What the hell is up with games of today?
Author
I felt a bit bored the other day so I decided I was going to my brothers place to borrow some games and try out. I have not played alot of games in the past year or two.
So I borrowed two games from him, Age of pirates - Caribbean Tales and The guild 2. The former was not even opened yet, still packaged, he had no time to play it. Anyways, I went home to play Age of pirates, which I assumed I would love, considering what a big fan of Sid Meiers Pirates! I am.
After the installation was done and I tried to run it, problem one arised. Starforce (copy protection) whined that I had no CD in the player. I ended up having to physically unplug one of my CD players, before it would run.
After I had created my first character and entered a tavern to get some rumors I was booted back to windows. I repeated this four or five times. Then I checked that all my drivers were up to date, which they were. I ventured to the developers forum and found a patch that I applied to the game. Jolly good. I was back in buisness. I created a new character and started exploring the world. I entered a sea battle and every time I tried to fire my cannons, the internal(!) speaker beeped like crazy and when the battle was finished, I got booted back to windows.
Back to the forums, I browsed the tech support threads and found out that this was one of a huge number of known bugs. The game was deemed unplayable by a great number of players. Alot had returned them to the store to get their money back. Some however seemed to have better luck if they ran a mod for the game, but the download was about 800mb. So I never tried it. I felt that I should not have to use a mod to be able to play a 50$ game. So I uninstalled it. And had to use some shady applications to get the copyprotection scheme off my system (appearently it hides as a device that can make your whole system instable).
Anyways, I opened the Guild 2 package, this is a game I have heard quite alot about and know it was anticipated by alot of people. I install the game and start up the tutorial. Everything went quite smooth, for about 3 minutes. When I got booted back to Windows. I was thinking, "Holy crap, my computer is dying". So I installed it on my wife's spanking new laptop, same result. So back to browsing forums. I thought, except you cannot get into the Guild 2 forums, because it is "overloaded, try later". So I googled and found out that the forums there have been in that state for a few days. I could not even open a thread and read it, so no information there. After a bit of googling around, the best way to acctually be able to play (but appearently a bunch of problems persists after the crack/patch) The Guild 2, is to use a cracked version, patch it with some german patches and edit some of the datafiles of the game. Needless to say I trashed the idea of playing that game aswell. It looks nice and all, but the common problem with crashes every fifth minute is nothing I want to do.
So I tried once again with Age of pirates on the laptop. But it crashed, beeped and what not. I could not play it for 10 minutes without a crash. Some people seem to blame Starforce, which might be true. But I checked the execution/error logs of the game and it contained hundreds and hundreds of errors of the type "cannot open texture blah blah", "Sound missing", "releasing sound"(repeated 400 times in a row). Alot of their scripts had runtime errors and what not. So basically it is just a buggy noncomplete game.
So what the hell is up with this? Why do big commercial titles get thrown out like this? My computers do beat the recommended requirements on all points. So it is not a bad setup that does it. All my drivers are new etc.
The only thing I can think of is that there is no pride in programming games anymore, it is just a factory sense like everything else. But two games, on two computers, on the same day. Seriously.
Quote:Original post by Zorak
Starforce (copy protection) whined that I had no CD in the player. I ended up having to physically unplug one of my CD players, before it would run.
...
So I uninstalled it. And had to use some shady applications to get the copyprotection scheme off my system (appearently it hides as a device that can make your whole system instable).
StarForce is certainly a nasty piece of software, isn't it?
shmoove
Publishers have become, for the most part, greedy, myopic assholes with vanishingly little understanding of what drives their market in the long term.
I can't speak for every studio out there, but I do know that in a lot of cases it has nothing to do with the studio not taking pride in their work. We get screwed just about as much as the gamers do. To be honest I think we'll see a sort of critical turning point in the scope of the next 4-5 years or so, when the market finally bottoms out on the jerkoffs who peddle half-finished games based on a holiday sales schedule, and we start seeing a nice healthy resurgence in publishers who actually enable their studios to create quality product.
Of course, I only think that on my optimistic days. The rest of the time I'm pretty sure we're all fucked.
I can't speak for every studio out there, but I do know that in a lot of cases it has nothing to do with the studio not taking pride in their work. We get screwed just about as much as the gamers do. To be honest I think we'll see a sort of critical turning point in the scope of the next 4-5 years or so, when the market finally bottoms out on the jerkoffs who peddle half-finished games based on a holiday sales schedule, and we start seeing a nice healthy resurgence in publishers who actually enable their studios to create quality product.
Of course, I only think that on my optimistic days. The rest of the time I'm pretty sure we're all fucked.
Well first problem is you are comparing it to Sid Meier's Pirates. One of the all time best games. It is like comparing a play you heard about from a friend to Macbeth.
However, I think we need more people to try to become publishers for the little guy. I think Indy Gaming could be a hit.
However, I think we need more people to try to become publishers for the little guy. I think Indy Gaming could be a hit.
Quote:Original post by Zorak
I felt a bit bored the other day so I decided I was going to my brothers place to borrow some games and try out. I have not played alot of games in the past year or two.
So I borrowed two games from him, Age of pirates - Caribbean Tales and The guild 2. The former was not even opened yet, still packaged, he had no time to play it. Anyways, I went home to play Age of pirates, which I assumed I would love, considering what a big fan of Sid Meiers Pirates! I am.
After the installation was done and I tried to run it, problem one arised. Starforce (copy protection) whined that I had no CD in the player. I ended up having to physically unplug one of my CD players, before it would run.
After I had created my first character and entered a tavern to get some rumors I was booted back to windows. I repeated this four or five times. Then I checked that all my drivers were up to date, which they were. I ventured to the developers forum and found a patch that I applied to the game. Jolly good. I was back in buisness. I created a new character and started exploring the world. I entered a sea battle and every time I tried to fire my cannons, the internal(!) speaker beeped like crazy and when the battle was finished, I got booted back to windows.
Back to the forums, I browsed the tech support threads and found out that this was one of a huge number of known bugs. The game was deemed unplayable by a great number of players. Alot had returned them to the store to get their money back. Some however seemed to have better luck if they ran a mod for the game, but the download was about 800mb. So I never tried it. I felt that I should not have to use a mod to be able to play a 50$ game. So I uninstalled it. And had to use some shady applications to get the copyprotection scheme off my system (appearently it hides as a device that can make your whole system instable).
Anyways, I opened the Guild 2 package, this is a game I have heard quite alot about and know it was anticipated by alot of people. I install the game and start up the tutorial. Everything went quite smooth, for about 3 minutes. When I got booted back to Windows. I was thinking, "Holy crap, my computer is dying". So I installed it on my wife's spanking new laptop, same result. So back to browsing forums. I thought, except you cannot get into the Guild 2 forums, because it is "overloaded, try later". So I googled and found out that the forums there have been in that state for a few days. I could not even open a thread and read it, so no information there. After a bit of googling around, the best way to acctually be able to play (but appearently a bunch of problems persists after the crack/patch) The Guild 2, is to use a cracked version, patch it with some german patches and edit some of the datafiles of the game. Needless to say I trashed the idea of playing that game aswell. It looks nice and all, but the common problem with crashes every fifth minute is nothing I want to do.
So I tried once again with Age of pirates on the laptop. But it crashed, beeped and what not. I could not play it for 10 minutes without a crash. Some people seem to blame Starforce, which might be true. But I checked the execution/error logs of the game and it contained hundreds and hundreds of errors of the type "cannot open texture blah blah", "Sound missing", "releasing sound"(repeated 400 times in a row). Alot of their scripts had runtime errors and what not. So basically it is just a buggy noncomplete game.
So what the hell is up with this? Why do big commercial titles get thrown out like this? My computers do beat the recommended requirements on all points. So it is not a bad setup that does it. All my drivers are new etc.
The only thing I can think of is that there is no pride in programming games anymore, it is just a factory sense like everything else. But two games, on two computers, on the same day. Seriously.
To be honest, I'm not surprised, due to never hearing of those games before.
I think ApochPiQ has a valid point there. Put the ever increasing complexity of games on top of that, and it's only natural bugfests like that are going to pop up. However, the situation might not be that bad: it may just give the indie scene an additional edge over top-tier games... ;)
Quote:Original post by ApochPiQ
Publishers have become, for the most part, greedy, myopic assholes with vanishingly little understanding of what drives their market in the long term.
I can't speak for every studio out there, but I do know that in a lot of cases it has nothing to do with the studio not taking pride in their work. We get screwed just about as much as the gamers do. To be honest I think we'll see a sort of critical turning point in the scope of the next 4-5 years or so, when the market finally bottoms out on the jerkoffs who peddle half-finished games based on a holiday sales schedule, and we start seeing a nice healthy resurgence in publishers who actually enable their studios to create quality product.
Of course, I only think that on my optimistic days. The rest of the time I'm pretty sure we're all fucked.
I used to be a games developer back in the late '80s and early '90s. (I stopped in 1996.) Back then, platforms were a hell of a lot simpler. Most importantly: platforms weren't as complex. I didn't have to worry about DirectX -- the last PC game I worked on used DOS4GW -- an MS-DOS 'extender' that came bundled with Watcom's C++ compiler. My last self-designed game was for the Atari ST.
I prided myself on the quality of my code. Downloadable patches weren't an option: if your game was released with major bugs in it, you suffered the ignominious process of a product recall -- asking for disks to be returned to the publisher for replacement by a working version -- which was, as you can imagine, not considered a Good Idea by the publishers who would have to pay for this. (That's not to say it never happened. Just that it was very, _very_ unusual to see buggy games released.)
The Internet changed all that: suddenly, patching was essentially free. Buggy software could be released without any major repercussions. Suddenly, QA became that little bit less important -- particularly on the PC -- so end users got promoted to unofficial beta tester status. Over the same period, prices have risen substantially, so a form of entertainment that cost me £5-£10 during the 1980s now asks me for £30-£40. Publishing also became big business. In the early years, many developers sold their own titles directly -- often via mail order.
We're seeing the dark underbelly of capitalism: if the market doesn't demand quality, it doesn't get it. It really is that simple. If you want to stop companies producing crap, _stop buying it_. Stop _stealing_ it even! All those pirating whiners who prate about how they want to see what a game is like _all the way through_ are justifying the charge-for-aftersales-service mentality. After all, it's proof that there is a demand for the game, even if you're not willing to pay for the boxed product. Therefore, it's easy to use this to justify charging for support and service, while treating the actual game as a necessary evil required to give the plebs something to call your premium rate numbers _about_.
Clearly there are enough people ill-informed enough to be willing to put up with endless patch-and-mend.
Clearly the market has not yet woken up to the great EULA rip-off.
(NOTE TO DEVELOPERS: Guaranteeing software functionality IS possible. If it wasn't, modern, computer-controlled trains, airplanes, X-ray machines and even warships wouldn't exist. If C++ is the cause of so many woes, STOP USING IT! If you don't demand better tools, nobody's going to make them.)
My dream is that, one day, people will learn to appreciate good craftsmanship again.
*
I decided to return to my gamedev roots two weeks ago and have started work on my first self-designed game in over 12 years. ("I'm a bit rusty" is a bit of an understatement.) Unlike most of my rivals, I fully intend to warrant my games as suitable for purpose.
Regards,
Quote:Original post by ApochPiQ
Publishers have become, for the most part, greedy, myopic assholes with vanishingly little understanding of what drives their market in the long term.
I can't speak for every studio out there, but I do know that in a lot of cases it has nothing to do with the studio not taking pride in their work. We get screwed just about as much as the gamers do. To be honest I think we'll see a sort of critical turning point in the scope of the next 4-5 years or so, when the market finally bottoms out on the jerkoffs who peddle half-finished games based on a holiday sales schedule, and we start seeing a nice healthy resurgence in publishers who actually enable their studios to create quality product.
Of course, I only think that on my optimistic days. The rest of the time I'm pretty sure we're all fucked.
From what I saw in my brief stint as a games developer several years ago, I'd say you're dead on with your opinion here. The smaller development houses are pretty powerless against the whims of the publishers, and if someone in the publishing house really wants to ship your game this quarter despite it's woefully unfinished status there's little you can do. That's one of the reasons why I'd be hesitant to go back into commercial game development for a big publisher again; it's just heartbreaking for that to happen when you care about your product.
I'm also hoping that this trend will start to cancel out soon, but I'm not sure how long it will take. I know that I now tend to only buy PC games on budget and have moved more towards console games partly for the quality issues. It's also really disappointing to see houses like Lucasarts - which back in the 90s was one of my most trusted and beloved companies - poison a francise like Knights of the Old Republic by releasing an unfinished sequel (now I don't trust anything they make).
I too hope for the bad publishers to die off or mend their ways, but I doubt it will happen any time soon.
I'm afraid things like this are likely to get much worse before they start getting better. To me it looks like the consoles are starting to follow the "patch it later" trend as well, now that most of them are online.
Quote:So I borrowed two games from him, Age of pirates - Caribbean Tales and The guild 2. The former was not even opened yet, still packaged, he had no time to play it. Anyways, I went home to play Age of pirates, which I assumed I would love, considering what a big fan of Sid Meiers Pirates! I am.
Quote:Publishers have become, for the most part, greedy, myopic assholes with vanishingly little understanding of what drives their market in the long term. ... The rest of the time I'm pretty sure we're all fucked.
Quote:The smaller development houses are pretty powerless against the whims of the publishers ...I'm also hoping that this trend will start to cancel out soon, but I'm not sure how long it will take. I know that I now tend to only buy PC games on budget and have moved more towards console games partly for the quality issues. It's also really disappointing to see houses like Lucasarts - which back in the 90s was one of my most trusted and beloved companies - poison a francise like Knights of the Old Republic by releasing an unfinished sequel (now I don't trust anything they make).
I too hope for the bad publishers to die off or mend their ways, but I doubt it will happen any time soon.
All of those look like normal business.
Let's just glance at the the movie industry, which the games biz often mirrors.
There are the major movie publishers. Look what they've released: mostly clones of successful books/works or remakes of earlier movies based on successful books. They look at what huge investment they can make, what set of stars they can hire at $20M each, in order to get a maximum return on investment. They don't care about long term relationships with movie-goers, just getting a profit. One of the easiest ways to do that is to get a license to something popular and make a movie version. You don't see risky new stuff like Napolean Dynamate or Nacho Libre coming from major publishers.
It's the same in games. You get the major publishers who are risk averse. It is easier to reuse technology and engines. It reduces cost to cut corners on QA, and people will still buy it if there are a few bugs. You get EA sports publishing the same games every year. Blizzard reusing profitable elements in Warcraft 1, 2, expansions, Starcraft, more expansions, 3, WoW. Doom 1,2,3 which were based on several earlier series' work, and Square has over 20 Final Fantasies in the series. Even more Roller Coaster expansion packs. Age if <whatever>.
And as mentioned origianlly, even a remake of Pirates! rather than a completely novel Sid Meyer idea.
The major publishers are in the business of maximizing profits, and they do that best by thinking in the shorter terms. What makes the most money over the next three years? It is inexpensive to expand on something you already have. There is a big market for anything new in a popular genre regardless of quality.
There are also people like the OP's brother who buy the sequels and other big budget games regardless of their quality, even if they stay unopened because there is not enough time to play it.
Anything coming from major publishers, be it movies, music, or games, are going to suffer from the maximum profit view. It means remakes and remixes of popular stuff. It means buying Disney's Sleeping Beauty every ten years on a new media. It means getting a new Beatle's remix. It means people will buy Final Fantasy 27. It means every form of copy prevention and digital restriction management that they can imagine even if it breaks some machines or won't play on 2-year-old players.
The consumer individually doesn't matter, just as long as the company gets maximum profit. Consumers won't care for long, and they'll buy whatever gets released when the publisher rides the next popular genre wave.
You won't see that from small publishers or indies, since their goal is maximum exposure of their ideas rather than maximum profit.
This topic is closed to new replies.
Advertisement
Popular Topics
Advertisement