We, the fans, are far from happy with the current status of the newly released game.
Heroes VI was released on October 13th 2011. When the game went Gold, the programmers at Black Hole knew there were still problems that needed fixing, so they planned to release a patch for release day - essentially meaning that when the game was available in the stores, you could get version 1.1 right away. Not a bad idea in itself - and they kept their word - but there were still problems. Players are still reporting a myriade of bugs and issues affecting not only the stability and balance of the game, but the developers' prized Conflux system as well.
Just to explain: the Conflux was supposed to replace the DRM system. Essentially it means that there is no intrusive scheme protecting the game from piracy, but if you go online to the Conflux (with a legit copy) you can get bonus features such as special "Dynasty" weapons. I can't imagine what the programmers must have felt when they learned that a bug makes all these weapons available in one place! Related, Malz has also found a way to farm exp points ...
As was the case with Heroes V, the developers (Ubi or Black Hole; I don't know who made this decision) have opted not to follow my advice: releasing small patches quickly to deal with the most urgent issues ... and then release the bigger patches later, taking care of balance and optimization issues. This would, in my opinion, make the fans see that the devs were working on the game (even if not all bugs could be fixed at once), and it would make the game more or less playable from day one.
Instead, what we have is a game that - two months after release - still isn't working properly. What we have is players already reporting that they have stopped playing the game altogether and moved on to other things. I wonder if Ubisoft are thinking that those players will come back, or that new players will come later, replacing those that have left. Seeing as this game's replayability is likely to be low because custom maps are not usable in multiplayer except hotseat (again a decision I fiercely disagree with and which must be changed), I don't see how they get those numbers to add up.
Irina, our M&M ComDev, has issued a statement in an effort to calm the mob ... and I hear on the grapewine that 1.2 should be released next week; the "play with the devs" event is certainly a pretty strong whip on their backs. With this upcoming release in mind, I think a small reminder of what happened last time is in order ...
Please, God, don't let them mess this up ...
