Quote Originally Posted by Puzz3D
That's the best way to deal with the Total War series now rather than buying the game and then hoping that the gameplay can be brought up to a standard that makes it worth spending the time playing. I still don't own M2TW for that reason which makes the announced expansion to it useless to me since it's not a standalone expansion. The delayed v1.2 patch also has no affect on me, but I agree with delaying it if there is potentially a CTD. Like RTW, I don't expect M2TW to be in reasonable working condition until 1 year after release at which point modders can try to do something with it, although, that doesn't help MP very much.
In my opinion its the best way to deal with all pc games. Its an industry wide problem from 90% ratings at review sites to open moddable files so end users can correct problems.

Essentially (and quite brilliantly) the gaming industry has set up conditions where the end user pays for a product before its finished, and helps to finish the game themselves. its a great business model, for the dev/publisher, why wouldnt they continue this business model?

One reason, the consumer no longer supports the process with thier purchase.