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Infestation producer: The War Z was a 'terrible choice of a name'
Infestation Survivor Stories (previously known as The War Z) Executive Producer Sergey Titov has penned a post-mortem on Gamasutra about the game's launch in 2012, noting how inviting the comparison to DayZ worked against the project. "That said, The War Z was a terrible choice of name, as it naturally invited comparisons between our game and DayZ," Titov admitted. "We made a big mistake in not listening to the vocal minority of our community who thought the name was terrible [...] Beyond not listening to the community, we were also very arrogant in our public communications. We should have taken more care to communicate how and why this was not a DayZ clone, citing specific differences in both design and conception. Instead of saying to ourselves 'Oh well, haters gonna hate!' we should have tried to understand where the hate was coming from and address it." Another key mistake that Titov and his team made was engaging in an "arms race" to get The War Z to Steam before DayZ, which resulted in its being yanked from that platform due to misrepresentation of the existing game features. Even with these missteps, Titov said that Infestation sold 2.8 million copies, and of those, over half logged at least 50 hours of playing time apiece. You can read Massively's hands-on impressions of this title from 2013.
Infestation: Survivor Stories claims 2.5 million players to date
A new state of the game post is up today for Infestation: Survivor Stories (formerly The War Z), and the team claims that the title has seen 2.5 million players pass through its doors, with "over 100,000 people" playing the game daily. The team apologized for not getting its promised updates out on time and said that it's made "sweeping changes" to improve communications and be more accurate with releases. Part of these efforts included hiring CMs and pledging to an internal model of "complete transparency whenever possible." The state of the game post went on to list some of the game's recent additions, including vehicles, Super Zombies, balance tweaks, and an overhaul of the Colorado map. The team also said that it has committed itself to work on Infestation without external funding.
Free for All: Two weeks on a private Infestation server
I remember when I first laid eyes on Infestation: Survivor Stories. It was GDC Online in 2012, and I did an interview with Alex Josef, Hammperpoint's PR consultant We made a quick trip to the press room, where he popped out a large gaming laptop to show me the game. I was really impressed with how simple its premise was: You're dropped in the middle of the wilderness, there are zombies all around, and you can starve to death. It felt great, as well, sporting realistic lighting effects and systems to simulate hunger, thirst, and sound. So much has happened since that first meeting. I am very, very aware of all of the drama concerning the developers -- the name changes, the patches, the community issues, and so on. I am not writing this to discuss that part of the story. My specific goal over the last couple of weeks was to see whether playing on a private, paid-for server would give me a different experience than Massively's Mike Foster's. During his time with the game at launch he was, to put it mildly, miserable.
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Seven zombie-infested MMOs for the survivalist in you
Let's talk zombies and post-apocalyptic futures. Sure, the undead have become an overused and watered-down genre, but it's easy to see just why it's so successful -- it practically has something for everyone. The horror fans love it for obvious reasons; there's nothing scarier than the reanimated dead. Sandbox fans and survivalist maniacs love that it represents what happens to society when everything -- and I mean everything -- breaks down. MMO fans adore it because it's all about teamwork and developing a society from the ground up alongside other people. So even though the genre is getting spread a bit thin, it's still as promising as any other. I thought it'd be a good idea to round up many of the current zombie MMOs and pseudo-MMOs so that over the holidays you can celebrate by ignoring your family to bash in a few previously deceased skulls. You can thank me later when all of the training you receive while playing these games helps you survive the coming zombie apocalypse.
Hands-on: Infestation: Survivor Stories, aka War Z, is worse than actually being killed by zombies
If there's one thing we know about the games industry, it's that no success goes uncopied. World of Warcraft breaks a million subscribers, everyone starts building WoW-like MMOs. Minecraft showers its creator with enough money to buy his home country, voxel-based crafting games fall like rain. It's just how things go. It should come as no surprise, then, that some studio somewhere would attempt to piggyback on the success of DayZ, Dean Hall's ridiculously popular mod for Arma II. The title, which drops players into a dangerous, zombie-filled open world and challenges them to survive, resonated so immensely with gamers that a clone wasn't so much probable as it was inevitable. But Infestation: Survivor Stories, formerly known as The War Z, is more than just a clone of DayZ. It is a charmless, cynical, and craven rip-off packaged with one of the most sinister microtransaction models ever implemented into a game, and it's developed by a company that has on multiple occasions proven itself to be only shades away from a dedicated fraud factory.
The War Z now known as Infestation: Survivor Stories
Remember The War Z? Hammerpoint Interactive is hoping that you don't, at least when it comes to the game's checkered development and customer service history that includes being temporarily pulled from Steam and suffering a major security breach. At any rate, the firm is looking for a fresh start and has changed the zombie MMO's name to Infestation: Survivor Stories. The War Z's original URL now automatically redirects users to a rebranded website. [Thanks Paul!]
The War Z devs to players: 'What should we do with cheaters?'
The War Z devs are considering an interesting take on punishing exploiters. They've been tossing around the idea of allowing people who've been banned for in-game cheating to play on special "jail servers." These servers would be isolated from the game's general servers and would be populated entirely by cheaters. On these servers, cheats would not be interfered with -- that is, exploiters could keep on using their cheats. This has the potential to help the dev team; being able to observe the cheats folks use and run "anticheat experiments" without worrying about banning innocent players would probably give the team a lot of valuable information. On the other hand, though, those cheaters are totally jerks and why should they keep getting to play, right? So the dev team is putting the issue in the hands of the players by posting a survey to see whether the idea is even worth pursuing. You can read the full rationale on the official forums. [Thanks to Paul for the tip!]
Hammerpoint acknowledges War Z security breach, emails and passwords compromised
Hammerpoint has officially responded to the security issues plaguing its War Z zombie shooter. The firm says that no payment information was accessed in the recent breach, but that email addresses and game and forum passwords have been compromised. The data accessed included email addresses used to log in to the forum, forum passwords which we encrypt, email addresses used to log in to the game, encrypted game passwords, as well as in-game character names and the IP addresses from which players log in to the forum and to the game. If you posted other information to the forum it is likely that such data was accessed as well. We do not collect the names or addresses of our gamers so that information was not impacted unless you posted it on the forum. We are investigating whether additional information may have been obtained. Hammerpoint says that it has "engaged outside experts and investigators" and is committing "substantial resources" to improving security. The company encourages The War Z users to change their passwords. [Thanks to everyone who tipped us!]
Rumor: War Z forums compromised, user game accounts might be affected
Hooboy, it's been a while since we've had a proper War Z clusterfunk, hasn't it? Unfortunately for the zombie shooter's playerbase, the latest brouhaha involves some potential account security issues. What we know for sure is that a Hammerpoint forum admin account was compromised, and the company says that "many posts were unable to be restored as a result." There are also rumors that producer Sergey Titov's admin account was affected and that those responsible are now in possession of War Z user info including account and email data. We've contacted Hammerpoint for clarification and will update this post if we receive a response. [Thanks Nephi and everyone who tipped us!]
The War Z returns to Steam
The War Z is back. On Steam. Apparently Valve no longer considers publishing the title on its ubiquitous digital download service a "mistake," and as such Hammerpoint's much-maligned exercise in surviving the zombie apocalypse is now available for 15 bucks. Valve says that it has "collaborated to address community feedback" with Hammerpoint. The company has issued a patch that updates existing customers, and the special refund offering for initial War Z Steam buyers has now concluded.
The War Z attacked, then attacked again
The beat continues for embattled zombie title The War Z. Last night, a Hammerpoint community rep posted on the game's forums regarding a series of ongoing hack attempts. "First we were hit with an attack that would [reset] our DNS IP so that you could not connect," the company said. "This morning we are being hit, again, with a DDoS attack on our login server. We are implementing additional DDoS protection and hope to have this resolved asap. Unfortunately with these types of attacks it is very difficult to give a good time frame of when it will be resolved." If you're still playing The War Z, there are further status updates to be found on the game's official forums.
The War Z executive producer blames problems on the game's success
Sergey Titov, executive producer for The War Z, sent out an email to the controversial MMO's playerbase today addressing the recent problems with the game and the public's opinion of the game. Titov states that there are "hundreds of thousands of players" on the game's servers each day and blames the overwhelming early success of the game for its eventual negative impressions. "I was too focused on how great we are and how a small independent team got their first game to over 700,000 users in a two-month period," Titov says in the email. Admitting that the team made many mistakes in communication and rushing the game out before the holidays, Sergey says that they'll soon be hiring additional community managers and moderators to properly respond to any problems that might arise in the future. You can read the email in its entirety after the cut.
The War Z's creator disputes trademark suspension
A couple of days ago, Massively reported that The War Z looked as though the trademark for its name would be suspended by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, forcing the game to choose another title. The game's creator, Sergey Titov, is disputing the suspension, however. Corresponding with Kotaku, Titov said that he had received no such notice and is investigating the situation. "I assume what you see is one of the preliminary applications since it said that it suspended because [the] other application exists," he said. "I've sent an email to our lawyer who filed [the] application and [is] working with us to to provide more details on all this." The War Z has been in hot water as of late due to prematurely launching on Steam and then being forcibly removed by Valve due to accusations of fraud and missing content.
The War Z's trademark suspended, name change likely
The team at Hammerpoint Interactive isn't having the merriest Christmas, at least if their holiday happiness hinges on the development of embattled zombie MMO The War Z. The troubled game will likely be forced to change its name due to a trademark suspension handed down by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The organization says that the game's name is too similar to Paramount Pictures' World War Z, a Brad Pitt film slated for a 2013 release. The decision comes on the heels of The War Z being pulled from Steam, as well as a bevy of fraud accusations from the game's disgruntled userbase. [Thanks to Armond for the tip!]
DayZ creator Dan Hall 'depressed' about The War Z controversy
The gaming community has had itself in a frenzy as of late thanks to the drama-ridden debacle of The War Z's "launch" on Steam. In case you haven't been following this particularly juicy little chain of events, here's the story so far: The War Z launched on steam (still in beta, though not marked as such) with a number of features listed on the store page that, surprise, weren't actually in the game. The interwebs went into full torch-and-pitchfork mode, and after an "apology" from the game's developer wherein the studio apologized "to all players who misread information about game features," the game has been yoinked from Steam for the time being. But what does Dean Hall, creator of the similarly named ARMA II: Combined Ops mod DayZ, have to say about all of this? Not much, apparently, but in a post on the DayZ subreddit, he revealed that he has "been pretty depressed about the whole situation." He also confides that the entire debacle caused him to "seriously consider" whether he wanted to be involved in the game industry at all. Thankfully for the many DayZ fans, he hasn't thrown in the towel and development on DayZ continues. Whether this is the end of the whole The War Z debacle or just the beginning, however, remains to be seen.
The War Z yanked from Steam, Valve apologizes
The brief and baffling run of The War Z on Steam is over... for now. Valve called the release of the title on its digital distribution platform a "mistake" and "premature" and has since removed it. "We apologize for this," the company said, "and have temporary removed the sale offering of the title until we have time to work with the developer and have confidence in a new build." The furor over The War Z's launch on Steam centered around its status as an early beta build and a list of misleading features on the Steam page that were either partially implemented or absent from the game altogether. Hammerpoint also issued a short statement saying, "We're making sure that our Store page is 100% correct. Bottom line: Our end goal is to have satisfied and not angry customers, so this is more important for us than everything else." Steam said that players who purchased it may choose to continue to play it or can get a refund.
The War Z launches to a flurry of fraud accusations
The release of The War Z on Steam earlier this week is causing quite a stir today in the MMO-verse. Some purchasers are accusing the game's developers of outright fraud, noting that the store page and the official site are claiming features that simply do not exist in the released version, such as the promise of large persistent worlds (the only map currently available is 75 square km compared to claims of 100-500 square km) and population viability (while the game's servers can supposedly host 100 people, players claim that they cannot host more than 50). Some of the complaints are subjective -- whether or not the true challenge in the game comes from zombies or other players -- but even the game's defenders admit that the title is still arguably in beta. It's currently the top seller on Steam, which is good news for Hammerpoint, but it also means that whatever the developers do next will be subject to some rather harsh scrutiny.
The War Z launches on Steam
While it might not be fully cooked, The War Z is now available on Steam for any and all to enjoy the delights of surviving in a zombie age. The title is currently on sale at 10% off for $13.49, with additional packages if you're looking to pick up some in-game currency. If you previously purchased the title through The War Z's website, the developers said that there will be a method to link that game to your Steam account. The War Z's devs also promised that other key features will be added to the game shortly, including leaderboards and private server rentals. You can watch the Steam launch trailer after the break for some rip-roaring zombie slaughter! [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
The War Z is officially in beta, world map increased by 50 percent
Zombie MMO The War Z has officially shed its alpha tag. The buy-to-play horror shooter has purportedly cultivated a community of more than 500,000 players, according to its latest press release, and those players can now enjoy the full game map, new playable characters, and a host of additional features as the title transitions into beta. Hammerpoint Interactive has opened up the final sections of its "Colorado" map, which has in turn increased the size of the game world by 50 percent. The firm has also added new clan support features (tags, chat, and visual markers) as well as new marketplace items. [Source: Hammerpoint press release]
Hammerpoint delaying The War Z clan features, focusing on hackers
The War Z is a hot topic in gaming circles these days, and Hammerpoint's zombie-centric sandbox is starting to see an increase in shady player activity as its user base grows. The dev team has acknowledged the need to devote time and resources to dealing with hackers, and as a result some of the title's feature development is temporarily going on the back burner. "As I'm sure all of you are aware, there [have] been a lot of discussion lately surrounding the hackers," Hammerpoint wrote on its forums. "Over here we've been working round the clock on a solution -- however, that's meant we've had to push back clans a bit, so it's looking more like next week. We're also investigating a number of bugs, such as the ability to glitch onto roofs, and item duplication."
