I've played the intro level and the first three levels so far and I have to say that it is neither a very good nor a very bad game. It could certainly need a little more variety when it comes to weapons, level design and enemies and some of the degign choices are dubious (e.g. you can see the secret rooms on the map), but on the other hand the game has a very nice soundtrack and it certainly isn't boring.

I wouldn't pay the full price for it and I have played much better freeware games in the past, but I have also played much worse and buggy commercial games.

Don't think the game and the developer deserves any hate or insults, but I also think the developer overreacted when he insulted the whole gaming community. He should ignore the stuff that isn't constructive and use the rest of the feedback to make the game better (the potential is there).

Hmm, maybe I should install it and try it out...

I think you can get the gist from what Pater and both posted about it. The milk is sorta sour - do you really need to taste it to verify?

I did the same thing, had it somehow from a bundle I'd guess. It's not terrible. Certainly not good though. Reminded me of a C64 quality game.

Actually, most companies do pay salary to new trainees who are learning skills on the job. What a company can't do is ask their employees for a refund on wages paid if the work was unsatisfactory. Sure, an employee might get fired, but they still keep the wages they 'earned' while working for the company, and the company was paying to 'try out' the employee to see if they would fit with the company or not. As far as I know, there's no country which has laws protecting a company's right to ask their employees for a refund on wages paid if they don't live up to what they thought they were hiring during the interview.

There are abuses of power on both sides of the consumer-business relationship, as there are also disrespect and contempt by those who view themselves as "in power" and somehow entitled to more respect and rights then the other side. Neither consumer nor business who takes this path are in a good light. But thankfully, there are a good portion of consumers as well as businesses who do not exploit or abuse and realize that mutual respect and treatment is good both for the consumer as well as business.

C64 had some quality games though...

They don't have to ask for refunds because they don't have to pay wages in advance, nor do they have to keep paying an underperforming employee for 2 years before they can check the results of their work. The employee is getting evaluated constantly, and will end up kicked out when his performance becomes obvious, not after the whole project is finished.

At least as long as we're talking about regular jobs, I admit I haven't tried sending a hand drawn dick as a solution to a freelance job and ask for full payment, but I doubt that would work in my favor.

And learning, when paid, or trial periods, is paid way less than full employee payment (or however you're calling it). Sure there is risk/waste of money, but trying to 'cheat' your way through learning period is going to write quite a 'horrible asshole review' on your resume.

Of course there are attempts of abuse on either side, as with everything else, as the whole curator drama showed recently it's not perfect. But the regular disgrunted customer is hardly the one doing it.

Yeah I've seen worse. Too bad he didn't know about the Streisand effect. Now people will remember anything but the game.

This would be the best option for him but still in my opinion a bit unsatisfying because it wouldn't make the hates and insults go away. Basically this is a good example of mobbing. But if mobbing is against a (semi)professional/company we have different standards - the customer is always right and can do what he wants and the company better says nothing to it all or it might get even worse.

I wonder if we could do better. For example Steam could forbid hate speech/insults in reviews and enforce it actively. Some kind of lowest level of civility. I think the Steam community as a whole would benefit from it. And not giving Jim Sterling any attention of course. Just ignoring him and refusing to discuss him.

That way we could improve one side of the story quite a bit. Well for the other side - let's just say it's good this guy is not in business anymore.