constructive criticism or slagging off?

I know I have been critical about things, I'm pretty critical about a lot of stuff, especially when things change, and they changed alot with Paradise so there was lots for me to be critical about.

tbh I think BurnoutAholics in general has been much more respectful to the work and to the team than some of the other forums out there, including the official forum.

Our front page news stories have remained positive towards the changes and certainly not negative or slagging off! (I think so anyway, but please let me know if you disagree) and the blogs are personal opinions, and yes I may have been negative in some of my blogs, but I wouldn't call that a years worth of slagging off, Xandu to my knowledge has not slagged off anything ever in his entire life, so Alex's statement is unfair to Xandu and BurnoutAholics.

Alex Ward knows how to get in touch with us and if he had wanted to comment on any of our stories or blogs he could have done as he is a member of BurnoutAholics.com, so that he choose to tell us that we have spent the last year slagging them off on a thread which we took no part in and which is now locked so I can not respond to it there is kinda upsetting.

I adore Criterion Games, and I loved being invited to try Paradise before release, I loved the Crash FM podcasts and getting a mention in the game was AWESOME!!

Burnout games have been a HUGE part of my life for over 5 years, and I am really sorry if Alex feels that I have been slagging them off, because that certainly was not my intention.

Considering, I stuck up for them in my last post, which has been deleted? I Dissed your Sucka! I thought it was funny, and very to the point, lol.

But I am busy writting an article about AFA08, so will get back to this, but I will coming back with some sort of reply worthy of Suffur, lol. Or will I? Is it worth it? Ok just a quicky then, lol.

And what a shame really, considering I accepted what Criterion were trying to do and trying to get people to look at it differently, slagging off, not really, just looking for some of the adrenaline pump of the previous games, which is what most people were looking for! Which I found with the timed challenges, and Road Rules, but still not on par with the preivious games.

You put out an experiment, you're not going to get everyone liking it? True, what happen on those forums was terrible, but it was down to you to sort it and since ya were new to that game, you did it wrong, and I hope your not blaming 'aholics for that?

The number of people, most Revenger's, did not like Paradise, and made themselves vocal, here, and some saddly repeated themselves on the dog house forums (does that offend? as it is a nick name, not a hate name), but that number was minute, well from this site anyway, I could name them on two hands, and the really bad, but funny ones, on one hand! True repeatative, but their opinions not 'aholics!

Yes, we were greatful to have a mention on Paradise, but that was to Zombie and Xandu, for the work they did creating the site, 'an non-bias, say what you will' but follow the guidelines as much as possible, type of site.

They bigged Criterion up and Paradise, and you sold alot of Paradise just off that lone, via the site and word of mouth. Through the Revenge network of players. When they played it, they made a choice, looking for something you did not have, that was present from the other games in the series, they went blah, live with it.

You even followed Xandu's and Zombie's idea, almost? You needed better moderation and someone controlling the flow of the conversations, nailing negative, pushing the positive, and you tried with the Rai-jin, but children will cry?

Just like we will have to live with what you said about us, but at least we can talk about it, with-out fear of deletion!

And, are you sure it was just us? I know where most people were most vocal, and it was not here compared to the XBox forums, or Criterions forums. The only thing I can think of is you are having ago at Zombie, as Xandu hardly has any posts over there, and since she's a girl, yura bully Mr Ward, lol. She was only voicing what some people could not be bothered to say because they could not be bothered to join the Criterion forums in the first place! And most of it had merit, from what I read, and I read most of the forums for a long while!

And for some reason, most people accuse Zombie as a Criterion Fan boy, even though she is a girl, so it can't be her, so it must be Kev's fault, well he has a heath warning and should be dismissed as a lunitic, that we all love to death, but even his comments are with merit, he looks at the faults of the game and wants them fixed, he is not keen on the further experiments you wish to add, because he wants a compeleted game, that works before the toys come out?

Anyway my mind is on other things, but to brand a site, for people opinions, is your opinion, but since most people who did not like the game, left to play other games a long time ago, even Revenge and Burnout 3 Takedown. What does that say? Nothing going by statistics, and we know what they mean, lol!

You got your happy mob, great, but you lost a good number of hardcore fans of the series, due to changing the series to a childs game of 'dicking about', I know it's more than that, but that is how you sell it!

We at 'aholics play the games all the way through, and get as much enjoyment as we can, but Paradise does not hold, our attention as much as the other flawed game, Revenge. In truth, Burnout 3 is the best game of the series, and if you had helped more with Microsoft, with the back compat on that game, like sorting the save profile and the low voice comms, we would still be playing that over, the recent two games!

People just wanted a great arcade racer, that you guys made before, with your little twists of invention, but instead you invented something so new, that people just don't want to get it, because in truth it is not hardcore enough. We wanted race tracks/race routes, so if you added more check points, to make looping tracks, that would have helped, sorted the lag issuse, which you say you can't, and I assume is linked to the takedown issue, so we sort of lived with that. A game needs an objective, especially during multiplayer, and if you never tacked on Challenges in those last 6 weeks, you would have had a tihs storm! Discovery, takes 30 hours of game play, most of your hardcores did it less than that... and saw, that was it?

True you have an audience way bigger than your hardcore, but it's your hardcore who finishes your game and writes about it, your casual gamer, doesn't, and if you pleased your hardcore, everyone else would follow suit, and the hardcore would help, your lost Elite, the ones that gave a tihs about it, makeing sure people enjoyed the game.

Your audience is now entirely new, a fresh start, good for you, even a good portion of your new staff have not played the previous games! You cut ties with the old as soon as you started building! Paradise is not enough, and you adding to it was a must, to keep the game rolling, but only from your point of view, oh dictator, lol. Keep on being a genius, your games are great, but even the work you guys have done, the gameplay falls short, of the other games.

I sand pit is great, even when someone sessip in it, but if there not enough toys to add to the imagination, the sand just starts to irritate and the smell just gets worse, as you find yourself sitting, looking for something else to play with, and if there bits of glass in there, people get hurt trying to have fun. And the odd dog drut, doesn't help either. And we are always going to have a bully kicking sand in our faces, and we will cry to wash that sand out! But when the mind looking for something to do with those distractions, will go else where, or sit there crying until someone comes along and makes it all better, by fixing it!

And that is what people wanted!

Well back to my poor writing of another article.

Delete your post Alex,... no, don't actually, we will accept the criticism, we will live with, we like you because you and your team make games, great games, and Paradise is a great game, but it is not as great as the others, no matter what tech you created and what rules you place on the treatment, but game play is restricted without some racing repetition and a chance to improve on it, racing without a clue gets frustrating, discovery only last so long in a sandbox, no matter how big it is, especially in cars/bikes, even with the Island, with drive anywhere, once we done that. Of course those areas linked to time challenges will help? But once we got the best times again, what will we do? We are racers and crashers, and they need repetition in there simplest form?

I like the new updates, I even look forward to them but I see the flaws that still need fixing!

Patience is something I taught myself, so I never know when it's going to run out?

Alex you pointed out this site, I have seen way worse on other sites, about people trying to mess up your forums on purpose. I would write on your's but you lock it, asap, fair enough who wants to start a Site war!LOL.

But people have the freedom to write as they wish, negative, positive, hurtfull or not, but just because Xandu and Zombie run the site, they do understand the freedom of speach. Yes, this site has rules and it gets moderated, but they are not resposible for what people feel or say about your game, true some of it is rubbish, Paradise is etyhs they cry, and I can see their point of view, coming from other games, past and present and future.

You have a fan base that supposedly way surpasses us on this site. But I thought you were more thicker skinned than this, take it as granted that haters are well out weighted by the lovers.

Most of don't even go to the Criterion forums, or here as they have well moved on trying to get degrees in computer gameing to build the game they hoped you would have made, that was how strongly they felt!

And because of poor moderation,your site jsut become a place to avoid, and it was not because of 'aholic members, hey I even applied for a job, to try and help with that sort of thing, but I heard nothing, but then again what expeience have I got, but then again, what have you got, other than shut down and run, which you threaten to do, and probably blame us for it! 

But why should Zombie or Xandu get the blame for that, you brought this up a while agao, and they still did not have a clue, it was really them, WTF, you to scared to send a mail to them, give'm a call, and say hey we were hurt by some of the stuff said on the site, then I hope they would of said sorry, but would hope you would understand that some people just don't like Paradise. Suck it up, like the other game developers do?

You sold the game, and you said it was doing well, great look on the bright side of life, but don't expect other people to, some people have to stuggle to buy games, and want to get value for money, for a gaming experince, and for some Paradise did not offer that. And they expressed that, so, they will use their money else where.

Live with that and live with the hate, and picking on Zombie seem to have some sort of motive to me, you want her to close the site, what for, or are some blind fan boys spreading stuff, whatever, they are free to come and big up Paradise on here and tell us of their great experience, but no they didn't.

Zombie has the biggest heart for this game and the other games and you and the team as a Game Creation site, so she wrote some about some stuff you did not like, so, her opinion, as so where other peoples but to pick on her, your just sad mate, I think your a mad genius, and have a hard working team but just not sure about your fans, are you! No matter what people write they are still playing your gnikcuf game! All press is good press and you making her cry is bad ju ju dude!

Come on over and talk about it, explain what you are trying to do to improve some of the stuff that is not working on Paradise and why you can't. This is a community built from your games, why don't you join us again. We are open both ways always have we have the nutters, I'm one, but atleast I can explain myself, well I try anyway, but you fired a shot you gotto back it up son!

Attaching this as a link to Criteions forum on Zombies appology.

Patience is something I taught myself, so I never know when it's going to run out?

For ruining the burnout series!!

we don't know both side to the story you can't judge people you don't know the game does have it's faults but the way certain people rais the issue or talk about it is 100% negative i've raised my views on features that would eliminate cheaters from ranked racing entirely and i'm not a ranked racing cry baby as i'v only been doin i the last month to get to know some of the other racers and see what they were talking about

and the cg team are considrate and still listen as Matt F even talked about maybe adding a 10 second Timer, we the community suggested to eliminate race switching starting races before people can view them and before people can leave the room

I have no idea were all this is all coming from. We have been nothing but positive in our news stories about Burnout Paradise. We have actually been accused of being too positive. But hey we are a fan site so what can you expect.

All our members have their own blog and they are free to write what they want within our Terms of Use. Whether it is negative or positive views about a game in the Burnout Series is irrelevant. ZombieTron and I are not responsible for other people’s views. We are not deleting blogs or comments that we don’t agree with… yes we have understood the concept of freedom of speech.

I think that it is very healthy that the fans of the series have a place where they can freely air their views without risking being attacked or moderated. As our users can comment on all blogs there is normally a healthy discussion following most of the blogs.

It is also worth mentioning that this site is for all Burnout fans not just Paradise Fans. People have different favourites. Lots of people still love Revenge and Takedown, we welcome them to our site as well.

-- The Creator --

I personally know Zom and Xan, and even when they went to Criterion, they told us nothing until it was time too.

We know the team are great people, but Alex should not have keep his thoughts festering for 4 months, he should have called BurnoutAholics HQ and expressed himself, or come on the site. He does not like negative press about his game, then he should not have made it?

Alex is a sorta mad genius, that sees what he has created from his point of view and explained to his working team, but it was that different from the previous games, that it threw everyone (the paying customer) for a spin.

I even asked the question about what the difference's were and Xandu back it up against me by saying it's next-gen, fair enough, but it's still so off the road, with how it works or doesn't, I wanted some sort of understanding explained about it.

The things that people wanted fixing or sorting have been listed, deleted, listed, deleted for 4 months now, does that mean that we will not get the fixes or they just can't happen due to this new gaming engine system. And it's not just about ranked racing, but for most of the hardcores it is that important, they wanted a new racing game, that gave them their daily buzz.

Paradise gives a lot of people a Buzz, they are 'satizfied', great, but they aren't talking because they are happy, the ones talking want more! And are asking if they will get it, Criterion said no. And most people have moved on to other games to get that buzz they did get. But the ones still hanging on awaiting some Game Changing Content, and so far Bikes seems to be it, until next year anyway. But cars are not game changing, even if they do fly!

And this is more about Alex thinking about this site as a personal hate site against Paradise, and blaming Zombietron for it. And that is not the case, there may be hate for the game here, but it is on most forum sites that talk about the game, I know I've looked!

But mostly it is about the crazy forum posters on the Criterion site, that because of the 'who har', Criterion deleted all the posts that answered most peoples questions anyway, now it's repeat, rinse and repeat constantly, they should have just left it to the fans sites to handle the fans?

This site promotes all the games, end off, using good or bad press. But atleast we still played Criterions games, this sort of thing could be more than a back lash against Alex, it could just make people to not bother playing any of their games.

But then again it is all about Paradise anyway, the other games are still fun once in a while, sort of like Paradise.

But people were looking for a rush, and ... enough has been said on lot of forums find out for yourself, as I think I need to rinse...

And yes Alex needs to say/talk his side of the story, and should have done it a long time ago, but when he did try it was more a statement, rather than an explaination.

Where is Burnout going? We will have to wait and see?

Patience is something I taught myself, so I never know when it's going to run out?

Well, I just like the games.  I don't know if Alex thinks we're suppose to love everything they make like they have some Midas touch or something, but I'm pretty sure the majority of BurnoutAholics enjoyment from the series comes from playing the GAME not driving around video game cars and talking about how awesome Criterion is.  I could care less who makes the next game, as long as it gets back to the Burnout vibe, Not the idea that anything Alex puts his name on is what a Burnout game should be.  Don't get me wrong,  I love alot of the games Criterion have put out, and was a huge fan up until after the release of Paradise.  It wasn't the game itself, I can get over Paradise as a game.  It just isn't my style, thats fine, I can get over that, can't win em all, and kudos for trying something new.  What really turned me away was Alex treatment of the people that loved all the other Burnout games and didn't blindly jump onto the Paradise wagon.

Oh How the Mighty have Fallen.....

I like to Slag Off.... Let me Slag Off Even More...

"Paradise is Quality.... Quality Trash that is......"

--------------------------------

"I Have Loved. I Have Suffered. Now, I Hate."

"Obviously not over in the criterion forums, It is now the most sterile, banal forum on the web, full of ps3 fanboys who pander to the team and constantly reassure them that they "rock". They don't want read any critique anymore as this would dent there ego, and heaven forbid anybody who dares challenge Alex, Here comes the banhammer. "

 - Taken from Kevlars response..

But Kev dont you know what the point of every game is? Its to destroy somebody else's ego.. From the fighting games to racing games, theres nothing better than to utterly destroy and break someone into pieces so that they cant play anymore......

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"I Have Loved. I Have Suffered. Now, I Hate."