Penumbra: Black Plague Released!

[UncleJeet]

Gamers tend to get...emotional when things like this happen. And things like this happen all the time. With almost every major game release, there's some site or brick-and-mortar store that promised the game on a certain date but didn't deliver for one reason or another. A small segment of the affected customers rightfully get upset, but then they go a little overboard and start ranting on the internet.

Let's be serious, folks. This is a technical problem that GamersGate is experiencing, and that's it. They recently revamped their entire site, and it's obviously caused some pretty serious unforeseen difficulties. Should they put up a notice before people order? Yes, they should. Should they suspend new orders until the problem is resolved? Certainly. However, are they doing this deliberately? Of course not.

Crying foul is one thing, but going off the deep end and making accusations of credit card fraud is just silly. I'm waiting for the first class action cry - there's always at least one.

Just calm down, folks. If you've ever worked on any complicated system, be it a game or a commercial web site, these things happen. They're working on it, and will have things back to normal as soon as they can. I've ordered from GamersGate before (once, actually - for Penumbra Overture) and had a very smooth, very nice experience. What's going on now is apparently systemic - it's affecting everyone and every game. They are not defrauding anyone - no more than the power company is defrauding you when a transformer blows and your power is out for a short while.

I know it stinks - you want to play the game. So do I! But it's hardly Frictional's fault - I honestly don't know what color the grass is on the world where this could be in any way their responsibility. They've made a game you're dying to play - and you will play it. If GamersGate hasn't resolved the issues by tomorrow, cancel your order and buy it from another store. Either way, you'll be playing soon enough and, when you finally get to, you'll probably feel embarrassed and maybe just a little bit silly for all of the Internet Rage you've unleashed on the very people who made the game you want so badly.

Heck, if anything, we should be showing our support for Frictional right now. They're having to field questions and try and smooth things over for something that is both entirely out of their control and completely not their responsibility. They've already done the near-impossible: they've made not one, but two independent games that go well outside the "safe and boring" zones of the major publishers. They're polished, well executed, and extremely engaging experiences. And people are buying them - and getting really frustrated when they can't.

Let's thank our lucky stars that we have independent developers like Frictional out there, taking the risks and making the strides that the major game studios aren't willing to do. How about we thank them for that, rather than rake them over the coals for a technical glitch that one online store is experiencing?

Thanks, guys!