Game reviewers had some pretty strong opinions about the latest "Duke Nukem" game — "Duke Nukem Forever." To summarize: They thought it stunk. Stunk baaaad.
But Gearbox Software, the company that ultimately developed the game after it languished for more than a decade, wants to know what gamers themselves thought of it. And to get to the heart of your deepest, dearest and darkest Duke feelings, Gearbox posted a survey in its community forum.
"Gearbox prides itself in listening to the community, and this is your chance to tell us how you feel about Duke Nukem Forever," they explained. "You may participate in this survey if you have played or have not played Duke Nukem Forever."
What then follows is a series of questions probing what players liked ... and didn't like ... and how much they liked or didn't like them. The survey asks questions like:
- How would you rate Duke Nukem Forever? (10 being the best, 1 being the worst)
- Would you recommend Duke Nukem Forever to a friend?
- Please rate how much you liked or disliked the following things. Duke's Style of Humor, Puzzles and Platforming, Interacting with the World, Weapon Inventory, Regenerating Health, Linear Level Design
This isn't the first time Gearbox has asked players to weigh in on how they felt about one of their games. But this is, perhaps, the Gearbox game players are likely to have the strongest opinions about. (Gearbox previously created games like "Borderlands" and "Brothers in Arms" to much praise.)
Back when "Duke Nukem Forever" launched in June, the response was overwhelmingly negative. Critics called the game "a sloppy, cobbled together first-person shooter" and a "muddled, hypocritical exercise in irritation" not to mention "embarrassingly bad — the kind of game you point and laugh at."
In fact, the question over whether some of the more vitriolic opinions were fair cost one public relations rep associated with the project his job.
Despite the negative publicity, Gearbox seems poised to continue with the Duke, whose misogynistic and sometimes racist in-game behavior has been controversial from the start back in 1991.
You can't blame Gearbox, which certainly must want a chance to prove it could make a good Duke game if the project was in its hands from the very start. And perhaps they are looking to gamers to see how they could do just that.
Then again, maybe Gearbox is testing the waters ... trying to determine if anyone really wants the outdated alien-hunting icon to soldier on. As plenty of players have suggested, perhaps it's time for the Duke to put out his cigar and swagger off into the sunset.
For more game news, check out:
- Duke Nukem is (probably) coming back for more
- 'Mass Effect' movie won't be based on 'Mass Effect' games
- Decades later, 'Aliens' gets a sequel you can play
- 'Borderlands 2' will unleash 'millions upon millions' of weapons
Winda Benedetti writes about games for msnbc.com. You can follow her tweets about games and other things here on Twitter or join her in the stream here on Google+ . And be sure to check out the In-Game Facebook page here.