A Short Thought: Game Updates and Patches

I want to take you all back in time, where when a game was finished and released developers sat back in their chairs and collectively hoped they didn’t miss anything. It was a simple time. If a game was good but had a few little glitches here and there. It wasn’t a fault that had to be fixed, it added a little bit of charm to the game itself. If a title was garbage, there was no going back to fix it so developers didn’t waste time and resources to make a garbage game playable.

I can’t recall the first time I remember seeing a game update on my console. Has to be back in the early days of my Xbox 360. Ever since I’ve been seeing a trend of games being released with countless bugs and glitches, developers getting in touch with the community and saying “Don’t worry, we know the problems and are working on a patch to fix it.” I have a strange proposition for all you developers. If a game isn’t ready to be released… DON’T RELEASE IT!... I know this may seem like an otherworldly concept to a lot of you. But you have to understand. In the early days of online access that came with gaming consoles. It was mostly used for online multiplayer and game downloads. It was also provided to allow indie developers the chance to get their titles out there without the need to sell themselves to big companies to get their game distributed. It worked incredibly well, for the most part.

However like most great ideas eventually humans eventually took advantage of it. The need for game testers has nearly been eliminated. Now developers give players the option for “early access” or “beta testing” sometimes even making the players pay to take part. Which comes with its own benefits and problems. Games are now being developed quickly and are starting to feel less like an art form and more like an assembly line. Companies are now just happy making all their money releasing a bug ridden half finished title and simply fixing it after the problems are pointed out by the very people they should be trying to impress.

The online updates isn’t only changing developers, but the players as well. They aren’t happy anymore with the developers unique style or type of gameplay. Players have become needy, whiny, little princesses that aren’t happy unless they get what they want. If there is an aspect of a game that players don’t like they will rage and complain until the developers patch it out. The players are going as far as to actually boycott certain franchises, or developers that consistently don’t make what they want. Now I’m not condoning developers listening to their audience. Even worse now is some games *cough* Destiny *cough* are ending up not even close to what the developers initially envisioned because they are just so focused on pleasing their crowd.

But it’s not all bad, developers can now expand their content through DLC, which any seasoned gamer will know by now can give fun additional gameplay or storylines that wouldn’t have been able to exist without the ability to download it right to the consoles. There are arguments that the DLC should be released with the original title. Which for most cases, is true, but as long as the DLC being released isn’t necessary to complete the game, but merely provides additional content that enhances an already complete experience. I don’t see a problem with dropping 15-20 dollars once in a while.