Uncia on 28/11/2003 at 07:17
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Originally posted by ZylonBane Guess my curiosity got the better of me. :p
*makes you a honorary cat*
ZylonBane on 28/11/2003 at 16:31
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Originally posted by Canthlian Lemme get this straight... you poke around in files that no normal gamer would even think about
Deus Ex gamers aren't normal. Also, there's been a huge hacking effort on the demo to try to improve the performance and de-consolify the controls. So everything has been subjected to scrutiny.
And you're still missing the grand irony. ISA chopped down the demo to de-spoiler it (and make a smaller download), yet left in completely unused yet highly spoilery files. It's unbelievably sloppy. Kind of like how they left most of the defaults in the INIs at the preferred X-Box settings.
ESpark on 28/11/2003 at 17:09
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So everything has been subjected to scrutiny.
And as I said, if you read a file that has non-demo content, you should have immediately closed out that file.
But you
didn't.
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ISA chopped down the demo to de-spoiler it (and make a smaller download), yet left in completely unused yet highly spoilery files.
Completely unused, hidden, and completely obvious to anyone that the files were non-demo, and if you didnt want spoilers,
do not read this file.
I know you want to find things to whine about IW, but this ain't one of them.
You screwed up and spoiled it, not IS.
You poked where you weren't supposed to.
You forgot that previous Ion games had spoiler-filled files in their demo installs.
Uncia on 28/11/2003 at 19:09
Sorry to say this ZB, but this complaint sounds a lot like people complaining their microwave ovens made their hamsters explode, because noone ever said they didn't. :p
They despoilered the demo, they didn't despoiler the entire thing. A computer game is an immensely complex piece of programming, it's very hard to just yank out content without breaking it. Fuck, I have a ~1000 line project and the moment I want to do something more exotic done with some of its parts, it takes an hour to get it working right. For example, if you have dialogue in a single file, just erasing parts would break the game, since it would change their order. They'd have to manually correct all dialogue queues if they wanted to remove /all/ non-demo content. Considering they didn't seem to have time to even optimize the demo for speed, that does sound like too much work for crunch time.
Z on 28/11/2003 at 19:22
Yes, I found that file too, and opened it. I was actually curious as to whether it woul d include all the game conversations. As soon as I ascertained that it did, however, I closed it and mercifully escaped enlightenment.
Discussing the fact that spoilers came with the demo, as in this thread, is fine, but I should hope that anyone who actually posts the spoilers will be flayed horribly, or have their posts deleted as the situation may warrant.
Z
ZylonBane on 28/11/2003 at 22:08
Pffft, fine.
No punch and pie for the apologists.
Eberon on 29/11/2003 at 02:52
While I'll admit that the demo could have used a little more forethought, I honestly can't recall too many large game demos (especially RPGs) where the kind of stripping down you hope for is carried out. It's pretty much standard fare in what I've seen to leave the content useless to people alone for the demo.
I mean, it would have been a bit odd to have to include a spoiler warning in the readme about every place in the game's files where spoiling information could be found. That said, I sympathize. I'm sorry that you got some good stuff ruined for you :erg:
BlackCapedManX on 30/11/2003 at 07:34
So is it possible that any of all of this negativity brought about by poking into the games inner files and revealing the entire story could be used for the greater good of gameplay? Such as maybe being able to spawn different weapons to see what they do, or change what biomods are available, thus getting the most out of the demo, without giving away the plot? Maybe?
ZylonBane on 30/11/2003 at 14:57
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Originally posted by Eberon While I'll admit that the demo could have used a little more forethought, I honestly can't recall too many large game demos (especially RPGs) where the kind of stripping down you hope for is carried out.
I realize I'm emoting at a brick wall at this point, but I'll say it again anyway--
Ion Storm has repeatedly stated that the reason they picked such a bland level for the demo was to
avoid spoiling the plot. Considering the nature of the core DX fan-base (detail-obsessed, smarter than your average FPS gamer, drooling with anticipation for years), they should have taken it as a given that the demo would be torn apart. And I'm not talking about stuff that has to be picked out with a hex editor. This is straight filenames and text files stuff.
BTW, I deleted CONTEXT.ENG and the spoilerish map files, and the game ran just fine without them. So much for the "it'd break the build" argument.
CocoClown on 30/11/2003 at 18:22
Hindsight's a wonderful thing
