Well, I hoped the post might stur up some intelligent thought. Reflect on what is happening here please. We have a totally different game to play now. Is it the game that we've all grown to appreciate, or is it something that none of us envisioned or expected?
As a former game developer, I know how much work it takes to get any sort of game out the door. Yes, the AK's and HTC did a lot of work to get 1.10 into our little mitts, but what sort of market analysis was done before everyone began the march towards 1.10?
Was any analysis done to figure out what features were working or not working? Was there any any analysis of gameplay issues and how they would be affected by quadrupling the arena space? Was there any sort of survey questionaire distributed to paying members? I didn't see anything.
"Aces High" is obviously a work in progress. There have been numerous minor upgrades that have evolved the game through 1.09. But, 1.10 is a "new" game. Suddenly, it's not the game I signed up to play. So I'm a bit upset over that fact.
Also, for those who never "developed" a game, the Beta testing cycle can last anywhere from 3 to 6 months. Most developers hire a crew of in-house beta testers to kick the tires on a game by playing the game to death. They find bugs. They find gameplay issues. They find art and concept issues. And they complain and squeak and moan about this and that about a game to the level artists, producers, and programmers. They do this so that the public and you guys out there can have a fun and relatively bug free game to play. You could say they are professional whiners.
HTC has in essence, released a new game to us. And we are the defacto Beta testers whether we ever wanted to be or not. So people are going to whine. Expect it. Whine back. Most of you already have. And as HTC Beta testers, we don't get paid. We pay HTC. Seems a bit strange to me, but life is strange.
Anyway, I just feel rather blindsided by 1.10 and the release of the "new" game.
