PATCHING: We've All Been BETA Tester, Since Nov 2005

[nockscitney]

Hey guys,

this is a topic that I come across on many boards over the net so thought I would put it here and see if anyone has any thoughts or opinions to add to the discussion. I appreciate that it's been around a lot longer on PC, but this written with consoles in mind.

PATCHING . . .

Is patching a game a good thing or a bad thing in your eyes? Like I said it's a topic that I see on many boards over the net and I thought I'd put my thoughts down here.

Let's look at the console scene Pre November 2005. Internet capabilities were first seen on the Sega Dreamcast (correct me if I'm wrong) and was the only reason I bought one. Heck, by the time I did get my hands on one, the console had died a death and all the online services were pulled. The next experience I had was with the PS2, as towards the end of it's lifespan, games were gradually introducing NET PLAY, which was obviously the lead in to what we know as PSN / XBOX Live. So back in these days internet capabilities were basic, only allowing us to interact with others players online. What happened if there was a bug in the game, we had to live with it. Now I'm not claiming to have been around on forums much at this time, but my perception was that we lived with what the game was, maybe had a little moan about it, but just played the game for what it was.

Now let's skip past November 2005 and we're now into Next Gen Consoles, PS3 & XBOX 360. With these new technologies, Dev's now have the ability to PATCH (at will) their products to achieve perfection. That's great right as it shows that the Dev's are continually supporting the products we buy until their EOL (end of life). As demands for game technicality increases, so does the pressure to meet deadlines, so the Patching process no longer just serves as a way of improving a product, but now also allows them to develop the game long past the deadline and the game has gone into production. So now rather than buying an End Product, we're actually buying a working prototype or BETA of the game rather than a finished product. Does £50 sound about the right cost for an unfinished product? How many times have you put a brand new game into your console on release day, only to have to install a patch/update to it first?

As well as the above, Patching is used to improve the games functionality. Ok that's great, but the problem here is that they open up a massive can of worms. Why you ask? Well Bob over here doesn't like the way this works, but Billy does. So the DEV's patch Bob's issue, but now Billy doesn't like the way it works now and we enter the infinite loop. By Patching a game, you're never going to achieve perfection because 9/10 it's going to open up another issue fore someone else. This then has a negative effect on the DEV's IMO, who take a "Can't be Bothered" approach to the game, as no matter what they do, it doesn't please everyone.

A prime example of patching is unfortunately, the great game we all love and play, Zombies. Let's take the DLC for example. It doesn't bother me that XBOX have exclusivity over PS3 for the DLC and here's why. XBOX, or more correctly Microsoft, have effectively paid exclusivity rights, for their user's to be BETA testers. Sure I'd like to play the maps on release with the rest of the world (the whole world playing together, at the same time, finding it out together), and sure it's a little frustrating that because of "curiosity" I know just about everything about Die Rise before I've played it, but that is over looked when by the time I play it, most of the teething problems are ironed out. However having said that, we should all get the right to play the game as it was intended and created in it's first form as PS3 users now don't get to do things like Chain Kill with the Sliquifier for example. Because I got the game late, I was never able to take advantage of the workbench glitches on Tranzit. Disappointed, Yes, can live with it, Also Yes.

Now to defend the Dev's a bit. Before becoming an active member on here, I was spent a lot of time on Codemasters F1 forum (as I love racing games). To me, what codemasters have done with the franchise is amazing, but the forum is cluttered with posts, Worst Game Ever, Not Playing Until You Fix This, Never Buying This Again, which meant myself and many other regulars actually just sat in the Off Topic Discussion as the main Forum's were unbearable. When you dig deeper and read these problems, the things people complain about is just ridiculous. People complaining because the drivers Gloves are the wrong colour. People complaining because the Safety Car Doesn't come out enough. People complaining that the crowd don't move. Come on Guys. Although it would be nice to have the right shade of red on the driver's glove, what part of the game can't you play because of it? Yes it would be nice to see a Safety car, but it's F1, not destruction derby for crying out loud, the safety car doesn't come out that often IRL. What part of having a person in the crowd standing up waving a flag makes your ability to hit an apex perfectly, NONE, that's what I thought.

Forums and social media allow every tom, dick and harry to have their say and in most cases people just blurt out the first thing that hits their mind without giving it proper though and I'll admit that I'm guilty of posting utter trash sometimes, but I've never once said that it's game breaking or the worst thing ever.

So let me try and wrap this post up, my thoughts are:

Patching Allows Dev's to extend deadlines post production, meaning we buy unfinished, BETA products

Patching, while it has the intention of creating perfection, actually has quite the opposite effect, and most of the time create a loop hole of Bug-Patch-Bug-Path

People need to respect their right to air their views on Social Media and Forums and think before posting Tosh

My closing statement is

I would be happy to go back to a day where the product we buy, is the product we get and if there are problems, we just have to deal with it.

Interested to hear others thoughts

[Supernova4351]

Humans aren't perfect. Truly I find the fun of finding things that need to be patched and, reporting them to Treyarch. Sure, they might not respond but, its just the satisfaction. Plus, not everything can be solved. You will NEVER have a situation will everyone will agree with you. Again, we are humans. We all have opinions. Thanks, for listening to my rant, you might not have to agree but, ok.

-Thanks Supernova4351

[Lenne]

Nice read. :3

I can actually add nothing more to it.