BIS/CM: Money makes priority?

[animalica 0]

When OFP V1.0 was released it was still in an beta status so light and shadow was balanced.

You enjoyed the many possibilities, units, landscapes and story but at the same time you were disappointed by much too much bugs/errors/flaws.

Then there were many updates/patches/add-ons which improved this impressive game but also brought us new bugs.

And for an game which wasn`t intended for online gaming they improved the netcode from V.10 to V1.4 very much - but it could still be better.

Now with OFP V1.4 it`s nearly perfect although there are still some annoying bugs.

But since the Virtual Battle System came up there are some serious questions about the future of OFP:

OFP is an worldwide success which brought CM a lot of money, also the OFP Gold Upgrade.

But what brings more money? Hundred thousands of normal user who paid ~40$ for OFP and thousands of normal user who bought OFP Gold Upgrade for ~20$, or the military who would pay much more money for the VBS and further add-ons and updates?

And who brings the most money get the most attraction and service so I am afraid that the service for us normal users will drop in the future.

I may be wrong but this is my impression and apprehension.

And I think that most of the new units for the VBS will be classified so that we will never see most of them.

Maybe there will be an VBS 2 in the near future which will be downgraded to an OFP2 - who knows.

But I am sure that there will be an OFP2 because OFP is such an success and you should never change an winning team.

And maybe this time we get what we paid for - an product with a few minor bugs and not another beta status game because of an much too narrow dead line of the publisher.

And I also hope that the development tools will be released for the public in near future to keep the OFP community alive.

Thanks to BIS for this outstanding game, especially for OFP being their first title and thumbs down for CM for narrow dead lines.

That is my opinion and what about yours?

(You don´t need to flame me - I know that I suck! )

[Placebo 29]

IMO that is an unnecessarily harsh and inflammatory thread title, I cannot think of one game that is superior to Opf, either in design, execution or ability to take up my time and keep my attention, most games I play until I complete them and never touch again, Opf I've been playing solidly since the demo.

Also IMO version 1.0 was vastly superior to ANYTHING else around at the time or that has been released since, for a supposedly "beta" release the only bug I personally ever encountered were a few clipping problems, which it seems ALL games have these days (Max Payne for one), yes the netcode wasn't/isn't ideal but I've still had many many hours of great fun playing co-op missions with my 56k and that was with version 1.0.

As far as I'm concerned my faith, patience and loyalty has more than been rewarded with the 4 upgrades/addons we've had, I for one certainly feel I've had my Å30 worth and more

I would imagine that because I've been following the game for so long, and because I work for OFPN, and because I work on these forums, I'll be accused of being a "Bis bottom licker" well nothing I can do to avoid that, but I can assure you of one thing, being the extremely lazy bastard that I am if I didn't love Opf as much as I do I certainly wouldn't be giving away so much of my free time working in the community both here and for OFPN

[Mr ThunderMakeR 0]

"Bottom licker"??

Nah, ur right, BIS more than deserves our praise.

They gave us a great game from the start. I completed the original campaign on v1.0 with virtually no bugs at all. If I did experience some, then they werent bad enough for me to remember. Sure the mp was pretty bad, but it wasnt meant to be a mp game in the first place.

THEN, they went so far as to give us TONS of addons and bug fixes. Albeit, they did create a few more, but I have great faith in BIS' ability to eventually work them all out. Besides, I dont remember any other game where u get free addons. I play EverQuest a lot and if u want a new character or class in that game, u have to go pay $30 or $40 (not $20) for an EXPANSION!!

If u think BIS will ignore the OFP community now because of the VBS1 project, then u are WRONG my friend. U act as if they have to pick either OFP or VBS1 and that they would pick VBS1 because of money. In truth, they have the ability to work on both AND make tons of money from both. While BIS is a young company, they are still big enough to work on more than one project at a time and as far as i know they are working on other games besides OFP and VBS1. Also, I think u are doubting the sucess of OFP, it is a WORLD-WIDE sucess!! They are making more than enough money off of it, possibly even more than they are making off the VBS1 deal.

And as proof that BIS will not abandon the OFP community, they have already said something about possibly releasing certain VBS1 units to the OFP community. I cant seem to find the article where this was said but I remember it was an interview that was done with a BIS represenative. Also, BIS has said that they wont be releasing any SDK tool since none exists, but they will be releasing individual tools such as a modelling tool.

As far as I can tell, there is no reason what-so-ever for us to doubt BIS' loyalty to the OFP community...

[Placebo 29]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Mr ThunderMakeR @ Jan. 08 2002,22:35)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">"Bottom licker"??<span id='postcolor'>

LOL polite version of "arse licker" or "brown noser"? Not sure of the "Americanism"

[Ex-RoNiN 0]

brown nose it is

And I agree/disagree, BIS is doing more than enough, Codemasters published it, which is their job. The Community is safe, as the OPF developers are OPF fans themselves. I think you people should stop bitching and whining and just take what is coming out. Or you could sit on ur lazy bottoms and start making some good missions.

[ufo_hk 1]

I know what is easier in my business and has a higher ROI (and this would apply to any business) - one large sale to a corporate customer rather than 100 sales to the consumer market.

I also know that a company to succeed and continue to support it's customer base it needs to generate an acceptable ROI for it's shareholders. Therefore it will balance it's resources across it's business and customers.

Therefore if OFP is profitable BI will continue to support OFP. This it has clearly shown they can do this - ie three major upgrades since V1.0 release (each which also added additional functions), 3 addons, various editing tools, they visit the forums and help out. Sure they may not release as many new tools / addons as fast, but thats understandable as they are in a business.

IMO - you're statement "..........we will get what we paid for........." is very short sighted, they have given you the option of returning it, you didn't take up this offer, therefore you must have accepted what you got and paid for.

Remember if you wearing BI shoes " we have a right to expect to be paid for what we give you........ and this could include anything additional to the original game.

Not a flame - just my opinion

[animalica 0]

As I can see people understand my thread wrong.

They only see the things which I said weren´t good but they don`t see the good things which I mentioned while other things are theoretical questions about the future and my concern about it.

And I did my best not to insult everyone and for the headlines - headlines should be short and point out what the thread is about even when it may sound a little bit rude.

If there would be 100 space I could say it in an more polite manner but no one would take the time to read it.

So you had to compress your main meaning of this thread in 2 small rows for description.

I could use CS language but that`s not my style -

"BIS/CM suxxor because they want bucks for every 733t" - would this sound good?

And it also wouldn`t fit my questions and concern about the future.

Vielleicht sollte ich in Zukunft meine Beitraege in meiner Muttersprache deutsch verfassen, vielleicht versteht man mich dann besser...

My two €uro-Cents

[Ex-RoNiN 0]

Animalica, du koenntest natuelich alles in Deutsch von dir lassen, aber ich glaube nicht das dir dann jeder zuhoeren wuerde

[Guest]

Errr, English please? You two lovebirds can sprecken dutchen in private.... j/k

[Ex-RoNiN 0]

that was german, not dutch

before u ask, im not german

next

[animalica 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Ex-RoNiN @ Jan. 08 2002,23:55)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Animalica, du koenntest natuelich alles in Deutsch von dir lassen, aber ich glaube nicht das dir dann jeder zuhoeren wuerde <span id='postcolor'>

But I don´t think that I could write it any better as an person which native language isn`t english.

And it seems that the difference would be marginal - my english post was misinterpreted and an german post would also no one understand.

And to make it not an negative positioned only thread I also said what I think is positive about OFP and BIS - but it seemed that no one wanted to recognize this parts.

And I also asked a few uncomfortable questions about the future of OFP and it`s community because I got a few concerns which may be wrong or right - the future will show it.

But now I had to fear the spanish inquisition and their soft cushions because I also mentioned things which I didn`t like(d).

"He said that not everything in OFP is or was good! Heretic! Tie him to an chair and start an MP game until the "Oh no... 4 is down" bug errr feature pops up and leave him alone, stereo cranked up!"

P.S: Has the greek flag an special meaning?

[Ex-RoNiN 0]

Well, that is typical sort of, most of the ppl here are 15-16 and can't really deal with the x-mas tree discussion style (+,-,+,-), so they will only read the bad parts. Thing is, they are also quite spoilt, and thus can't really see the point of good praise, as they take it for granted. Does this make sense?

no

new try: people only see what they want to see, OR people use just feeble and petty excuses to spam

As for the Greek Flag...ummm...I'm Greek...get it?

It started on the OFPN forums with Placebo taking a thingy cross (don't know what its called) and putting it into his sig, so I asked for one as well, and hey, I got it!

Snake and the Norwegian guy (sorry, forgot ur name ) got one too, but they seem to have lost it after the move

[Placebo 29]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">It started on the OFPN forums with Placebo taking a thingy cross (don't know what its called) and putting it into his sig<span id='postcolor'>

"thingy cross"? ? ? ? LMAO you mean the St. George's Cross, the flag of England (none of that poncy Union Flag crap for me )

There ya go

[Guest]

Calling OFP version 1.0 a beta is nothing short of retarded IMO

WW2ol version 1.0 is a beta, that is for sure. OFP version 1.0 is an excellent case of hard, pioneering work that has paid off for BIS, codemasters and for every fortuneate fellow who picked it up off the shelf and baught it. It's amazing to look back and see that most of us have been playing OFP for 9-10 months (since Demo release in March). 10 months and it's still an amazing experience.

Lets not forget that the 4 upgrades that have come since June have been A, Free B, made at BIS employee's time and C, FREEEEEE.

We cant blame BIS for wanting to move on, after working on a game for 4 years you have no choice, move onto your next piece of software or go insane. Personally I'm suprised we've seen 4 upgrades/patches. I dont know many games companies that not only release patches, but release completely free additions to their games. If my facts are correct, OFP has had more vehicles/weapons added for FREE than ww2ol's had added since it's release, even though you pay a monthly subscription fee..Now IMO that's pretty damn good value

[Snake1999 0]

Yes, I fully agree with you Armourdave

BIS should have so much credit for all the hard work they've put into this game and community. I've actually never experienced such a support from a company before.

I'm not the least worried about the future of OFP, nor the community.

(Placebo,, may I have my Swedish flag back now..?)

[Placebo 29]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Snake1999 @ Jan. 09 2002,00:21)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">(Placebo,, may I have my Swedish flag back now..?)<span id='postcolor'>

LOL silly it never went anywhere

http://obecalp.virtualave.net/sweden.gif

[Antichrist 0]

Nah it should be sweet

BIS are still supporting OFP

For all we know they might be working on next Upgrade now (1.5) with shitloads of vehicles and weapons

[ralphwiggum 6]

I gave up my GRE just because I bought OFP a week b4 the test. Now, I'm not sure whether I'll goto grad school or not, but I luv my OFP and believe that BIS is doing a historical job.

I had shit load of problems in the beginning(1.2), but I got my system specs up, and now, it's flawless!! Yeah, MP sucks in some cases, but heck, the game play overrides such probs. This is a hardcore software for those who are interested in simulation (in my opinion).

I first saw my roommie playing Quake, but I didn't like it due to it's arcade-ish gameplay. R6 was better. but the mission area was painfully small.

OFP really takes you to isles of tremendous size, and character movements are closer to reality as it can get. So, i won't be disappointed at BIS for not able to come up with add-ons every month, but I would like to see BIS improving bugs and errors once in awhile.

But little bugs DO NOT overshadow what a truly great game this is.

[animalica 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (RalphWiggum @ Jan. 09 2002,23:33)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">...So, i won't be disappointed at BIS for not able to come up with add-ons every month, but I would like to see BIS improving bugs and errors once in awhile.<span id='postcolor'>

That`s my opinion too.

Instead of creating new addons AND bug hunting I would prefered that they should first get rid of the bugs and then add more units, weapons etc in an seperate to buy addon CD.

Where is the advantage of new units while bugs spoil the fun?

First make an nearly bug free game and THEN add more things!

In V1.0 the AI was superior (why snipers when an normal GI with an AK can do the same at night on 500m without IR goggles?) you often couldn`t finish missions although you completed all mission goals etc.

And this was the reason why an friend of me who also bought V1.0 was so frustrated after 2 weeks that he decided that it is total crap and sold it.

I wasn`t satisfied too but I wanted to like it because I saw the big potential of it.

V1.2 wasn`t an real big difference when it came to MP and AI but since V1.26 I could at least enjoy the MP mode because of much improved netcode.

And since V1.4 the AI was toned down to an enjoyable level so that I can now enjoy SP AND MP.

Now it seems that OFP is on the right way and since the announcement of an OFP addon by BIS I see light at the tunnel (hope it`s not an train... ).

[Antichrist 0]

Screw the nonexistent bugs

Version 1.0 was completely bug free for me

So I want more vehicles!!!!!

[Type0 0]

All I know is I got OFP for xmas, And since then I cant keep my mind on any other game long enough to do anything in them. OFP has to be one of the best games I have ever played. I keep catching myself at school, thinking of other ways to achieve my mission goals. OFP is verry bad for study habits........lol

As far is expations go, Just keep them comming. This game deserves all the well done expantions it can get I can already see that I will buy them all, just like I did for Rouge Spear. I cant even think about Rouge Spear now thow. OPF far exceeds rouge spear and ghost recon (basicaly the same engine as far as what i see). In my opinion Ghost Recon dosnt come close to OPF. OFP has far exceeded anything I had ever dreamed a tactical shooter could be. The old king is dead (Red Storm) Long live the new king (BI).