Elemental - War of Magic has Gone Gold!(new Stardock game)

[Lucid]

Awesome!
I don't know about anyone else but I'm extremely excited for this game.
It's basically a spiritual sequel to Master of Magic, a game that I used to play a lot back in the day.

Elemental: War of Magic is a turn-based strategy game set in a world of magic, warfare and intrigue. In it, players take on the role of a powerful sorcerer known as a “Sovereign”.

Players found new cities, research new technologies, study spells, build a family dynasty, engage in diplomacy, fight wars, go on quests and much more as they strive to overcome all enemies and dominate the world.

Features:
-A strategy game in an RPG world.
-Randomly Generated Maps.
-10 Unique Factions.
-In-Depth unit and character design.
-Tactical Battles.
-Rich, story-driven campaign developed by Random House’s Del Rey.
-Incredible replayability.
-Single player or Multiplayer (up to 16 players).
-Plays on very low end hardware.
-Takes advantage of the latest hardware.
-Massive modding support.
-From the people who brought you Galactic Civilizations and Sins of a Solar Empire.

http://www.elementalgame.com/images/Screenshots/Elemental_1279052618.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EO6Z6CufKQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOEvlqnw_v8

 

[Bad^Hat]

Looks kind of like Civ meets Heroes of Might and Magic.

Neat.

 

[Lucid]

That's sort of what it'll be like.

I guess no one really has any interest in this.
Thought there were a lot of Stardock fans here.

 

[SAJ]

MoM was/is one my top ten all-time favourites, massive expectations for this game.

 

[Lucid]

New video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMIvrwtO16Y

 

[Lucid]

Well, it's out if anyone cares.

I myself can't get it just yet but I plan on doing so come Friday.

 

[Shakermaker]

Not really my mind of game but I like the art style.

 

[Lucid]

Welp, I'm not buying this game.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/08/25/stardock-rescind-own-bill-of-rights/

Egotistical CEO saying in response to people complaining about the game being buggy and feeling half-finished "If you don't like our games, then don't buy them."

Coupled with them removing their signature Bill of Rights... this is not the same Stardock that released Sins of a Solar Empire and GalCiv.

 

[Shakermaker]

That quote from the CEO is moronic. He destroyed the majority of his customer base by saying that. What a dumbass.

 

[Deleted member 56031]

Welp, I'm not buying this game.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/08/25/stardock-rescind-own-bill-of-rights/

Egotistical CEO saying in response to people complaining about the game being buggy and feeling half-finished "If you don't like our games, that don't buy them."

woah isnt this the same company with that..what was it called again?...

Coupled with them removing their signature Bill of Rights... this is not the same Stardock that released Sins of a Solar Empire and GalCiv.

yeah that was it....oh.......ooh :|

 

[StardogChampion]

Egotistical CEO saying in response to people complaining about the game being buggy and feeling half-finished "If you don't like our games, then don't buy them."

He's wrong how?

Coupled with them removing their signature Bill of Rights... this is not the same Stardock that released Sins of a Solar Empire and GalCiv.

They didn't remove it. It's an old url. http://www.gamersbillofrights.org/

 

[CptStern]

He's wrong how?

it's a stupid thing to say because customers have a reasonable expectation that what they buy will actually work as advertised or at least reasonably so. this is not the case for majority of people who bought the game

 

[Shakermaker]

Brad 'the CEO' has replied on the Stardock forums.

Stardock’s Response to PC Gamer UK and RPS
By Frogboy Posted August 25, 2010 1:52:32 PM

There was an article posted earlier today on PC Gamer UK outlining some of the frustrations that the reviewer had with the pre-day 0 version of the game as well as a problem he was having with tactical battles.

In the article, he quoted an inflammatory forum posting I made on a site I participate in called Quarter to Three. This is a site I’ve been a participant in for many years and many of the people I discuss things on there are personal friends of mine.

During one such exchange with my friend Ben Sones, I angrily responded with a statement “Ben, please stay away from our games in the future. I consider it ready for release and if others disagree, don’t buy our games.”

This comment was totally out of line and I apologize for it. It was made in the heat of a ~2000 comment long thread and is not how I honestly feel. Ben’s a friend of mine and his comment that the game felt like a “beta” to him upset me and I responded inappropriately. I post a lot on many forums and unfortunately, sometimes the things I say are inappropriate or inflammatory.

As the CEO of Stardock, I want to be clear that my comments on the Quarter to Three forums do not reflect my team at large. They were words spoken out of frustration and sleep deprivation and I am truly sorry. We stand behind what we feel is a great product, one that we will continue to support for a number of years.

With regards to a post on Rock Paper Shot Gun, which picked up the PC Gamer UK story, they erroneously point to a 2+ year old URL to a Stardock news item that is no longer active (we switched news systems a year or so ago). Their article falsely implies that we have stepped away from our commitment to the Gamer’s Bill of Rights.

The site, www.gamersbillofrights.org was set up and is run by Stardock. We stand by it. It is, with some irony, our commitment to no DRM on our DVD release that ultimately caused the rough pre-release experience of Elemental. Several retailers broke the street date and we felt we needed to release our gold version to our customers who had pre-ordered from us as well as to our beta community that helped make the game the outstanding strategy game that it is.

However, it also became clear that the pre-day 0 version of the game was problematic as outlined in the PC Gamer UK article. The official day 0 version of the game, what is available right now, should address most, if not all the issues that have been described. That said, as is our long-standing policy, we will continue to release updates and improvements Elemental just as we do for the other titles we develop.

I anticipate us putting out regular updates for Elemental for months or years to come based on player feedback, suggestions, and yes, bug reports.

I hope this offers some explanation as to the events that have come up. I sincerely apologize and feel terrible for the effect my forum posting on Qt3 may have had not just on our fans but also my team that has worked incredibly hard over the past 3 years to produce what we hope, is a game that you will enjoy for years to come.

 

[Top Secret]

He certainly made the right move to correct this. He was out of line, but his reasoning for frustration seems plausible - retailers were breaking the street date and they felt pressured to release the game out of concern for piracy...

The smart thing to do would be to design a game that doesn't require a day 1 patch as so many seem to these days.

 

[Warped]

I can't get any more games for the next millennium. my backlog is like at least 50 games deep now

 

[Lucid]

Good on him to apologize, will buy this eventually.
When it's all patched up and maybe $20 cheaper.