DCUO Perfection

Game Update 18, the Hands of Fate DLC, and patch Update 1.37 is out, and promises from the Community Manager "Mepps" for stability in the DCUO server is in. With so much positives to look forward to, many are still talking the negatives with some recent issues lain within the game. Just how DCUO can achieve "perfection" as many wish to see fit?

By Ayameko Aska.

By now, DC Universe Online should be set for you to purchase the Hands of Fate DLC. As of this article, however, I haven't managed to get my hands on it just yet but upon reading a few updates on my Facebook Wall, I've noticed an announcement made my Mepps (Community manager for SOE and DC Universe Online) that they're rectifying some issues regarding to "Hitching" or Lag spurts as I presume that's been evident since the release of the GU18 and the DLC release, respectively.

The following are some comments I've seen on the Wall (names withheld, of course) that prompt me to write this article and breaking them down with my own two cents.

" i would like to now wath you are going to ofer to the players for a nother mess up like this. This new dlc its all broken. Are you joking with the players that pay to play like me? because if you are. Players will just stop paying and spending money on this game then you an you team my laugh alone."

Thoughts: When I see comments that tend to lean towards "I want reperations/hand-outs" statements like this, one would cringe by this. This is a primative example of how you can play sheep, meaning you hear what others hear i.e. complainers but doesn't provide facts upon their own statement to help clarify the means on what's happening. In essence, they hear a voice and jump the bandwagon of "The Negativity Gang."

Stuff like this need to stop. Instead of bringing constructive critism, they instead bash and insult the people whom they spend their money on. I'm not stating at all that SOE is perfect, none at all. However, they have proven their worth time and time again with their content that had problems and resolved them in a timely manner. many bugs and glitches presented in this game were indeed frustrating but never broken. If anything, these people saw a growth spurt of 15k subscribers to now 10 million+ users logging into the game and the alike subscribing, which earned them enough money to pump out the content we see in this game. To accommodate the content release, they would HAVE to change a slew of things that wouldn't work before or would cause severe problems on the server, let along the flow of gameplay and level grinding. Will any of this translate better? Perhaps not, but as longs you continue to provide them a login to just play 15 minutes with your character or pay $4.99 for a new character slot, you're supporting them. So when one say "many will leave", you're assuming the 2,000+ subscribers or players that will leave this game, whereas 10,000+ that will continue to login and 100,000+ that will continue to provide said support to this game, right?


"Im not paying to play beta content"

Thoughts: You're not. In fact, don't login. Simple.


" If you buy a product from multiple companies, you end up knowing what the supplier is humanly capable of. In this case I know that developers are more than capable, with.current tech, of fixing this crap immediately. Other games with way more data get it done astern and better, so the question is... Why can't these guys do it too? It is possible to get a job and be bad at it. A degree doesn't mean you're capable of being as good as anyone with the same degree. These guys are obviously bad at their jobs. It doesn't take having their degree to know this. It is simple, really."


Thoughts: Ummm....what?


"I'm sorry but this isn't exceptable at all. The dev team gets paid to make this stuff and well as of lately all of this new dlc is horrible. I mean what made you guys think it would be okay to add new dlc to an over saturated world which is extremely buggy to say the least because you guys decided to make "super servers". The main issue with your game is you guys decided to take away dedicated servers and well I think you guys need to split the world in two now by having two dedicated servers and charging for server changes if people want to make them. Also you guys need invest in your ps3 market and really need to test extensively before you release this stuff. Reach out to your player base and see if they would be open to beta testing your game because you are at a point to where this has to be done. I'm tired of us ps3 players getting jaded because you guys "can't" test on the ps3 when it's perfectly possible."


Thoughts: I don't know about charging for dedicated server changes, I personally think this isn't a bad idea in regards to doing to the aforementioned dedicated server feature. Reaching out to the player base is definitely something that needed to be stated because unlike most who will just complain and whine and banter in regards to how this game isn't perfect, this post showcases how at least the critism is constructive and none at all about insulting the Devs who are hard at work. I don't think they are "bad at their Jobs", as they were hired for a reason. However, when it boils down to it all the former post never described any of the problems in the game, rather to jump on the bandwagon and ride the "hate and whine" Train.

I'm not taking up for the Devs at all. Lets face it, as much as I love this game, I can't bear to count the many times over on how certain Loot has been unaccounted for through unforseen glitches I'm not fully educated on and the over-saturation of Need/Greed Rolls to just get absolutely nothing due to "Ninja Looters." It's bothersome for the Devs to receive such hate from people who threat countless times over that they would quit the game and unsubscribe from the MMO, but it's bothersome that they money I've spent into this game and to receive the same amount of problems and bugs that hasn't been properly resolved. It's not like you can't make this game into a perfect shrine, but there are things present in this game that can be easily assested.


"See, the real problem is the fact that they(devs) have never even accepted or admitted there is a freezing problem with this game. It has been the biggest exsisting problem since this game was launched. I stopped doing CC bounties a long time ago because of this, and I was afraid the new DLC would suffer the same issues, and it does. I encourage all devs to log on with a t4 toon and just join one of these operations and see how much fun loosing 6 outta 8 ppl to a freeze, then after they get back they quit cuz its not fixed yet.....guess what its never been fixed, and my guess is its a RAM issue and itll never get fixed till this game is ported over to the ps4."


Thoughts: Existed every since this game launched? You mean when the game launched for F2P? The initial disc-base launch? Have you not played any other online games like Metal Gear Online, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, or even the Social Network Playstation Home, whereas the aforementioned had several issues regarding to freezing online? Never heard of checking your Harddrive to make sure it's properly formatted due to over-excessive amounts of internet Browsing via PS3 to accumilate cache? From experience, this is an issue that can be more than likely solved within a matter of minutes. Of course if it persists you can contact the proper channels to assest with the issue at ahnd.

My bottomline is that none of everything that presented in DCUO to be deemed as "perfect" by any standards. I'm sure that many great MMOs has a flawed start-up and can be pretty tedious to keep up on the said problems at hand. While this maybe the case for DCUO, I've been around long enough to understand that this isn't an easy task for the Developers to deal with. From a few friends that work in the Gaming industry, even they can tell you such work like this is not something anyone with or without a degree can easily make due. While personally I think "beta-testers" are in need for this game for quality assurance from devoted Players (regardless whether they are Legendary Subscribers or Premiums, because everyone contributes to this game the same way), my thoughts are that we, as the community, to make our voice a bit louder than to login on the DCUO forums and connect with others for gameplay purposes. There are several DCUO Videos on Youtube that feature League Playthroughs and then there are only a slight handful of Channels that devote their time into showcasing Walkthroughs and even a "How-to" presentation (this will change in a matter of months for this Blog).

With this, I strongly recommend for any of the viewers who have experienced technical issues regarding to the content in DCUO to just stay patient and contact SOE Support Center. They've managed to assist me in the past in regards to a few issues and have been very thorough with my help. They interact with you with little to no problems and addresses problems with ease. We all can be a bit impatient, that's for sure but to insult and "threat" that you will unsubscribe from a game that you login to regardless doesn't prove anything but "one's trash is another's treasure" meaning there's the door, hun; exit anytime. :)

~Aya-Me.