Why do we do this to ourselves?

[Digit]

Ok, I was having a conversation with a friend at work recently about PC games. We got a put where we both looked at each other and sort of blinked after we came to this question:

Why do we pay full price, for broken games?

For us, working in the games industry that didn't need any explanation, however for the benefit of others, lets expand shall we? Yes, lets...

First up, nearly every major (and minor) PC release that I have looked forward to recently, has been bugged in one way or another. That's discounting the games that I didn't get and play, but others have. I visit their forums on occasion, and silently thank God that I never got that game due to all the threads about broken X, Y and Z.

Broken? Well what I mean is, things in the game that just plain don't work as expected. JoWood have provided a perfect example here with Gothic III. Thanks JoWood, you always make me laugh. My story with GIII - I started a character, ranger with some excellent bow and crafting skills. Was aiming for poison arrow as it sounded fun. Alas, the craft poison skill is broken. It won't let you make poison. Ok, what about if I were to buy it from merchants? Well, that's a no go too, since 1 BOTTLE of poison only makes 1 poison arrow. Also, there aren't many merchants who sell poison, especially not 10000 bottles worth which is my rough guesstimate at how many arrows I will eat my way through in the game. No problem, the manual says I can craft new kinds of arrows from animal skins/claws that I strip from my kills. If only that was true, it was never in the game, and they never updated the text descriptions to match the new content.

So I restart, paladin with fire sword sounds fun. Lets go dual wield as it says I get more complex combos at higher levels. Two issues, when casting fire sword it replaces my TWO swords with one magical fire sword... negating dual wield. Second issue is that at higher levels I get exactly the same combos, not new ones...

Broken. I won't go on with GIII, as since it's from JoWood, it's just too easy to poke holes into it, they have horrible publisher skills.

Dungeon Siege II: Broken World - has an awesome bug where sometimes you will lose all your progress for the current gaming session. Lets say you levelled up 5 times, and found a bunch of awesome items. You can exit, reload and be back 5 levels minus all the items. Broken?

Titan Quest when released often crashed to the desktop when transitioning from outside -> inside areas.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R often hung, the developers said it was due to graphic card overheating, a 13 page forum thread from users measuring their system temps said otherwise. The quicksave function in the game is also broken, it often incorrectly quickloads the AI states/attitudes of characters in the game, meaning you can quicksave when they are all neutral to you, and then quickload and they are all enemies to you, royally messing up the progress. The devs released a patch to fix various issues (mostly multiplayer) and subsequently all saved games were invalidated due to the patch.

Anyhow, this is turning out longer than I intended, but my question remains. Why do we pay full price for what are essentially polished beta-candidates of games, when if we wait 3 months, we get several patches, and a lower price point?

I can't think of a good reason, other than that I am impatient...

Digit

 

[micro]

Well simply, we want quick gratification. We get borred with our old games in a relativly short time, except for the few that stand out. Also how many times do you actualy go back and replay the same story line over and over?

So for me the few $ is worth the risk. but i also only buy a few games a year, and normaly only if they are in a series that i have loved like c&c,hl2 etc.

Also i guess it is expected now days, since we have lived with it for so long now. But please correct me if i am wrong here. I will use an analogy. There is this new fuel injector that is released for car. It is designed for all makes and models it is designed to be the coolest thing and give you the driving experience of your life!... Well how possible is that really? some cars are still carburated,(pixel shader 2.0)while some are fuel injected(pixel sharer 3.0) Some are v8 (dual core) while others are 4 cyl (single core).

To me the layman, there seem to be somany makes and models, and such a variety of oln and new technology out there that i can see how it would be difficult to make a game perfect for all systems. Just like with cars, there are so many makes and models and manufactures. Sure they all work on the same principals, but with different versions of the same parts.

I assumed you were looking for a reply, rather than making a statement. Thanks for getting the hamsters running in there little wheels up stairs .

 

[peanutbutter12]

The other issue is time. Companies have a deadline to get their games done by, and a lot of the time, they can't get it done that fast. So the consumer is left with a half completed game (Like when Postal 2 was released) that is buggy and has less content than it should. Blizzard was one company I always admired because they would hold a game until it's been tested throughly. Unfortunately, most companies don't have that luxury.

CJ

 

[Digit]

Yeah it seems there are gems like Valve, Blizzard and a handful of others. But I guess my realisation was, that I just don't seem to learn.

I am reminded of this:

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Benjamin Franklin

Am I insane for buying new release after new release and expecting a different experience, ie not getting an unfinished game. I mean as TerraSin says, there are constraints on publishers and developers and the timelines, budgets and expectations are often not very realistic. But that doesn't mean I have to go and buy the damn things each time I see them on the shelf, hoping against hope that this time, the game will run without issues, and not require an emergency patch in days...

I think, from my side at least, next time I see something on the shelf, I will be waiting at least a few weeks before I get it. The downside of this, is that if everyone did this, then I couldn't go to forums and read up on all the issues that early adopters are experiencing... Oh calamity...

Digit

 

[peanutbutter12]

I guess it pays off to have so many impatient people out there.

CJ

 

[serephim02]

I really dont mind because I bought Oblivion and I looked at the forums and they stated there were some glitches here and there but they have the patches that repair them easily...Some might say "why should I have to download a patch for a game I paid for, it should already work?" well that is true to an extent but realize that like previously noted by other posters, they have a very limited time to produce said game and it usually only occurs on RPG's where they dont really have the time to play as every type of character especially oblivion where you can have millions of variations and one variation may produce a bug in which all your info is lost or your computer crashes or something who knows. But what can be said is that on games like that you will always have a glitch some good some bad but you cant have the perfect game.....only in heaven right? Lol anywho...You can DL patches but if the game just came out it may take a while for someone to catch that glitch...I am really sorry you lost all your data man that sux...Do what I do...back up all your save data on a flashcard or external memory or something...You are not impatient because I would be [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse]ed off too if I had been playing for a month and my LV 25 character was wiped and it hangs...BTW MICRO your avatar is the best! I loved animation

 

[peanutbutter12]

Heh, I remember times before the internet. When you bought a game, if it had glitches, you'd just have to deal with it. There were no patches to download. I'm very thankful for the ability to patch now.

CJ