Can somebody please answer this question for me?

Deadlines. It''s not just game companies either. Just look at Microsoft.

Before a product is complete, they are already advertising it and giving release dates. The programers are pressured to finish before this date. This means that a lot of products are sent out before being theroughly debugged and QA''d. Then come the patches. After a product goes live, then the programmers have time to fix bugs and release patches and "service packs" (major patches) to fix all the stuff they never had time to fix before.

E:cb woof!

The computer software buying public are unfortunately brainwashed into accepting software that is so bad that if it was a car, or a houehold appliance, you''d be entitled to a refund or replacement. Imagine if you had to keep going back to the dealer for several weeks after you bought a vehicle, to make sure that it could run on all sorts of roads, and to ensure that all the lights worked all the time, etc etc. The philosophy of putting something out that is only 80/90% finished and then posting patches on the net it is really unacceptable. I develop programs too - I know that eliminating all bugs is very difficult. But I''m sure making a car or washing machine is fairly complex too. When I pay for a product, it should work, and if it doesn''t, I am entitled to a version that does.

it''s all about speed, americans want to get games out faster so they can conquer the market, but with this comes a not very good game, because developers are rushed to meet the deadline...

And this is the reason why Finnish, Russian, Belgian and other european games are released usually bug-free
There are many good examples:
REAP, Supreme Snowboard (aka Boarder Zone), Rage Of Mages, some strategy game with DEAD vs Live (which had only DOS support ... Basically, it seems to be that northern european developers use France and Germany to release their games, and these publishers don''t need tight deadlines.

Because American burgerplayers are too humble, they play what they get. If TSR(with Blackisle) loads big pail of shit under their noses they just play it throught and say that it was cooooooooooooooooooooool, because it had coooooooooooooooooooooool graphics. Kiss my ass big fat ass money maker game developpers.

And again, this is for all trusts and monopoly companies like TSR(if there is something that could be played as rpg, tsr will licence it, remember Starcraft or Diablo, and still some stupid maniacs play them)Microsoft, Intell, 3dFX(Haahaa, Nvidia rocked them up and down because they became too greedy and they wanted to make their Voodoo chip as standard), Shell, Sony, Nintendo, Sega and others:

UP YOURS!!!!!!!
UP YOURS!!!!!!!

Time comes, time goes and I only am.

This is yet another reason I like my Mac. Mac games are often released several months after the initial game is released. By that time, the patches have already been released and integrated into the Mac version. I rarely have any problems with any games I have. Microsoft is another thing though. I just simply don''t use any of their products.

Another thing I do to remedy bad software: Use the last minor version of the previous major version. I''ve been using OS 7.6 for years. Now I use OS 8.6. Having a slightly older version OS has never been a problem and if I use the most recent minor version (ie: "x.6") then it''ll have the most fixes in it.

E:cb woof!

Since virtually every game(besides console RPGs) is made in the US what are you comparing them to

Arch@on, are you talking about Baldurs Gate? I loved that game and played all the way through it 4 times! It was, I thought, one of the greatest games of the year. It also made a buttload of money so I applause the developers.

My .02 cents


Brent Robinson
"What if this is as good as it gets?"

In a way we all play what we can get. Hard Core gamers are looking for the promise land of games. They look for the game that is going to allow them to leave this reality for extended periods of time. The game that won''t require you to answer when your girlfriend tells you that you love Lara more than her. The game that keeps you up on Mountain Dew for 98 hours straight because you just have to complete this one level. Because of this, gamers are extremely inelastic in demand with respect to a title that aproaches this dream. If the title is hyped to the point where we believe it is the next best thing then we buy it. After the disappointment we forget it and move on to the next game, keeping the faith that someday the game will come along that you can buy and play forever without getting bored. In a way we are all playing what we are given. It also happens to be the primary reason the game industry has thousands of development studios. When you get frustrated you enter the market thinking you can do it your way and be better than everyone else. God I love competition. Arch@on, if you feel as strongly as you do about things then take action, build your company, release your game, and takes us all to the promise land. I will thank you for it in the end because you will have saved me the work of building my own game heaven.

Kressilac
ps While writing this, I couldn''t help but think that games have a stonger pull than some world religions. Now only if I could get this pull backed by a government that I controlled. With its armies mobilized and the right political strategies, I could take over the world. (whew too many Pinky and The Brain reruns for me)