I Will just tell that, EQ will never be finished. Its an evolving game. They
will keep changing it and put on more worlds and more stuff as the time
pass. The game will always be a kind of beta. Couse it will never stop
changing. And new lvls and spells will be add on later.

At least this is what have been said, in the EQvault developer board

Karl Hatteland
-----Original Message-----
From: Sergey Bukhman <sergeyb@...>
To: eq_wizards@onelist.com <eq_wizards@onelist.com>
Date: Tuesday, June 15, 1999 10:46 AM
Subject: Re: [eq_wizards] (OOT) Exploits

>From: Sergey Bukhman <sergeyb@...>
>
>
>
>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)
>
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