Vincent Archer wrote:
>
> From: Vincent Archer <Vincent.Archer@...>
>
> [OOLT = Out Of List Topic]
>
> If people paid only for bugless software, the computer industry would crash down
> overnight :)
>
> Software industry faces two choices:
>
> - Refine their products until nothing can be done, release it after three years,
> and ask $300 per copy
> - Release a working product, release it after a year, and ask $50 per copy
>
> Another problem is that, if you want to release a product that will be used by 100,000
> persons, and want it bugless, you need to use 100,000 beta-testers over a period roughly
> equal to the product lifetime... or people will find bugs.
>
> (non-regression testing also delay fixing, yadda, yadda)
I said I would stop, but this is just wrong. It's what the industry
wants you to believe. You CAN release adequate products. I'm not talking
completely bug free, especially in a game like EQ. But EQ wasn't even
complete! Even in the design and development department! The game is
still in Beta, don't you see? If we dismiss the few little bugs, what
about things like specialization or the rouge skills that have only been
worked in three months after release? Why does my Skull of Jhen'Tra look
like a wooden totem? Why do some of the research spells don't work? The
research mechanism is there - it's the same as any combine mechanism.
But some stuff don't work - why? Why was jewelry fixed only now?
These are all things that have nothing to do with coding and everything
to do with design. What I'm griping about is not only the existing low
quality, but the ever present decrease in quality as well. Verant
released an uncompleted product. No other industry would tolerate a
manufacturer releasing a product so uncompleted as EQ at release date.
Whether we like it or not, we are being fucked up the ass (excuse my
french) by game developers. Yes, they are pushed by marketing which is
in place pushed by demands. I understand that the developers themselves,
the programmers would like to make the game perfect.
But, the end product is that the consumer is getting an uncompleted
product for very complete money. The great irony of this is that this is
driven by the consumer's lack of will power to abstain from buying this
buggy software and the consumer's great demand. Face it - entertainment
is not like other businesses. You can get two different microwaves and
they'll both heat. But two different games will always be much more
different.
And so, the consumers are the biggest justifiers of this phenomenon,
becoming the closing link in this circle of inadequacy and lack of
backlash. We can only hope that in the future, with the rise of game
popularity and the rise of choce in any genre, developers won't allow
themselves to release such products. Simply because the competitor will
be better and bug free as well.
--
Sergey
--
KPS, PUNK (Paramilitary Undercover Nuclear Kamikaze)