No Mans Sky

Robert ninja

I don't think hours of play should come into play too often for large games like this when considering a refund. It's not unreasonable to expect a refund on a graphics card or blu ray movie if, even after watching the movie or getting potentially 100s of hours out of the GPU, if something fails to deliver by either breaking down, false advertising (nvidia's GPU remember?) or the consumer realising it doesn't have the subtitles it advertised on the case, you are entitled to a refund. Considering all the smoke about this game's marketing I think that's why there's this talk over refunds.

Wasn't there some lad who got a refund after 100s of hours of playtime on a steam game? Because he was one of the first to purchase and support it but the devs apparently never delivered the game they promised and I guess he was being patient with updates as so many games take that kind of development process/business model. He got 100s of hours sure but he ultimately didn't get what he was told he would.

I mean if Sean Murray has the confidence to write a stupidly long number across a white board and say this is how big his game is then 70 hours is practically nothing to it.

Sure there's people taking the piss but should they really ruin basic consumer protection practices and cause strict limitations on what honest paying consumers usually get in almost every other product? Hell if you complain about the dirt in a cinema they throw a free cinema ticket at you. I don't see steam throwing free game codes at anyone despite the sheer amount of outright scams we've seen on its platform. Why do standards drop when it comes to games? For NMS, the devs have obviously made off with the money now anyway. Too much sympathy for big publishers and not enough for the fellow consumer. You don't need to damage control for em'. They already pay people for that.

Venom

A refund for a game type like NMS, fails into a not so black and white area for me due to the nature of the game and how the player gets thrown in at the deep end of the games mechanics learning curve. Having to work out how things are done will eat up way more than the 2 hours the refund window allows kinda similar to getting into a new MMO.

You then have the issue of how much the dev team outright lied about features and content this game would have which balances out any amount of hours a player would have. You don't get to act like a snake-oil salesman and then cry about being the victim when the brown stuff hits the fan.

The fact Amazon are taking back physical copies of the game says alot and this is on top of digital providers like Sony, GoG and Steam issuing refunds way beyond what they normally would, leaves me with a strong impression everyone is trying to distance themselves from the train wreck Hello Games is about to get hit with.

H3llR4iser

One of the issues I often remark is the loss of the concept of a demo version of games; Granted, it would be a very difficult model to apply to some current games which are mostly story driven and implement relatively complex mechanics than it was to, say, a beat'em up or a racing game from the '90s.

The problem with refunds, returns and "customer rights" when it comes to media is a very complex one, because you are not purchasing a product per se but the right to access it (ie. to watch a movie, play a game, listen to a tune). It opens the door to extreme abuse, especially considering the one-time-fruition nature of most games and movies; nothing would stand in the way of paying for the game, power-playing through it in a few days (most modern games have a sub-30 hours storyline) and just return it for a refund, basically having played the game for free.

It's like going to the cinema, watch the entire movie and then go back to the till asking for a refund because "you didn't enjoy it"...and also, the popcorn didn't have enough salt, I want a refund for that as well. Mind you, there are examples about this abuse even involving physical goods, ask anybody who's ever worked in Dunnes or Pennys about the "Monday return of Friday purchases" - often smelling of perfume...or worse.

Maximus Alexander

H3llR4iser wrote: »

One of the issues I often remark is the loss of the concept of a demo version of games; Granted, it would be a very difficult model to apply to some current games which are mostly story driven and implement relatively complex mechanics than it was to, say, a beat'em up or a racing game from the '90s.

I remember reading an interesting article a good while back about how demos fell out of favour because publishers started to realise that they were bad for business. Basically, it was possible to build up hype that would make people want to buy a game enough to order it ahead of time, and demos were at best being played by people who were going to buy the game anyway, and at worst turning people off when they realised the reality didn't match expectation.

On the whole, they seemed to think that rather than encouraging people to buy a game, demos actually led to decreased sales.

I'll see if I can dig it up.

Overheal

I warped to a black hole system only to find that the system was actually... totally bitchin. 4 planets and a pug-sized moon, nothing too hazardous and one of the planets is actually super lush looking, not hazardous, and peaceful (albeit devoid of much resources, its just cool looking). The other planets aside from an irradiated one aren't too harsh, and the only major element I didn't spot in abundance was Emiril, but I didn't look hard. Including Aqua Spheres and Gravitino Balls, this looks like the perfect system to ditch my teched-out 30 slot ship and get to a 48. There was a hot planet that has an overabundance of fauna as well, the sky and ground are littered with critters.

EoinHef

Im pretty much doing the same,good systems are not always easy to come by. Currently in one with six planets starting to upgrade from a 31 slot ship! Ive named each planet after the most abundant rare resource it has. Have all the main ingridients between the planets and also a planet that has murrine sphere thingys,so thats my second exotic resource after callium.

Not sure what either is used for though,dont have any blueptints that use them as far as i can see

ElNino

More trouble

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/play/no-mans-sky-misleading-advertising

Venom

ElNino wrote: »

More trouble

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/play/no-mans-sky-misleading-advertising

The Advertising Standards Authority has bugger all power so it's just more bad press to add to whats already out there. This is just like closing the barn door after the horses have bolted, as even on the off chance Steam do take down the misleading adverts (they should of done this already) its not like sales of this turkey are ever going to pick up.

Glebee

Its amazing that the bashing this game received since launch and still the cheapest I can find it for is about 34 euro. has nor really dropped in price at all.

wyrn

Since the last major updated (where they added the extra play mode) I haven't been able to play. When I launch the game I'm told that I don't have the required minimum for graphics. It's quite frustrating because I spent a lot of time bopping around the planets rather than completing the game play and now I can't.

Kimbot

Glebee wrote: »

Its amazing that the bashing this game received since launch and still the cheapest I can find it for is about 34 euro. has nor really dropped in price at all.

On PS4 it was down to 15 a few times recently.