Originally Posted by ACSoft

I have already said somewhere else in this forum that the discovery time of a new game is UNIQUE and MAGIC. Now, it is often turned to a time of frustration and deception. Then after, instead of simply playing the game, you become more what I call a "customer-beta-tester". When finally, you can start to really enjoy the game, maybe after several months of patching, moding, etc... you already know the game like the background of your pocket and start already to think about the next version, probably with the secret hope, this time you will be able to really enjoy the discovery of the next version.

Would you return to a theatre 6 month later, to watch again a comedy or a drama, because the first time you went there, it was totally bad played, with actor not knowing their text and parts of the story simply missing ? Certainly not.

You the gamer and organization like Subsim, have the power to change that and the only way is to boyicot game which are obviously published that way.

Why ? Because publishers understand only the following words: Money, turnover, income, benefit, deficit. To my view, the policy Subsim apply now, which is in fact like many other similar forums, just help publishers to apply more and more this disrespectful attitude. This is obvious, because it allow them to reduce the risk, when they launch the development of a new game or new version of it. What is bad for a publisher ? It is to see the development budget not being held. So if they know they can publish the game, even if it is not finished and then wait to see if the starting turnover can justify the development of patches, they are happy.

Why SH3, after patch 1.4b was left in a state obviously still unfinished and with several well known bugs still not corrected ? I am personnaly convinced, it was just because of economical reasons. So beware, that one day will come, where you will not get any patch. The day when publishers will have pushed the ball a bit too far in this dangerous game, the day when casual gamers, which are not idiots, will not buy the game because too much bugs, too much unfinished.

Some will object that if publisher have to take too much risk, they may decide to not launch the development. Yes, this is a risk. But personnaly, I am convinced that if a potential maket exist, soon or late, somebody will take the risk to grab it.

The day simulation games will become marginal, in term of potential maket, this day, the genre will be abandonned with absolutely no soul state by the publishers, no matter the way it was going with the process of developing such a game.

ACS