Aug 31 2013
7 Days to Die Clusterf****
Truth be told, I’m getting a little tired of War Thunder. It was added to Steam, bringing in quite a few new players. It was great for a week or so but the game itself is getting a little old now. Gaijin won’t be rolling out the tanks expansion for a few more months (November, I think) so the airplanes portion of the game gets a little repetitive. Maybe I’ve been playing it too much.
So I began looking for another game to play. 7 Days to Die was the first game I found that I found intriguing. It’s a combination of games. Some say it’s a combination of Minecraft and DayZ. Essentially, you’re a guy (or girl) who is trying to survive a zombie-infested world. And you have to scavenge, build (craft), or grow everything you need to survive.
The zombies are slower-moving during the day, eventually becoming faster and more aggressive after the sun goes down. So you have to find or make shelter each night. There are abandoned towns, factories, warehouses, and farm houses on the map, all of which will provide you with a place to hold up for the night or scavenge food, water, weapons, etc.
I found some YouTube videos featuring actual gameplay and I was hooked on it. I’ve been watching a few guys as they build ridiculously elaborate fortresses to keep the zombies out.
I wanted to buy the game. It’s $35. For a game still in the first Alpha build. Yeah, it’s a lot of money for a game that’s not even close to being finished. However, that $35 also guarantees a final version of the game, along with each update in between. So it’s not too bad of a deal.
The problem is the developers, The Fun Pimps, have had a disastrous time dealing with the orders. They’ve had to take down their “Buy” page because of technical problems. They ordered a new server for their site and they can’t seem to get anything to work. Customers are complaining about not getting a copy of the game despite paying for the game more than a week ago. Yeah, talk about a total clusterf***, right?
I haven’t figured out why they didn’t just go with a reputable company like Steam and let them handle all of the business regarding the release of the game. Let their servers handle the stress. Let their customer service deal with dissatisfied customers. And let your relatively small staff focus on the development of the game.
As much as I like the game, 7 Days to Die has a long way to go before it’s a finished, polished game. the game is suffering from a plethora of bugs, including memory leaks, graphical glitches, and some crafting recipes don’t work.
After watching some of the YouTube videos, I’m becoming more reluctant about buying 7 Days to Die. It’s not the bugs, it’s the fact that there’s a limit to how much you can do right now. I’ve seen guys do a lot of work, making seemingly impenetrable forces and now have little to nothing to do.
I know the developers intend to add flying enemies and climbing zombies, but I wonder how long some people will actually play the game. Theoretically, you can do just about anything you can think of in this sandbox. It’s just a matter of whether or not you’re going to have fun doing it. I suspect the game will have to rely on multiplayer and PVP modes to keep it interesting for some.
That is if you’ll ever be able to buy the darn game. Seriously, The Fun Pimps. Get on it. Fix your site and get your customers the game they paid for. And get it on Steam. Like I said, let them handle the game orders and customer service.