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Quake 4 Demo Follow-up [November 28, 2005, 9:43 pm ET] - Viewing Comments

The id Software Website (thanks Frans) offers an update from Todd Hollenshead on what went wrong (story) with the recently (accidentally) released Quake 4 Demo (story). Here's word:

On behalf of id Software, I would like to express our regret over the snafu with the Quake 4 demo last Wednesday. We wanted to get the demo out before the Holiday weekend here in the U.S. and were working hard with Raven and Activision to make that happen. A bug in the multiplayer was caught at the last minute and we decided to hold off on the release. Single player was unaffected by this bug. Unfortunately, in our preparation for the planned release the bad build was mistakenly put on our public FTP instead of a staging site, and was apparently seen and downloaded by a website or two, and propagated from there. We tried to get the word out to mirrors and websites that multiplayer was broken in the build and not to mirror the file, but due to the late hour and the impending holiday, the request to pull it back was too little, too late.

We are working on finalizing the demo for release as soon as possible, but we want to be as certain as we can to avoid making the same mistake twice. I'm sorry for everyone who spent time downloading the demo and found the multiplayer was broken. Hopefully a properly functioning Quake 4 Demo can make amends.

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31 Replies. 2 pages. Viewing page 1.
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31.	Re: No subject	Nov 29, 17:29	Parallax Abstraction
	Doesn't seem too far fetched, given that the idea to develop Q4 in the first place came out of a conversation between Levelord and Carmack about how pricey a kilo of weed is these days, and wouldn't it be nice if they didn't have to pinch bowls from their mom's' stash anymore.. What the HELL are you talking about?! Parallax Abstraction Ottawa, Canada www.pxa.ca


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30.	Re: No subject	Nov 29, 14:05	MeatForce
	Do you guys honestly believe, after spending years of hard work making games, any developer goes 'Oh you know what, this isn't very good, let's not have a demo.' You think that maybe they have some kind of actual decision making process for this besides ok we finished! but it sucks! no demo! Doesn't seem too far fetched, given that the idea to develop Q4 in the first place came out of a conversation between Levelord and Carmack about how pricey a kilo of weed is these days, and wouldn't it be nice if they didn't have to pinch bowls from their mom's' stash anymore.. ----- GW: Tashen Boke [R/Me]; Rosti The Ninja [Mo/R]; Gort Grimley [W/Ne]


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29.	Re: No subject	Nov 29, 10:56	sponge
	jm0ris0n: the game is "acceptable" on my 9600XT, and ran not half-bad on my 9500. Much better than I was expecting. HL2 is much more technically simplistic, can't really compare the two.


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28.	Re: No subject	Nov 29, 10:25	asrof
	Do you guys honestly believe, after spending years of hard work making games, any developer goes 'Oh you know what, this isn't very good, let's not have a demo.' You think that maybe they have some kind of actual decision making process for this besides ok we finished! but it sucks! no demo! Why does it matter when they release the demo, or IF they release the demo, are you upset cause they aren't making enough money? Maybe they finish the game and want a BREAK for a few weeks? No I guess they should all rush to release a demo, so you can all decide it sucks, which most people did before the game ever came out. And unless you work in their accounting dept you have no idea how many extra sales they predict a demo to get them, maybe it's not as many as you think so it's not a big priority.


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27.	Re: No subject	Nov 29, 10:11	jm0ris0n
	I have a feeling playing this on my notebook with A643200+ and 9600Pro will make me cry... da*m widescreen resolutions... ...btw: HL2 ran acceptably @1280x800 widescreen native resolution on medium ndx9 settings...


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26.	Re: No subject	Nov 29, 08:45	nin
	Strange bet, as the purpose for a demo is to earn more cash by selling more copies of your game than you would have without a demo. But which is going to put more money in your hands, initially? Something you're giving away for free, or something you're charging $50 for? I agree with your point (that a demo should give people a reason to buy), but I think they were more concerned about shipping and getting it on store shelves, as the Xmas rush hits high gear. They know that w/ the words "id" and "Quake" on the box, people are going to put money down... edit: Semantics kinda beat me to it. -------------------------------------------------------------- GW: Nilaar Madalla, lvl 20 R/Mo / Tolyl Nor, lvl 20 E/Mo / Xylos Gath, lvl 13 W/Mo http://www.goldfrapp.co.uk/ This message was edited at Nov 29, 08:46.


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25.	Re: No subject	Nov 29, 08:40	Semantics
	Some people will buy a game without playing a demo. Thus, releasing a game when it is done, instead of taking time to make a demo before it is done, will always result in money sooner, independent of whether the game is good or not. People like money. It lets them eat food. After they have some money coming in (and in fact, probably before), they start working on the demo, to get more people to buy it. I mean, they probably can't really finish the demo until they've finished the game. So should they just sit on the finished game for however long it takes to make the demo?


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24.	Re: No subject	Nov 29, 07:56	Animals for Crackers
	Both games are essentially plain old deathmatch and CTF, and most players today want something more than that or are so addicted to Counterstrike that they can't pull themselves away to play something else. Nostalgia has a habit of overpowering common sense. :O


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23.	Re: No subject	Nov 29, 06:35	WaltC
	I'm betting they were more concerned about shipping a product (both PC and 360 versions) that would earn them cash as opposed to a demo that wouldn't... Strange bet, as the purpose for a demo is to earn more cash by selling more copies of your game than you would have without a demo. A good demo of a good game is great advertising. It does stand to reason, though, that if you have no confidence that your demo will be well received that you'd go ahead and ship the game. Wouldn't want to reveal too much about a mediocre game before we sell through a certain number of copies, would we? That's my bet as to why so many games only get advertising demos long after they ship.


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22.	Re: No subject	Nov 29, 06:09	Riley Pizt
	425 servers with 99 players at 9am GMT. That's about the same number of players for FEAR. Both games are essentially plain old deathmatch and CTF, and most players today want something more than that or are so addicted to Counterstrike that they can't pull themselves away to play something else. This message was edited at Nov 29, 06:10.


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21.	Re: No subject	Nov 29, 04:15	Cochonou
	The Edge was great, but McKinley Revival (Q2CTF1) was even better.


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20.	Re: No subject	Nov 29, 04:01	Tango
	425 servers with 99 players at 9am GMT. Check it (down the bottom) at http://archive.gamespy.com/stats/ ___________________________________ This post is shamefully brought to you using someone else's unsecured wireless network


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19.	Re: No subject	Nov 29, 03:47	Animals for Crackers
	The underwater railgun duels were the best. Damn straight. Edge is by far the best DM map ever! So many fond memories of mastering the intricacies of that map with my friend over LAN. Now I'm aching to play. Anyone know if there are regular DM servers still going?


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18.	Re: No subject	Nov 29, 02:43	Fantaz
	Is anyone making a mod similar to QuakeWorld Clan Arena? I would game on that forever.


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17.	No subject	Nov 29, 02:24	WebDemon
	I enjoyed it. Mostly because I still miss Q2 multiplayer. Can't wait untill somebody mods the edge to put the pool back in. The underwater railgun duels were the best.


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16.	SP better than expected,MP worse	Nov 29, 02:12	Ouch
	I got a chance to try someone's full version in single-player. It was much better than I expected. My expectations were somewhat low before I tried it. Raven did better than expected on the single-player. I ended up buying the full version after getting a chance to try it out. Multiplayer is very simplistic though. No mech walkers, vehicles, mounted weapons, ,character classes, missions, objectives etc. It only has very basic DM and CTF which is just pathetic nowdays. Another complaint is that it would freeze for a few seconds every now and then in new areas with lots of baddies. I have a pretty good system and was only running at 800x600. What would be cool is if some of the stranger Strogg could be played in multiplayer. They would have to come up with vehicle-like control schemes for a few of them though. This message was edited at Nov 29, 02:29.


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15.	Re: What's the bug?	Nov 29, 01:20	sponge
	It's all in the lighting. Research the Q4 FPS map pack. Using a built in command that the maps now enable, you can change the lighting to 0, all, to 3, which removes some detail lights, 5 removes jump pad lights, and 9 is flat lit by one world light. P4 3ghz, ATI x800, 1280x1024 no AA/AF: from 30-40FPS around the courtyard on the Edge, to mostly topping out 60 at detail 5, to completly topping out under all circumstances at 9. This message was edited at Nov 29, 01:20.


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14.	Re: What's the bug?	Nov 29, 01:05	Cynips
	Not so much a bug as really low performance due to the lighting system if I understand this right. Even people with top notch hardware get unacceptable framerates when a bunch of players are in sight at the same time at the 'wrong' place in a map. And all this for some not so very good looking player real-time shadows. Part of the explanation seems also to be that the CPU is taxed heavily because it has to keep track of everything going on in the map whether or not those things are currently visible or not. And this is apart from a few game play annoyances. listening to http://www.progulus.com/ a mountain stream of progressive, rock and metal


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13.	What's the bug?	Nov 29, 00:04	Ant
	What bug is it in multiplayer? I briefly played it online. It felt like Q3A. Ant @ The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx and Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net


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12.	Re: No subject	Nov 28, 23:32	Warhawk
	I'll probably get it later (when there is a good sale on it) as I generally like the games id makes. Am looking forward to the demo. * Warhawk * Your repeated violation of the Verbal Morality Statute has caused me to notify the San Angeles Police Department. Please remain where you are for your reprimand.


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31 Replies. 2 pages. Viewing page 1.
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