Has the game met your expectations?

[peanuts]

Given this is my first shooter MMO I didn't have any expectations as I didn't know what to expect so answer yes. As I spent more time playing and learning the ropes my expectations have increased, right now are they being met...nope. A few minor bugs have turned into (atm) an unplayable game.
Am i enjoying my time in Defiance....yes.....when i can log on!!!
When Trion get this stuff sorted, which i'm confident they will, ask me again.

[Nmalthus]

My only real complaint is not enough outfits in the store and 1 new and 1 reskin a week isn't enough. I know they are working on the rest.

[squidney2k1]

Squidney, You were the first No vote here. How about answering the question from my post. Do you think it met the expectations of a 'reasonable person'? If NO, then what, in your opinion, should a reasonable person have expected?

A reasonable person would expect that at least the game would work.

It's very hard to justify the impressive qualities of a game while faced with so many negatives. Above all else, I think that when a person plays a game, "I would like to it to play and work as intended, without technical difficulties," is right at the top of the list.
- If you watch a DVD, do you expect it to not pause or stutter?
- When you purchase a new car, do you expect it to run and get reliably from A to B, regardless of how comfortable the ride may or may not be?
- When you buy a mobile phone, do you expect it to make calls and connect, despite what apps and features it may or may not have?

It comes down to basic functionality, and when something does not function, not only does it fail to meet that expectation, but also dampers the ability to examine the rest of the product. A Porsche with a broken engine that won't run isn't a Porshe...it's a "car with a borken engine that won't run." The same can be said for Defiance: It's a busted car. It may be a flashy and nice Porsche for some, or a beat up Pinto to others, but it's still a broken car.

As far as my other expectations go, the only thing that disappoints me is the overall lack of immersion in this game, which is surprising in an MMO. Thankfully the core combat and gunplay is strong enough to keep me hooked, but in the end that may not matter, or not matter for very long.

[JonDav]

I'm going to ignore the "reasonable person" nonsense as it's no more than a ploy to discredit any negative feedback. Anyway, the game has failed to reach my expectations by a long shot. I figured going the MMO route would result in engaging content that encourages people to join clans, communicate, prepare and formulate gameplans to tackle content. Instead we get 7 lackluster, unrewarding "instances" that require zero teamwork, preperation or communication. A majority can be completed by two people running around like chickens with their heads cut off. There's zero reason to join a clan, zero reasons to communicate and zero reasons to even acknowledge the other players. Arkfalls are a completely missed opportunity being that the rewards are laughable. You wonder why people quickly found an exploit where they can shoot it a few times and leave. Why stay and shoot bubbles in a crystal for 20 minutes? The thrill of getting a high quality item is absent, any chance of you being challenged is absent and any change the encounter will differ from the other 10 times you did it is also absent. Like someone said before, it's like playing an open world game with bots. So much potential flushed down the drain. Hopefully Destiny releases sometime soon because you know Bungie will deliver...

[Ozzalin]

My only real complaint is not enough outfits in the store and 1 new and 1 reskin a week isn't enough. I know they are working on the rest.

They are not working on the rest, it's already there, in the closed beta when they opened the store, we had pages and pages of outfits with tons of different styles, and also pick up trucks etc...

It has been all removed by the devs at launch and now the store is almost empty.
Why?... No clue.

Ask them.

[Rizaun]

Not really. The game is entertaining but it lacks content variety and of course, proper social tools. I haven't been victim of most of the bugs that have showed up or rollbacks because I haven't played much for a week, maybe an hour or less each day. All the CO-OP maps are way too easy, the pursuits are too easy as well, just some of them require a lot of time rather than challenge, Arkfalls are easy (The crystal arkfall is just annoying) there's very few designs of vehicles and outfits, just a lot of reskins. I doubt bringing a DLC soon will change things since they usually add little content which I'm sure a lot of people will complete in the first day it comes out and just in a few hours.

But there's still hope.

[Ozzalin]

A reasonable person would expect that at least the game would work.

It's very hard to justify the impressive qualities of a game while faced with so many negatives. Above all else, I think that when a person plays a game, "I would like to it to play and work as intended, without technical difficulties," is right at the top of the list.
- If you watch a DVD, do you expect it to not pause or stutter?
- When you purchase a new car, do you expect it to run and get reliably from A to B, regardless of how comfortable the ride may or may not be?
- When you buy a mobile phone, do you expect it to make calls and connect, despite what apps and features it may or may not have?

It comes down to basic functionality, and when something does not function, not only does it fail to meet that expectation, but also dampers the ability to examine the rest of the product. A Porsche with a broken engine that won't run isn't a Porshe...it's a "car with a borken engine that won't run." The same can be said for Defiance: It's a busted car. It may be a flashy and nice Porsche for some, or a beat up Pinto to others, but it's still a broken car.

As far as my other expectations go, the only thing that disappoints me is the overall lack of immersion in this game, which is surprising in an MMO. Thankfully the core combat and gunplay is strong enough to keep me hooked, but in the end that may not matter, or not matter for very long.

Amen to that my friend. One of the best post with true words i've seen here so far.

[Smitus]

As you can see, I haven't done many posts on the forums. However, I am EGO 1608 on the NA PC server. Also, I have a lot of experience with MMO's, especially during launch. Has the game met my expectations? In many ways, it has and hasn't, so I will break it down into categories.

Storyline: I will say that the main and episode missions are very well done when it comes to telling a story. The voice acting feels top notch. In this category, I feel it surpassed my expectations. However, it felt somewhat short for launch. At the same time, I know it will be expanded now the show is on its' second week. I will say that if the episodic pursuits are as annoying as finding exactly where the pilgrims are, they will get stale fast.

Launch and downtimes: Frankly, I see a lot of people complaining about how "bad" the downtimes are and/or how "bad" launch was. In comparison to Star Wars Galaxies (90% of players couldn't log in the first five or so days, but there were lucky ones) or EQ (long queues that weren't shown and other glitches), this launch was smooth. In fact, I would have to say it is one of the smoother launches I've played. Of course, there has been smoother like Guild Wars 2 or even many Free To Play MMO's. When it comes to downtime, many games have almost daily downtime periods that lasted hours (and often past their projected timeframes). I think the best examples I could think of at the moment is EQ2, WoW, and if memory serves, SW:TOR. As time went by, all these games went to a weekly downtime period (minus resets). In general, Defiance has met my expectations on both launch and downtime.

Leveling System: Here, I am somewhat disappointed. It is nice that an EGO 2000 player can team up with an EGO 1 player, but the problem is there is little/no difference in leveling up. Yes, the equipment SLOWLY starts gaining more traits (like 5% faster grenade respawn traits on shields), but the overall stats never really change. Yes, the higher the EGO, the more perks and upgrades one can equip. In many cases, however, these perks feel miniscule or very situational. I could go on, but to keep it relatively short, I feel the leveling system has not met my expectations by far. The EGO system, if anything, is more like a snapshot of a characters Achievement score than a concept of attained power.

Bugs and Patches: To keep this short, almost all games have their series of launch bugs and patches (as I've mentioned above). This, however, I feel like the more patches they put out, the buggier and severity of bugs increases. The strange thing is a lot of bugs people report don't seem to unanimous across the board for all. For example, I almost never have problems with server stability. Meanwhile, I can't reload my weapons without my toon consuming ammo he never actually put in, while most others don't seem to have this issue. Who installed a black hole in my chamber??? Currently, I would have to say the general type of bugs people discuss is "meeting my expectations" for a game near launch. A lot of the bugs are getting closer and closer to game-breaking though, in my opinion. The patches are sub-par in both quality and quantity for this time frame.

"End-Game" Content and dungeons: Now this is a game where I'm shocked in Trion's failures. Every game I've played from Beta/Launch to max level has some sort of end-game content, typically created for guilds or coordinated players to work together in downing a puzzle-like dungeon (boss mechanics, anyone?). This game, one has absolutely no purpose in joining a clan other than for social aspects. Yes, you can join a clan and play Co-Op / PVP maps, but a clan is not necessary. In fact, I feel a decent player can complete a co-op map themselves if allowed to. With all that being said, I'm surprised there is absolutely no multi-party raids, clan war PVP, or so on in this game. Once you get to, and complete San Francisco, there is really not much else to do except pursuit/achievement hunting in order to boost your arbitrary EGO score. Here, the game has miserably failed in meeting my expectations.

Social Factors: In short, this game is quiet... extremely quiet. One can see this as a good or bad thing. Like I said earlier about clans, it's not really needed unless you want to socialize. I play the game with one Real Life friend and one may be joining in soon. In other games, I rarely talk to anyone other than guildies and my RL friends. When it comes to dungeons, I'll chat about strategies, but in this game, one really doesn't need to talk about strategy; just shoot it, stop running things over in arkfalls, and stop killing the skitterlings (they bite good holes). I won't say my expectation in this category because I'm kinda mixed on quietness.

PVP: I have to say I'd like to see a little more balance in weapons as well as more variety in maps. Almost always, the higher scorers are using pump/sawed off shotguns (because they kill in one shot), stealth (because when an effective opponent comes out of it, it's too late to save yourself/friend and immediately go back into it), and length (it feels a little too short). Other weapons, like launchers, pistols, and BMG's, are almost completely useless. Outside of Shadow War, there only is two maps and they're both Team Deathmatch, which is always fun. In relation to bugs and pursuits, PVP can be one of the more frustrating things in-game to accomplish. It is a big factor of the game (hence why there's 13 PVP oriented pursuits and the Echelon Faction dedicated to it) and almost completely non-functional due to the bugs. I have to say PVP in itself is somewhat below my expectations while the system is currently far below. In all fairness, the system will be fixed in the near future in terms of the ability to complete tasks while balancing will take longer.

That's all I have to say at the moment. Overall, I have to say the game is a little below my expectations for where it currently is at, but I am still enjoying it. I still find it a fun game, worthwhile of my $60, but I do find it frustrating at times and have hit the point where I don't have much else to do other than getting my skills maxed out. I hope you take my analyses as what they are, and I hope you are having fun regardless of your objectives with this game!

EDIT: Also, I forgot to mention that labeling this as an MMO is a little deceiving. Are there hundreds of other players playing simultaneously as you are? Yes. Does one have to have an active internet connection to play it? Yes. And that's about it for the labeling this game as an MMO. No in-game economy or market, no real necessity for teaming up, no real in-game chat (Yes, there is a chat window and VoIP, but I rarely see people use it... with purpose and without banter).

[Spencley]

Nope, for the first time ever after purchasing a game i feel completely ripped off... No contents (pursuits that require you to use the same content only killing different enemies in the same zones is not content, Also pursuits that force you to farm random events that give minimal rewards is not content.. Oh pursuits which cannot be completed is not content...

Combined with the incredibly rare drop rate of items if not using any boosts, Abysmal social aspects and everything you can think of that makes an MMO is missing, the game has fallen way short of expectations... What do you we get? a couple of episode missions each week...or even every 2 weeks..

[Nmalthus]

They are not working on the rest, it's already there, in the closed beta when they opened the store, we had pages and pages of outfits with tons of different styles, and also pick up trucks etc...

It has been all removed by the devs at launch and now the store is almost empty.
Why?... No clue.

Ask them.

By working on the rest I was primarily referring to bug fixes, content etc so didn't bother mentioning those things...I remember the beta store having a lot of stuff and no clue why they would remove it for live either being that it's money not being spent each day it's not put up..