Take the Fun out of Gameing.

[Lord Gay]

I was talking about this yesterday, how game designers don't finish games any more (ETW, anyone?) and sell the Beta version, effectively making the customer the Beta tester without knowing it.

I figured this out a long time ago; it's why I have my one-year rule. It's a personal rule that I won't buy any game until it has been out for at least a year, if not longer.

Waiting this long allows me to ignore all of the obnoxious advertising, propaganda, campaigning and hype that companies try to create for their usually POS game. It allows me to see if the game is any good by reading reviews and posts by other gamers. It allows most of the bugs to be fixed, and if they aren't, not be disappointed having waited for a year for promised bug-fixes that never came. It usually allows the price to drop, and for moddable games now, let's me see what kind of mods are out there and how large and active the game community is, thus giving me an idea of potential mods of the future. It lets me see how the devs have responded to issues and their attitude towards their customers.

Following this has made me a lot happier about buying games, without having been psyched-out by false advertising, unrealised expectations, disappointing flaws and poor design decisions. Now I have a much better idea of what's for sale, and whether I will pay N dollars for a game.

I only violated my rule once, and I was sorry for it. NEVER buy a game hot off the press. (*mumble* stupid alpha *mutter*)

 

[aelf]

I think it's the opposite. Piracy, or the threat of piracy, leads developers to increasingly do annoying things like install rootkits or remove dedicated servers or include overly intrusive copy protection that makes them look more greedy and in turn makes more people think they're more justified in pirating. Or it just leads them to developing games for consoles only.

Piracy is part of the free market. If you can buy games for less than the selling price or $0 even, you would. That's only rational. Woohoo!

 

[ArneHD]

He is stating this openly!? Wow, just wow. This is moustache twirling scale villainy right here.

Edit: He, that might make a fun comic book character:

"Bobby Kotick" DESTROYER OF ART! ABUSER OF PROGRAMMERS! SOUL SUCKING VILLAIN FROM THE DEPTHS OF THE CORPORATE WORLD!

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

The article has very biased wording. Next time just present the facts, please. As for my response, Activision isn't the only gaming company out there.

 

[Joecoolyo]

The article has very biased wording. Next time just present the facts, please. As for my response, Activision isn't the only gaming company out there.

Yeah you've got honest EA (whose made such great finished titles such as Spore, the Sims, Simcity Societies, etc.) and... uhh... hmmm.....

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

The only thing Rockstar Games is infamous for is the content of their games, which could be fixed by not playing them if you're a prude.

 

[Shaihulud]

Happy employees make good workers, that is good management. I wonder about his rationale about destroying the morale of his most creative staff. Surely his comments will garner many negative feedback from fans and such, methinks this man will be fired soon.

 

[Mad Man]

we can only hope the troll gets fired if thats his attitude.

 

[Souron]

Frankly, I'm not quite sure most games meet the constitutional requirements to receive any copyright protections. This is the only thing giving the government authority to stop pirating. I'm now sure how useful some of these games are. It could be read as only securing the rights of the actual programmers, not the company backing the games.

The games themselves may not be useful, but the same algorithms that make game simulations possible, can be employed in real life scientific simulations too. It's still useful innovation.

Also, this is a case of the constitution giving with a clause an a purpose. The purpose is ignored, and the clause is applied. Much like gun rights. Not saying that it's the way it should be but it's they way it is.