Official Twilight Zone News

[Actionball]

First, let me be the first person to congratulate myself on being the new "worst person on the internet". There were a lot of tough contenders but in the end it was my decision to pull support from a video game company that put me over the top. I would like to give my best wishes to the lemonparty folks, tubgirl, bath salt face eater and any genocidal african warlords who were in contention for this coveted position, better luck next year

I also happen to have short positions in Best Buy, Apple and Facebook. Lookout Hitler, you are no longer the biggest monster in history!

Some of you need to get a hold of yourselves. Go ahead and white knight for them if you want, call me a bad bad meanie baddie if it makes you sleep at night. Xbox and PS3 are over 6 years old, dozens of companies have made successful releases on their stores, it is not a mystery. That first DLC should have been pre-approved, just waiting for its release day.

If you want to take the position that its good management for a company to bet their income and possible existence by not getting DLC approved far in advance of the release date then you are free to argue that (wrong) position. My own position that I choose to not give a GIFT of my own money to a developer who is not forthcoming with information and can not make standard release dates is a simple decision to not waste money. You are all acting like I took my TZ money and diverted it to the KS for a puppy grinding machine.

Simply put, I don't back losers but that does not mean I wish them ill. I issued no threats nor made unreasonable demands. All that I have done is what I am obligated to do as a consumer, nothing at all.

All the claimed "calm, voices of reason" on this site come off just as bad as the mouth foamers on Facebook.

 

[ND3G]

Actionball, no one is claiming that you are a bad guy. We just think you are being a bit short sighted and dare I say petty. Back TZ, don't back TZ. No one cares. However, the reasons you have provided for not supporting or pulling your support from the kickstarter seem rather shallow and immature.

I look at Farsight as a very small company who has never tried to publish their own game before. They have made tons of mistakes and they will probably make many more, but that is ok with me. Everything I know about this company tells me that they are a very dedicated and sincere group of individuals trying to accomplish a very big task. I know they are up for the challenge though and I am willing to stick with them as long as they stick with the task of bringing some of the most beloved pinball tables back to the masses.

 

[The Doctor]

I hate to be on team whiner but I will be pulling my whole TZ pledge if there is no DLC for PS3 by the time the kickstarter for TZ ends. Consider it a vote of no confidence in the company. No DLC after 2 months, no explanations, no solid dates. My battered wife syndrome will only keep me supporting FS for so long.

GOOD.. I urge everyone to do this and to TELL THEM WHY YOU ARE DOING IT.

 

[Actionball]

I had a pre-order in for Battlecruiser 3000 once upon a time, in fact the game store went out of business before that game ever released. For Duke 3D I was smart enough to get a refund after it was obvious they would never release the game in a reasonable time frame.

What the TZ KS amounts to is a pre-order + free money for the company. This is not some start up, hungry for cash that will drown without our support. We are pre-ordering a game we want made from a company already established and publishing content. By pulling my pre-order I am signaling that I do not have any faith that the company will ever be able to deliver the content. As this game will not be scheduled for delivery for 8 months and I do not believe Farsight will be supporting TPA for that length of time I have chosen to not be left with another Battlecruiser 3000 AD repeipt.

As shallow and immature as it may seem I don't like setting money on fire. Do with yours as you wish.

 

[The Doctor]

Actionball is being unreasonable for not wanting to use his money to support a product that, to this point, has not lived up to his standards. He also is against supporting a company that poorly communicates with its fanbase. How is this unreasonable?

You know what's ****ing unreasonable? People whose heads are so far up farsight's ass that they can do no wrong. It's totally unreasonable to claim Farsight has no flaws and any time someone says something negative they are "butthurt."

blind fanboyism is NOT reasonable.. the way people react around here to the tiniest hint of true criticism as if they were slandering their mother... give me a ****ing break.

 

[The Doctor]

As far as slapping them in the face by threatening to withdraw from the kickstarter goes, it's your money and you're free to spend it or not as you please, but that's really low, even by Internet standards.

It's "really low" and a "slap in the face" to withdraw an investment when you disagree with the way the company is behaving?

If any of you own any stock I hope you don't sell it because that would be a total betrayal!!!!

Get real people..

 

[Actionball]

Now that I know the PS3 DLC is all ready to go and the holdup is squarely on Farsight being strong armed by the MS first release policy I have gone ahead and dumped my TZ pledge. 85+% of that KS was funded by non xbox players and this is our reward, being held hostage by Farsight bowing to Microsoft.


Oh, for all those folks who said potentially pulling my funding if they don't release soon was petty. What I just did is ACTUALLY petty, make note of it.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

No, Actionball, you're not the worst person on the Internet. At least your position was coherent enough to be disagreed with, which is more than I can say for many of the participants on the Facebook page.

As it turns out, FarSight just posted the reason for the 360's delay. It was a technical issue that, because there was no way FarSight could get the code size small enough to meet Microsoft's outdated requirements, FS had to convince MS's corporate bureaucracy to grant them an exception. Unsurprisingly, this took a long time. Thankfully, FS was successful, because if it wasn't, I'm not sure there would have been any way to get DLC at all for the 360.

So your position that FarSight is behaving reprehensibly is without merit. Therefore, I continue to believe your threat and/or decision to withdraw from the kickstarter is illogical. And actually, I wouldn't have had an issue if you had just quietly taken your $100 or whatever out. But if you take a public stand while doing so, you have to expect someone to call you out on it. If I hadn't, someone else here surely would have.

As for my defense of FarSight, it is by no means blind. I have questioned the wisdom of their statements and actions several times, here and elsewhere. (You can look earlier in this very thread if you want, and find my posts questioning whether the kickstarter was a good idea.) I guess I just have more patience with them then I would other companies, because they are relatively small and because they have attempted a very ambitious project that as far as I can tell no one else will take up if they fail, and I want to see this project succeed.

And this is the Pinball Arcade Fans forum...did you really expect not to find partisan defenders here?!

EDIT: Your most recent act of actual pettiness was duly noted. I still don't find you the worst person on the Internet. Have a nice evening.

 

[ND3G]

I have gone ahead and dumped my TZ pledge

Feel free to dump these forums as well!

 

[starck]

This is getting ridiculous. He can take his money wherever he wants. He can burn it and use the ashes to fertilize his crops for all we care. Let him do it. He's stating why. Furthermore, I am starting to get a little annoyed as well. I don't know if I would pull my pledge, but here's why I'm getting pretty PO'd with the current state of this game. Farsight, I hope you're listening. This is a little long.



1. RE: This kickstarter: I don't know wtf Farsight is doing. This is being very poorly managed. From a marketing standpoint, there are numerous things I could list that they SHOULD NOT HAVE DONE after twilight zone was funded. TNG table should HAVE BEEN A SEPARATE KICKSTARTER. FURTHERMORE, THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE LATER IN THE YEAR. YOU HAVE A BILLION THINGS TO DO NOW THAT YOU'VE SECURED FUNDS FOR TZ.

2. RE: CURRENT BUGS IN CURRENT, RELEASED TABLES: THIS SHOULD BE THEIR PRIORITY. WHERE ARE THEIR TESTERS? Do they have any people specifically positioned as QC for these tables? If not, they need to get on that. Interns are free- there's a good start. It's summer now and high school/college students are itching for some experience. If Farsight does have QC testers, they either need to: a) fire them, or b) train them better. All tables need to go through a more rigorous QC test before heading out for the general public to test them for Farsight.

3. RE: CURRENT USER INTERFACE, GAMECENTER (iOS), LACK OF LEADERBOARDS, ****TY FACEBOOK INTEGRATION, ETC.
Why do you think the leaderboards aren't up and working yet? I'm guessing it's because THE TABLES WE ARE PLAYING ON CONTINUE TO BE REFINED, AND ANY ALTERATIONS IN THE TABLES CHANGE YOUR SCORING ABILITY. Look at CV as an example- they released it at first as an incredibly easy table on iOS (and other platforms? I don't know). The new update supposedly makes it more realistic, but, also harder. If they had leaderboards up, all of the scores from the previous version of CV would be invalid. I'm almost certain that is why gamecenter integration on iOS hasn't been implemented yet.

4. Fix the ****ty UI. Hire a good graphic designer just out of college for a few bucks and spend a few days overhauling the entire ****ing UI. It's an eyesore.

5. Improve the goddamn audio quality on these tables. It's awful; truly awful. I don't mind if the game takes up more space in order to have some high quality/lossless audio tracks for the tables. That's a big chunk of the experience.

6. For god's sake, hire a good graphic designer out of college for some chump change and have them redo your website. Right now you look like a fly-by-night operation. Want some more publicity? Want people to take you seriously? Want Stern to take you seriously if/when you approach them about digitizing their new tables? This isn't going to happen unless you've got a legitimate website up and running.

THIS BRINGS ME TO MY FINAL POINT:
-Work on fixing the goddamn bugs and getting tables out in a finished form, first. We, as the general public, are not your beta testers. Sure, there will be bugs along the way, and that's understandable. But if you continue to release tables that have blatant flaws in gameplay and are clearly rushed, you're going to start pissing a lot of people off. You're already starting to piss people off.

Sure, funding TZ is great. I'm happy you made it. I donated to the cause. I personally don't feel like pulling my money, but I seriously think that you need to develop a long-term strategy and (forgive the pun) game plan if you want to ultimately survive and flourish. From the way things have been going, it is not quite clear that there is one. The current model you are using isn't sustainable, and I honestly don't want to keep playing on tables that are buggy.

 

[Actionball]

And this is the Pinball Arcade Fans forum...did you really expect not to find partisan defenders here?!

The reason for pulling my pledge was EXACTLY the excuses you just made for FS. FS are delaying the PS3 release because of something not at all to do with Sony or the state of the DLC for PS3. It is ready to go, just as soon as MS says ok. How is a hardware company I don't have any connection to holding up content for the system I do own in any way more reasonable than my decision to drop my Farsight support in response?

FS delaying content on PS3 (sony) because Microsoft says so - TPA forum response = Perfectly reasonable, good on FS, dont jugde them.

Me pulling support for FS because I don't like being treated as a second class person - TPA forum = Pull panties up in a bunch, attack, how dare you! whaaargarble!

There is a difference of being passionate about pinball and being a fanboy for a company you don't have any stake in. By your reasoning I should be allowed to be the biggest asshat on the planet due to my position, always in the top 3, every week and month on both TOM and TOTAN, because I have "more to lose" than the simple plebes who just play for fun and are not fit to cast a shadow upon those games which intone my name in hushed whispers as their deity in the gloomy shadows of shuttered arcades.

Im not even sure I can turn on that level of self importance even to troll for a bit.

Once again. I do not hate FS, I do not want them to fail. But I won't be made a fool of by a company that clearly does not have PS3 support as a priority.

 

[Actionball]

From my perspective, assuming everyone who disagrees with you is pulling panties up in a bunch is treating others like a second class person.

Quick lesson.

"I am not going to support x because of y" being responded to with "you are petty and shallow, you are low even by internet standards" is what is known as an "attack".

"I guess you have to vote with your own wallet, I plan on backing them to the ends of the earth myself" is a difference of opinion, you will notice it does not require personal attacks to stand on its own as an opposite view.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled mouth foaming rants on TPA.

 

[Actionball]

Feel free to dump these forums as well!

Your wish is soon granted.

 

[ND3G]

Your wish is soon granted.

It can't come soon enough.

In other news, though the kickstarter dragged through the mud for much of the day it has managed to erase the deficit and is now sitting positive $408!

 

[Actionball]

It can't come soon enough.

In other news, though the kickstarter dragged through the mud for much of the day it has managed to erase the deficit and is now sitting positive $408!

It just hit me that YOU leaving the forum will solve the same problem on my end. So, take care and enjoy whatever life brings you elsewhere.

 

[starck]

Guys, chill. Take a breather and come back...

 

[Vercingetorix]

Quick lesson.

"I am not going to support x because of y" being responded to with "you are petty and shallow, you are low even by internet standards" is what is known as an "attack".

"I guess you have to vote with your own wallet, I plan on backing them to the ends of the earth myself" is a difference of opinion, you will notice it does not require personal attacks to stand on its own as an opposite view.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled mouth foaming rants on TPA.

Nobody supports a software company unconditionally. Some of us just think it's too early to get the pitchforks and torches out.

The reason critics of Farsight get so much blowback on this board is not because they're critics; it's because most of them have a giant sense of grievance and entitlement far out or proportion to their lousy $10 or $15 investment.

In hindsight it seems clear that Farsight have bitten off a little more than they can chew by trying to launch on so many platforms simultaneously and "committing" right out of the gate to a two-tables-per-month DLC package on all of them. But we're still in the launch period of a product that, again, has cost less so far than a sandwich and a glass of beer. It's way too early for people to be foaming at the mouth about how badly they've been screwed.

 

[Brian Clark]

Quick lesson.

"I am not going to support x because of y" being responded to with "you are petty and shallow, you are low even by internet standards" is what is known as an "attack".

"I guess you have to vote with your own wallet, I plan on backing them to the ends of the earth myself" is a difference of opinion, you will notice it does not require personal attacks to stand on its own as an opposite view.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled mouth foaming rants on TPA.

This crap is why I deleted my post. This post pretty much talks down to me in a rude way that belittles and discounts everything I said.

 

[starck]

In hindsight it seems clear that Farsight have bitten off a little more than they can chew by trying to launch on so many platforms simultaneously and "committing" right out of the gate to a two-tables-per-month DLC package on all of them.

Yup, read my post above.


People are 'foaming at the mouth' because they are passionate about the company; the want them to succeed, and it is somewhat heartbreaking to see this mess continue.

 

[Vercingetorix]

Yup, read my post above.


People are 'foaming at the mouth' because they are passionate about the company; the want them to succeed, and it is somewhat heartbreaking to see this mess continue.

"To see this mess continue"? What? The PS3 version was only released eight weeks ago. The May DLC package has only been officially "late" for a week. I'm sorry, I just don't think it's reasonable to regard that kind of a delay on the very first DLC package as some kind of a major slap in the face.

I'm a little disappointed at not having any of the other tables to play on my Mac, too, but I'm certainly not bitter or heartbroken about it. It is a game. Which cost ten bucks. People need to get a grip.