How NOT to make a game... www.istaria.com It took me all of 1/2 hour to decide that I would never touch this game again. I don't know much about the skill system. I don't know much about the class system. I don't know much about the combat system (I did hear that it's round-based). I don't know much about the game in general. I *do* know that to login takes a *TEN* (no, I am not exaggerating) minute file check. Yes, login, go smoke a cigarette... not done yet. Go to the bathroom.... not done yet. Go make some coffee.... not done yet. Watch a music video.... not done YET. Go back to the couch and forget what you were doing because it's taken so long, realize several minutes later that you forgot you were logging into Horizons... *It's done!!!*. I *do* know that I chose to play a farie. They fly. They have wings. Their feet don't touch the ground. Yet, they can jump, they fall when they go off a steep dropoff and here's the kicker: When they go over water, they don't go over water, they sink like rocks. Oh yeah, they moved faster over roads too... like that really matters for a flying critter. I guess the road had favorable air currents. I *do* know that the UI was horrible. The second quest that I got sent on (the first was "walk in that back room and hit the attack button after you target that maggot"... literally) apparently was broken. Obviously this is a quest that isn't encountered very much, since it's part of the "You just created a character of any race/class" beginning of the game, so everyone encounters it. I felt like Bridget Jones' gay friend in the movie... "This really is the most amazing shit" because I was constantly amazed at how they took so long to make a game that sucked so much. I do have to compliment them on taking down their forums though, so I couldn't post this on their forums also. My suggestion: Go try this out. Yes, that's right, try it out. Why? 3 reasons: 1) Everyone should see how horrible this game is. 2) You will use up their bandwidth downloading a 1GB (not kidding again!!) file, thus costing them more money and pushing them closer to simply closing their doors. 3) You will now know everything that you should never do when you make a game. For those who are missing the moral of the story: 1) If you want people to download your game, you should at least just make them download a downloader, not a single 1GB file that could be interrupted at any point during 3-4 hours on a DSL or higher (on a 5Mb/sec Cable line here, but only hit 80kBps, so nothing above 768k DSL would matter) would likely force a complete re-download. 2) No matter how good your UI is, make a tutorial to *IT* before anything else. BTW, the mouse is your friend. Mouselook is almost a necessity in today's game market and most people expect it. I don't want to spend 3 days of a 7 day demo trying to figure out your UI, explain everything to everyone like they're morons, because there *are* going to be morons playing your game, God willing. 3) Think. While there are going to be morons who couldn't give a flying **ck about the little things, there are going to be people who were in the military and remember the phrase "Attention to detail is a mother f**ker, Private!!" and know it's true. If your characters fly, then they should actually fly, not sink like rocks when they go over water. They shouldn't go faster over roads as opposed to flat grasslands. They shouldn't be able to jump because that's not how wings work. They shouldn't hug the ground like they are glued to it while their feet float 1' off of it. I felt like all of those people who payed for Daikatana. Happily, I didn't pay for Horizons, but it sucked up 5 hours of my life between the download, installation and the nightmarish time getting the game to actually start-up after the hour long patching process (another reason not to make people download a 1-4 month old 1GB file to try the game out) and 10-15 minute 'file check' that apparently happens every time you login. But don't let me be the only guy here to rant! Let's hear your horror stories about games (it doesn't have to be Horizons, though I'd enjoy hearing how much the game sucks after you start playing it for more than an hour or two, like after you've put a month into it), tell us what the game developers/makers did wrong and what you learned from it. Don't let anyone else make these mistakes!! Help us all learn from your misery too!!!

Seems like you got pissed that you downloaded 1GB just to get dissapointed :p

Anyways, besides that fact, first about the 10 minute logging, it might be that they were updating files, because the file you downloaded was outdated.

About the fairie thingie, I get pissed off when I see stuff like the ones you are mentioning, because even if it's a game and it doesn't has to be realistic, it breaks the rules they set themselves. However I can forgive it if it actually adds something to the gameplay, but I haven't played the game, so I don't know if it helps the gameplay.

Doesn't UI stands for user interface? I don't see the direct relationship with quests that made you put it in the beginning of your 'complains about quests' paragraph.

Anyways, about the first quest, hey I think they just try to make the game easy. And about the second quest, unless a decent amount of people is complaining about that quest, probably the problem is on your side.

Now even if they made horrible mistakes, you don't expect this world to be perfect don't ya :p