No Man's Sky

DeVore

I'm convinced that the wildly differing views on NMS are from the expectations and the mindset of the person when they start playing it. That wasn't helped by Mr PantsOnFire making it seem like the next coming of Christ but if you approached it with a chillaxed exploration and more as an experience/sandbox then it seems like those people were happiest. If you were expecting a space combat sim and trading game like Elite (which to be fair, would have been easy to expect!) then there was a vast gulf of disappointment waiting for you.

I approached it as a play ground rather than a game. I wandered and explored and (at the risk of sounding like my parents) made my own fun. And yeah, I had quite a bit of fun drinking wine with one hand and flying about with my Hotas joystick (trying to decelerate without spilling the wine). I wandered, explored caves, took photos, collected stuff improved stuff and generally "arsed about". I actually PREFERRED not having multiplayer. Imagine if you just landed on a planet in your Space 1999 replica spaceship and are surveying the epic landscape and someone goes bunny jumping past you shouting "WTS PLUTONIUM!!"

Is it worth 60 bucks? No. There wasn't enough unexpected stuff in it to warrant exploring beyond a few star systems. The story seemed good but then fizzled. Its a great sandbox to "muck about" in but its not AAA gaming. What it IS though, is a unique piece of work and tbh, I think of it more as "early access" and lets hope it expands and continues to fulfil its potential.

Kimbot

sweetie wrote: »

picked it up as a gift from amazon wearhouse just now, €22.

Have you a link please?

FAILSAFE 00

Dave_The_Sheep wrote: »

So, apparently NMS has been fairly high on the Top Sellers list (if you trust it). Was up to #2 yesterday, it seems, down a bit now, but still.

http://store.steampowered.com/search/?filter=topsellers&os=win

Refunders coming back or genuinely new sales?

[Personal opinion: It's worth 20 quid. It's not worth much more than that, even with this update.]

It's a pity they didn't price NMS at €20-25 to begin with like other early access titles on Steam and likewise on PSN. The outcry and refunds would have been marginal.

I think Hello Games should just slash the price at this stage and get as many people as possible playing the game. They'll need to proactively communicate with their playerbase to help build a community over the next year and keep the updates going.

Kimbot

Just bought it from Amazon Warehouse, thanks for that lads

Dave_The_Sheep

DeVore wrote: »

I'm convinced that the wildly differing views on NMS are from the expectations and the mindset of the person when they start playing it. That wasn't helped by Mr PantsOnFire making it seem like the next coming of Christ but if you approached it with a chillaxed exploration and more as an experience/sandbox then it seems like those people were happiest. If you were expecting a space combat sim and trading game like Elite (which to be fair, would have been easy to expect!) then there was a vast gulf of disappointment waiting for you.

I approached it as a play ground rather than a game. I wandered and explored and (at the risk of sounding like my parents) made my own fun. And yeah, I had quite a bit of fun drinking wine with one hand and flying about with my Hotas joystick (trying to decelerate without spilling the wine). I wandered, explored caves, took photos, collected stuff improved stuff and generally "arsed about". I actually PREFERRED not having multiplayer. Imagine if you just landed on a planet in your Space 1999 replica spaceship and are surveying the epic landscape and someone goes bunny jumping past you shouting "WTS PLUTONIUM!!"

Aye. I'd agree with pretty much all of this. The expectation set by HG / Sean Murray along with the price point is what's caused nearly all the outrage (discounting people who are always going nuts regardless) among 'normal' gaming folk. While I'm happy that they're working on updates, and hoping it's not a Christmas-sales-boosting thing, it shouldn't be forgotten what was said prior to release and what people were led to believe was in the game. There's 'stupid hype' and then there's flat out lies, which was what we got in this case.

I do the same as you, even the wine, to a degree. I'm treating it as a scenery explorer. I've download a few mods that remove a lot of the survival aspect, as searching for resources isn't my idea of fun in a game like this. I removed the low flight floor, lowered fuel costs and launch costs. I also gave myself pretty much infinite cash, so I can buy a better ship instead of the interminable incremental upgrades afforded by Beacons, if you get lucky that is. Once you have a large ship with a reasonable sized suit, then the game becomes a lot more fun. It's relaxing, and I'm enjoying it a lot.

It's still not worth near what the original price was, but I'm managing to enjoy a lot it despite the games' best efforts.

So Hello Games are hiring...

https://twitter.com/NoMansSky/status/808243611884224512

https://twitter.com/hellogames/status/806913701043437568

In all fairness, how many would apply for that?

Creamy Goodness

If I had the right programming skills and wanted to live in the train wreck that is the UK, I would; however I do not.

FAILSAFE 00

Deleted User wrote: »

So Hello Games are hiring...

https://twitter.com/NoMansSky/status/808243611884224512

https://twitter.com/hellogames/status/806913701043437568

In all fairness, how many would apply for that?

Yeah, that wouldn't look great on a developers CV.

legocrazy505

FAILSAFE 00 wrote: »

Yeah, that wouldn't look great on a developers CV.

Why wouldn't it? They would be joining post-release not before....

Would be a good opportunity IMO since they are working on actually making the game better.

FAILSAFE 00

legocrazy505 wrote: »

Why wouldn't it? They would be joining post-release not before....

Would be a good opportunity IMO since they are working on actually making the game better.

Before or after its all the same. When a future potential employer sees it on a CV I am sure they will scrutinise the candidate to a high level.

I don't know why any developer worth their salt would put themselves up for that.

Penn

FAILSAFE 00 wrote: »

Before or after its all the same. When a future potential employer sees it on a CV I am sure they will scrutinise the candidate to a high level.

I don't know why any developer worth their salt would put themselves up for that.

Experience
Stopgap
Use Hello Games improving NMS as evidence of their own good work and positive contribution to the game
Be able to say how it was a high-pressure environment due to the failures of the game before you got there and how you had to help improve the game

Any developer worth their salt would be easily able to turn it into a positive and any potential future employer who would scrutinise a candidate for issues about a game which happened before the candidate started working there should spend more time scrutinising their own abilities.

Kimbot

FAILSAFE 00 wrote: »

Before or after its all the same. When a future potential employer sees it on a CV I am sure they will scrutinise the candidate to a high level.

I don't know why any developer worth their salt would put themselves up for that.

So one out of many of their games wasnt quiet up to spec on release and now developers who had no involvement in the game are going to be scrutinised for working for them?? I dont think so tbh.

EoinHef

FAILSAFE 00 wrote: »

Before or after its all the same. When a future potential employer sees it on a CV I am sure they will scrutinise the candidate to a high level.

I don't know why any developer worth their salt would put themselves up for that.

Its a job and it pays. Also for all its failures in game design the engine itself seems to be remarkable. Getting a chance to work on that may appeal to some id imagine.

johnny_ultimate

Worked on a technically accomplished, commercially successful and high-profile video game. Serious CV black mark, that.

jonnycivic

jonnycivic wrote: »

So one out of many of their games wasnt quiet up to spec on release and now developers who had no involvement in the game are going to be scrutinised for working for them?? I dont think so tbh.

That's the thing - it's not just one out of many, it's their most high profile game. And regardless of when you worked for a company, you will carry their reputation with you. In this case, you'll carry their stigma.

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Worked on a technically accomplished, commercially successful and high-profile video game. Serious CV black mark, that.

Not to mention "boring" (subjective, I know).

But look at it from the other side... leaving aside what you would do after working there and focusing on working there now. How high do you think the morale is in that company? From the tweets from Sean Murray/Hello Games, it seems like they're working ungodly hours. I wouldn't couldn't subject myself to that.

Kimbot

Deleted User wrote: »

That's the thing - it's not just one out of many, it's their most high profile game. And regardless of when you worked for a company, you will carry their reputation with you. In this case, you'll carry their stigma.


Not to mention "boring" (subjective, I know).

But look at it from the other side... leaving aside what you would do after working there and focusing on working there now. How high do you think the morale is in that company? From the tweets from Sean Murray/Hello Games, it seems like they're working ungodly hours. I wouldn't couldn't subject myself to that.

Well lets say you get the job and you go work for them and in 12 month NMS becomes huge because the help you gave...... how would that look bad or reflect badly on you going forward?

FAILSAFE 00

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Worked on a technically accomplished, commercially successful and high-profile video game. Serious CV black mark, that.

Thats like an employee saying they were the best violinist in a musical ensemble on the Titanic. We all know how that went down.

Actually, I think that is a great analogy for No Mans Sky. It is the Titanic of the games industry.

Kimbot

FAILSAFE 00 wrote: »

Thats like an employee saying they were the best violinist in a musical ensemble on the Titanic. We all know how that went down.

Actually, I think that is a great analogy for No Mans Sky. It is the Titanic of the games industry.

That violinist on the Titanic was a genius tho.

Thats far more games out there that deserve that title better in fairness.

jonnycivic

jonnycivic wrote: »

Well lets say you get the job and you go work for them and in 12 month NMS becomes huge because the help you gave...... how would that look bad or reflect badly on you going forward?

Depends on how the individual sells themselves I guess. No matter what Hello Games do in the future, No Man's Sky is forever tainted; it wil lalways be remembered for the cluster**** launch it had.

Penn

FAILSAFE 00 wrote: »

Thats like an employee saying they were the best violinist in a musical ensemble on the Titanic. We all know how that went down.

Actually, I think that is a great analogy for No Mans Sky. It is the Titanic of the games industry.

That's a horrible analogy and you know it.

The game wasn't as advertised and was buggy. But there is still an opportunity for what is there to be somewhat salvaged and to restore some faith in the product through updates.

You can't fix the Titanic once it's sunk.

As said, it would be up to the employee to use the failures of the game to their advantage and explain how their work on the game (which started after the game's release) helped improve things. Or even just go in and say to a potential future employer "I took the job for the experience and as a stopgap until I could find something better, like here"

Zillah

I'm amazed Sean isn't just retiring with his share. The idea of not only continuing with development, but under the same flagship that has earned so much scorn? Not sure it would be my choice.

Kimbot

Deleted User wrote: »

Depends on how the individual sells themselves I guess. No matter what Hello Games do in the future, No Man's Sky is forever tainted; it wil lalways be remembered for the cluster**** launch it had.

Thats the thing, No Mans Sky will be tainted but who said that the developers they take on will have anything to do with no mans sky? They could end up developing a totally new game thats a real hit.

maximoose

The Hello Games name is tainted as a whole now though, they are a running joke at this stage. They could come in and create a masterpiece but struggle to get people to care because there's no trust in the company.


Finally going to start No Man's Sky tonight and see what the fuss/hate is about

Jan_de_Bakker

Ive been out of the gaming world for a long time now, but about to get a new graphics card and this game looks fantastic !!! a whole galaxy to just get lost in ..

MOH

FAILSAFE 00 wrote: »

Thats like an employee saying they were the best violinist in a musical ensemble on the Titanic. We all know how that went down.

Actually, I think that is a great analogy for No Mans Sky. It is the Titanic of the games industry.

Yawwwwnnnnnn....

DeVore

As someone who has worked in the games industry and hired people.... I'd hire a game dev from Hello in a heart beat. The game was clearly quite well coded, with a lot of fairly hot topics in the industry (procedural generation not the least of them). I might be a little warier of the game *designers* but still I think it would be a positive to have worked there.

The game was clearly rushed out. It was probably a year too early and that's because someone in Sony said "ship this, we want our money back. If not, we turn off the money faucet." That's the way publishing goes.

The coders are the least to blame and probably are top notch, I'd hire them tomorrow.

osmiumartist

FAILSAFE 00 wrote: »

Actually, I think that is a great analogy for No Mans Sky. It is the Titanic of the games industry.

Not quite!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra-Terrestrial_(video_game)
Actually blamed for destroying the entire industry for years!

DeVore

DeVore wrote: »

As someone who has worked in the games industry and hired people.... I'd hire a game dev from Hello in a heart beat. The game was clearly quite well coded, with a lot of fairly hot topics in the industry (procedural generation not the least of them). I might be a little warier of the game *designers* but still I think it would be a positive to have worked there.

The game was clearly rushed out. It was probably a year too early and that's because someone in Sony said "ship this, we want our money back. If not, we turn off the money faucet." That's the way publishing goes.

The coders are the least to blame and probably are top notch, I'd hire them tomorrow.

Very true.

The only person that will probably not come out of this well is Sean Murray.

Now that we're a few months out - with some new additions - what are people's opinions of this?

riggerman

It's going up on Amazon prime later on today, if anyone is interested

No Man's Sky is £20 on amazon.

Is it worth it for that price?