PETITION: Leave the game as it is.

[Thorwyn]

I don´t know if patchfree games will be possible in the future. I doubt it. The only chance for your dream to become true is console games. But then, that´s where the trend is drifting towards at the moment. Not sure if that´s really a good trade for patched games.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Like doctors aiming to cure cancer, that's my ultimate goal so...

Trying to improve testing to such heights that all kinds of patching, excessive(read useless) coding and the likes can be prevented.

Pipedream! I know...but still...possible.

 

[Danya]

I don´t know if patchfree games will be possible in the future. I doubt it. The only chance for your dream to become true is console games. But then, that´s where the trend is drifting towards at the moment. Not sure if that´s really a good trade for patched games.

Drifting? It's there. Console games account for 80% of game sales currently, and the signs are that PC games aren't going to make much of a resurgence. They cost more to make and sell for less money. Cost more to support too.

 

[Driwen]

Drifting? It's there. Console games account for 80% of game sales currently, and the signs are that PC games aren't going to make much of a resurgence. They cost more to make and sell for less money. Cost more to support too.

The nice thing about consoles is that you just buy it and you can play, but even consoles are having some problems now (like not wanting being able to see the cd, while its in there). Besides that I dont know how long the customer will find it ok that to play all those games, he needs to have seperate consoles and as soon as consoles are going to try to come to some standard, they will suffer the same problems as pc's.
And you can make a game for a console and sell it on pc aswell and how high is the support cost for singleplayergames?

And playing a mmorpg on a console isn't the best setup as usually the PC is at a more comfortable place to be behind for a few hours than the console.

edit: if games on the pc is still 20% of the game sold than it actually has its share in the market, as there are 3 consoles(xbox,ps2,gamecube and probably some older ones aswell) out there and gameboy. So 5 platforms(and probably more) and pc has 20%, so its actually still has a large public?

 

[Thorwyn]

Drifting? It's there. Console games account for 80% of game sales currently, and the signs are that PC games aren't going to make much of a resurgence. They cost more to make and sell for less money. Cost more to support too.

As Driwen said, this is split up between a couple of consoles. And I`m sure that there are regional differences as well. I doubt that the european market has a 80-20% ratio. Asia and maybe the US are different.
The pro´s of consoles are obvious, especially in an environment, where PC hardware compatibilitly is getting worse, not better. It also is a pretty good protection against piracy copies, not 100 safe, but at least it´s harder to copy a console game than just burn a CD and get a crack from a website.
But I´m still quite sure that PC games will always have a market. Least I hope so. I don´t want to make x-box games.


edit:

and how high is the support cost for singleplayergames?

It´s of course not has high as for MMORPG´s, but its vertainly a factor. As I said, working on patches is basically lost time and consumes tons of money.

 

[Driwen]

[QUOTE='Thorwyn[B&Q]It´s of course not has high as for MMORPG´s, but its vertainly a factor. As I said, working on patches is basically lost time and consumes tons of money.[/QUOTE]

thing is that with single players there are only a few patches, think neverwinter night is an exception on that. However they keep getting money from their expansions.
And patches in single players are made to fix technical bugs and adjust real game inbalances, bugs might be less for a console allthough I wouldnt know. However getting a patch to a console game is harder so you need to get the game right first time, while with pc you can be less thorough on testing as most of your customers can find the patches. Anyway I dont really see how pc games will cost loads more on patches, as both need them almost as much (consoles will have less bugs in them as there is only setup for, allthough that is slowly not true anymore (different controllers/usb keyboards/mouse/etc)).

 

[Kallisti]

Patching DAOC for technical bugs is a VERY small component of the patching process.

Balance is 90% of the reason for patches, balance between realms, classes, RvR, PvE yin and yang etc etc...

Its a never ending process of trying to make the game worthwhile and enjoyable for as many people as possible.

You can ask:
"Why were the imbalances not spotted in testing?"

The answer is:
Complexity. The sheer variety of class/race/spec/buffs mean its impossible for a relativly small group of testers to try out every possible variation. However when you have 30,000 players, SOMEONE will try some obscure combination and discover the rare or odd combination, or some other unexpected interaction between abilities. For example, when SoS was first introduced, it was never expected to be used as an offensive weapon the way it is nowadays. It took people experimenting with what it did to discover the best way to use that ability.

A game with as much complexity as Daoc or WoW or anything will NEVER be finished/correct/balanced/fixed whatever term you may wish to use.

Comparing these evolutionary games with static games on consoles is like comparing a motorbike with a jumbo jet... How many consile games do you play for 2.5 years and STILL find something new in it?

I will agree that Daoc without ToA WOULD IMO probably be a more enjoyable game...

 

[Goofie]

I think ToA ruined the whole game. Now when you hit lvl50 the pain just begins. You'll have to farm scrolls and artis and do ML's and stuff and then you're good enough to go to RvR and die . The idea of getting artifacts and leveling them etc is facinating, but it doesnt work imho uke:

 

[Thorwyn]

thing is that with single players there are only a few patches]/quote]

That´s correct. However, the days of pure SP games are over. Almost every game these days has a MP part as soon as there is something like a community, you need to pay attention to MP issues and spend some time patching the MP part. The ammount of resources are not as huge as in a MMORPG of course, but still: it´s a factor.

 

[Kedalin]

Been around since 1.48, prolly even before that, cant remember...

That was the patch where RA's got implemented innit? note my edit btw, RA's did add alot of lifespan to the game.

I myself enjoy RvR most in the game.

I am Playing DAoC since 1.42. And i can surely tell you that the game was best till 1.48. For example... today i got grappled 3 times in a period of 20 seconds. Well thats just stupid. U don't have a chance to move. There is no resistance to that spell.

 

[Cadiva]

Hell yeah. RA's were the curse that befell DAoC. It was like the catalyst to turning people into utterly selfish PLers. before then, nobody cared about buffbots, and being PL all the time...you enjoyed RvR for THE FUN OF THE FOOKING GAME, not about... "F*CK OFF you C*NT, that blue-con is my F*CKING KILL you LAME ASS!!!111. " ...my preciousssss...my preciousssss RP's...

Gawd...I hate what RA's did to what was an environment that you took part in to have fun WITH your fellow realm mates.

Stupid Mythic. You morons.

-G

Totally and utterly in agreement with Brannor here. RvR was fun before RAs. You had the option of going out and running round your frontier zone at level 15 and yeah you got killed, but you didn't get jumped soon as you got outside the frontier keep by some RP horney asshole.

 

[Danya]

Totally and utterly in agreement with Brannor here. RvR was fun before RAs. You had the option of going out and running round your frontier zone at level 15 and yeah you got killed, but you didn't get jumped soon as you got outside the frontier keep by some RP horney asshole.

Huh? I used to camp Cruachan Gorge all the time back in 1.36. Saw quite a few mids and other albs out there too.
The first time I met an Alb in RvR on my first hib char was in the gorge, practically within clip of the border keep.

As for bugfree patchless games, dream on Tohtori, it's never going to happy. Not unless people start paying about $200 per game.

 

[Moo]

I really, really, reeeeeeeeeally hate patches. Not that they affected my gameplay in any way(except the one time...at bandcamp...), but why can't the f*cking company(whatever the company is) just make the game, set the game, run the game and leave the whining players on the beaches. No change, no chance. And don't tell me that "well they only see the problems when they run it".

Bullshit. It's all about testing it, i should know since i work as an IQA(quality assurance, not questions and answers) in a gamecompany. If the game has a problem, it wasn't tested enough. Blizzards testcrew seems to be up to speed and on it testwise and i think WoW would have the possibility to be patchfree. But, i doubt it. Always have to change something, stupid people.

Just be happy with what you got.

altho i agree

the main thing is patches will always happen because generally they are to fix bugs that came in with new content.

eg: zerkers wernt really a problem until mid got end regen (new content).

 

[ramshot]

Can't say I agree at all. Been playing MMO's since UO beta and quite frankly patch days have always been and still are usually high points for me. Stuff has _got to_ change in order for me to remain interested in playing a game for such a long time as I have played Daoc for instance. Yes, there have been many bad, bad changes in patches from Mythic, but the thing is, I don't care. I'd much rather have a few bad changes every now and then than no changes at all.

Would I like to see the game without RA's for a while? Sure, why not, it's not like I love the "my rp, mine mine"-mentality any more than the next guy, but at least myself I would have been bored to death with RvR after a certain point if there was nothing to gain from it, friendlier people or not.

 

[Ilum]

The problem isnt patching. The problem is fucked up patch changes. If they actually took appropriate action needed, patching would be sweet.