Quote Originally Posted by Odin
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.

Yes, this is absolutely correct.

Until sufficient customer backlash accumulates to the point where it is no longer profitable to follow this model, it will continue. The way it stands now, there are still enough people willing to buy immediate releases at top retail price.

I have bought and played every TW game, but even games from developers whose vision I respect (like CA's) are on a one-REAL-patch-before-buying minimum for me now. I don't count the first patch (which is usually available the day of release for most games). I broke that rule with M2TW and purchased it after 1.1 only because there were bugfixes and bugfix-including mods available. Even so, waiting until after 1.1 saved me $20, as I was able to find a copy for $31 including shipping on eBay.

I don't see myself purchasing the expansion for a very long time, because by that time the vanilla game will probably just be approaching proper status through patches and (mainly) mods. I imagine it will take a good six months for the expansion to reach that level.

So I join those who say that if you want this system to change, stop buying games on release. Make them fix it and lower the price first before you lay down your money and you will see a change in the industry. Until then, releases will continue to be set for marketing cycles like winter holidays, and games will continue to be broken for 6 months to a year after release.