It is the fault of the Maker of Day Z for not being George Romero perfect.
War Z features walking zombies. I go to left 4 Dead for my runners.
War Z creator apologizes for controversy
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Sergey Titov admits he became "arrogant" due to zombie game's quick growth; says community management and moderation fell short.
Outspoken The War Z creator Sergey Titov has apologized for the game's controversial launch (and subsequent de-listing from Steam) earlier this month. In an open letter to the community, Titov said developer Hammerpoint Interactive "failed to effectively communicate" its plans for the new zombie survival game, which led to some "very negative feedback" from members of the community.
"I became arrogant and blinded by the early success and quick growth of The War Z, our increasing number of players, numbers we were getting from surveys, etc., and I chose not to notice the concerns and questions raised by these members of the game community as well as others," Titov said. "This failure is entirely on my shoulders and if anything I owe thanks to that vocal minority and admit that I should have paid attention sooner. I chose instead to concentrate on the bigger picture: my dream of turning The War Z from being a game developed by a small indie team into a large online venture, instead of addressing small things first and staying focused on the game issues."
Titov further noted that the events of the past week were "especially humbling." He said the past cannot be changed, but promised the same mistakes will not be made in the future.
"I was too focused on how great we are and how a small independent team got their first game to over 700,000 users in a two-month period," Titov said. "Though that is something to be very proud of, allowing that to overshadow the existing community and their satisfaction was poor judgment."
Titov explained that community management and moderation for The War Z fell short. He said Hammerpoint relied too heavily on forum moderators, whose primary directive was to punish those who broke rules, he said, instead of engaging the community and guiding conversations toward constructive discussion. Additionally, Titov said there was not enough attention paid to talking about upcoming War Z features or appropriate dialogue through social networks.
"There wasn’t enough presence of the development team on forums; there wasn’t enough updates on development of upcoming features. We failed to communicate our position and messaging on the outside platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and various online websites, and when we did this we chose to rely more on arrogance rather than being humble and trying to understand why people were saying negative things," he said.
The solution to the community management and moderation problems, Titov said, is an overhaul of Hammerpoint's community management procedures and rules. "We’re going to reevaluate publishing and marketing team performance, and I will make sure that Hammerpoint Interactive developers will have a much stronger voice when it comes to community management."
Titov also shared that one of his proposed ideas to engage the community further is to invite 10 players from around to the world to visit the Hammerpoint offices in Los Angeles, California. There, these gamers would meet the development team, get a look at in-development features, and addresses concerns, wishes, and other thoughts.
Lastly, Titov clarified that the current version of The War Z is titled "Foundation Release," which is a "first-stage" release used as a foundation to build on top of.
"I do believe that we aren’t even close to uncovering the true potential for The War Z, and I hope that in the coming year, we’ll be able to regain trust from people who were alienated by our actions and we’ll be able to move forward and grow the game together," Titov said.
Controversy surrounding The War Z came to light upon the game's release through Steam last week. Users quickly began reporting numerous issues with The War Z. Further, many players criticized the game and Hammerpoint for being misleading and for censoring their comments about issues with the game. The game has since been pulled from Steam.
Day Z creator Dean Hall previously said the controversy left him "depressed," noting he contemplated leaving game development altogether as a result.
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
357 comments
I am here to trump all your arguments.
War Z has proven to be Romero perfect.
It features walking, not running zombies.
I go to left 4 dead for running zombies,but War Z captures the madness of the Romero world. It is the creator of Day Z's fault for not being a Romero purist.
Sergey's the hero gaming deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we'll hunt him. Because he can take it. Because he's not our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector.
3 Like
@SythisTaru Please people of the web, stop quoting this for the love of god. Also, Titov sounds like the most big-headed small dev I've ever heard of. DayZ is better, hands down, and it's still in alpha. 'Nuf said.
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Will this be re-released on Steam in the possibly near future? Was it just takin down for bug fixing? Very interested in this one.
@BuBsay To be honest, this article is the first I have heard of this. My comment wasn't to imply anything other than if the game was going to be re-released at some point. I try to not get to mixed up in ego and drama. If a game sux, I don't play it. I move on. Would like to try this game though, form my own opinion....*gasp*
@BuBsay How's that whole forming your own opinion? I dunno, your doing a good job trying to form it for me. Don't try to pretend to know what I do or don't know about War Z. Your reading way to deep into everything I have said. Do me a favor and move on please.
@DP1130 You do realize that the game was a shovelware scam right... A falsely advertised, shovelware scam that had illegal clauses within the Terms of Service that disallowed any refunds, and you had to pay in order to revive your character if he died.
How's that whole forming your own opinion without actually learning anything about a game going?
If it looks like a turd and smells like a turd (not to mention that it has been called out as a turd)....it's a turd.
8 Like
NEW STEAM SALE
The Complete Titov Bundle Pack. Bundle Includes:
War Z
Big Rigs(Most acclaimed truck racing game of all time)
Who wants this one?
@Yagami-san Yes what a classic* lol. This link is for anyone who might think you're serious about big rigs:
*severe sarcasm
Hey guys, in case no one knew, The War Z was actually sent a letter of suspension and a notification of this suspension by the US Patent Office. This was on November 15th of last year, apparently because the name of the game is too similar to that of the upcoming movie "World War Z". Now, what's interesting is the fact that if you check on the USPTO website, you'll notice that the makers of the movie applied for the rights to the name 10 days BEFORE the makers of the game applied for the name "The War Z". And according to the devs at Hammerpoint Interactive, the game's been in development for at least a year. So if that's true, wouldn't the application have been filed before hand? Or am I the only person who'd like to get the name patented and trademarked as soon as I start working on something?
@faceless-mask You do realize that World War Z was a book right? And that this book in fact can far before that. So using Patent law the movie makers can claim both name patient and trademark infringement on hammerpoint because they have previous work in which to cite that they have in fact licensed.
@faceless-mask People often start working on something without knowing what the final name will be.
@megagood12345 If they actually worked on it for a year, that should be enough time to come up with a name for it right?
@faceless-mask To apply for a name patent, you have to have something to show the patent office. Otherwise, people would just grab up every name like they do with URL's and you'd have to pay somebody to use any name. So to answer your question, no, the application wouldn't have been filed beforehand. It doesn't take much to apply for a patent but you do have to prove you're working on it. They probably should have applied earlier than they did although it's possible they didn't have a name at that point or for that particular medium, maybe you have to have more than just proof of concept. I'm not sure.
@Ratatoskr321 I understand that, but the product went live on October 15th. Meaning that they applied for the patent only 2-3 months before the game was officially released. And supposedly, they've been working on the game for over a year. Wouldn't a year's worth of work be enough to show to the patent office? Their application was filed 10 days after the application for World War Z was filed. If they did indeed work on it for at least a year prior to DayZ's release, then they would have had enough material to show to the patent office before July 2012 right? Which means they could have applied for the name beforehand. Of course, I don't know anything about changing the name of a product after it's been patented, but again, even if they did that, wouldn't there be a record of it online?
This guy is the slimy version of Derek Smart, which is saying a lot. Dr. Goebbles would be proud of this propaganda piece, megalomaniacal hubris and all. Use part of the "facts" (700,000 players) to support the Big Lie (the game is good) and deflect outcry from The Leader by getting subordinates (mods) to do their dirty work. Too bad for him it's not 1939.
Sergey Titov is a slimeball. He was the producer of Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing (the lowest-rated game in Gamespot history). When confronted with the fact that a game he produced was literally an unfinished mess (there's no collision detection and your opposition never leaves the starting line), he claimed that he wasn't actually the producer but merely licensed out his engine for the game. He's a pathological liar and The War Z is really just the straw that broke the camel's back. In the past, he merely sold bargain bin drivel. Peddling copyright-infringing, unfinished, broken, software and then banning buyers for pointing it out is grounds for being permanently blacklisted from the video game developer community.
@Phange_2 Big Rigs is actually universally considered as the worst (or at least one of the worst) games ever made. No game news website has scored it any higher than their lowest possible score, and some have wanted to score it even lower. Which should tell you something about the producer huh?
Damage is done... It will be hard to recover and honestly I don't know how much he really means it. The apology is certainly drafted and prepared, it doesn't feel natural.
I have no stake at this, but I hope it turns for the best for every party involved. Just take note, arrogance = downfall so don't be an elitist jerk - that's the lesson.
1 Like
Love how in the picture the character models are standing in a default pose that they do in an SDK before they get animated.
1 Like
So, he hired a PR company to write a generic standard "excuse" for him, nice.
Words cannot describe the level of "fuck up" he achieved with that War-Z stunt.
He can basically close down his studio and get his name changed or look for a different profession because no sane person would buy a product from that liar ever again. (unless he pulls off another stunt like that for some quick cash before the public notices)
EA would hire that person in a second as marketing strategy lead if they wouldn't be fully staffed with similarly thinking idiots already.
Gamers, this is why you should never preorder anything but get facts together first to check if it's worth your time and investment.
7 Like
"I was too focused on how great we are and how a small independent team got their first game to over 700,000 users in a two-month period"
There are so many things wrong with this sentence. I usually don't care about stupid stuff like this but this is so egregiously arrogant and borderline offensive I feel the need to write this post I'm sure no one will ever read.
The bottom line is this: An open ended, sandbox zombie game is a great freaking concept. You're bound to get a ton of subscribers. And coming in right on the heels of a successful mod featuring the exact same concept that can boast over a million users? Even better. The War Z's initial success had absolutely nothing to do with Sergei or his team, it had to do with the success of Day Z and in the attractiveness of the concept itself. In fact, I think its entirely fair to say that the War Z was initially successful IN SPITE OF Sergei and his team's involvement, and is now an abysmal failure BECAUSE OF Sergei and his team's involvement.
To reiterate: Getting 700,000 users in two months was the result of cashing in at the right time, and is absolutely not an indication of this team's greatness and is not something to boast of. I'd honestly be ashamed to mention the figure, as it pretty obviously telegraphs that The War Z was a sure thing from the get go and ONLY failed because of Hammerhead's ineptitude.
Its too bad this game is so broken as I was truly looking forward to it. Despite all of the controversy with the Steam release, if they can truly fix it, I might be willing to give them a chance as I do love zombies :)
4 Like
After reading this I am still secure in the fact that zombies are played out to death, no pun intended.
@GreySeven I liked your comment because I like you Metroid icon ... While this has nothing to do with WarZ, I can't wait for Metroid on the Wii U. Only then will I buy that system. Can you imagine the gameplay with that controller?
3 Like
With such a stellar title as Big Rigs as his "background" I'm not surprised this "game" is a broken piece of sh't.
Congrats man now you are worse than EA and their Origin thing..........
.allblock_box_v1{border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-color:#ff5500;}
1 Like
People who are accusing him of being arrogant seem not to realize that admitting your arrogance is not being being arrogant. It would be arrogant if he were stating that there is no problem with his game, stating its popularity, sales, how people who criticize the game just don't understand his genius etc. Admitting that he has made a mistake and acknowledging his own hubris is the least arrogant thing you could do.
@Atomic_Gumshoe Does that still apply when you are reading a statement someone else clearly wrote?
@DarkSaber2k to an extent yes, perhaps not the ideal situation but better than nothing
7 Like
Is anyone else absolutely SICK of the never ending stream of zombie games, games featuring zombies, zombie based games, game based zombies, zombie this, zombie that... I mean, come on.. it's ruining zombies like Twilight ruined vampires...
9 Like
"I was too focused on how great we are ... "
The experience did not humble the braggart at all if he cannot realise the statement for what it is.
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Related Game
The War Z
- Publisher(s): Arktos Entertainment
- Developer(s): Hammerpoint Interactive
- Genre: Role-Playing
- Release: Oct 15, 2012 (US) »
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