Should X Rebirth's meta-critic score be re-reviewed?

[Sam L.R. Griffiths]

@Plynak: If you take the statement in context, ALL FREIGHTERS (M/L/XL vessels - I believe there are no freighters smaller than that) do have economy (or in some cases combat) related tasks - mass traffic is not part of that (at least not directly). Thus in context, it is accurate - taken out of context, it can be twisted to be misleading or even perceived as a lie.

But this thread is not about that nor even the merits/pitfalls of Steam.

[plynak]

@Plynak: If you take the statement in context, ALL FREIGHTERS (M/L/XL vessels - I believe there are no freighters smaller than that) do have economy (or in some cases combat) related tasks - mass traffic is not part of that (at least not directly). Thus in context, it is accurate - taken out of context, it can be twisted to be misleading or even perceived as a lie.

But this thread is not about that nor even the merits/pitfalls of Steam.

Really? And where in that sentence on homepage is ANYTHING about mass traffic? So yes, it is a lie no matter how you try to defend it.

Well if it is not about merits/pitfalls of Steam, why do you suggest Steam should remove Metacritic scores? It was you who started to mention Steam, not me.

[JClosed]

People are still on it after more than three quarters of an year?
Unbelievable!

Look.. The launch was bad. The reasons could be very well the reasons they gave (tested on mediocre equipment and thinking it translates good to better equipment, and testing economy on high speed - to discover too late that things work totally different at low speed). Bernd apologized for that, and that's enough in my opinion.

The theory that it was all a diabolic conspiracy to push out an broken game and cash in on unsuspecting fans is (also in my opinion) an complete idiotic idea. I don't know what people that have that theory are smoking, but I certainly do not want anything of that, because it seems to make you paranoia..

No - we all know how Egosoft behaved in the past, and their current ongoing support for the game gives me no reason to think that has changed. They made mistakes, and are punished for that by bad reviews and an bad meta-critic score. That is -in my opinion- punishment enough, and it is time to stop kicking and bashing. That was already boring months ago.. Enough is enough...

In the mean time a lot of patches have been added, and Egosoft clearly showed they want to support and improve the game. So, even if the game was bad at the start, it is an incredible lot better now. In my opinion more than enough to silence the complains for that bad start. It is time to stop beating that dead horse..

Some people will never like the game, because they just want an X3 on steroids. They will never ever be satisfied, because the only game play they want is the same old rusty, dusty and now boring game play from the previous games. They just do not want to make the paradigm-shift that is needed to play the new game with an open mind. Please notice that I do no say that this is bad. I only say that those people will keep complaining forever, because they never will get what they want. They just not want, or adjust, to the new game-play. Simple as that.

Now - we all know that meta-critic score wont change anymore. Is the score fair at this moment in time? I believe not, but there is noting that can been done about that. That this score is still present on the store page shows Egosoft does not try to hide that bad score, and potential buyers can see openly what score the game got. Fair enough..

I had, and still have, the believe that this game will keep growing into a really good game. It's not there yet, and it will take time and work before it is starting to become really good. However - at this moment it is already in good shape, and it will only get better. I am waiting for the moment that bug-hunting is scaled enough down to get really big expansions. We now have an core-game, and these expansions will make or break the game in the coming months.

[Sam L.R. Griffiths]

@Plynak: I was talking about the general applicability and validity of MetaCritic scores (which are published on Steam). MetaCritic do not do enough to ensure their scores are timely and relevant in perpetuity which can lead to misleading perceptions of the "current" state of any given product. This is not appropriate for a professional rating system that is supposed to give guidance to the (potential) consumer, there are too many consumers that take such ratings on face value.

@JClosed: well put.

[DaddyMonster]

That was already boring months ago.. Enough is enough...

Here, here

[ravage_za]

It will be enough when enough of the shortcomings have been addressed.

Until then, the self-professed intelligentsia will just have to muck about in the filth with the rest of the rabble....

JClosed, "in your opinion", yet everyone who disagrees is wrong?. Any particular reason, besides sensational levels of hubris, why my opinion matters less than yours? I would dare say that the majority opinion carries by far the most weight, not a few self-righteous ones (on any side of any fence). That majority opinion has - unfortunately for Egosoft - already voted with it's feet, but by all means, keep bashing the hopeful few who dare to criticize.

[NZ-Wanderer]

People are still on it after more than three quarters of an year?
Unbelievable!
That was already boring months ago.. Enough is enough...

Agree completely with your statements..

[CBJ]

This is starting to get personal again. That needs to stop, now.

[pref]

God, I hate when someone says this.
First of all, it's an arcade shooter when you PLAY it like an arcade shooter.
You can be a trader, build stuff, mine crapload of resources also.
Nobody forces you to do anything of those, you can just avoid what you don't like. Combat, for example, can be left for the captains of your capital ships. Like I do.
Second, there is the diffitulty setting - show us the arcade-shooting on hardest lol.

X3 can also be called arcade shooter - once you get a M3, you can fly around universe and spam combat missions.

Just having a difficulty slider wont make XR less arcade-like.
It's great too that after half a year the most basic eco features (build a station, make a trade) seem to work to an extent - but they do not raise the game above arcade level, eco is just a backdrop for pewpew so far.

You can't really maintain an empire from economy - you need to steal ships for income, your empire cannot sustain itself because the whole eco-sim aspect is not developed yet. Some basics work, but they do not add up to a game at any rate.

As for X3 as arcade, that is a funny statement. Wonder how you could have possibly finish the plot and try all aspects of the game just by doing pewpew in an M3 (in XR it works perfect). You should refresh your memories regarding X3 i guess.

[Brazilian Joe]

Metacritic does not review scores, and won't do for the foreseeable future.

They have a rationale for it: They want the game industry to release higher quality material from the outset, not to release broken/beta quality stuff and fix it later.

Their intentions are the best towards the consumer, making the industry own up to their faults and improve their processes.

This stance has some merit. It has its share of problems as well. One of them is a very valid criticism that once a game gets fixed, the MetaCritic's score will not be representative of the product anymore, thus making MetaCritic itself less valuable as a quality meter.

I believe that MetaCritic revisits this topic every now and then, since opinions are always divided on this matter.

I would like a compromise solution, where the COMPANY gets graded by a few numbers such as at-launch quality, commitment to the product - how many months of free updates/fixes? - and community engagement - how well does it listen to criticism, addresses the community's concern and improves based on feedback?

And have each individual game have a quality history of its patches. An at-launch score, a 6-month score, a 1 year score, and a lifetime score averaging all.

But that's all just wishful thinking.

Metacritic does not review scores, and Steam sleazily removes low Metacritic scores only from very big publishers because of undisclosed deals or 800 pound gorillas threats of removing the content altogether if the Metacritic score is not hidden on steam. Egosoft is not big enough for this play, so the MetaCritic score stays.

[Theicaruseffect]

I think if X rebirth doesn't get re-reviewed, I'm sure people will make up their own minds by looking at the reviews from gamers when they buy the game from Steam.

I really enjoy X rebirth. It was rubbish, but EgoSoft are updating and maintaining the release. X rebirth is a complicated and massive game to develop when you factor in the AI and the trading system. As a software developer myself, I can understand how a complete system / game can have issues after its release. No software is perfect, but I'm hopeful that EgoSoft will continue with the support.

[Sibilantae]

Or maybe they just didn't have a choice. If it were a choice between release the game as is, or never release the game at all, I think the choice is obvious. People continue to speculate without knowing the necessary information. Automatically assuming the worst case scenario, and in some cases, insinuating some sort of deception/manipulation is indicative of our cynical world. It truly is sad.

Of course it's speculation! We don't know what went on in Egosoft's offices - but we don't have to to post opinions on this forum.

I don't know if you meant to respond to my post specifically, inferring that I'm insinuating anything, but I used to be accused of fanboyism. Trust me, it's not cynicism that led me to my view.

[Sibilantae]

But Egosoft is responsible for going to Steam in the first place, right? I wonder if this was their agenda since the beginning. Knowing the Steam refund policy therefor releasing such a POS and knowing most people will not get their money back.

And no, if the publisher tells Steam to make refunds, Steam makes it. Just look at Kalypso and Legend of Pegasus.

And no, it does not. It is as simple as that. Every ship has a task. A simple sentence and a simple lie. Do not try to persuade us with you twisted logic that it is something else because it is not. Not to mention that every action has a consequence. Another lie.

Dansk, ^this is the sort of accusation of deception that I was talking about before. I'll try not to be too negative about it! =P

[danskmacabre]

Dansk, ^this is the sort of accusation of deception that I was talking about before. I'll try not to be too negative about it! =P

I can't be responsible for anyone's else's behaviour, I can only be responsible for my own.
Just as you're responsible for your own behaviour.

The person you're referring to is also responsible for their own behaviour.
But they're also entitled to their own opinion.

I don't think their view was put across in a particularly derogatory way, they're just expressing their view about Egosoft's behaviour.

You might not like that view and you can choose to respond to that view expressed whatever way you like.
But responding in a civilised way, whether you agree or disagree will give you a much better opportunity to get a constructive and civilised reply.

[pref]

Dansk, ^this is the sort of accusation of deception that I was talking about before. I'll try not to be too negative about it! =P

No, its not much of an accusation.
Remember for ex. ES did not send reviewer copies to anyone before release, so the product could not be reviewed before release.
That is a sure sign that they have some issues they don't want to shed light on before selling the product (aka hiding problems = lying).
Add to that the hype (XR keeps depth, rofl).

Their business practice was really not fair with XR we can safely say that.

[khartsh]

I think at this point if you were to professionally re-review Rebirth you would have to take into account the fact that the developer has had it released for seven months now. The bar is set higher on a product with several full patch release cycles.

The game is barely better than it was on release from a design and entertainment perspective, therefore I am afraid that the review scores won't be increased much. While bugs have been fixed the economy, UI and general reception of the game are still very sub par. My best guess is it wouldn't break an average of 40.

Also remember that user reviews are being added daily and the average of more recent scores are still pretty much in line with original ones.

[Katorone]

I voted "no". New buyers or reviewers could bump the score a bit, but I don't think there should be a do-over for Egosoft.
They released a mess of a game, and that's what the score displays.

[Egosucks]

No ... the game is still a major let down that hardly anyone plays . I played X3TC for years and STILL to this day only played 50 hours on rebirth ( 30 of those repeatedly restarting because of bugs ), the game is just a load of crap and its time to face that fact .
When I first tried 2.0 I thought hmm ??? might be getting somewhere at first but there are just too many stupid design errors in this game, its almost like it was designed to prevent you from enjoying it, Egosoft peaked with TC + AP but its all down hill from here, no money from me ever again .

[Nikola515]

NO!!!

Maybe after they fix core features.... There is not point reviewing broken/buggy game again . They did add and fix some things to it but it is not enough to make any real deference. Economy is still broken, AI is still dumb as a bag of rocks... Anyway maybe sometimes next year things might get better

[ThommoHawk]

Voted No. Why bother. Do I care? Not really. And the handful of people who keep trying to play it? Good luck to them but I say wait at least until v3.1 is released before any review is attempted. (and imo, v2.0 was incorrectly labelled and should have been v1.5 or something.)

As long as I'm playing and enjoying the other **STILL CURRENT** X Universe games and personally rating them higher than X Rebirth (my player enjoyment scale Rebirth = 15%, X3AP =90%), Rebirth needs to wait a while before being reviewed on the Metascale. Too much is still fubar in Rebirth to warrant an incremental bump, simply because it is now 'playable' , when before it was not. fubar is still fubar.