So the WarZ scandal continues. But I think its reached its absolute low point so its time for me to step in and sum up what's been going on with this incredible success/terrible failure.
WarZ is a game that's been released in reaction to the increased popularity of zombie based games in recent months and years (despite the claims of the developers). With the rise of franchises like The Walking Dead and the unexpected success of the ARMA II mod DayZ "zombie apocalypse sims" seem to be going from strength to strength.
But the developers of WarZ seem to have made some fundamental errors in the realm of public relations and in the broader area of general human honesty and consideration.
The controversy began pretty much as soon as the game was released. In the description sectoin on the steam page for WarZ there were a few glaring discrepancies between what the description was saying and what was actually included in the game.
It was clear that the listed features were supposed to be a part of the game as there was no mention of the game either being an alpha/beta or that some features would be added at a later date. I'm actually willing to put this down to the developers being overzealous in their approach to their description Their dreams for the game and intentions for the future being mistaken for the actuality of what they had produced and released.
If you've read any of the reactions from the developers to the outcry about the numerous scandals you can tell that these guys are really very impassioned, if a little (read: a lot) misguided, so I can see how this would happen. That is no excuse mind you, they should be expected to maintain some level of objectivity regarding their game, especially when engaging in actual description of its existent features.
But this wasn't enough for the folks over at Hammerpoint Interactive. Once they had secured the top spot on steams best sellers the proceeded to release a patch which I can only assume was cynically retained for this exact purpose. The patch increased the waiting period for re-spawn from one hour (which i already find ridiculous) to 4 hours with the option of paying the equivalent of ~$0.27 (based on their in their in game currency pricing) for a reduced re-spawn time.
Add to this their Steam forum administrators constant banning of the accounts of critics. According to one user if they ban you from the Steam forums, they also ban your game account, though this is unconfirmed. This quickly becomes more than enough to make your blood boil already.
So how do the developers respond to the questions that have been levelled against them about their shady practices? Well, they blame the customer of course. They haven't released a statement about their censorship or sudden micro-transaction yet but Sergey Titov had this to say on the subject of the wildly misleading and inaccurate description on the steam page.
"I'm sure there'll be people who will look into small details and will say "no I was mislead," where in fact they imagined something to themselves without checking details first. I'm sure that Steam have it's refund policies that should handle those situations."
So there you have it. If you read things that are presented as facts and assume they are facts its your own fault because the person who wrote them can just retroactively say "we meant something else"
*is now worried he will have to retroactively say he meant something else*
***UPDATE***
Steam has pulled WarZ from their service. While people who already purchased the game can still play it, it is no longer available for purchase. Those who wish to continue playing may do so but those who are dissatisfied with their game may create a ticket through steam to get a refund.
Valve had this to say to Kotaku:
"From time to time a mistake can be made and one was made by prematurely issuing a copy of War Z for sale via Steam. We apologize for this and have temporary removed the sale offering of the title until we have time to work with the developer and have confidence in a new build. Those who purchase the game and wish to continue playing it via Steam may do so. Those who purchased the title via Steam and are unhappy with what they received may seek a refund by creating a ticket at our support site here."
Our old buddy Sergey also weighed in saying:
"We're making sure that our Store page is 100% correct this is why."
"Bottom line—our end goal is to have satisfied and not angry customers, so this is more important for us than everything else."
It seems to me like he's trying to make it sound like they only took the page down to make changes to the page itself, while steam are saying they took the page down to make changes to the game. I'm starting to believe that Hammerpoint really didn't intend for any of this to happen and Sergey is just a completely useless communicator.
Sources: Gamespy, Escapist Magazine, Kotaku, Reddit
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