It is better for the soul to stay lean.

I think Elemental will make a comeback.  I really do.  When all the dust clears, the trolls move on to other more shiney baubles, and E:WoM is in a better state, people will return to this game.  Word of Mouth will do it's work. There is nothing of quality in the pipeline for a while.  Lots of pretty and shiny things, but not quality. You need to get some of the industry magazines/websites to re-review the game when it reaches that point, because that's only fair.

Won't that be a nice day. Though from what I can tell, the dev team is already making great strides calming down these forums and talking to different modders about issues they are finding. Honestly, I think Elemental will find its stride soon enough and the devs will end up having a lot of time to help the community make it even better.

From my perspective at least Elemental will have to have some pretty drastic overhauls for 1.1 to make it even a good game. I still can't fathom for the life of me how it was decided it was ready for release. Anyway looking to the future it seems SD is open and candid about it's future challenges and this certainly makes a refreshing change from other companies I could mention.

Thank you for this post. Always good to read such things. Maybe I´m naive, but i believe you.

And for sure... Elemental is a good game. Even now. For me everything else is overblown critisizm. Yeah...there is much to do, but I know that you know this and you work on it. Thats more than great.

I´m not a technical freak, i know nothing about modding or programming, so i cant be a helpfull part on this side.  But I´m a gamer and as gamer i´m stuck with you and promise you as long as you go on with this philosphy, i will buy your games. :) 

You and Stardock are truly wonderful and I thank you for your efforts and also your honesty.  I love strategy games and I love that there is another fantasy game in that genre.  Your honesty and engagement with players of Elemental is unique and wonderful.

Cheers,

Sword

That's what I love about you guys honestly. In my talks with you and Scott, I really do consider you guys "friends". Especially Scott (Boogiebac) who has taken a personal interest in my health knowing all the shit I go through on a daily basis, and that really means a lot to me. You and him being a friend and being there to chat, especially about Non-game related stuff, really shows me that you guys care about your customers not Only As Customers, but ALSO as people, comrades in arms, and friends.

I don't know where anyone who really knows you, even a little bit as I do, would ever say you have a god complex or a ego to bruise. Brad, I've found you to be a Very personable and approachable guy, which is rare in this industry and even Rarer when talking about a CEO. I can think of at least 3 times now that you've taken the time out of your day to sit down with me and give me info on how to mod, or told me about stuff in the works, or even directly asked me for my thoughts on things like the last conversation we had. If for no other reason that alone will keep me supporting you and the guys in everything you do.

I know as a person that you guys don't just talk to me because you know I'm plugged into the community, but because you care about me as a real Person. To me that means more than whether or not you listen to my ideas on the game or mechanics and shows me again how much you guys really care about your friends, family, and customers. I really consider myself to be part of the team and a honorary Stardockian. I haven't been this close to a development team since back in the day working on UO before I got hired on.

To wrap this up I just wanted to say Thank You again, to you and Scott and all the guys and girls on the inside for what you do for all the community. You guys are the best in the business. Whether you're working on something kick ass like Elemental or even if you were to work on a game like "My Little Pony Island Adventures" I'd still be there helping you guys out in any way I can and giving you community feedback.

Thanks for Everything you do, both for the community, and for your Friends.

~ Raven

I bought Elemental CE or LE whatever you want to call it because of the many months of pleasure I got out of GalCiv 2 series. I NEVER pay $80 for anything game wise but I did Elemental because I trust Brad et al will make it as great if not greater than GC2 eventually. I already know EVERY game released is going to have issues.

How they can give Civ V in the 90's on reviews just pisses me off though as it hardly rates in the 90's with the problems it has on release. I think Elemental got ripped with some of the reviews and scores it got.

As far as other developers being your friends Brad that's fine but if they make a crappy game I don't like I'm going to tell the WORLD about it. Personally I don't care for milking the donkey episodes of games past a number TWO or II. Civ V is just a donkey milking game of the same damn stuff. Even the victory conditions are still the same. After Civ II the civ series has just gone donkey milking. Where's Alpha Centauri II? But then again how can you make an already great and perfect game better? Graphics would be about the only thing.

Age of Wonders never really improved as the ai is horrible and they never did anything about it. I never see any point in making the same game over and over if you're not going to improve the challenge. People play games for the challenge and competition not for the pretty pictures unless they are 3 years old.

All n all though I think Brad et al are doing a great job of PRing and working to improve the game. I still have only had 1 crash since the start so for me the game is stable and already fun as it is. I would like to see some color though as grey and black is still a bit drab.

1) Dont do it then. Really. Get someone to do it for you. The reasons should be clear as day. If not, all the more reason to get someone else to do it for you.

2) Great news

Good. My games backlog list is big enough as it is without you adding more to it

Indeed. Brad & Stardock =

I must admit, I only got to know Stardock with Elemental as I somehow started reading the journal and found it very interesting. So I applied for Beta (which was more an Alpha though ) and was surprised how much the Devs listen to us tester in beta and were implementing many ideas within weeks. Though I was rather disappointed when the game hit gold and was still more a Beta than a final game. I couldn't understand why the game was released like that when you always said you don't have a publisher on your back pushing you to release. You say the team thought it was ready, and I can't understand that statement either. I don't mean memory leaks and stability bugs (I can imagine this is hard nowadays with so many different hardware settings), but gameplay flaws which shouldn't be there after the long public beta cycle. Anyway everyone makes mistakes and I'm happy that your company doesn't rely on the sales of this game to stay in business. I have faith that Elemental will be that game I was expecting by the end of the year. 

I also love the mod tools, which may get me out of my chair and start modding for real. As opposed to you I have tons of game design ideas which I would like to see in a game. But as you mentioned, the industry is close knit, so it is hard to get into it; especially if you live in a country with no real game industry. If Stardock wasn't located in in the States (don't get me wrong I just can't imagine to move to a country outside of Europe), I would apply for a job at Stardock as I am looking for an employer with your attitude towards software development (I am a Java Web Developer in a still small consulting company in Switzerland).

Lastly it is really great that the owner of Stardock opens his heart to the community like this and is admitting errors in decisions. Especially after the crisis where bank managers are just covering their ass, getting millions in bonus payment and don't take any responsibility at all.

One of the things I should clarify about game design -- I don't enjoy the game design part but that's not the same thing as not being reasonably good at it.  I've seen a lot of people talk about the various flaws in Elemental's design as evidence that I can't design games (ignoring the 15+ years of successful games I've designed).  

With an unlimited budget, unlimited time, and an infinitely capable engine, I can design a helluva game. I just wouldn't enjoy the process of doing it like others would.  With Elemental: War of Magic, it was a constant struggle of designing a game at the same time as the engine itself was being developed as well as working around APIs that either didn't work yet or didn't work as designed.

I've seen people on various forums laugh about how a given API I'd be using didn't work as expected as if this were somehow a travesty. As most experienced developers can tell you, APIs often don't work as designed. It's an unfortunate fact of life.  The memory issue on 64-bit Windows 7 ATI HD cards is due to a DirectX API that isn't handled properly by ATI's video drivers (it doesn't release the allocation).  Whether it be in our own engines or Windows itself, there are always APIs that have to be worked around.

What makes game design tedious, for me, isn't the sitting around dreaming up the perfect game. It's the compromises that have to be made because a given concept just won't work due to technical or budgetary reasons. It's hard to "kill your darlings".  People who sit back and look at the flaws of a given game and say "But I suggested X" or think the "developers didn't listen!" usually have no inkling of the other challenges involved in making an idea into a reality.  That's why I don't enjoy game design because I hate having to compromise the original vision.

In my case, game design is more torturous because I control the budget too -- a combination that should never be allowed because it's a text book case of a conflict of interest.

There's a movie, and maybe someone here can remember it, where a screenwriter has a great idea for his own movie and through the course of it his vision is mutated into a horrible movie.  Game design can often be like that.  Some people don't realize this but the original Civilization was going to be real-time, NOT turn-based. Technical and budgetary issues always end up changing the game design. 

But Elemental isn´t a horrible game.

Community will make or break you, Brad, and you know that. The fact is though, that you and Stardock have created a space where a community can grow and thrive. You are the architects of your own fate and I have confidence that eventually Elemental will be a joy to play (with many a nights lost to it!). For now, I am having trouble getting into the game, but each patch gets me to play just a little bit longer. With the post release support you guys pull off, I'll be playing for hours in no time. I look forward to it.

Oh and Brad? Thank you.

Some times when I get mad and post my frustrations at the game, it's becasue I see how increadible the game can be but it's tripping on little dumb mistakes, little details.  A few fixes here and there, and the game would be really good. 

Are you volunteering to help make it one...?

Really? I am glad tha CIV did not go down the RTS path that would have been horrible.

Cool insights--thanks for sharing. As others say, you're pretty unique and that is a very powerful asset.

I encourage you to see the potential in Elemental and keep pushing till it's where you wanted it to go regardless of the critics.  A fantastic product in this genre WILL become a classic because there are so many ways to use it to have fun.  The game, modded games, animated creature editor, map builder, world builder, multiplayer engine--all these result in a broad user community, whether they know it now or not. 

Truth is, who cares about an early review?  If v1.1 is smokin, nobody in this community will care much, and these players are like seeds for sales.  You make the product great and this community becomes your salespeople to all kinds of markets.  My kids, friends, and nephews have all heard about EWOM and are waiting for it to become Dad's favorite before they will get it too, cause they trust me, and I think I trust you to make this right.

Now I do have a few MOM features I'd really like...

But it is not a good game either in it's current state.

Yeah..there are issues. Ofcourse. I didn´t say its perfect. But altough i have fun playing the game. Sry for that. -.-

I would have a hard time saying the game is "good", but I have had a lot of fun playing it.  It's kind of a contradiction, but as much as I am having fun with it, I couldn't recommend it to anyone yet.  Needs fixes and polishing.

I understand that, when I worked on those big and expensive projects at my old job they would give us their building demands of what needs to be done, and then as time goes on they would make cuts to the budget, so in a sense it's similar since we couldn't include all the bells and whistles that was originally planned because we lacked the finances/time/resources/etc. Eventually that meant we had to push the plans out the door (in other words, it's gold) without many of the components that were in the original design.

As time went on I started to approach it differently, only concentrating on the bare-bones of it and anything extra is just a bonus. In game terms, the bare-bones would represent both a playable and enjoyable game, that itself may be a bit slim in design, but still enjoyable in some degree. With the remaining surplus extra features could be added, time for polish, etc.

I have been playing Stardock games since Gal Civ I. I have always been amazed by how you guys engage the community and then respond by what you bring into the games post release. Because of this, Elemental was the first game I decided to get as a preorder. It has been an interesting ride to say the least, but the last month has shown me that my trust was not misplaced. Elemental is getting more fun all the time and I look forward to what you will bring to the table with 1.1

Thanks Brad and the team for all the hard work. I really hope Elemental's commercial success still will come for you all.

Cheers

Ed Wood and Plan 9 From Outer Space?