Disappointing Debut of PoR

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(Originally posted by Darien)

An in-depth discussion with Producer Garrett Graham is the focus of this article at CG Online. Graham talks about the many problems with the game, including various bugs, rule changes and allegations of altered dice rolls.

Graham is sympathetic to impatient gamers. "I certainly understand why people are angry," he says, and notes that he's not making any excuses for what went wrong. What he does offer, though, is some background and explanation for why the Pool project turned out the way it did. In many ways, the history of this project offers an object lesson in how not to develop a game. Nearly everything that could go wrong, did. The publisher changed four times. Producers came and went. The team lost and gained members. Most importantly, the game made the huge leap from 2nd Edition AD&D to 3rd Edition D&D rules, an epic transition akin to moving from DOS to Windows XP. It was this jump that, more than anything else, that threw the monkey wrench into Stormfront's plans...

Picking up the pieces
With at least 40,000 copies already sold, and judging by Usenet posts, quite a few people are enjoying the game despite the acknowledged problems. One issue that is still unresolved is the allegation that the dice rolls in combat are fudged in favor of the monsters, and against the players. When asked about the issue, Graham is willing to admit the possibility. "Stormfront has told us no [the game does not alter the die rolls in any way], but this is something we're checking into to see if there is a but or some other corruption that is causing trouble. It was not programmed to do that." If they find a problem, it will be fixed in the 1.3 patch, supposedly.

Read the full article.