MechQuest: Analysis of 7/10/09 Release
Posted by The Peanut Master on July 11, 2009
Non-release would be a better title.
MechQuest Overdrive: Web Comic
About
Besides the Artbook being released this week, the only actual content even relating to MechQuest was the beginning of a new comic AE started with MechQuest, entitled MechQuest Overdrive. Currently it is at 6 pages and is basically showing the ShadowScythe taking down just about everything. The comic uses a very different art style than what we’re used to, a photo-negative design with a blueprint style.
Pros
I like the idea of a digital comic, and the art style is unique and well-done. I’m interested to see where AE takes this.
Cons
The art style, while a pro, is also a con in that it is very difficult to get used to and can be hard to understand. I found myself very confused multiple times while reading it trying to figure out what was going on.
Grade of Release
7.5/10. Hopefully either I’ll get used to the art style or AE makes it somewhat easier to understand, as the art itself looks great and I’d love to see this pushed further.
Overall Grade of Release
1.0/10. And we all thought a 3/10 was as low as I’d go…
Yeah, I’m giving this week’s release a 1/10. Why? Because all we got was a buff to the Arthurian Eagle, higher-leveled versions of some house heads, the release of the Artbook, and this web comic. And that amounts to almost nothing. No new SC monthly mecha (which will be more than half a month overdue even if it comes out next week), no Skullcrusher mecha (for the very few people who will actually buy the artbook), no new GEARS class that was being touted as the big release this week as late as yesterday, no nothing. There was virtually no in-game content, at all.
The only reason I’m upset over this is because AE failed to mention the fact that we wouldn’t really be getting anything this week until past release time when Maegwyn posted a DN Friday afternoon/evening. I would have been perfectly fine with AE taking a week off/taking extra time to work on this uber-sounded GEARS class, but because they had been gearing us up for this class all week long (from the newsletter to Beleen’s release post to everywhere else) I was incredibly disappointed they failed not only to release the class, but also to release the already-overdue SC monthly mecha. And I’m further upset that they’re going to take another entire week to get what should have been this week’s release out into the game. Honestly, if this stuff is going to be released next Friday, I highly doubt AE had any intention at all releasing it this week, and if that’s the case, then I feel incredibly cheated as a player to have this content promised all week long only to have it delayed not only a few days, but an entire week.
Will I have to eat my words next week when the GEARS class comes and it is ridiculously incredible and I realize a release of this magnitude actually does take 2 weeks of work? Of course, but even if that does happen, I would still feel cheated that AE didn’t let us, the players, know that the release would be delayed until it was too late. One word sum up my feelings on AE’s work this week, in every aspect: disappointed.
Dorigo said
You are much too kind my old friend. In my opinion, The release should be considered as in-game content. That equaled a buff to 1 mecha model. 1.0 is, IMO, too high a rank. I know this is not my place to be rating, but even now, you are being too generous. I understood none of the webcomic, and the art book, while a creative concept, shouldn’t qualify as a release. I sound harsh, but this is the truth. They had touted this class, and failed to alert us that it wouldn’t be released, until long after the release was excepted. This is in my opinion, one of, if not, THE WORST MQ release I have been unfortuante enough to experience. I know some of you will disagree, but I don’t know how else to sum up my feelings. I am truly EXTREMELY dissappointed in the MQ team. I realize they are not forced to make weekly releases, but they should most definitely not promise something that the are, unfortunately, unable to accomplish;
Dor
alabamapitty said
*Cough* Alamonia Bug Invasion *Cough*
Oh wait, that may have been better! >.> Wow, how bad. I won’t say that this is acceptable, but I don’t think this was as bad as we see it. They did have Malware to clean up, which was an unavoidable thing.
On a brighter side, I liked the web comic! This really gives an insight to just what The ShS are made of. The enemies we got a look of were.. Wow. Looked to me like much slimmer, more powerful, and evil Oni demons. They look amazing, and I hope we get the chance to fight these new ShS in the upcoming Westion war.
So yes, disappointing in the extreme, but not too terrible. Next week will be great, I can tell.
The Peanut Master said
I think we may even be dealing with two different beasts when comparing this release to, say, the AGBI or the Final Battle. At least with those releases there was actual in-game content: As bad it was, there was still something AE could show it did for the week, something for us to play through, something for us to (negatively) discuss, something that at least existed. This week, we didn’t even get that, and with no pre-warning either. Bad, bad, and bad.
ZamuelNow said
I think it they are fully forgivable due to having a malware attack. I’ll admit that announcing content and not delivering is bad but we don’t know just how much that attack affected them. In addition, this is not the first week where they haven’t been able to complete a release.
The Peanut Master said
I would have agreed with your opinion that this is excusable because of the malware issue only if all the other games didn’t release content either. AdventureQuest came out with a full release on the day of the malware attack: An entire new quest + a new armor. DragonFable came out with a full release on Friday as well: A big one too, with the start of a new quest chain and the beginning of the Fire War. Even AQWorlds, which had to have been most affected by the attack, came out with a full release: A new cutscene, another teleportation live event, and a huge massive area for us to explore. But MechQuest? Oh, all we got was the Artbook release (which had already been finished), beginning of a new digital comic, a minor buff to the Eagle, and some higher-level versions of the house heads (the latter two being the Wednesday mini-release).
When you take all that into consideration, I just can not excuse AE for not releasing anything at all on Friday even with the malware attack, and it is further compounded by their inability to let us know until it was too late. I guess I can only hope next week’s release will be as epic as it sounds, because it sure does sound awesome.