Open Letter to People Who Make Games

[Susan Arendt]

OMG... Games have bugs and glitches!

Check the sales numbers, then tell me if these games are hurting the industry.

Russ actually buys these games? They don't give them to him for free? Now that would be a good
story.

Yes, this may come as some surprise to you, but all of us here at The Escapist, even the EIC, have to buy games sometimes.

 

[Kilo24]

I had hoped that with a working engine already out that Obsidian could focus solely on the gameplay and story content, leaving only the frequent crashes that always creep into Bethesda games. But that apparently wasn't the case.

I would hardly call Bethesda's version of Gambryo 'working'.

It hasn't worked since Morrowind, I don't know how we've let them get away with it.

To split hairs, Morrowind used the NetImmerse engine, which was just the predecessor to the GameBryo engine.

I would call both Morrowind and Oblivion "working", but prone to random crashes. Speaking as someone who played the hell out of Morrowind, there's a wide gap between "working and playable" and "free from major technical issues." Console commands can do a good bit to remedy bugs, but it's never something a player should be expected to do to just play the game.

But, hey, it's in keeping with the grand Fallout tradition to have buggy unfinished games. Fallout 2 was a notable contender there.

At least all these games manage to avoid Pool of Radiance's example of wiping your hard drive upon uninstallation.

 

[RvLeshrac]

Like I've mentioned before, the games you buy don't legally have to function, that isn't what you're buying, that's just what you think/expect to buy.

Actually, yes, legally, they *must* function as specified. That's an "implied warranty of merchantability."

New Vegas doesn't have to make you toast, but it does have to let you install and operate the game from beginning to end, barring the existence of conflicting hardware/software in your machine. If it doesn't do these things, the person who sold it to you *must* legally provide a refund.

If they *knowingly* sell a product that does not perform the functions it was designed to perform (and was sold as properly performing), they're guilty of fraud.

"barring the existence of conflicting hardware/software in your machine." is the key to the issue.
As long as a developer/publisher can produce a working version you have no court case.
This is why there is more than one version of the xbox360/ps3/whatever other system.
As long as they have a ps360 that can run a retail version you have no legs to stand on.
Beyond that even if you return your game you'll only hurt the retailer you bought it from rather than the developer who made it.

The onus is on the merchant to prove that the product is not working because of something you did, however, not the other way around.

And there is no substantial programmatic difference between the various versions of the 360 and PS3. If a game hangs on one 360, it will hang on all 360s. If a game hangs on one PS3, it will hang on all PS3s.

Further, the retailer returns the product to the publisher/distributor, they don't eat the cost of the software.

 

[RelexCryo]

Excellent Article Russ. I always love reading your stuff. I hugely agree with this. What really bothers me is when developers do this with games that can't be patched-where the disk itself has to be replaced. I think this happened with a Wii game recently. What also bothers me a lot is how simple many of these problems are to fix.

 

[camazotz]

Fallout New vegas.....Civ V.....Medal of Honor? I haven't really heard much about the last one, but it's certainly not getting A+ ratings. I don't own Civ V, but all of my cohorts who do complain about its various issues. Ihave FNV and so far (fingers crossed) have not had an issue, but I have only played a few hours in so far, thinking I'll go easy until I hear its been patched to resolve the issues people ar having, just to be safe.

This is a great open letter, but it could pretty much apply to almost any given year over the last several, unfortunately...

 

[RvLeshrac]

I had hoped that with a working engine already out that Obsidian could focus solely on the gameplay and story content, leaving only the frequent crashes that always creep into Bethesda games. But that apparently wasn't the case.

I would hardly call Bethesda's version of Gambryo 'working'.

It hasn't worked since Morrowind, I don't know how we've let them get away with it.

To split hairs, Morrowind used the NetImmerse engine, which was just the predecessor to the GameBryo engine.

I would call both Morrowind and Oblivion "working", but prone to random crashes. Speaking as someone who played the hell out of Morrowind, there's a wide gap between "working and playable" and "free from major technical issues." Console commands can do a good bit to remedy bugs, but it's never something a player should be expected to do to just play the game.

But, hey, it's in keeping with the grand Fallout tradition to have buggy unfinished games. Fallout 2 was a notable contender there.

At least all these games manage to avoid Pool of Radiance's example of wiping your hard drive upon uninstallation.

I hate Ubisoft to this day for that. Fortunately, I noticed my Win98 install dir looked a bit light before rebooting and managed to replace all the files which had been erased.

I filed a complaint with the BBB, and Ubisoft's response was "Sucks to be you."

 

[cloudcover]

Russ, fairly good article, but you actually skimmed over the real fix. You said yourself you "could and probably should" write rants on those broken games. Absolutely you should, I would go so far as stating in no uncertain terms that as a reliable source on gaming, and the editor-in-chief of a gaming site, it is actually your responsibility to do so. I would suggest that you dedicate part of this site to naming and shaming such broken games. Currently you have to trawl through the unreliable and often rabid forums on many sites - not an ideal way of getting information. I appreciate this might mean extra work for you or your staff but I think it should be a high priority for you guys.

 

[TheXRatedDodo]

I, for one, am looking forward to 1982 mkII - if it comes. The internet tears will be oh so enjoyable as to make the misery it will no doubt cause hundreds to thousands of industry workers almost seem worth it.

I agree with this 110%.
Has nobody else been getting the feeling it's about that time that the game industry gets purged so that it may start anew?

Movies went from flickbooks and those funny spinning things with holes that you look through to things like Fritz Lang's Metropolis, Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, to Jurassic Park to Transformers 2.

Games, equivalently, went from flickbooks (Pong) to nearly reaching the levels of Fritz Lang's Metropolis (the bulk of the 90's. 97 is probably my choice for best year of gaming ever, artistically,) to Transformers 2 (the slow decline of gaming over the past decade.)

Metropolis, Citizen kane, etc, may not look as good, but they say so much more than the bright, shiny explosion-fest that is Transformers 2.
The first Silent Hill may not look as good as the bright, shiny explosion-fest that is Modern Warfare 2, but it says a whole lot more about the human condition than MW2 could ever hope to say, so I'll stick with my N64, my PS1, my PS2 and my SNES and eagerly await the next big game industry crash, because I get the sense that it needs to happen.

 

[TheXRatedDodo]

Russ, fairly good article, but you actually skimmed over the real fix. You said yourself you "could and probably should" write rants on those broken games. Absolutely you should, I would go so far as stating in no uncertain terms that as a reliable source on gaming, and the editor-in-chief of a gaming site, it is actually your responsibility to do so. I would suggest that you dedicate part of this site to naming and shaming such broken games. Currently you have to trawl through the unreliable and often rabid forums on many sites - not an ideal way of getting information. I appreciate this might mean extra work for you or your staff but I think it should be a high priority for you guys.

If Russ doesn't want to do this, I will gladly do so, for goddamn free.

 

[Delusibeta]

Minecraft is a perfect example of this, people are more than willing to buy a game that's still in the alpha phase of it's development.
The only difference between say Civilization 5 and minecraft is that 2K isn't willing to admit that they're selling a barely beta version of their game.

But the difference in honesty is important, not to mention that Mincraft is pretty cheap, and will continue to be so even after the upcoming price increase, and the fact that Minecraft is something new and interesting.

Would you really buy civ 5 alpha for $20 ?
Why would they even offer it as an option when you're willing to buy less for more ?

The problem with your Minecraft argument is thus: without Notch allowing buying the alpha version, there would probably be no Minecraft. Some Indie developers cannot rely on money raised by previous games, and selling the alpha version allows you to get a constant stream of revenue and feedback to improve your game. It's in increasingly common plan for indie developers: Overgrowth by (Humble Indie Bundle) Wolfire Games and Natural Selection 2 by Unknown Worlds both sold alpha access. Not to mention Telltale's "buy the season of games we haven't finished making yet" business practice.

And I bet a hell of a lot of people would pay $20 for access to the alphas of Civ V, especially if it included the finished version (like all of the above examples mentioned on this post).

If the whole industry was build on the principle of releasing an alpha version to cut cost or finance the development process than we wouldn't be here talking about it.
Episodic releasing isn't the same as pre purchasing an alpha version.
I doubt Civ 5 alpha would sell as virally as minecraft if it was Civilization 1 alpha.
With Civilization you buy the name first rather than the game.
The problem isn't really the indies though, they are still very much at the mercy of the consumer.

It doesn't need to sell as well as Minecraft to make money, as Unknown Worlds and Wolfire Games would testify. I would argue that a Civ V alpha would probably eventually sell reasonably well, since there's little fundamentally wrong with the concept and framework. And honestly, I just disagree with your view.

 

[Lord_Jaroh]

Open Letter to People Who Make Games

Dear Game Makers: The biggest current threat to the industry is in your mirror.

Read Full Article

Excellent article. I for one would like to see you forward this to developers to see what their response is to your letter, even if it is just a bit of PR speak saying that "The game was just so big!" It'd be nice if publishers would stop trying to take advantage of the consumers' gullibility constantly.

If gaming is to become a respected media in Joe Average's eyes, it needs people to be critical of it, within the press, people that can also be respected (see Ebert and the movie industry). Then, maybe publishers, developers and the government will stop treating us like children.

 

[mbulsht]

typo, last line. did you mean to say "make better 'games'?"

But all that aside, this was a very well written letter. Whether or not it will reach the ears of its intended audience, a very valid point has been made.

 

[Atmos Duality]

That articles basically sums up why I stopped buying Bethesda titles (or now, games that use their broken-ass game engine).

When I look at the bug-fix list for things like Oblivion, it makes one stop and think just what kind of business we're running here.

Half-assed, barely-functional titles are now totally acceptable despite having access to amazingly efficient play-test groups and vast libraries technical knowledge.

 

[PapaGamer]

I liked the article and think it's completely accurate, but I'm in the camp that thinks it should be directed straight at Obsidian Entertainment. They've gone and horribly bungled three different fantastic series (NWN2, KotOR2 & Fallout:NV) with messed up, buggy, unfinished games. And did the same to their own IP, too (Alpha Protocol). Considering the level of talent at Obsidian and the fact the games are, storywise, fantastic games that I could play over and over (if I can get them to work), it's bittersweet to see their name attached to any game series I love. :sigh: Back to seeing if I can avoid the bugs in New Vegas...

 

[SamElliot'sMustache]

And another thing.. If these games are unplayable, why don't you guys ever mention that in your reviews?

That. Very. Question.

I rented New Vegas for the PS3 (I refuse to buy games outright anymore), so I got a week to play it, and found only a few minor bugs when I played it, no more than average (some minor clipping issues, had one where my character fired his gun without my pushing a button, but that one stopped pretty quickly and didn't cause me any further problems). Perhaps I was lucky, but to go for a week and not encounter anything that crippled my ability to play the game (no lost saves or missions I couldn't complete), when so many were claiming within hours of release that the game was "broken" and "unplayable?" What are the odds of that happening?

P.S.: Maybe I'm used to real game-breaking glitches from way back on the NES, when my brother and I would have to spend half-an-hour blowing into a cartridge, then into the system, after whatever game we were playing decided to freeze for the umpteenth time? Nowadays, most glitches are fixed with a simple restart. EDIT: Not that some glitches aren't complete bullshit (I look at you, map-warpers in multiplayer-shooters)

 

[Susan Arendt]

OMG... Games have bugs and glitches!

Check the sales numbers, then tell me if these games are hurting the industry.

Russ actually buys these games? They don't give them to him for free? Now that would be a good
story.

Yes, this may come as some surprise to you, but all of us here at The Escapist, even the EIC, have to buy games sometimes.

Sometimes I understand. But when you get these games for free a week or so in advance then wax poetic about them on a review only to, a week later, call them broken and unplayable is what has me a bit perturbed.

For the sake of argument, let's say you're dead-on right about Fallout New Vegas. That's one example out of three. Hardly invalidates the point being made.