But I bet you get emails/mailings/phone calls related to gaming. It’s a marketing scam the publishers use to collect customer information.
I never register for software unless it’s absolutely required (such as online-only games) and then I have to consider whether it’s worth it.
Legomancer…
Never said that it’s an excuse. But it’s a reason. Game designers simply don’t have enough money or resources to Beta test a game on hundreds of thousands of different machine configurations, and providing free beta tests to potential customers is an indirect source of information. I mean, suppose five hundred people find a glitch, but none of them E-mail the company because they all think “Someone else will tell them about this. I don’t want to stop gaming!”
The only (mostly) guaranteed information that public beta testing can provide is info about major bugs, or stress tests for online servers. In short, minor bugs are almost guaranteed.
However, if a game is “unfinished”, as you say (like the way the original Quake was unfinished when it was first released), yeah, there’s no excuse for that. For example, I was heavily anticipating the release of Ultima Ascension. All the screen shots looked great… but that thing was bug city. Additionally, after installing it, there was a disclaimer that said that “all the content wasn’t included in the game”, and that I had to E-mail the company a form (with the CD key as proof of purchase), and they said that they’ll be sending out update, “Deluxe” CDs to round out the game and include a few “bonuses”. So I shelved UA for a few months… but I never got the CD. And at that point, I stopped caring.
On the other hand, if you mean “unfinished” to mean “I have to download a patch for my sound card! How inconvenient!”, then, well, that’s just been assholic. They can’t anticipate everyone’s individual computer system (unlike Mac’s, no two PC’s are exactly the same :D), and I think you should be blessing them for providing such a service as software updates. Especially if they’re prompt, regular, and easy to install.
throatshot…
On my desktop right now, there are 18 icons for computer games that I play from time to time (sometimes I’m in the mood for Fallout 2, sometimes I’m in the mood for Mechwarrior 3). I’ve registered all of them. And I have never gotten an E-mail, mailing, or phone call from these companies that I didn’t directly indicate that I wanted (I got several update E-mails from Interplay, that I asked for, and Blizzard, that I asked for, and Valve, that I asked for…etc.)
In short, you are making a blatantly inaccurate assumption. And you know what we call people that make such assumptions, right?
I registered Outpost back when I got it, and I later received a patch diskette in the mail. That’s the only time that has ever happened. I DO get lots of EA Sports ads in my mailbox after registering Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, though.
Outpost. Wotan wept. You’ve just insured I’ll get nightmares when I sleep in a bit, I think.
Looking back on it, I think my “favorite” part was the essay-apologia included with it on why it was released as what it was. Games are like baby birds, you see. They grow, and they grow, and there comes a time when, however sad it makes Mama Sierra Bird, the babies just have to leave the nest.
It didn’t explicitly say that sometimes the baby birds fall out too early and simply go splat. That really didn’t need to be said, it pretty much came out while playing the game. Roads which couldn’t be built. Technologies that didn’t do what they claimed. Mining essentially broken, turning a “viable” game into a grim crawl towards getting nanotechnology soon enough. An “enemy” base that you never once had contact with, and essentially surrendered almost immediately–and then when you reached it, you find that it had been built in a way that could only have been accomplished by engineers under a potent and continual dose of LSD, PCP, and some exotic future designer insanity drug that we haven’t invented yet, trying to build their base in such a way that it will trap and confuse any angry ghosts, a la the Winchester House. And succeeding beyond their wildest dreams. Oh, oh! And that the game came on CDROM (in the early days of the format), but needed a diskette to launch it.
Gah!
But in retrospect, by one definition, a game is “successful” if it’s memorable, and Outpost was definitely that for me.
Isolated bugs, no matter how major, do not make a game incomplete. Some bugs are just absolutely impossible to find doing beta testing, and then when it gets released, maybe 10 or 100 or 1000 people stumble on it…but that’s out of maybe 200-300 thousand copies of the game sold. That sounds pretty damn complete to me.
Take Half-Life for example. Best damn game I’ve played in a very long time, but you know what? It was damn buggy in spots too! Yet I consider that game to be complete.
Now, incomplete would be something like the aforementioned Ultima: Ascension. I loved all the Ultima games, even VIII, but IX was just too unfinished. They went through a series of quick little patches to get major stuff somewhat fixed, and then spent 3 months making a huge patch that fixed up a lot of the game but STILL left huge chunks missing…well, let’s just say I was very disappointed with Origin.
Same goes for Westwood Studios and C&C Tiberian Sun. Then they redeemed themselves with RA2, but then dropped the ball again with NoX.
There is a difference between ‘finished but sometimes glitches’ and ‘really freaking buggy’. I think Arcanum is in the middle there, somewhere. On release, having a 64MB vid card would cause the game to start studdering until it was as if all your ram had been taken away by Sierra gnomes. Also, quests would vanish and there are some very strange gameplay issues. You can throw nearly unlimited items in one ‘turn’ but swing a sword twice. It’s not totally broken, because you can finish the game. But, it has bugs that are reproducable 100% of the time, still. Those are bugs that must go.
GT2 was so buggy on release that Sony had to remaster it, send it back to the factory and have it remade, replacing all the older copies. I’ve not noticed bugs in GT3, aside from a few graphical reflections. Nothing really bad, though.
And really, the fault of the bugs goes to the publisher. 10 times out of 10, they will go to the developer and say it’s time to publish, even when they’re told that it’s not finished. The answer is always “well, we’ll release a patch.” Sometimes you need to consider that not everyone is connected to the internet. Not everyone wants to have to redownload patches every time they format their computer. I’m talking about patches for the games, not drivers. It’s your responsablity to have updated DirectX/Drivers.
As a note to rushtopher: Thanks for the kind words (especially in the pit) and Max Payne is the only game that features ‘bullet time’ as a controlled action. I’ve played through Hitman and it doesn’t have it.
John
SPOOFE, darlin’,
Did it make you feel better to call me an ass? I certainly hope it did, because I can’t imagine what other reason you’d have for doing so. Surely you’re not just a fuckwad who calls other people names for not having the exact same experiences in life that you’ve had. That’s not it, is it? Huh?
Having naively registered games in times past, I have gotten bugged by the publishers, including phone calls from Interplay asking if I wish to purchase a game, for doing so. And yet, I’ve never had any update disks sent my way.
Throatshot, darlin’…
I didn’t call you an ass. I told you that you were making assumptions. 'Tis a difference, dearie. 
Well, honey-pie, it’s just because you were making some assumptions (by the way, don’t you just love the word “assumption” when you really stress the first syllable? I do. It sounds like an orgasm riding off the tongue…)
Sure. But at least I don’t make assumptions, cutie.
That’s too bad. I feel your pain. In fact, if you were sitting next to me right now, I would sob on your shoulder in support and sympathy. Come here, you… {{{{{{{{{{throatshot}}}}}}}}}} Now, don’t you feel all better and good and snuggly, you sexy hunk of meat?
I couldn’t swear to this, but I have heard that Sierra was bought out by another company some time ago, and that Ken and Roberta Williams don’t even work for Sierra anymore. If true, this would explain why it has been ages since the company made any of the fun, enjoyable games I remember so fondly from my childhood.
Thanks for making me laugh, SPOOFE.
Most of these former great companies have been bought out by giant monoliths that decided “we need to make computer games so lets just buy a company”
microprose was bought out by Hasbro if I remember correctly
Sierra has none of the original staff that made the games which is why kings quest went from being a cute medieval Alice in wonderland type of game to medieval tomb raider I cant remember who bought them out tho
And origin is finally out of business and absorbed by electronic arts which has a loot and pillage mentality about computer game companies
Although this wasnt specificaly brought but was mentioned by a few people heres a article on multiplayer bugs
http://www.cgonline.com/features/010928-f1-f1.html
It seems some didnt have a clue about the frankenstein they unleashed although I’d have to say AO has the worst customer service out there ( no phone service you use their faqs or e-mail )