Why Does Everyone Feel the Need to Stick up For Harmonix?

[glide]

SSIA.

There is a LOT of defending going on. I'm curious to know why. Do people enjoy paying $160 for a half-functional product?

[espher]

For me, it's less sticking up for Harmonix and more getting frustrated with people crying about things in every thread, making unnecessary duplicate threads, and making false statements or asking about things that have been answered a million times on the same page.

So it's not so much sticking up for Harmonix as it is sheer disbelief about the inability of posters to use a forum, or common sense, and the unnecessary excessive hyperbole.

Edit: Not to mention things I consider trivial or inane complaints like the fan cap limit or the bass pedal being 'too hard to use' for easy.

[admanimal]

Because we are fans of Harmonix and know that it certainly wasn't their intention for so many people's hardware to break. Plus there have been so many negative overreactions here that it is natural for people to "positively overreact" in defense of Harmonix. Those of us who have followed the company and their products for a while know that they will do everything they can to make everyone happy with their product.

borat voice/

And if they don't, we will crush them.

/borat voice

[GHudston]

SSIA.

There is a LOT of defending going on. I'm curious to know why. Do people enjoy paying $160 for a half-functional product?

The way I see it is that us fans of rhythm games are very thankful to harmonix for trying something new with rock band that no-one else has done before. The game itself is impressive, the only difficulties are that there have been a handful of issues with things such as supply and of course the GH3 control not working on the PS3 (which is not entirely HMX's fault, they have said that they are looking into it though.)

These things happen when you try something new, some things go wrong. I also don't think that the problems are as widespread as this forum is making it look. If your game was working fine you'd be playing it, not posting on the forum. HMX/EA is actually making every effort to fix all of these problems to the best of their ability, which includes replacing faulty hardware for free. Unfortunately most people on these forums think that unless a company fixes their specific problem NOW then they are committing some sort of crime.

Just to clarify, I'm a PS3 owner and I have bought the PS3 special edition bundle. Nearly all of these problems are going to apply to me.

EDIT: I also like to back them up to help balance out the ridiculous things that are being said. I've seen everything from "EA HATES PS3" conspiracy theories to something ridiculous about Harmonix making a "political statement" about RedOctane by blocking their controller (or "breaking it on purpose" with the patch). I'll bet the HMX will be happy to see some people on their forum NOT wearing a tinfoil hat.

[glide]

How long is too long to wait for an official response from the company on what they intend to do to correct the major issues with their hardware? (I'm talking about the broken down strum and lack of compatibility with other controllers; things that impact gameplay. Not "the foot pedal is too hard for me to use" issues.)

[ThwompBlock]

Because my stuff hasn't broken yet, so until they do, I'm still convinced that the people who HAVE broken their guitars and/or drums have been going Buckethead and/or Animal on them.

Also because Harmonix rocks for making not only this quality game, but all the others before it.

[admanimal]

How long is too long to wait for an official response from the company on what they intend to do to correct the major issues with their hardware? (I'm talking about the broken down strum and lack of compatibility with other controllers; things that impact gameplay. Not "the foot pedal is too hard for me to use" issues.)

Well as far as breakages go, I don't really think they need to respond unless the replacements that people get from EA also break. If the replacements work fine, then the problem is solved and I don't think anyone will really care too much what happened in the first place.

I'm not sure what is going to happen about PS3 compatibility issues though.

[kgthdc2468]

What did Harmonix do wrong? Did they manufacture the guitars? i thought they only developed the in-game stuff like they did with GH when Red Octane was making the guitars? The game itself is great...its just the guitar(for me).

[Mushroom]

How long is too long to wait for an official response from the company on what they intend to do to correct the major issues with their hardware? (I'm talking about the broken down strum and lack of compatibility with other controllers; things that impact gameplay. Not "the foot pedal is too hard for me to use" issues.)

Send it back, get one of the later production Guitars. That's what the guarantee is there for.

[Jixzer]

How long is too long to wait for an official response from the company on what they intend to do to correct the major issues with their hardware? (I'm talking about the broken down strum and lack of compatibility with other controllers; things that impact gameplay. Not "the foot pedal is too hard for me to use" issues.)

Two words: "Holiday Weekend"

Give them time.

[admanimal]

What did Harmonix do wrong? Did they manufacture the guitars? i thought they only developed the in-game stuff like they did with GH when Red Octane was making the guitars? The game itself is great...its just the guitar(for me).

It's not entirely clear who is responsible for overseeing the manufacturing of the instruments. Harmonix certainly designed them, but after that I don't know who did what.

It is possible that EA or another firm was responsible for taking the designs from Harmonix (which could be perfectly good designs) and translating them into something that can be mass produced at a specific cost. That is where the trouble usually comes in.

[NattyLight]

It sucks to get a defective product and it's stupid to think that there will be a 0% failure rate for any product. When the company acknowledges that it made a mistake and offers free replacement, what more do you want?

The things that are irritating are people that clearly don't play video games, much less rhythm games, complaining about things that aren't issues. People complaining that a game is too hard on easy or that they can't unlock everything on the easiest settings are by far the most annoying thing for me. These are people that are used to playing casual game son the internet or wii sports and are suddenly surprised when a less than casual game means that they will have to practice.

When I was 6, I didn't complain when I couldn't get all 96 stars in Super Mario World. In fact, i didn't get them until I was college. For the record, i didn't play the game for years, I just rediscovered it in college.

I didn't complain when I couldn't get all of the hidden packages in GTA3 or when I couldn't unlock the cool guitars in GH for beating it on expert. That's how video games work. If you're looking for something you can master on the first try, play with legos.

[Micker]

Because my stuff hasn't broken yet, so until they do, I'm still convinced that the people who HAVE broken their guitars and/or drums have been going Buckethead and/or Animal on them.

Also because Harmonix rocks for making not only this quality game, but all the others before it.

Oh really?? I didn't even hit my green drum one time, it was DOA. Is that animal. My friend barely sturmmed his guitar for one song before it died. Don't be a fool and think just because you don't have broken stuff its because you know how to treat it. You SHOULD be able to go animal on these things anyway. I could see if they broke a year from now, but a day?? Come on.


When the company acknowledges that it made a mistake and offers free replacement, what more do you want?


I want some quality control and some real testing of these products before they release them. There is no way they tested these things properly. Its not like one or two are broken, its a huge number. Did the game testers actually play more than a couple songs??

[Graybeard]

Because my stuff hasn't broken yet, so until they do, I'm still convinced that the people who HAVE broken their guitars and/or drums have been going Buckethead and/or Animal on them.

Also because Harmonix rocks for making not only this quality game, but all the others before it.


NOT TRUE!!! My Guitar broke ( Always carefull with my hardware!! ) AND my MIC BROKE ( How do you break a mic by going animal on it?!?!?! ) I am lead singer man and I know these Mic's arent like the real deal but CMON it is HARD to break a mic......

[NattyLight]

It's silly to think that it's always the users fault for broken peripherals. It's even more stupid to think that a company knew that the product was defective, sent them out anyway, and then replaced the peripherals for free.

[logicalnoise]

We defend because before the game launched this was a functioning game community of fans. Not just of video games but of music. That's what harmonix is a video game company consisting of mostly music fans. Nearly every bonus track in the game was made by bands with at least one member of the harmonix team in them.

Freezepop's 3 members are the early founders of harmonix and I can't tell you how amazing freezepop is from a music standpoint. The point is HMX genuinely puts soo much hard work into every game they make. It's not about blind HMX fanboyism it's the fact that unlike every game maker in the industry HMX does indeed talk to their fans. They read these forums everyday. They rarely post but they have to be careful on what they say and how it' s said especially now that the game is out.

HMX sean is the main online community guy HMXjohnlok helps him out as well. They post regularly but only while on the clock.

Again as of right now all anyone can say is call customer support for your replacement. STop comnplaining here because your not going to disuade anyone from buying the game. Your complaining about something that's a simple fix and overall nothing. You act like they designed a car with a steering column that breaks only when your going 80 down the highway. This isn't a life endangering problem and it's not going to cost you anything to fix. We defend harmonix because they did everything they could and stuff still went wrong. They can't just answer bluntly because of the legal problems associated with that. SO until you grow a brain we will be quite rude because so many people are acting like little children.
Mind these topics will all be locked as of monday morning and condesned into single threads. SO it doesn't even matter.

[logicalnoise]

and if you don't beileve that HMX did everything possible to design reliable hardware go read some of the staff blogs.

[Quastor]

and if you don't beileve that HMX did everything possible to design reliable hardware go read some of the staff blogs.

They're gone!

[Julio_No_Mas]

It's not even Harmonix's fault that the controllers are pieces of ****, it's EA's fault. Go to their boards and *****.

[Xzyliac]

SSIA.

There is a LOT of defending going on. I'm curious to know why. Do people enjoy paying $160 for a half-functional product?

Easy answer: Harmonix made the game and designed the peripherals. DESIGNED. Not manufactured. That's EA. If you're gonna ***** ***** about the right people.

Simply it's not their fault. Otherwise you'd be calling Harmonix tech support. Not EA.

[logicalnoise]

They're gone!

oh yeah well basically they were awesome.

[municipalblack]

I can see why a lot of people are defending Harmonix. Mainly because most (not all) of the issues people are encountering with the game were out of their hands. Instruments breaking, difficulty and unlocks, Canadian pricing, Canadian delay, etc.

What's the turn around time on a broken instrument btw? I heard they send you a new one, put a temporary charge on your CC and then remove it when they get your old guitar (which I believe they cover the shipping of too). Then you're without one instrument for what 1 week, maybe 2? Yeah it's a piss off don't get me wrong but hey just think atleast I'm not Canadian otherwise I'd be waiting even longer ;) (I'm Canadian btw).

I hope a patch is released for the GH3 compatibility issue and then in a month or so we should see a lot of these posts go away. Oh wait a month from now you'll see a bunch of Canadians complaining lol.

[Tyrsis]

It's not so much defending Harmonix, but telling people where to put the blame.

If you're crying about broken guitars/drums:
Speak to EA and their manufacturing companies about defective hardware.
Harmonix has nothing to do with it.

If you're crying about canadian pricing on the PSN:
Speak to SCEA about their pricing practices.
Harmonix has nothing to do with it.

[seafisch]

Harmonix made the game and designed the peripherals. DESIGNED. Not manufactured.

I'm giving HMX the benefit of the doubt here, but if the design of the strumbar mechanism lent itself to higher than acceptable defective rates, then they would be to blame.

[azcolor]

EA & HMX needs to share this. The product is a joint venture. They both are profiting. With the good comes the bad. Shame on both of these companies for letting this product out with bad hardware.

[Tenacious_B]

I have a ps3 and the bundle. GH3 didn't work for **** on my ps3 but rock band works perfectly, no hardware problems whatsoever. Harmonix is definitely my favorite game company and they didn't fail me in the least. And no, I haven't been getting on here because I have been playing rock band nonstop until 4-5am for the past 5 days and haven't had one single issue. It's an absolute perfect game IMO an I commend HMX for this. I'll definitely stick up for them, they even made that damn dongle work perfectly on the PS3! The only people complaining are people who are having a few issues, everyone else is too busy playing, like me. Thanks HMX!

[hankmallon]

Harmonix is the mother of all great music games. It wasn't their intention for the instruments to break and whatnot, they designed them but didn't manufacture them. The only thing I'm curious about is not saying a word about compatibility issues on PS3.

[Xzyliac]

I'm giving HMX the benefit of the doubt here, but if the design of the strumbar mechanism lent itself to higher than acceptable defective rates, then they would be to blame.

Not really. They may have had a great design, built a few great prototypes, but because mass production doesn't that kind of in-house luvin' the otherwise great design got crappy execution.