had very justifiable criticism that is supported in almost EVERY review out there! Is it important to you? Who cares. Your opinion is no more or less important than this guy's. The difference is that your opinion hasn't been censored.

And stop repeating the "entitlement" talking point. EVERYONE who buys a game is "entitled" to a working product that is actually finished. Not a buggy as hell barebones setup!
 
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Well, I thought this release would be a big dissappointment. But people need to get a grip and realize kickstarter funding is a gamble. Pick your bets carefully, and still expect nothing.

You miss the point. The point is that people have the right to write a negative review of a game and not have developers try to censor them by appealing to steam, banning them from a forum, and posting vitriol on twitter, all the while ignoring the content of the review, which has been mirrored everywhere, in every review out there.
 
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If reviews are posted at a community gathering place with biased or overly negativef eedback, it's the place of the community to correct things, not the developers'.
 
Neither Developer or said reviewer come out of this with much credit.

They (people) say any sort of PR is good PR, I wouldn't be so sure after this mud slinging fest. A breakdown in communication is somewhat of an understatement.

There was no breakdown in communication. DB's behavior has been consistent all along. Ban forum user that doesn't sing their praises, have a dev flag a negative review, make a few disgusting and embarrassing posts to twitter. No breakdown there. All they had to do is let his review stand. They clearly can't handle criticism and that steam review had nothing inappropriate in it.
 
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This is a perfect example of the central flaw in the Interwebs: The power that anonymity gives small people. They can hide behind their keyboard, safe in their home, shielded behind a cutesy user id, spewing their bile.

I've seen it on music sites, political sites, game sites, you name it. I'm going on 67 and have worked on computers and various forms of the internet since 1980. This crap is nothing new. There will always be gutless, immature, loud-mouthed punks making trouble for others. The things is, if they were face-to-face with their targets, they wouldn't have the guts to open their mouth. But, as long as they can hide and snipe from cover, they'll continue to make trouble.

As famous TV Tool Dr. Phil says, "That's the price of poker." Unfortunately.

Actually, this is an example of overhanded, ego driven behavior from a position of power. Developers systematically tried to censor a critic. End of story. Banning from a private forum is one thing. Trying to get a negative review removed from steam and acting like petty children via twitter is appalling and insanely embarrassing. Seriously, that woman's post makes her look like a whiny, petulant child. She lashed out with personal insults and behaved like an egomaniac with no self control.

Please point to a SINGLE thing in that review that was in any way inappropriate.

"The things is, if they were face-to-face with their targets, they wouldn't have the guts to open their mouth. " This is one of the weakest and flawed "arguments" ever created. It is laughable.

You think that someone wouldn't have the "guts" to say in person to the developer that they pushed a gameplay incomplete and buggy mess of a game out the door early to make a quick buck? Seriously? Ahahahaha. Ridiculous.
 
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Not sure why this guy is getting any publicity at all…seems thats what he wanted…oh and a personal apology….seems like a peach.

Censorship should never be tolerated, period. This especially true when speaking out against those that have power and influence. People that are able to represent companies on twitter feeds and who have leverage to shut down negative reviews on a major site like steam, for example. This should absolutely never be acceptable behavior.

Also, the dev's twitter posts make them look like incompetent amateurs who not only released a buggy, incomplete product(and wouldn't even try to address this criticism) but aren't even in control of their emotions enough to control how they respond within public view.
 
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Bioware are published by EA. EA pulling out that stunt? They would be destroyed for that. Would be very hard to find EA defenders. In the current case, all crowfunding supporters are rushing in to support dogmatically a studio that went through crowdfunding. The quality is abyssal? Who cares, what only matters is that they went crowdfunded.

Bugs are not the big problem: the big problem is the lack of gameplay, gameplay is empty. They might start to fill it in.
This product could turn bug free, this would not change that bit. Only way is to start to build up on the gameplay. At the moment, the product is to be sumed up by a lot of content to browse, that is all.

Just a quick correction. Bioware IS EA. The game is developed by EA and published by EA. Bioware is just an internal name that could be given to any EA development studio. It means nothing now.

Agree on the gameplay. That is what everyone here seems to conveniently ignore.
 
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Umm, being banned from a forum does not equate to doing anything wrong and doesn't reflect the profanity that you are spewing. Heavy handed admins are very common on forums…ESPECIALLY the forums of game companies. Look at the evidence here. Look how they are handling it when they can't just delete posts and ban someone that doesn't tow the party line. They have a dev flag a review, they spew vitriol (without ever even attempting to address the actual argument). They are as unprofessional and amateur as can be.

Yeah, these are real people, and you know what? So are the people that spend their money! Developers aren't magical or immune to criticism. Why should customers' money be worthless in your eyes and only the developers?

It isn't over "nonsense." You show your clear bias here. He had very justifiable criticism that is supported in almost EVERY review out there! Is it important to you? Who cares. Your opinion is no more or less important than this guy's. The difference is that your opinion hasn't been censored.

And stop repeating the "entitlement" talking point. EVERYONE who buys a game is "entitled" to a working product that is actually finished. Not a buggy as hell barebones setup!

I get banned from forums all the time. It may be hard to believe but a lot of people find me annoying, and I sometimes rub people the wrong way. Do I have hissy fits over it? No. Do I try and destroy people’s livelihoods? No. Do I demand apologies? No.

Demanding an apology from a small handful of people, while you are actively trying to hurt their sales or sales potential is being an entitled prick.

This has nothing to do with crowdsourcing. This has everything to do with not being a dick and destroying people’s livelihoods. Can people make mistakes? Yes. Should people pay for their mistakes? Yes? Should people sometimes have their livelihoods destroyed over their mistakes? Yes, when it comes to murder, rape, and other things no one should do, certainly.

But when it comes to a person being in a bad place emotionally, and making a bad decision because of it (which I believe is the case of whatshername, the developer), should this destroy the small, independent company she works for, and the other people in the small company? Certainly not.

People make mistakes. People get emotional. People make bad decisions due to stress and pressure.

The punishment should fit the crime, and the crime wasn’t really a big deal in my opinion. Some lady got emotional and blew off steam in a public fashion. Was that a bad idea? Certainly. Should she and everyone around her be destroyed over it? Certainly not in my opinion.

Anyone who believes the punishment due to this company should be utter destruction is a dick. Period. The people who make up this company shouldn’t have to pay so dearly because an entitled prick pushed someone who was emotional a little too far.

At the end of the day, you can be a heartless dick or you can be a rational, normal person and realize people make mistakes and the punishment does not fit the crime in this situation.
 
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I get banned from forums all the time. It may be hard to believe but a lot of people find me annoying, and I sometimes rub people the wrong way. Do I have hissy fits over it? No. Do I try and destroy people’s livelihoods? No. Do I demand apologies? No.

Demanding an apology from a small handful of people, while you are actively trying to hurt their sales or sales potential is being an entitled prick.

This has nothing to do with crowdsourcing. This has everything to do with not being a dick and destroying people’s livelihoods. Can people make mistakes? Yes. Should people pay for their mistakes? Yes? Should people sometimes have their livelihoods destroyed over their mistakes? Yes, when it comes to murder, rape, and other things no one should do, certainly.

But when it comes to a person being in a bad place emotionally, and making a bad decision because of it (which I believe is the case of whatshername, the developer), should this destroy the small, independent company she works for, and the other people in the small company? Certainly not.

People make mistakes. People get emotional. People make bad decisions due to stress and pressure.

The punishment should fit the crime, and the crime wasn’t really a big deal in my opinion. Some lady got emotional and blew off steam in a public fashion. Was that a bad idea? Certainly. Should she and everyone around her be destroyed over it? Certainly not in my opinion.

Anyone who believes the punishment due to this company should be utter destruction is a dick. Period. The people who make up this company shouldn’t have to pay so dearly because an entitled prick pushed someone who was emotional a little too far.

At the end of the day, you can be a heartless dick or you can be a rational, normal person and realize people make mistakes and the punishment does not fit the crime in this situation.


You seem to be going on a lot of tangents. This seems to be something personal to you.

Banning wasn't the problem. That is simply part of DB's censorship. It is brought up to show their pattern of trying to remove dissent.

He has every right to echo what everyone AGREES on already. You act like he has some unique stance here that puts him in a unique situation. Reviews universally agree that the game is buggy to the nth degree and that the gameplay is basic and undeveloped.

Every time you talk about destroying "livelihood" you make it clear that this is either something personal to you or something similar. Being an indie studio does not make you immune to criticism. We cannot go down the path of stifling dissent whenever someone deems it unworthy. Being an indie studio doesn't give you the excuse to try to get negative reviews taken down or to childishly lash out at them personally via twitter. If someone makes a buggy, undeveloped game, then the customers have EVERY RIGHT to express their opinions, whether the developers or joe shmo on the internet agrees or not.

It wasn't "some lady" that blew smoke. It was a head developer who childishly lashed out as an egomaniac with no self control. She is very much part of the organization that not only censored and deleted posts, but went as far as to developer flag a negative review on steam. That is completely unnaceptable. She never once even addressed a single issue stated in the review. She made it all completely personal and made personal attacks. This is NOT acceptable. Not only should she apologize with a real apology, but she should personally make sure that the review is reinstated. Until this happens, it is as clear as day to anyone who doesn't have an emotional investment that this was simply an extension of the egomania and stifling of dissent that is systematic with this developer.

I never backed the game and since the reviews show a buggy, underdeveloped game, I don't intend to buy it. This only further cements it. I don't buy games that support little napoleons who release buggy, underdeveloped games early. This reeks of Elite and Double Fines Space 9 game.
 
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You miss the point. The point is that people have the right to write a negative review of a game and not have developers try to censor them by appealing to steam, banning them from a forum, and posting vitriol on twitter, all the while ignoring the content of the review, which has been mirrored everywhere, in every review out there.

No, you miss the point of the censoring. The "review" was pulled because it was an attack on the developers, not because it was unfavorable about the game.
 
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I feel sorry for Brian and Double Bear through all this. I hope they can continue to move forward and improve the game. I'm sure they will.

It's negative, trolling "reviews" like this one that attempt to hurt people. I think we all have to learn to ignore these things and continue to move forward. You'll never silence all the internet trolls, so the only way to effectively deal with them is ignoring them.

I often wonder if these trolls actually like playing games at all. It's just very odd behaviour to me.
 
It wasn't "some lady" that blew smoke. It was a head developer who childishly lashed out as an egomaniac with no self control. She is very much part of the organization that not only censored and deleted posts, but went as far as to developer flag a negative review on steam. That is completely unnaceptable. She never once even addressed a single issue stated in the review. She made it all completely personal and made personal attacks. This is NOT acceptable. Not only should she apologize with a real apology, but she should personally make sure that the review is reinstated. Until this happens, it is as clear as day to anyone who doesn't have an emotional investment that this was simply an extension of the egomania and stifling of dissent that is systematic with this developer.

Truer words were never spoken. That female has no business posting ANYTHING online, given how she wears her heart on sleeves and abuses and curses others when they complain about stuff that DESERVES complaining. That user never once did use bad words, didn't resort to any personal attacks and actually raised pretty valid points throughout. And instead of addressing it logically, he gets banned and abused?????

Calling a customer #ickbag and @ucker publicly has no excuse and she should render an immediate apology, if has an ounce of professionalism left.

This also highlights another issue about reverse gender bias. Imagine someone using cuss words for her..and then all hell would have broken loose about how female developers are treated badly etc etc..but when such female developers show utter lack of stress handling, childish tantrum throwing behaviour, and take criticism personally, how do you handle it without getting labelled as "misogynistic"?? Sadly, this just reinforces a common perception of how females are incapable of acting professional in the times of stress and they simply resort of base emotions, and name calling.

She claims that her company "poured their heart into making this game"…umm so what? You did it for it was your passion, to derive pleasure out of creation and ultimately to earn money. That does not mean anybody is obliged to liker it. Clearly not those customers who PAID for this half-game and found it severely lacking..because the developers decided to release an Early Access game, without informing customers so.

If DB is not ready to learn any lessons out of this and instead stick to their arrogant stand, then I would be happy if this turns out to be their first and last game. Anyways Dead State is a mediocre game, at best..so nothing of value would be lost.
 
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Censorship should never be tolerated, period. This especially true when speaking out against those that have power and influence. People that are able to represent companies on twitter feeds and who have leverage to shut down negative reviews on a major site like steam, for example. This should absolutely never be acceptable behavior.

Also, the dev's twitter posts make them look like incompetent amateurs who not only released a buggy, incomplete product(and wouldn't even try to address this criticism) but aren't even in control of their emotions enough to control how they respond within public view.

So...new account....strongly supporting this "review" with a lot of info on it....could it possibly be the reviewer?
 
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You seem to be going on a lot of tangents. This seems to be something personal to you.

Banning wasn't the problem. That is simply part of DB's censorship. It is brought up to show their pattern of trying to remove dissent.

He has every right to echo what everyone AGREES on already. You act like he has some unique stance here that puts him in a unique situation. Reviews universally agree that the game is buggy to the nth degree and that the gameplay is basic and undeveloped.

Every time you talk about destroying "livelihood" you make it clear that this is either something personal to you or something similar. Being an indie studio does not make you immune to criticism. We cannot go down the path of stifling dissent whenever someone deems it unworthy. Being an indie studio doesn't give you the excuse to try to get negative reviews taken down or to childishly lash out at them personally via twitter. If someone makes a buggy, undeveloped game, then the customers have EVERY RIGHT to express their opinions, whether the developers or joe shmo on the internet agrees or not.

It wasn't "some lady" that blew smoke. It was a head developer who childishly lashed out as an egomaniac with no self control. She is very much part of the organization that not only censored and deleted posts, but went as far as to developer flag a negative review on steam. That is completely unnaceptable. She never once even addressed a single issue stated in the review. She made it all completely personal and made personal attacks. This is NOT acceptable. Not only should she apologize with a real apology, but she should personally make sure that the review is reinstated. Until this happens, it is as clear as day to anyone who doesn't have an emotional investment that this was simply an extension of the egomania and stifling of dissent that is systematic with this developer.

I never backed the game and since the reviews show a buggy, underdeveloped game, I don't intend to buy it. This only further cements it. I don't buy games that support little napoleons who release buggy, underdeveloped games early. This reeks of Elite and Double Fines Space 9 game.

It should be personal to everyone since we are all humans and make mistakes. Do I like Dead State? Its okay. I like it better than Dark Souls 1 and 2, Bioshock, and Dishonored, Lords of Xuluma, which are all recentish purchases I made. Do I actually like these developers? No, in my opinion, due to what was presented in the data things you decode in game, and the various characters in game, they are blind-partisan leftists. The type of leftists I can't stand.

But, there is a big difference between liking something, being a fanboi, hating something, and actually trying to negatively impact people's livelihoods. Only cowards and pieces of shit take having a severely detrimental effect on peoples lives and livelihoods lightly. People who aren't huge dicks don't try to destroy people and what they created. Period.

In this case, if you feel what is happening to DoubleBear fits their crime, after you have read all the facts and relevant posts, then I really think you are a huge dick. That is my opinion; other people may take a stance that destroying people's lives and livelihoods in this case is warranted. It really comes down to being a dick or not I guess.
 
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Many of the posts here make me laugh.

Calling a person who is acting like a total douche a dickbag is no big deal.

Anyone who would lose their job over this works for some a-hole who puts money over people.

I have a staff of 8 and if any of them called a person behaving like the troll a dickbag I'd laugh and tell the troll to get lost for upsetting my employee.

I love the self-righteous puling whining of people here over "professionalism" etc.

Sure, if you work at Starbucks - where they treat employees like crap so they can bring in every dollar no matter how obnoxious an a-hole they are serving….. then you have to swallow it or lose your job….

Otherwise, what a load of crap people are blowing here - she told a d-bag to get lost who was using alt accounts to up vote a review.

There wasn't any "censorship" - it was removing a loser who was abusing the system to be a troll.


Don't be a bunch of dickbags.
 
Joined
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You miss the point. The point is that people have the right to write a negative review of a game and not have developers try to censor them by appealing to steam, banning them from a forum, and posting vitriol on twitter, all the while ignoring the content of the review, which has been mirrored everywhere, in every review out there.

You are wrong. There is no such "right" - people who whine about "rights" are usually self-entitled pules who think they can say anything and that they have "free" speech (newsflash: there is no such thing.... only tolerated speech and not tolerated speech)

DoubleBear chose not to tolerate a clear douche. It had nothing to do with a negative review - those have existed on their site since the game released. It had to do with someone abusing a system and acting like an entitled jerk.
 
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There was no breakdown in communication. DB's behavior has been consistent all along. Ban forum user that doesn't sing their praises, have a dev flag a negative review, make a few disgusting and embarrassing posts to twitter. No breakdown there. All they had to do is let his review stand. They clearly can't handle criticism and that steam review had nothing inappropriate in it.

Are you the original troll that wrote the review?

You sound like it.... I haven't seen DB behave that way at all overall.

Just with people who troll like you and assume you are right in all things.
 
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