4 ms·

Can't even imagine being a dev back when you only had one shot at your game going gold and couldn't update it after the fact to patch bugs.

joshspankit 4y ago
Tbh it made things much riskier for the game companies, but a lot better for the players. For example: It was almost impossible to profit on the “make a killer trailer, presell, then deliver junk and ‘patch it later’” model that’s unfortunately popular these days.
- omegaham 4y ago
  These days, I see this as a subsidy for us older folks who wait a few years to buy a game. The clueless pre-order folks are funding my gaming experience!
  - cercatrova 4y ago
    The subreddit /r/patientgamers [0] is exactly about this philosophy. Games get simultaneously better and cheaper over time and all I need to do is wait? Sign me up. [0] https://old.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/ https://old.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/
    - ComradePhil 4y ago
      - PawBer 4y ago
        There's always /r/stopgaming
      - unclekev 4y ago
        > playing video games is for children Geez, thats a pretty narrow minded opinion
      - WJW 4y ago
        Responsible adults waste their time with respectable hobbies like mindlessly watching TV and going to sports games! /s
        ComradePhil 4y ago
        > mindlessly watching TV Also childish. > going to sports games More teenagy than childish, but still just as bad.
        Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
        What do you do for entertainment in your spare time?
      - anthk 4y ago
        You mean like the old as hell adult people playing tabletop games with Poker or Spanish decks or Domino in a tavern on any European village or town? Collosal Cave back in the day was an adventure for children. Today it's a great game because the puzzles can be pretty hard even for adults.
      - imtringued 4y ago
        Real men die on the battlefield. Staying alive is for children.
      - Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
        Why don't you like fun?
- Gigachad 4y ago
  Eh, its just the agile development process coming to gaming. Deliver the minimum viable product, work out which parts of the game people care about most, and perfect those bits. Rather than trying to guess what the market wants and spending the entire budget before the game actually gets real usage. If you just wait 6 months after release you end up with a better product than if the game just came out 6 months later.
- ehsankia 4y ago
  There's definitely a balance. Yes, they needed to test their games a lot more, but no amount of testing will equal millions of people trying all sorts of weird things you would've never thought about. That being said, games have been also getting a lot more complex in multiple ways. Lastly, PC games also have to deal with an exponential number of hardware variations that is very hard to test exhaustively in house.
LocalH 4y ago
At launch, yes. But revisions were quite commonly slipped into newer production runs in a general industry sense.

joshspankit 4y ago

Tbh it made things much riskier for the game companies, but a lot better for the players. For example: It was almost impossible to profit on the “make a killer trailer, presell, then deliver junk and ‘patch it later’” model that’s unfortunately popular these days.

omegaham 4y ago
These days, I see this as a subsidy for us older folks who wait a few years to buy a game. The clueless pre-order folks are funding my gaming experience!
- cercatrova 4y ago
  The subreddit /r/patientgamers [0] is exactly about this philosophy. Games get simultaneously better and cheaper over time and all I need to do is wait? Sign me up. [0] https://old.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/ https://old.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/
  - ComradePhil 4y ago
    - PawBer 4y ago
      There's always /r/stopgaming
    - unclekev 4y ago
      > playing video games is for children Geez, thats a pretty narrow minded opinion
    - WJW 4y ago
      Responsible adults waste their time with respectable hobbies like mindlessly watching TV and going to sports games! /s
      - ComradePhil 4y ago
        > mindlessly watching TV Also childish. > going to sports games More teenagy than childish, but still just as bad.
        Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
        What do you do for entertainment in your spare time?
    - anthk 4y ago
      You mean like the old as hell adult people playing tabletop games with Poker or Spanish decks or Domino in a tavern on any European village or town? Collosal Cave back in the day was an adventure for children. Today it's a great game because the puzzles can be pretty hard even for adults.
    - imtringued 4y ago
      Real men die on the battlefield. Staying alive is for children.
    - Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
      Why don't you like fun?
Gigachad 4y ago
Eh, its just the agile development process coming to gaming. Deliver the minimum viable product, work out which parts of the game people care about most, and perfect those bits. Rather than trying to guess what the market wants and spending the entire budget before the game actually gets real usage. If you just wait 6 months after release you end up with a better product than if the game just came out 6 months later.
ehsankia 4y ago
There's definitely a balance. Yes, they needed to test their games a lot more, but no amount of testing will equal millions of people trying all sorts of weird things you would've never thought about. That being said, games have been also getting a lot more complex in multiple ways. Lastly, PC games also have to deal with an exponential number of hardware variations that is very hard to test exhaustively in house.

LocalH 4y ago

At launch, yes. But revisions were quite commonly slipped into newer production runs in a general industry sense.