MID Discussion, Release Date, Unity Etc Part 2

[DPL_93]

Seems like there are 3 kinds of fans atm, those who defend HeR at every instance, those who attack them over everything they do And then there are fans who think both sides are in the wrong and just wish MID would come out so we can all move on.

[nancycluedrew]

Turning the topic all the way back to MID now...

I'm not taking sides on who is right and who is wrong about what HeR should or shouldn't be doing in their progress in making MID.

I am very concerned about the level of abuse aimed at the company through social media on a seemingly daily basis. I get that some people are furious about how long it is taking HeR to make the game, but cyber bullying is a very serious problem. The company has every right to protect its staff from any problems and we should respect that.

In the mean time, it's important to keep supporting HeR in making computer games.

If you don't like what I'm saying, I don't care. I just wanted to put this out there.

Cyber bullying is absolutely a problem in today's world, but nothing I've seen directed towards HER has reached that level. It is mostly people saying they're frustrated with the company, about the lack of transparency from the company.

[Punchy]

Can some one explain the contents of the "passive-aggressive comment" that was deleted?

Wonder if the minimum system requirements are going to be the same or if its just a placeholder. Currently it says

Windows Minimum System Requirements:
1.5 GHZ or greater Pentium 4 CPU or equivalent class
512 MB of RAM
3GB or more hard drive space
128 MB DirectX 9.0 compatible video card
16 bit DirectX compatible sound card
4x DVD drive
Keyboard, mouse and speakers

Which is the same as SEA and previous games. I would have thought with the improvements mentioned in the August 2015 letter that the requirements would have changed otherwise seems kind of pointless to switch to Unity

Were you expecting MID to take up more space/memory than usual? What requirements do you suppose would have changed? (I have ZERO knowledge about technology . . .)

[MrsSleuth]

Any multi-millionaire fans on these boards that want to buy HeR and figure out what the heck is going on? Lol.

Haha that's what my husband said to me last night. "If we were millionaires we could just buy the company and fix things".

I am very concerned about the level of abuse aimed at the company through social media on a seemingly daily basis. I get that some people are furious about how long it is taking HeR to make the game, but cyber bullying is a very serious problem. The company has every right to protect its staff from any problems and we should respect that.

I agree that they must be so fed up with the compaining. However, they are a company and it's extremely important that they remain professional. In my email to HeR I told them that it's kind of like when you're looking a reviews for a hotel or restaurant. The place could have 99 perfect reviews, and one negative review, but if the company responds to that negative review in a snarky, sarcastic way, I'm not going to use their services.

I think if they were just more honest about the progress on MID, things wouldn't be so bad. If they would have told us in August that it was looking like a 2016 release was not going to happen, people wouldn't be so upset now about their October letter. But they released photos that implied it could be a halloween release, and waited to late to tell us the truth. Of course people are going to be upset....

Can someone explain the contents of this "passive-aggressive comment" that was deleted?

Were you expecting MID to take up more space/memory than usual? What requirements do you suppose would have changed? (I have ZERO knowledge about technology . . .)

The passive agressive comment was pasted here a few pages ago, but someone complained about the production page writing quality and they replied with an explanation, defending that it was temporary and that they wanted to give more info on the game and then they said "Perhaps we shouldn't have been so transparent".

[actress19]

Were you expecting MID to take up more space/memory than usual? What requirements do you suppose would have changed? (I have ZERO knowledge about technology . . .)

I'm not the person you originally quoted, but I along with others would expect MID to have greater system requirements than previous games due to the change to Unity. They've said, among other things, that the games would be longer and the graphics would be better quality. This lead me to assume that the game would take up more space and require more advanced graphic capabilities for optimum gameplay. It's interesting that the requirements are the same as previous games, but as others have said it could very well just be a placeholder until they've completed the game and know for sure.

[iLoVeNaNcYDrEw]

Lol if HeR was put on the stock-market we could all buy shares in it and all be owners technically. In the past I would have been disappointed if HeR was bought out by a big company but now I don't think they have enough resources to do everything they want to so a buyout wouldn't be the worse thing. First Thing I would do is try to get back Megan Gaiser in some creative role things never been the same since she left.

Honestly the more time that goes by with these weird vague answers, no timeline and no real proof they're working on the game, the more I think they may be selling or are discontinuing the pc games or SOMETHING weird is going on internally that they just can't talk about. I am really losing faith that we'll ever see MID. Or that if we do, it will be any time soon. I wouldn't be surprised at this point if it's 2018. I just wish they'd do something to prove me wrong. Everything they've done so far has been stuff we KNOW was done a long time ago, which is not encouraging at all. And if they decided to completely remake the game I just wish they'd so say. Which leads me to believe there's just something else going on.

[Punchy]

This lead me to assume that the game would take up more space . . .

That's what I was afraid of.

(Thanks for the response by the way!)

. . . SOMETHING weird is going on . . .

"Weird" doesn't even begin to describe it.

The passive agressive comment was pasted here a few pages ago, but someone complained about the production page writing quality and they replied with an explanation, defending that it was temporary and that they wanted to give more info on the game and then they said "Perhaps we shouldn't have been so transparent".

Ah, so it was THAT one. There have been multiple comments lately seeming to fit that description and I was unsure of the one in question. Thanks!

(But then what what the "LOL, good one" comment all about?)

[MrsSleuth]

(But then what what the "LOL, good one" comment all about?)

Oh yeah, that one was in the same reply. They said LOL, good one because the original facebook post was commenting on the fact they didn't want people to use the cheat menu in the games, since it was for internal use only. Then the poster replied saying that the product page description was also for "internal use only" (original script writer mentioned this on her twitter page) yet they used it anyway.

I am glad that they removed it though because I still love HeR even if they've disappointed me lately, and I really do want them to succeed.

[actress19]

I agree that they must be so fed up with the compaining. However, they are a company and it's extremely important that they remain professional. In my email to HeR I told them that it's kind of like when you're looking a reviews for a hotel or restaurant. The place could have 99 perfect reviews, and one negative review, but if the company responds to that negative review in a snarky, sarcastic way, I'm not going to use their services.

I think if they were just more honest about the progress on MID, things wouldn't be so bad. If they would have told us in August that it was looking like a 2016 release was not going to happen, people wouldn't be so upset now about their October letter. But they released photos that implied it could be a halloween release, and waited to late to tell us the truth. Of course people are going to be upset....

I couldn't agree with you more! I understand they're tired of having to answer the same questions about MID over and over, but that goes with the territory of deviating from the "two games a year" that's been your custom for over 15 years. Even if some of the comments on their Facebook were rude (which I have yet to see any that were truly rude - just direct and honest, but that's my opinion), HeR can still defend themselves without resorting to rudeness. "LOL good one" and "We're actually quite good at multitasking ;)" just read as petty and like they have a 13-year-old manning the social media accounts. When your job is to be the voice of the company, you have to be able to craft diplomatic responses. Being salty toward a customer is not going to get you what you want. If I was a potential ND customer who came onto HeR's Facebook page for the first time and saw that they talked to their fans like that, I know for a fact I would be sure to never purchase from them.

Back to MID. Again, 100% in agreement here. They changed their response from "Fall 2016" to "No release date" back in the summer. As soon as they were aware there would be further delays, they should have put out a statement to their fans. The October Letter should've been a June Letter. Their reply to fan posts should have been something like, "We've encountered unexpected delays in MID production, so our previous estimate of Fall 2016 is not likely to happen. Stay tuned for more definite news!" I mean jeez, I have absolutely no PR background and this isn't rocket science to me.

When they first released the October Letter and the MID page I was very grateful and willing to trust the company. I'm trying not to revoke on that trust, since this does show IMO that they're making an effort, but saying stuff like "Perhaps we shouldn't have been so transparent" and being rude to customers is really disconcerting. This one step forward, two steps back pattern is very frustrating.

[paperstreet]

The people who make those comments dont sound like LJ, a lot of companies outsource the social media stuff to people in poor countries that speak english and pay them something like 75$ to like 5,000 comments and similarly cheap rates to comment.

Maybe it is good to email HeR directly when we see those types of comments, because maybe they dont know.

Also I was reading on another forum that said maybe the company is broke. Maybe they thought C&C would be a cash cow, and they would get a lot of orders for the school year, and then didnt. since it didnt do too well, now they have no money to finance the game.

It does seem like the HeR used to say "as soon as C&C is done we are onto MID" but they changed to "dont know" after C&C's poor performance.

Another person said it often happens in outsourcing that the outsourced people may not have done a good job, so HeR had to find someone else and basically start over, which also ate up budget and make them not want to set a release date.

I feel sorry for HeR if it is these problems, because if it is something like this people would understand and be supportive if they shared. But people are now starting to lose interest, which will only make it harder for sales. I can also see not wanting to share problems, though.

[phoenix star]

Were you expecting MID to take up more space/memory than usual? What requirements do you suppose would have changed? (I have ZERO knowledge about technology . . .)

My non-gaming computer can play every single ND game quite well, but it can't really play more sophisticated games such as those on Unity or Unreal without having extremely slow framerates, if they're even playable at all. I would probably have to use my gaming computer for MID.

Also I was reading on another forum that said maybe the company is broke. Maybe they thought C&C would be a cash cow, and they would get a lot of orders for the school year, and then didnt. since it didnt do too well, now they have no money to finance the game.

It does seem like the HeR used to say "as soon as C&C is done we are onto MID" but they changed to "dont know" after C&C's poor performance.

Another person said it often happens in outsourcing that the outsourced people may not have done a good job, so HeR had to find someone else and basically start over, which also ate up budget and make them not want to set a release date.

I definitely think they are broke if they have been looking to sell this whole time (and all signs point to that). They need money just to send the employees off, or finish MID, if they even intend to do that. I don't know why they could have thought for a second that C&C would make them enough money to finance MID. (Tatianna voice)Choices. Lol here's an idea - if the people they outsourced to didn't do it the way they wanted, they could have maybe not fired the entire team and built it in house like the friendly company they used to be!

[cathwaitress]

The people who make those comments dont sound like LJ, a lot of companies outsource the social media stuff to people in poor countries that speak english and pay them something like 75$ to like 5,000 comments and similarly cheap rates to comment.

Maybe it is good to email HeR directly when we see those types of comments, because maybe they dont know.

I don't have a screenshot but the comment was actually signed Catherine-Grace, which is quite atypical from what I've seen. At that moment it made me think it might be one of the 'higher-ups' stepping in and so signing it with their name. So that the usual facebook person doesn't get blamed or similar. But I couldn't find the name associated with Her anywhere.

[BlueII]

I don't understand why people are upset at the product page? Of course it isn't perfect of up to their normal standards, it is a work in progress. All of MID is probably a work in progress (since they clearly haven't finished), and we keep bugging them about info and they said they don't want to show us it until everything is final and wont change, we get mad about that, so they show us somethings that may change as they complete the game (like the product page) and now everyone is mad at them for it? I don't understand.

[MrsSleuth]

I don't have a screenshot but the comment was actually signed Catherine-Grace, which is quite atypical from what I've seen. At that moment it made me think it might be one of the 'higher-ups' stepping in and so signing it with their name. So that the usual facebook person doesn't get blamed or similar. But I couldn't find the name associated with Her anywhere.

I have a screenshot of the comment (I had sent it to HeR in my email) and Catherine-Grace was the person HeR was replying to. They ended the comment with "Thank you for your feedback Catherine-Grace".

I don't understand why people are upset at the product page? Of course it isn't perfect of up to their normal standards, it is a work in progress. All of MID is probably a work in progress (since they clearly haven't finished), and we keep bugging them about info and they said they don't want to show us it until everything is final and wont change, we get mad about that, so they show us somethings that may change as they complete the game (like the product page) and now everyone is mad at them for it? I don't understand.

People aren't "mad", just disappointed in the quality of writing. Also, if you look at the original MID script writer's twitter, the text was never supposed to be made public. She said the text was written for internal use only. I think she had even said in a reply that if she could, she'd offer to re-write it for them for free. It was a paragraph of text that would have taken 10 minutes to re-write...It seemed rushed and like they didn't really care.

[Gwen_Dral]

I talked with someone at the company last year and was told that the majority of the company was laid off, including both of their animators. He didn't even know what direction Her Interactive was heading in, and he worked there.

If they are still working on MID they would have had to hire a whole new team (which seems unlikely that they would lay everyone off and then hire a new team) Or they are outsourcing pretty much everything now in which case this:

Another person said it often happens in outsourcing that the outsourced people may not have done a good job, so HeR had to find someone else and basically start over, which also ate up budget and make them not want to set a release date.

Could be very true. I know of an outsourcing company that constantly has their games pulled because they didn't meet the quality they were supposed to.


There is also the possibility that since they were overhauling their old system they bit off more than they could chew. For the past 15 years they've had a similar set up for all of their games which meant they could recycle code and assets that they used in the past. That's why they could pull off two games a year. Now they are starting from scratch in a new game engine and it's possible that they really didn't understand how much of a change in production that meant.

Of course this is all speculation. We may never know what's really going on inside the company.