Has anyone been to totalwar.com recently

[Kraxis]

Now Old Celt I would like for you to click the little link at the bottom of Quietus' post. There you will see the thread in which the post of Gil was made.

In said thread people went nuts... Only hours after the released news. How could people know anything at that time?!?!? There wasn't even any screenshots or movies at that time.

I think you owe the man an apology, and please settle down a bit. It is like you couldn't fathom that people here would actually rave their own heads off and that that was in fact what Gil was responding to. Please stop taking such things personal... At least that is how your posts came off to me.

[Musashi]

You know, I understand the idea that developers should produce games free of bugs and patch any that are buggy no matter what... But seriously, unless you've not bought any games in the past couple years, do you actually expect that to happen?

You can compare it to a car that won't run, but the fact is that the standards the car industry holds itself to and the standards that the game industry holds itself to are very, very different beasts.

I'd say the last 5-10 games I bought, major releases from large companies all, were buggy and never got fixed, and we're talking crash bugs here.

So to me it's just par for the course.

[Browning]

You know, I understand the idea that developers should produce games free of bugs and patch any that are buggy no matter what... But seriously, unless you've not bought any games in the past couple years, do you actually expect that to happen?

You know, I happen to have bought some games with real support. Europa Universalis II being a good example of a cooperation between the devs and the players.

You can compare it to a car that won't run, but the fact is that the standards the car industry holds itself to and the standards that the game industry holds itself to are very, very different beasts.

Now whose fault is this?

[HarunTaiwan]

The lesson to me is this:

WAIT THREE MONTHS AFTER IT'S RELEASED BEFORE PURCHASE.

Hey, if we all did this the beancounters might get the message.

[Browning]

Just look at the bottom of the page 5 of the Loadgame-bug in the .com. It is terrifying.

http://p223.ezboard.com/fshoguntotal...rt=81&stop=100

[player1]

The thing is that strategy games are usually type of game that are more prone to bugs, or in which bugs are bigger showstoppers (then some texture collion in FPS).

There are so many formualas involved in the game, as well as in AI routine.


Now the problem with RtW is publisher, since they fund the patches.

Usually, in gaming industry things work like this:

If game is bad, give very few patches (if any). Why lose even more money on failure.

If game is good give more patches. It's worth fixing some bugs, and will help if we ever want to relase sequel.

If game is very good give expansions and more and more patches. Great games have big fan base. Only fans buy expansions, not casual gamers. Fans are usually more touchy on bugs then casual players. Bugs fixed in patches will carry out for expansion too, so you effectively already work for expansion when fixing the bugs for original.

Unfortunatly, that's the thing that Activision doesn't understand.

In contrast, you could look at Neverwinter Nights or Civilization 3, that got lots of expansions and patches. They are funded by Atari (foremely known as Infogrames).

Of course, in case of games that flopped, Atari is ruthless too. Look at Temple of Elemental Evil or Master of Orion 3. Still, even Atari doesn't realize that some games floped because of bugs, and if fixed would be successful. But, that's for another discussion.


Anyway, Rome: Total War is successful game, and as such, should deserve patching, both from gamer and commercial view.