What To Do When a Good Game Gets Broken? - blazer003's Blog

blazer003's Blog

What To Do When a Good Game Gets Broken?

Posted on August 29, 2010 at 03:16 PM.

No, I'm not talking about when your little brother leaves your Call of Duty disc laying on the floor for you to step on.

What happens when a company releases a very successful and widely acclaimed game? One that people gobble up, but one that then releases a patch that is able to bring a large percentage of its customer base to their knees as a major element is broken?

Let's back up a couple years and look at a familiar saga. I loved NCAA Football, Madden and NBA Live back in the day (circa 2005), but have become increasingly weary since the current generation systems have come out. No longer are the days of running down and buying these games on opening day. I was first in line to get an XBox 360 the day it came out, camping out in Wal-Mart for hours on end (and winning enough money in a poker game in line, to buy an extra controller to boot). The first game I bought was NBA Live 06, and was actually quite pleased with it. I bought Madden for XBox that year, and wasn't disappointed in doing so after seeing the first offering on Madden on the 360.

Then NBA Live 07 came. An abomination of a game. Madden lost its luster that year as well, and I have only purchased each one time since. My "must buy" status waned, and increasingly I rented and decided not to buy Madden and NBA Live, and almost unthinkably NCAA was close to joining that list after '09.

But this year's game felt fresh. The running game was improved, blocking better, momentum felt pretty good, gameplay was fun and atmosphere was improved. Online, the running game to the outside was overpowered, and people quitting and not getting a win (which was recently fixed) were issues, but I enjoyed it all the same.

Then the patch happened. While initially I didn't mind the patch, slowly word spread about a glitch that was almost a guaranteed TD. Not since the QB walk had a glitch been so powerful and unlike the QB walk it was all too easy.

Lego Vader agrees... "All too easy."

Everybody and their kid brother could do this glitch, and did and does. Everyone I've invited to a game I have asked the question, "Do you pump fake glitch?" Every one of them said no. Four out of six did anyway. Some did it from the start. One played the whole game without the glitch and then used it to win at the end, the scumbag.

With little information from the EA camp on when or how or if it's going to be fixed, the attendance online has plummeted, and I no longer frequent the lobbies. Even one of my two online dynasties is on hold because there were accusations and fervent denials of players using the glitch. Frankly, as someone who doesn't enjoy playing against the computer, the game is now nearly worthless. If it wasn't for the online dynasty with friends, I wouldn't be touching this game.

So what are we to do? It's like we bought a car, drove it around for a month, took it in to get the oil topped off, and while changing the oil they shattered the windshield, and are not giving any kind of timeline on when to fix it.

Unfortunately, I have no answers. I do know that EA has absolutely killed the momentum that they made to start the season. I find my self vindictively hoping that sales will suffer next year because of this debacle, but chances are I will still be buying it as I have the last 8 years. So what about you? What are your suggestions? Who do we go to, and how do we make EA fix this game?

Comments

# 1 Dazraz @ Aug 29

I honestly believe that the quality testing in games is not as thorough as it once was. Developers know that in the event of a problem they can produce a downloadable patch at a later date. They are basically using the consumer as the quality tester. The problem is when they attempt to rectify an issue with a patch they invariably create another.

# 2 DGMikeBarker @ Aug 29

@Dazrar I agree and I'm seeing a lot of times that patch are just add more problems to the game.

# 3 DGMikeBarker @ Aug 29

My bad, I read the comment before the actual post.

I think the best thing to do is have a representative of the forum community get a look at the game every couple of months. The with game testers is that their job is to look for glitches not if the game is represented well.