These days a game cannot afford a bad launch.
Hellgate: London has had a very bad launch, no matter how the company may try to spin it.

Mind, the worst launch of all time still goes to Anarchy Online; the initial install forced many people to reformat their hard drives. I kid you not. AO survived because at the time there wasn't a whole lot of competition for online games, the Devs fell over themselves communicating with the community and fixing things, and players were more tolerant. Alluvian and I joined AO about four months in, when things had finally settled down. It was, and still is, a good game.

These days, you just cannot release a half-baked game, replete with gameplay-affecting bugs. Games are being released every single month, and people will NOT stick around to wait for you to fix things. Add to that a heavy-handed approach to forum management and a cut-n-paste Customer Service system, and you're just asking for it. A REAL Hellgate, right in your development offices.

Shame on the people in charge of setting release dates for not keeping HGL in beta for another 3-6 months (hello, look at Conan and Warhammer Online and see how easy it is), and/or shame on the dev team for not being able to make their commitments, assuming they said they could pull it off in time. Shame on using a poorly tested billing system and outsourcing customer support (we've all seen the responses they copy and paste to players), just because it's cheap and everyone does it.

Shame on wiping characters outside of beta for whatever reason.

Now, the folks who are bitching because they paid a lifetime subscription to Hellgate: London... assuming you were all in beta, I have to ask the question: what the hell were you thinking? Pardon the pun.

I paid a lifetime subscription for Lord of the Rings Online, because it was a really good game, even in beta. If it had been the pile of bug-infested poo that HGL was purported to be, there is no way in heck I'd plunk down that much money. You can get a lot of beer for $150.00 US!

To those who optimistically say of HGL, "it's not that bad," I have two words: Orange Box.
For the same price you get a LOT more rock solid, fun gameplay, with CAKE.

Oh yeah... no blaming big bad ebil EA this time. They published both Hellgate and the Orange Box.

I never liked Diablo anyway, and Rock Band just arrived on my doorstep!

;-)#
Brasse the easily distracted

Got something to say? Bring it on.
While we're at it, here is the most amusing review I've seen of HGL yet, from Something Awful.