The War Z Controversy

The War Z Controversy

Updated Feb 01, 2013 at 07:43PM EST by amanda b..

Added Jan 31, 2013 at 12:36PM EST by neet.

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Overview

The War Z Controversy refers to the backlash surrounding the release of the zombie survival PC game The War Z, developed by Hammerpoint Interactive and published by OP Productions. The game was heavily criticized after launch for having buggy game play and missing several features listed on the game's description page.

Background

An alpha version of the game was offered for pre-order customers in early October 2012 and it became available on October 15th.[13] Two days after the alpha release, Redditor sesquip noticed a section in the terms of service that was directly taken from the Terms of Service of League of Legends. The /r/Games post[14] earned 3150 upvotes and 1733 points overall. The Escapist[15] also pointed out that while the document described the game as "free-to-play," which is true in the case of League of Legends, the alpha package of War Z cost at minimum $29.99. The terms were updated soon after.


CPM 13 WarZ Legal Agreement 60 Subject to the terms and conditions of this License Agreement and your agreement therewith, OP Productions hereby grants to you and you hereby accept a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to internally install and execute solely as a component of the Game (i) the Software and related explanatory materials Documentation), and ii) any Software upgrades patches, subsequent versions, and updates (collectively, "Updates") licensed to you by OP Productions. The Software and the Game are provided for your individual, non-commercial, entertainment purposes only. Except as may be expressly permitted by OP Productions, you may not sell, copy, exchange, transfer, publish, assign or otherwise distribute anything you copy or derive from the Software or the Game Pvded for your P Productions,our II. REQUIREMENTS In installing and using the Software and playing the Game, you acknowledge that you have read, understand and agree with the read, understand and agree to the OP Productions Terms of Use http://www.leagueoflegends.com/legal/termsofuse (e Terms of Use"), incorporated herein by reference; ( (ü) register for an d in the Terms of Use) and (iii) meet the hardware and connection hardware (the requirements published at www.thewarz.com shttp:/www.thewarz.com> (the Site). These requirements may change as the Game evolves. You are wholly responsible for the cost of all internet connection fees, along with all equipment, servicing, or repair costs necessary to allow you access to the Game re wholly responsible for th.thewarz.com III. ADDITIONAL LICENSE LIMITATIONS The limited license granted to you in Section l is subject to the additional limitations set forth below in this Section IlI. Any use of the Software in violation of the license limitations set forth below is an unauthorized use of the Software outside of the license ranted to you in Section I, and will be regarded as an infringement of the copyrights OP Productions holds in and to the Software and the Game. You agree that you will not, under any circumstances MAI PASSWORD A. Se ease, rent, loan or otherwise transfer the Software, or grant a security interest in or transfer reproductions of the Software or the Game, to a third party to a third p reverse B. Copy, photocopy, reproduce, translate, reverse engineer, decompile, derive source code from, or disassemble, in whole or in part, the Software or the Game, or create derivative works based on the Game, except that you are authorized to (i) make one (1) copy of the Software and the Documentation for personal archival purposes only, and (ii) use third party image and video capture software to capture the output of the Software as audio, video and/or still image files for personal, not for profit use pursuant to the Terms of Use; or create dei except that you are ausassemble in whole orin a the Shware or for personai audio, video age files for personal, not LOOIN UIIt Modify or cause to be modified any files that are part of the Software in any way not expressly authorized by OP Productions purpose, including but not limited to (i) participating in the Game in exchange for payment (e.g. veling services")or i) selling in-Game items outside of the Game, or seling Game Accounts, except such transactions as may be authorized by OP Productions and the oware or the ms outside of the Game. or icipating in the Game in exchan conducted via services provided by OP Productions or Create New Account F Ilse anv 11nauth rized third-nariv nroarams that interact with the S ftware in anv wav includina but not limited to 4m ds, ▼ Accept Decdline

The game was officially released on Valve’s Steam digital distribution platform on December 17th, 2012, reaching the top of Steam’s “Top Sellers” list . The game was priced at $15, but players would have to pay an additional fee to reduce their respawn time of four hours after death. Players soon noticed that there were many features listed in the game’s Steam description that were simply not in the game. Multiple maps, 100 player servers, private servers, and the skill point leveling system were not to be found in the game. There were also reports of large scale bans being enacted on legitimate players and those who criticized The War Z in the game’s sub forum on the Steam website.

Notable Developments

On December 17th, Redditor xlephon submitted a post to the /r/gaming[8] subreddit, which included a screenshot of the game’s description page on Steam to highlight which features were missing from the game (shown below). Within one month, the post received over 13,500 up votes and 2,200 comments.


About the Game The War Z is a Survival Horror MMO that immerses players in a zombie-infested, post-apcalyptic world in which a viral outbreak has decimated the human population leaving in its wake nightmare of epic proportion - A Huge Persistent World: The War Z is an open world game. Each world has areas between Tite. The War Z Genre Action, RPG, Indie, Mas sively Mult No mention of game being in alpha/běta and without allG features imulatio Developer Hammerpoint Interactive Publisher OP Productions Release Date: Dec 17, 2012 Languages. English languages with full audio support 100 to 400 square kilometers. There is only 1 map and it is 72 square km - Explore, Scavenge, Kill, Survive: You are one of the few survivors and must navigate the desolate countryside exploring cities and scavenging for items Play with Friends: Hundreds of Servers to Play on and you can also rent and create Public or MATURE 17+Intense Violence Private Servers allocating spots for Friends or Clans. No private servers in the game . No Classes, No Levels, No Caps Create your own survival campaign, gain experience points NM and spend it to learn dozen of available skills There are no skills you can use Key Features . Two modes of Play: Normal and Hardcore No Hardcore mode . Combination of First-Person and Third Person Perspectives - Meld of PVE (Player versus Environment) and PVP (Player versus Player) - Safe Settlements where Players can Purchase, Sell and Store items as well a post notes for currently in the game ESR B Online Interactions Not Rated by the ESRB Multi-player Visit the website other players Up to 100 Players per Game Server Max players on server is 50 Dedicated Public Servers as well as Private Servers Again there are no private servers Single Purchase, Downloadable Client with ability to play the full game without subscriptions or requiring in-game transactions View update history Read related news System Requirements Minimum: Recommended: OS Windows Vista/Windows 7 (enhanced for 64-bit OSWindows 7 (enhanced for 64-bit OS) OS) Processor 2.4 GHZ Quad Core or better Memory 4 GB RAM Graphics Nvidia GTX 460/ATI Radeon HD 5850 Directx®:9.0 Hard Drive:3 GB HD space Sound Windows Compatible Sound Card Other Requirements Broadband Internet connection Processor 2.4 GHZ Quad Core or better Memory:4 GB RAM Directxo:9.0b Hard Drive:3 GB HD space Sound Windows Compatible Sound Card Other Requirements.Broadband Internet connection

In response to the Reddit post, Hammerpoint Interactive spoke with Kotaku[11] arguing that 93% of the customers they’ve surveyed enjoyed the game, with more than 40% saying it was “perfect.” On December 18th, 2012, War Z's Steam page was updated with a revised description, although several missing features were still reported as being intact.

The same day, Gamespy[1] published an interview with the War Z project's executive producer Sergey Titov, in which he defended the game’s description page, claiming that the missing features were to be added in the future, and even tried to push off the error on the customers by asserting they had “misread” the description.[12] Also on December 18th, Destructoid[7] published an article about the controversy surrounding the game, which listed off many of the criticisms coming from those who had purchased the title. On December 19th, the game was removed from the Steam store and Valve began offering refunds to those who were unsatisfied with the game, accompanied the following statement:

"From time to time a mistake can be made and one was made by prematurely issuing a copy of War Z for sale via Steam. We apologize for this and have temporary removed the sale offering of the title until we have time to work with the developer and have confidence in a new build. Those who purchase the game and wish to continue playing it via Steam may do so. Those who purchased the title via Steam and are unhappy with what they received may seek a refund by creating a ticket at our support site here: https://support.steampowered.com/newticket.php
Again, we apologize any inconvenience."

On December 20th, BBC[9] quoted Titov saying he agreed with Valve’s decision to remove the game from Steam and admitted that his company “made the mistake of not communicating effectively to the Steam community.” The War Z was subsequently placed for purchase on the game’s official website. As of February 2013, the game has a score of 23 on the website Metacritic,[10] which is the lowest rating for any title released in 2012.

Response from DayZ Creator

In early reviews, on YouTube The War Z was often compared to DayZ[16] which is a mod for ARMA 2 adds zombies to the tactical shooter video game, with nearly 1400 comparison videos (example shown below) on YouTube as of February 2013.[17] In early January 2013, the creator of Day Z Dean “Rocket” Hall commented on The War Z in a Q&A thread[2] in /r/DayZ. He noted that he was very angry about the end result of The War Z, as close friends and family members have confused the two games due to their similar titles and thus blamed Hall for the poor decisions that the creators of The War Z had made. He also stated that he disagreed with how players of the game had been treated by The War Z‘s staff. Hall’s comments were covered on Forbes[3], IGN[4], the Escapist Magazine[5] and Digital Trends.[6]



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