'Online Multiplayer'

[Leicesterfan]

Hello all,

My brother and I have been getting into the spirit of Chess by playing 'Chess with Friends' on the iPhone, we were both rather excited about the prospect of playing in HD on the PS3!

I watched the trailer and read the game summary and saw it had 'online multiplayer' - me and my brother both purchased and loaded the game up, only to find that the only online option is to 'play by mail'.

Where is the option for a live game? I know chess can take a while, but why can we not play the game in real-time!?

It took us nearly half an hour to make 12 moves. The process is as follows (and I may have missed some steps out!), I set-up a game and make my move, I then have to 'send' the move via PSN message. I am then kicked back out to the main menu (and not allowed to study the board). My brother then receives a notification a few seconds later. He has to open his PSN messages, open the Chess message, select the game data, download the game data, confirm it, wait whilst the board loads, watch the last 3 moves, make his move, send his data, get kicked back to the menu....rinse and repeat.

In short, the 'play by mail' feature is cumbersome and frustrating and it would take weeks to finish a game! Although I appreciate that this was 'how chess was done in the old days'.

The local multiplayer allows a quick real-time game, why not online? If my brother was sat next to me, I'd get a proper board out instead of looking at a screen. I am not really interested in playing the computer, I want to play a real person. Why can't this be done in real time, with voice-chat, a move timer, and an ability to suspend the game and come back to it at a later date?

I have to compare it to the iPhone game - that is essentially a 'play by mail' game, but you send your move and it pops up automatically for the other player, so it is actually possible to play the game in almost 'real-time'.

As it stands, the game is not really fit for purpose and a basic working multiplayer should be standard for a PSN game, especially considering it's chess!

We need a proper multiplayer mode, where two people can still down and play through. I'm sure others agree. Any word on this matter?

Thanks.

[Sinkimalinki]

I totally agree.


Ive spent all afternoon playing this stunning looking game only to find i cant settle
down to play live online.

It was one of the things i was looking forward to the most.

Please tell me it will happen?

[John_VF]

Hi,

Firstly, welcome to our forum!

For Hustle Kings regulars here, I'm sure they'll tell you that we have a track record of doing our best to improve our games by listening to the community and doing whatever updates we can.

We always read feedback so the fact you've both written detailed posts is much appreciated. I'd like to address the fact that you both believed there'd be live online play - I'm sorry you've misunderstood the info out there and we'll do our best to address the situation. The Play by Mail feature is listed clearly on our main website and other games websites out there too.

The reason we chose the Play by Mail system is because of the fact that many chess games take a long time to play. We felt that many players would become frustrated waiting around for an opponent to make their move. Although we concede that timers could be used, when we looked at the options we just felt that Play by Mail would be more than good enough for a game of this type. If we do receive enough feedback stating that live online play is something that is wanted by the majority, then we can always look into the possibility of adding it further down the line. However, it'd take quite a large number of players to request this before we seriously considered it.

Finally, I'd like to move on to my last point regarding the Play by Mail feature. During development, we realised that we'd have circumvent certain limitations of the PS3's system software in order to make the feature work properly, and it does - however, it isn't quite as elegant as we'd ideally like. This is something we'll be actively looking into in the hope that we can make the whole experience a little slicker!

Please bare with us and keep providing us with your feedback and we'll do our very best to listen and improve things where we can.

[Sinkimalinki]

Thank you for such a quick and detailed reply.

It is a stunning game. I can see me spending ages on it (probably due to my skill level)
I just assumed there'd be HK style lobbies in there.

Hope its included one day

[RetroBlast]

I have to agree with the rest here, unlike them, I did not make the purchase of the game but if I did and there was no live online play, I would have requested my money back. I feel that it is such a major oversight not to have it that it will be a sales killer once people learn it is missing. Everyone purchasing the game will think it has online live play and the moment they realize it does not, they will feel ripped off. I do understand message play for Hustle Kings and even message play for Pure Chess but only on the PS Vita for those using AT&Ts 3G plan, which can not support live multi-player. But messaging play should be a secondary option, not the primary option, because even those with the AT&T plan usually have access to a dedicated wireless Internet at home. The thought of message play on the PS3 is simply heinous. I'm sorry gang, you dropped the ball on this one, bring live multi-player up and running and throw in some sugar in the form of Hustle type play ... and I and many others will be all over this game! If timed moves are needed to accomplish this, then do it, just as you did in Hustle Kings ... give players options as to what they want to set the time limit for each move ... I do not know what the time limits are for real chess, but you would need to find that out in order to make it realistic.

[Lawking10]

I agree with the original post. You can't make a game like this without including online multiplayer guys! Online is the main part of it all. I created an account just to post on this one thread.... Make it happen!

[laidbackcat]

+1 on this ... its a definite buy for me if and when a real time multiplayer patch is released, until then i'll not pick it up sorry .. they have done the same thing with mnr road trip and the community has virtually completely washed their hands of it .. plz plz put this in, i know at least 10 people on my list who will buy this game with real head 2 head gameplay but wont touch it with a barge pole without it ....

[Birdorf]

I might as well chip in, I agree with everyone else, I assumed online play was included and may not buy it now.

[Wilw]

Hi,
I have also bought this game yesterday and I am very disapointed to see that the online multiplayer is not included !!

Perhaps it is too difficult (or too expensive) to keep a connexion to the PSN server between the two players when one of them is currently thinking about his strategy.

However, I really hope that the online multiplayer functionality will not be transformed into an other paying DLC !! it will be another disapointment ...

[Leicesterfan]

Hi,

Firstly, welcome to our forum!

For Hustle Kings regulars here, I'm sure they'll tell you that we have a track record of doing our best to improve our games by listening to the community and doing whatever updates we can.

The reason we chose the Play by Mail system is because of the fact that many chess games take a long time to play. We felt that many players would become frustrated waiting around for an opponent to make their move. Although we concede that timers could be used, when we looked at the options we just felt that Play by Mail would be more than good enough for a game of this type. If we do receive enough feedback stating that live online play is something that is wanted by the majority, then we can always look into the possibility of adding it further down the line. However, it'd take quite a large number of players to request this before we seriously considered it.

Finally, I'd like to move on to my last point regarding the Play by Mail feature. During development, we realised that we'd have circumvent certain limitations of the PS3's system software in order to make the feature work properly, and it does - however, it isn't quite as elegant as we'd ideally like. This is something we'll be actively looking into in the hope that we can make the whole experience a little slicker!

Please bare with us and keep providing us with your feedback and we'll do our very best to listen and improve things where we can.

Thanks for the response.

Just to let you know, I bought Hustle Kings too

I believed there'd live online play, as I thought it was a given, I did not necessarily misunderstood the information.

Chess can take a long time - as I showed in my example, the play by mail system only adds to the wait. Every single time you want to make a move, you are required to turn on the ps3, load up the game, etc etc etc, it's a whole lot of effort for one move - especially towards the end of the game when both players are cycling round each other. Me and my brother could play a game in an hour, the play by mail system just doesn't work. I'd be AMAZED if literally anybody starts and finishes a game in this manner, the time between moves will be too long.

What does a 'large' number of players count as? This thread has had rather more activity than most others, so I can only assume that it's a feature people want.

The play by mail feature would work better if you could remain viewing the board at all times, but would still be an annoying process of opening up and downloading game data constantly.

As it stands, I can't see myself loading the game up again any time soon and certainly wouldn't recommend it to others. Essentially we are paying £4.99 for a chess game - hundreds are available for free on the internet. The multiplayer is what added value to the product.

Cheers.