The Escapist: March Mayhem Developers' Showdown Has Begun

[Big_H]

Every Spring The Escapist has their Developer Showdown where they pit different game developers against one another in fan fueled voting frenzy. Who will win? You decide!


Anyway, the Round 1 voting started today, so go check it out. You can even win some cool prizes.
I'm pretty sure you need to create an account, which is free, if you don't have one already.

Link to the standings: here

To vote: Click on a Developer match up, and an overlay will open where you can choose your winner.

Voting schedule:

• Round 1: March 14th - 16th at 12:00PM EST
• Round 2: March 17th - 19th at 12:00PM EST
• Round 3: March 21st - 23rd at 12:00PM EST
• Round 4: March 24th - 26th at 12:00PM EST
• Round 5: March 28th - 30st at 12:00PM EST
• Round 6: March 31st - April 4th at 12:00PM EST

I don't see Turbine having any real challenge until Round 4 when they face off against Valve (imo), but as is proven every year on this thing, my opinion often varies greatly from the general populous

So get out and support your favorite game developer(s)!



Edit:
Remember: Polls should be closed as of now.

Final standings:

Round 1: Turbine vs Visceral
Turbine: 36.7% (4539)
Visceral: 63.3% (7833)

[KualaBangoDango]

Got my bracket filled out and voted.

I voted for Turbine in their line-up but I don't know if they really have much of a chance this year. They may do well if a lot of the newer players enjoy the game enough to go vote for them but my guess is that many of the older players will do what they did last year and vote against Turbine for pretty much the same reasons they did last year...the game has been virtually at a standstill for many max level players for nearly two years now.

[Celestrata]

I don't see Turbine having any real challenge until Round 4 when they face off against Valve (imo), but as is proven every year on this thing, my opinion often varies greatly from the general populous

So get out and support your favorite game developer(s)!

Hey, thanks for the support! We really appreciate it! =^_^= We'd love to make it to round 4 of the tournament, and if you guys would like to help, then please stop by the The Escapist and put in your vote!

[Nyrion]

So you guys are aware, the Escapist community is full of massive Valve and Bioware fanboys, so there's little chance of Turbine winning.

That said, I voted for them anyway, rationality be damned.

[Sapience]

So you guys are aware, the Escapist community is full of massive Valve and Bioware fanboys, so there's little chance of Turbine winning.

That said, I voted for them anyway, rationality be damned.

A little quick history, we're former 2 time (consecutive) champs and opted not to participate last year (despite people calling for a three-peat). I think, when push comes to shove, noboy - and I do mean nobody- has a better, more supportive community than we do. When you guys decide to act on something, it's really impressive to watch!

[Nyrion]

A little quick history, we're former 2 time (consecutive) champs and opted not to participate last year (despite people calling for a three-peat). I think, when push comes to shove, noboy - and I do mean nobody- has a better, more supportive community than we do. When you guys decide to act on something, it's really impressive to watch!

Well there's no arguing with that!

With all honesty, I do hope we win, and if we do, I'll bake some virtual Welsh cakes special for the occasion.

All the taste, none of the calories!

[Dawnsblood]

I have my vote in. GL Turbine.

[Pipemajor]

My vote is in. Good luck, Turbine.

[Fredelas]

A little quick history, we're former 2 time (consecutive) champs and opted not to participate last year (despite people calling for a three-peat). I think, when push comes to shove, noboy - and I do mean nobody- has a better, more supportive community than we do. When you guys decide to act on something, it's really impressive to watch!

That history was a little TOO quick. Why did Turbine opt not to participate last year?

[Sapience]

That history was a little TOO quick. Why did Turbine opt not to participate last year?

Because we suddenly became the Dale Earnhart of March Mayhem. There was a lot of "anyone but 3" sentiment running around. So we took a break. It had become a 'vote against' instead of 'vote for' event. Plus we honestly were focused on other things at the time, namely upgrading our hardware and addressing some service issues.

[Grampsaz]

I'm sure what I'm about to say wont mean much to anyone, but I'm going to say it anyway

I've the last couple years not participated or voted against Lotro/Turbine in several of these popularity polls. I'm extreamly critical at times of Turbine and even some Turbine employee's. I expect great things from them, they are all capable of it and when we dont get those great new idea's I usually end up with points

This year however, Turbine, its QA, Devs and even Community team members have restored my faith in the direction of the game and more importantly, my overwhelming excitement for this update and the content to come through out the rest of the year.

I will vote, and vote often (if I can) Turbine earned it.

[KualaBangoDango]

That history was a little TOO quick. Why did Turbine opt not to participate last year?

It basically boiled down to many of the Escapist community calling Turbine cheaters because Turbine was able to make the contest announcement in the game launcher as well as forums thus "summoning" their players to go vote while many other games in the contest didn't have that ability (as most games don't have launchers and some don't even have forums).

Even though the Escapist rules encouraged the developers to gather their fans to support them (so Turbine was following the rules) and that many of the other developers were doing similar things, the arguments in the Escapist forums became heated and many argued the contest was no longer "Which developer is your favorite?" but rather "Which developer can send the most fans to vote?".

And so, after winning the two previous years, Turbine decided to remain mostly silent, not putting the contest in their launcher or forums but leaving it to us players to do whatever rallying we could if we really wanted Turbine to win.

So, to clarify, Turbine WAS in the contest but just didn't do the vocal push they did in previous years. And they lost (though not just because of that reason).

[Adalas]

And don't forget to tweet for Turbine too. 2 Votes from me.

I joined the Escapist on Turbine's first victory and was quite active for a while. From what I see we'll have to fight hard to beat Valve in round four. The winner of the battle will probably have an easy target with the Eastern champ.
It's much more difficult to pick Northern and Western champs. The facebook power of Zynga was hard to stop last year and will be even harder to stop this year. But I found that many Escapists are quite Elitist and will fight hard to NOT have Zynga win.

[Big_H]

I voted for Turbine in their line-up but I don't know if they really have much of a chance this year. They may do well if a lot of the newer players enjoy the game enough to go vote for them but my guess is that many of the older players will do what they did last year and vote against Turbine for pretty much the same reasons they did last year...the game has been virtually at a standstill for many max level players for nearly two years now.

I agree with Gramps in this respect. This year was a VAST improvement over last year.

The update in November was solid, and next week we'll have another update that's looking really good. The news in the past year that they want to switch back to a regular update model like back in SoA is good. Radiance is gone, which is good. The upcoming LI update is predominantly good.

The only major backlash I see possibly happening is because of The Store. Especially with the new offerings that were announced last week so fresh on peoples minds.

But other than that, it's been a good year; and as someone who abstained last year (rather than voting against them) I have no problem voting for them this year.


[heh, just hit Preview Post and saw the Little's post... see The Store is what'll knock them out]

[BellusDuFenna]

I voted for Turbine as well, but when they took back-to-back wins in this tournament, things were a bit different. While the community is still great, and supportive of LOTRO and Turbine, there has been some erosion in community support over the last year.

1. Announcing Free-to-Play, and having to wait six months for a content update didn't endear Turbine to their players.
2. Kate Paiz pulling a Steefel in her October Producer's Letter (saying we'd be getting more frequent content updates with F2P, which hasn't materialized at all) didn't help things.
3. As has been alluded to previously, focusing more and more items to become "Store Exclusives" does nothing but make some players distrust Turbine and the direction the game is headed.

All in all, I agree with Sapience that Turbine could very well win this tournament, based solely on the goodwill of the community. But Turbine should also recognize that the community isn't quite what it was two years ago, due to certain business choices and missteps they have made.

[Travisimo]

These are my guesses for Round 3 and beyond...

North Division

Blizzard vs. Konami: Winner- Blizzard

Treyarch vs. Cryptic: Winner- Treyarch

North Division Winner: Blizzard

West Division

Nintendo vs. Lionhead Studios: Winner- Nintendo

Ea Tiburon vs. Disney Interactive: Winner- Ea Tiburon

West Division Winner: Nintendo

East Division

BioWare vs. LucasArts: Winner- BioWare

Ubisoft Montreal vs. Firaxis Games: Winner- Firaxis Games

East Division Winner: BioWare

South Division

Valve vs. Relic: Winner- Valve

Turbine vs. Rockstar San Diego: Winner- Turbine

South Division Winner: Turbine


Not sure how the rest works, so I have two scenarios:

1: North Division (Blizzard) vs. East Division (BioWare)- BioWare (lots of hype surprisingly with BioWare, against Blizzard. But it could go both ways on that one)

2. West Division (Nintendo) vs. South Division (Turbine)- Turbine

2nd scenario:

1: North Division (Blizzard) vs. West Division (Nintendo)- Blizzard

2: East Division (BioWare) vs. South Division (Turbine)- (Very tough... I hope Turbine, but it could go either way)

3: First Section (Blizzard) vs. Second Section (Either way)- Don't know

[KualaBangoDango]

Turbine won't even get past round one if more people don't vote for them. They're already about 1300 votes behind and hanging out around the 38% mark for the last several hours.

[Raath]

I voted for Turbine as well, but when they took back-to-back wins in this tournament, things were a bit different. While the community is still great, and supportive of LOTRO and Turbine, there has been some erosion in community support over the last year.

1. Announcing Free-to-Play, and having to wait six months for a content update didn't endear Turbine to their players.
2. Kate Paiz pulling a Steefel in her October Producer's Letter (saying we'd be getting more frequent content updates with F2P, which hasn't materialized at all) didn't help things.
3. As has been alluded to previously, focusing more and more items to become "Store Exclusives" does nothing but make some players distrust Turbine and the direction the game is headed.

All in all, I agree with Sapience that Turbine could very well win this tournament, based solely on the goodwill of the community. But Turbine should also recognize that the community isn't quite what it was two years ago, due to certain business choices and missteps they have made.

Well said, BellusDuFenna.

[Paulino]

A little quick history, we're former 2 time (consecutive) champs and opted not to participate last year (despite people calling for a three-peat). I think, when push comes to shove, noboy - and I do mean nobody- has a better, more supportive community than we do. When you guys decide to act on something, it's really impressive to watch!

I have voted for Turbine the past 3 years but, I am sorry to say this but you have lost my vote

I was a Fan of Trubine because it was the only MMO developer that puts great dedication to it's game and lore, but it is gone, The Store is the incarnation of the capitalism in it's pure form, Update 2 is great but The Store of that update has a lot of things that make it horrible. Well said BellusDuFenna!

Yes Turbine, you lost my vote but also you lost a fan, that is worse... :'(

[Munuc]

The game's being pulled in two directions at the moment. A good direction and a bad direction. The content changes, and additions upcoming, are really good. No radiance, customisable LIs, class updates that are generous and make the game more fun to play, even things like destiny point buffs being much cheaper. Lots of good stuff. The last year of in-game stuff has been really good overall.

But the game's being let down by the store. It just feels like we're being treated as solely a money source by a soulless corporation. (I know that's not really the case, but that's what it feels like, which is what matters.) More respect shown towards players by those running the store would eliminate most of my complaints.

[Delaney]

With all honesty, I do hope we win, and if we do, I'll bake some virtual Welsh cakes special for the occasion.

This really isn't all that pertinent to my post except I wanted to say that I went to a Highland Games festival this weekend and tasted those for the first time. Delicious!

This year however, Turbine, its QA, Devs and even Community team members have restored my faith in the direction of the game and more importantly, my overwhelming excitement for this update and the content to come through out the rest of the year.

That's very cool and I really wish I could say I was with you on it. I used to be an ardent supporter, even when I didn't always agree...

But Turbine should also recognize that the community isn't quite what it was two years ago, due to certain business choices and missteps they have made.

...but this sums it up better for me now.

More respect shown towards players by those running the store would eliminate most of my complaints.

Some respect would be nice, particularly on the forums, and not just when we're wanted to do something.

I still may vote regardless, but that'd be more to reflect well on the game and the players in the community. So it goes.

[cshamblin]

I'd like to see Turbine and Rovio go a long way. What game has been bigger than Angry Birds?

[DunasConnor]

In the past, I might have voted for Turbine for free, but since they changed the way they do business, I think I will do it differently this year.

How many Turbine Points will you give me if I vote for you? I mean I used to do it for free, but since I will now have to pay for things with Turbine Points that used to be free for VIPs, I guess its vis a vis, huh?

[DivineJustice]

Put my vote in for Turbine. I was surprised to see them so far behind in the first round vs the maker of Dead Space and Dead Space 2.

Clearly I am not who Dead Space is targeted at as those titles make me think things like "seriously that is the best name they could come up with?" or "zombie aliens in space...I bet that genus is driving a Ferrari."

Anyway Turbine has is releasing content and that alone gets my vote since I managed to enjoy Lotro most of the time even when they weren't.

*edit: I do find it surprising that so many list the store as a negative as myself, the people in my kin, and old friends all generally look at it as well done and overall a positive. To each his own I guess.

[jts4ever]

The Dead Space series is actually really good! love the game.
and so does ALOT of other people.
I doubt turbine will make it past this round. Only because they have a good competition first up.

I voted for turbine despite the fact dead space is a great game.
but the way the votes are looking.. think turbine will have to give this one up..