Quote Originally Posted by Bel
So, by your analogy there is no minimum acceptable standard of functional software? If Quicken did your books and got all your numbers wrong? If all your tetris pieces dropped through the floor making the game unplayable? An MMO that doesn't go online?

No, I do not consider this "Art". I spend good hard earned money for software to utilize the purpose of that software. I've read page 7 of the manual and it quite clearly states I can "load a previously saved game." However, in my previously saved game my sieges would not break off (I believe proven through numerous imperical data but I will concede the Shogun's philosophical argument that I cannot deductively know this, inductively it is quite clear however,) after a load the sieges break. It is not the same game. Thus I am mislead about a key function of this game putting its very playability into question
There is also a "SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT" on page 79 of the manual, which (if you can read the very small print, which I have trouble doing) limits the warranty to replacing the recording medium.

I sincerely wish that this wasn't the case, and that CA would see the light and issue a patch to fix this bug/feature/reassessment; I'm trying to point out that comparing RTW to other products does not necessarily add any weight to our case. IMHO, your analogies to Quicken, tetris and MMO are more extreme than the the RTW load bug, but this is purely a subjective judgement. For some people the load bug makes RTW unplayable, for others it does not. In your analogies the relevant software is unusable/unplayable for everyone.

Even in this situation, a license agreement such as the one that comes with RTW would probably protect the software supplier from having to do anything about the bug. Undoubtedly a spreadsheet that could not do it sums would not sell; but how much do we/CA/SEGA think TotalWar sales will be affected now and in the future by the lack of support? I suspect not very much, as the vast majority of buyers never visit forums like this, and would never realise that there was a bug that needed fixing in the first place.