Article on games software industry?

[Happy_Goat]

Well,my first post and its a rant.
Just a short while ago Valve have done it again.Yes youve guessed it miserable patch.What happened?Well they have released patch for engine which has wrecked a lot of mods and Valves games as well without notifying anyone.My oppinion is that they knew about it but decided to be quiet as they needed to release DOD:S...But looking games industry in general costumers shouldnt be treated like they are.I shouldnt be forced to reinstall/manually move files/use black magic to make games work.After all its us who are keeping them in buisness.So we must be doing something wrong then.
Would it be possible to have an article on this aspect of gaming industry.State of affairs is very sad at the moment.....Maybee name and shame a company or two,or I dont know but something should be done.
I can symphatise with smaller developing companies and overlook certan things,but for "leaders" theres no excuse.
So how about it?

ps Pardon my english as it is not my first language.

 

[Aaron McKenna]

See my Pain With Patches Saturday Gamer column @ http://www.tomshardware.com/column/20050813/index.html


Best,


Aaron

 

[BigMac]

Yo (un)Happy_Goat,

Just a short while ago Valve have done it again.Yes youve guessed it miserable patch.What happened?Well they have released patch for engine which has wrecked a lot of mods and Valves games as well without notifying anyone.My oppinion is that they knew about it but decided to be quiet as they needed to release DOD:S...But looking games industry in general costumers shouldnt be treated like they are.

I sincerely hope you are right on this one, because then we can be sure it's fixed again with the next patch they're putting out.

In general I'm very pleased with how ValvE is performing with Steam and putting out patches, but once in a while a bad patch finds its way to the world. It's not different with other companies, what is different is that they force you to load and install the patches or you wont be able to play. This seems like a disadvantage because you can't go back to previous versions but then again, usually new patches are put out with stuf that you want and there's nothing more frustrating than newer patches out that you cant use. That's usually the point where I leave a game forever, so all in all this disadvantage of forced patching isnt that much of a problem for me.

The reason ValvE stays in business is because they make great stuf and they are pretty well responding to community input, which leads to the simple fact that people will take a lot of [-peep-] from them before leaving them on their own. If you don't like the way they do business with you, then don't do business with them. If enough people will do that, that'll be the end of it. It's not that they aren't fair and square with you as to how they do business.

Now, be a happy goat and post some happy happy joy joy stuf, ok? or change the nick.



BigMac

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