To all who complain: An open letter

[Solymer89]

I understand everyones frustrations with the release of Civ V. I have experienced them myself just last night while fiddling with DX11 version and finally settling on the DX9 version because of multiple crashes. However one must realize that a decade into the new century, this is the status quo for most every pc game out there.

With the predominant growth of active internet users coupled with the general populace of gamers obtaining the technical knowledge to run their favorite games, game companies have the luxury of releasing games with much less polish then in previous years. Let me explain, I will use Civ V and the previously released Elemental: War of Magic as examples. Both have had their issues at release and both have aggravated more then few of their customers. Elemental's team believed that their game was ready for release regardless of all the rampant issues still present in the game. They were comfortable releasing the game because they knew they were going to make a concerted effort to patch that game, and their my friends is the operative word and the reason for this letter.

Patching games has become the standard in the PC world of gaming because it is the best and easiest way to add new content and keep the games fresh (see World of Warcraft and other MMO's). No more does new content come in the form of expansions only. Game companies have the ability to add/change pretty much anything about their games post release. This is a double edged sword however.

It would seem that Stardock and to a slightly lesser degree, Firaxis has released their new games in a very polished, but not complete beta version, banking on the fact that we as fans of the game are going to purchase it. Guess what, we do purchase it! So knowing what we know about these games now and knowing that these companies are still working on fixing the games up, one should prepare himself for the issues that are bound to come up in this paradigm of PC gaming.

It is not right by any means that a company releases an unfinished product. There is a bit of Grey area where gaming is concerned however, with the abilities of the companies to change their product on a mass scale and fix what issues that were seemingly unforeseeable in the alphas and betas. I only know of one game company that holds their products until they are ABSOLUTELY, 100% ready (in their eyes) and that company is Blizzard.

Patience is a virtue and it sucks when you feel you aren't getting your money's worth but I can guarantee you that one of these days the game will be near flawless the way we all expect it to be. It's just not going to happen right off the bat anymore and it shouldn't be expected that the games will be flawless.

My opinion: Enjoy what we have at the moment, report the issues you are having, use the knowledge you've gained from previous gaming experiences to fix the game for you at this time. Wait patiently for the patches to roll out. I would guess that the first 3 major patches will have cleared up most every issue everyone is having at the moment. Then after that is the good stuff. I am sure they will be implementing new content before the first expansion. I have full faith that the game will become as enjoyable if not more so then even Civ IV ended up being after BtS was released. Civ IV wasn't fully fleshed out until years after its release yet it still provided years of enjoyment for all of you (if it didn't why did you play for so long!?!?)

Don't stop complaining because of this, don't do anything because of this. Simply realize that this is the current state of PC gaming now and for the foreseeable future. Have faith that the issues will be taken care of in due time. Practice patience and in the mean time learn the game.

 

[hardcore_gamer]

While I agree that there will always be bugs in every release, I still don't think there is any excuse for releasing a half-baked game and then expect the consumers to wait until it has been fixed after release assuming enough copies are sold.

 

[Solymer89]

While I agree that there will always be bugs in every release, I still don't think there is any excuse for releasing a half-baked game and then expect the consumers to wait until it has been fixed after release assuming enough copies are sold.

I fully agree with you. It's mostly inexcusable which is why I support Blizzard in their stance of it's ready when it's as close to perfect as possible. No they aren't perfect but they are pretty damn close with their releases. I've learned that it's easier to deal with a fanbase saying "oh great another release date push back" then a fanbase saying "i actually PAID for this??"

Hopefully more gaming companies will adopt this mind set but I don't see it happening. Blizzard started from the ground up and has maintained their high level of quality for the better part of two decades. Most other gaming studios have a bigger brother to answer to who also sets deadlines and such thus pressuring the designers which takes away the quality. It's seen in almost every PC game released now a days.

 

[Yfelsung]

People have differing opinions of "half baked".

I think Civ5 needs some polish, but it's complete as far as I'm concerned. One of the smoother launches I've dealt with in a while.

 

[Reginleif]

I like to mod and play mods, the game in and of itself does not attract my attention without these. There is no world builder, I cannot properly load mods, and various other tools they promised on release day (such as being able to upgrade Civ IV maps to Civ V) are not even awknowledged. I am disatisfied not because I expected better because what they promised is not availible.

 

[Mercade]

It's an accurate summary of what seems to be going on. Indeed BTW has its 3.19 patch (on top of the 2nd expansion) and it runs very well for almost everybody. It just takes time to iron out the issues. It's not pretty to have to deal with the problems, but that's apparently how it works.

Me, personally, I haven't pre-ordered the game. I'll most likely get the demo tonight and enjoy trying it out. But the game itself I don't expect to buy for another month. Partially because I don't have the time and partially because I don't feel like getting the game until the first patches have dealt with the biggest issues.

 

[SuperJay]

Anyone who thinks Civ 5 was released "incomplete," "as a beta," or "half-baked" should really spend some time working in the software industry.

 

[Bill Bisco]

It was interesting that long ago I really wondered why Diablo III had taken so long to get out and Starcraft II to get out, but I don't mind anymore. Apparently game companies feel that they are in such a rush and competitive market that they have to release games quickly even if they are severely lacking in content and/or full of playability issues.

But you're right OP, we speak with our dollars, and if we buy a game despite knowing that Steam is required, despite knowing that it will be full of bugs, despite knowing that Hotseat won't be available at onset, despite knowing that the modding tools won't be available at onset, etc. who else can we really blame?

 

[Solymer89]

Anyone who thinks Civ 5 was released "incomplete," "as a beta," or "half-baked" should really spend some time working in the software industry.

Maybe those are the incorrect words to describe what the game is at the moment but we most certainly should not have to spend time in the software industry to appreciate what is released to the general public.

It is the companies responsibility to release their products in a working order and for the most part they did. But you can't sit there and tell somebody to keep quite about not receiving something they were fully expecting and, more importantly, were promised at a certain threshold (I was all set for a first hot seat game with my buddy the other night only to find out that it would be patched in at a later date). I myself have learned to deal with these things.

It is the nature of the business and all we as consumers can do is not give them our money. But I say foo to that I want to play Civ V. After I fixed my crashing issues and went with DX 9 the game played great and I went to sleep at around 2am only to wake up and play more, then be late to work by half an hour In fact the only reason I stopped at 2 was because of a power surge that shut my PC down (figured it was someone saying alright dummy you have work tomorrow GO TO BED! lol)

 

[Davor]

This is bull crap. When I play a game, I should expect I should be able to finish it. I am sick and tired, that saved games lots of times become unplayable because of patches.

Now when games come out, and I know they get updated frequently, I will not start a new game because I know because I am a slow player, I will not finish it anytime a patch comes out and then the game is unplayable. Especially now that Steam updates the game even if you do not want it to.

So do I not have a right to complain then? Yes I restart alot. But that is my choice. I HATE when I have to restart a game I love playing and I can't finish it because of a patch.

 

[Gorey]

I dont read open letters.

Moderator Action: trolling is not acceptable

 

[maltson]

I dont read open letters.

Um, then why did you click on a link that clearly stated its an open letter?

 

[mattavich]

While I agree that there will always be bugs in every release, I still don't think there is any excuse for releasing a half-baked game and then expect the consumers to wait until it has been fixed after release assuming enough copies are sold.

Remember, that is your opinion. there are plenty of us enjoying this game to the FULL..

 

[Davor]

Remember, that is your opinion. there are plenty of us enjoying this game to the FULL..

LMFAO. If you are enjoying the game to the FULL, how come you are on the forums and not playing the game?

 

[xienwolf]

I fully agree with you. It's mostly inexcusable which is why I support Blizzard in their stance of it's ready when it's as close to perfect as possible. No they aren't perfect but they are pretty damn close with their releases. I've learned that it's easier to deal with a fanbase saying "oh great another release date push back" then a fanbase saying "i actually PAID for this??"

Hopefully more gaming companies will adopt this mind set but I don't see it happening. Blizzard started from the ground up and has maintained their high level of quality for the better part of two decades. Most other gaming studios have a bigger brother to answer to who also sets deadlines and such thus pressuring the designers which takes away the quality. It's seen in almost every PC game released now a days.

I think this is an unfair comparison. The main time sink for getting a game like Civ finalized is to make the AI competitive, and to sort out balance issues. We are talking about balance issues which appear in turn 500+, but have origins in turns 1-50.

These two types of hurdles aren't really faced by anything that Blizzard has popped out. An AI that spams semi-intelligently and reacts only to a local environment can be seen as fairly competent, and most of the action against AI is primarily in scripted scenarios. Plus games are bloody SHORT (especially in comparison with Civ), so balance issues are typically more obvious. The total variety in the game is also a fair deal smaller, hence balance easier again.


With the type of issues in Civ (AI and long game balance), you need MASSIVE testing time. So either you employ an army of beta testers, or you get it "close enough" and then release publicly and adjust from there.

 

[civhawaii]

I agree with OP, however I dont know how releasing buggy products got to be the status quo.

 

[Davor]

I agree with OP, however I dont know how releasing buggy products got to be the status quo.

Oh this started about 15 years ago. I said this would happen, and I was told by the mass "interent folks" that this would never happen.

Back then when games got "patched" you got a black eye and people stayed away. I guess companies like 2K or back then it was Atari, Activision being a big one, saw the change in people. People stopped giving games a "black eye" if it needed to be patched. So more and more games got "patched" after the game came out.

It was no where as bad is it was in this day and age though. But what can we say? Every single person who buys a game is an idiot. Simple as that. We keep buying games no matter what. If we all stopped buying games, then we would never have, release now patch later, but we still keep buying games.

Just look at the guy from Activision, on how he wants to charge people to pay Activision to play online games. He knows he can get a away from it. Yes a few hundred or thousand sales will be lost, but he will still be getting 10 000s of sale or more and will be getting 10 000s of money for people who will want to play online.

Once people stop buying games, this will happen. Thing is, this is "considerdered Normal practice" now so nothing will change anytime soon.

 

[mrhell]

If people keep buying games knowing full well that they probably won't work, then the companies will keep releasing unfinished games. Why wouldn't a company want a massive influx of cash halfway or so through the development process instead of at the end? Plus it gives them free labour having the customers fixing bugs instead of developers.
Want finished, playable games? Don't buy them until they're done(if at all).
Luckily for me, Civ was the only game I played. Notice I said "was."

 

[Niniux]

I don't understand the expectation of a bug-free game. I have been playing PC games since the early 90s and almost all of them had a number of bugs when I first installed them. I remember a few crashing issues with Gunship 2000, game mechanics not working properly with Dune 2 and don't even get me started on the number of problems with my all-time favourite game, Master of Magic.

What you had back then, however, was pretty much no internet community. I just played the games, probably like a lot of you, ignoring a lot of the bugs because they didn't come up that often and you eventually figured out how to avoid them. I didn't end up fixing my version of Master of Magic with a patch until 8 years later when I reinstalled it for the first time.

People seem to think that buggy releases are a new thing to the computer gaming industry, but their not. At least I get bug fixes rather quickly in this day and age.

Can't really persuade the alarmists. As all the poll topics have shown, however, they are in the vast minority and the majority do enjoy the game.

 

[hardcore_gamer]

People have differing opinions of "half baked".

I think Civ5 needs some polish, but it's complete as far as I'm concerned. One of the smoother launches I've dealt with in a while.

I never said Civ 5 was half baked, I was just making my point clear.

I would say that Civ 5 is about 3/4 baked and could have used a little extra time in the oven.