Save Multiwinia

[gothfaerie]

Oh, I'd love to play. I bought Darwinia for my Mac and loved it...until the game crashed during the final cutscene. And there was never a clear way to fix it.

So, not only is there no version of the newest game for my platform, the support for the product seems rather shaky.

Can Introversion win people like me back?

Rebecca

[xander]

Oh, I'd love to play. I bought Darwinia for my Mac and loved it...until the game crashed during the final cutscene. And there was never clear way to fix it.

So, not only is there no version of the newest game for my platform, the support for the product seems rather shaky.

Can Introversion win people like me back?

Rebecca

Multiwinia is currently in beta on the Mac. Progress feels very slow to me, but I don't really know what is going on behind the scenes. I suspect that a Mac version will be out with the next Windows patch. In some ways, I see this as good for the Mac community, as many of the bugs in the current version of Multiwinia ought to be fixed-on-release in the Mac version.

xander

[gothfaerie]

Multiwinia is currently in beta on the Mac. Progress feels very slow to me, but I don't really know what is going on behind the scenes. I suspect that a Mac version will be out with the next Windows patch. In some ways, I see this as good for the Mac community, as many of the bugs in the current version of Multiwinia ought to be fixed-on-release in the Mac version.

xander

Well, them's good news. Thanks.

Rebecca

[elexis]

Heh, it took just 90 minutes for xander to be proven wrong by IV.

[xander]

Heh, it took just 90 minutes for xander to be proven wrong by IV.

Indeed. The bastards. I had no idea 1.1 was that close to ready to go. ;)

xander

[skull13]

I just had to laugh at that.

I sent an email to ALL OF my contacts, with the article that Kieron wrote. Just to ask, Introversion is financially sound right now, correct?

[Emily]

I have to say, I'm really, genuinely suprised about what the blog is saying. The reviews sampled on the site cover a number of big mags like PC Gamer and GamesTM, and large sites like IGN. Surely things have picked up now?

At the same time though, I recently started work at a site significantly larger than my previous role. I was a little nonplussed to see almost an excess of games still waiting to be reviewed, and Multiwinia was one of them. At the moment LBP and Gears 2 are simply plastered everywhere, and I do wish journalism wasn't like this, and that different publications actually aimed to report on new and different things, rather than the same as everyone else.

[Mas Tnega]

Integri-what?

[Pinky]

Ironically, the attitude which means that said games are released over and over is the same as what makes them reviewed over and over. Namely, it's safe. Lots of people want to play those games, so they're going to buy the magazines that review them. Whilst being the only mag that reviews a game means you get the most traffic for that game, it also means that you're giving your opponents more of the guaranteed market. Basically indie reviewers are IV's best hope, as they review games based on actual gameplay and innovation rather than hype and the company, but it would seem that they're seeing IV in the same light as the big companies now. This is probably a more dangerous point to be in than when they were making Darwinia, because they're seen as straddling the line between indie and mainstream.

[Emily]

Ironically, the attitude which means that said games are released over and over is the same as what makes them reviewed over and over. Namely, it's safe. Lots of people want to play those games, so they're going to buy the magazines that review them. Whilst being the only mag that reviews a game means you get the most traffic for that game, it also means that you're giving your opponents more of the guaranteed market. Basically indie reviewers are IV's best hope, as they review games based on actual gameplay and innovation rather than hype and the company, but it would seem that they're seeing IV in the same light as the big companies now. This is probably a more dangerous point to be in than when they were making Darwinia, because they're seen as straddling the line between indie and mainstream.

How come? Having written (and still writing for) two indie/not profit game sites, people in 'charge' at both sides were really pleased to recieve review code. Normally it's a case of us pestering and pestering someone in PR until we can get something (screens, an interview, a copy of the game, anything, and usually being ignored), but I found being in contact with Introversion was the opposite, which was wonderful. I recieved two codes to download the game, I reviewed initially for an indie downloadable mag, saw the game up for review on the larger site I write for, and did another review for them. Having ran out of words about the game I'm passing on my second code to the third (also indie) site, and I'm certain it'll be snapped up by a reviewer there in no time.

I just can't see why anyone working for an independant site wouldn't want to take the game on, the PR are extremely helpful and the game itself is a breath of fresh air from the 'usual stuff'.

(I'm not entirely sure what I mean by 'usual stuff', I suppose 'yet another rally game', something like that, something that isn't attempting anything remotely new or different)

[drakfyre]

To help you with this, we’re working on modifying the current Multiwinia demo so that demo users can join a LAN game, so long as the host owns the full game.

Oh thank you! I ended up buying two copies of the game (Special edition and the steam version), but I have a group of people who I play RTS games with every other week, and it wasn't enough to really give all of them a taste. This is exactly what the game needs to kick up the sales (Well, this, and spectate mode in demo, that feature sold Defcon to a lot of my buddies)

[Ripfang]

Not sure how to actually do this or whatever... But probably something worth considering if you want to get more people here in the US, is talking to G4tv. Basically an entire tv channel about video games and tech toys. All the gamers I know watch X-play on there. They gave a very postive review of Darwinia... about a year and half after it was already out. It was during a special titled "Greatest games.. you've never played."

Not a clue how you would get in touch with them or whatever... just in case the IV guys happen to read this..

[Pinky]

5 people convince to download the demo today - and these people are well connected to the Adelaide Indie gaming scene too.

[cde]

I have introduced about 20 of my students to MW today - why not start a chalk-outline street based viral campaign? Dead MWs, a URL scrawled nearby, no permanent damage to property...

[maonayze]

Hello All

I am one of five admins that run an online community in the South Wales Valleys. Some of our community members have already bought and played your games and have loved them. However, like a lot of others I wasn't aware MultiWinia had been released yet. Hopefully once the mag reviews have started to appear then I hope things will take an upturn for you.

In the meantime I will post on the efragz.net forums and add a link to your demo. We have a 50 BYOC Lan Party coming up on October 25th (Next Saturday) and I will encourage to get a session going there. Will the 1.1 version update allow the demo versions to play Lan games (as long as someone hosting has a full version)?
One of our admins loves Darwinia, so he can get us up to speed pretty quickly. Hopefully we shall get you some sales via STEAM or this website.

In this current climate we should all be helping guys like you to survive, instead of lining the pockets of EA and their current DRM fiasco. At the end of the day it's the gamers and gaming that matter.

All the best

Mark Owens (maonayze) eFragz.net, Administrator