Right now it’s Steam’s top selling title. Its listing promises maps ranging 100 to 400 square km, but it has only just one at 72 km. They’re sorry to those who ”misread information” about The War Z.
The listing on Steam has since been revised but gamers aren’t happy to learn what they’ve paid for isn’t exactly what they have been promised by Hammerpoint.
”As you all know we launched the game on Steam yesterday,” posted executive producer Sergey Titov on The War Z forum. “Okay - we’re number one top grossing game on Steam right now - thank you guys for your support.”
“At the same time it was clear that there were a number of customers that felt that information about the game was presented in a way that could have allowed for multiple interpretations.”
“We’ve taken steps to correct this and format information presented on our Steam Store page in a way so it provides more clear information about game features that are present in the Foundation Release and what to expect in the coming weeks.”
“We also want to extend our apologies to all players who misread information about game features,” he added. “At the end of the day our goal is to serve our players as best as we can, and we love when you guys steer us into the right way of doing it!” Highlighted features have since been redressed as ‘upcoming features’ for the MMO.
In a later interview with GameSpy, Titov is of the impression the fault lies with gamers. “I’m sure there’ll be people who will look into small details and will say, ‘no I was misled,’ where in fact they imagined something to themselves without checking details first,” he said. “I’m sure that Steam have its refund policies that should handle those situations.”
As for those presently ‘hating’ on the game, Titov believes these people are either ”extreme DayZ fanboys” or those who believe themselves to have been misled, or that The War Z hasn’t met their expectations.
”I really envy DayZ creators for having such loyal players, yet I don’t think we can do anything. Yes we’ve announced the game right before DayZ mod reached its prime and it started losing popularity after that. And yes, The War Z and DayZ themes are similar. Heck, both projects are using same reference to other products in their titles,” he said.
”So, if I’ll be a DayZ fanboy, I’ll be royally pissed off at The War Z. Especially since they won’t be able to do anything about it, all they can do is spread lies and false information about game. They just love to omit obvious facts and bend words.”
Another sore issue has been the player limit on servers. The product page lists up to 100 can be supported but a cap of 50 was in place, which has since risen to 70 for public servers. However Hammerpoint say that any private server can be set at 100. Right now another batch of trouble is brewing on The War Z Steam forum… censorship.
”We take these complaints seriously and are investigating the issue,” posted Valve’s Al Farnsworth, responding the complaints by users that forum posts are being wiped if they criticise the MMO.
”There has been a lot of traffic in this forum - a new topic every minute for the last day and a half, with thousands of replies,” he said. ”All that makes moderation a very difficult task.”
”If you have concerns or criticisms about the game, you are free to post those in this forum. However, please keep your posts on-topic and about the game. There’s no reason to personally insult other posters, the developers, or the moderators. Please keep the discussion rules and guidelines in mind when posting.”
‘Kewk’ appears to be the culprit who has been heavy with Steam forum user bans who voice less than flattery remarks about the zombie MMO, and deleting the threads.
Reddit users managed to grab the original Steam product listing which shows other features being advertised for The War Z, despite not being present, such as rentable private servers, a skills system and a friends list. The MMO is also missing a hardcore mode with no mention it’s barely out of its beta phase.
