Re: When a Patch is Just Too Late to Save a Game
Fair enough as I can understand that. Having spoken with developers plenty of times I can follow what you're saying here now.
Some of the other comments by rhombic and youalreadyknow are very on point.
SOMETHING needs to be done, whether it be a change in how your team operates, more weight to the community leaders opinions... something... that will not lead to these "major" (and I use that term loosely) not being a problem every year. Let's be real here, you can't get to every single bug, and most in the community know that.
With NBA Live, we were given free reign to tell the developers exactly what we think. I didn't hold back... and being open and honest goes a long way with people, even your customers. I didn't say "you suck at life" but offered input on how the defense shouldn't be as defenseless as it is. Since the CD happened so late in the dev. cycle, there was no way the appropriate changes could be made in time. If that's the case, have the CD's earlier (and I have mentioned this to Will as well) and put more weight on the guys who are not only a harsh critic of your game, but willing to work with you as well.
Most of these problems traditionally arise from the way the CPU AI reacts to the way a human plays. The CL's should be given more time with the AI IMO. I understand not everything is in place but take a day out of your schedule, sit down and game with these guys and pick their brain. If your engineers are football guys too, throw them in there just to listen. I know some of them are socially inept, don't speak English well and so forth, but not all of them are that bad. All these are minor steps towards releasing a game the community (the individuals who read previews, hunt for pictures online and discuss your work for hours) will be very happy with.
It goes without saying your hands are tied at times but I really think you have to sell your co-workers on this. Our interaction will only be beneficial for us all, as you make more money from sales and we get the game we really want.
It's a win-win if handled appropriately.
Sorry for the long post, but perhaps this helps you understand why I look at a patch as a crutch; It's because that's all it has been the last few years. Until something changes where a patch can have enough ability to add new features AND you can address the issues you might need to (damn MS and their patch size limitations) something needs to be done to help ease the game making process for us all so we have a product we all enjoy.
Fair enough as I can understand that. Having spoken with developers plenty of times I can follow what you're saying here now.
Some of the other comments by rhombic and youalreadyknow are very on point.
SOMETHING needs to be done, whether it be a change in how your team operates, more weight to the community leaders opinions... something... that will not lead to these "major" (and I use that term loosely) not being a problem every year. Let's be real here, you can't get to every single bug, and most in the community know that.
With NBA Live, we were given free reign to tell the developers exactly what we think. I didn't hold back... and being open and honest goes a long way with people, even your customers. I didn't say "you suck at life" but offered input on how the defense shouldn't be as defenseless as it is. Since the CD happened so late in the dev. cycle, there was no way the appropriate changes could be made in time. If that's the case, have the CD's earlier (and I have mentioned this to Will as well) and put more weight on the guys who are not only a harsh critic of your game, but willing to work with you as well.
Most of these problems traditionally arise from the way the CPU AI reacts to the way a human plays. The CL's should be given more time with the AI IMO. I understand not everything is in place but take a day out of your schedule, sit down and game with these guys and pick their brain. If your engineers are football guys too, throw them in there just to listen. I know some of them are socially inept, don't speak English well and so forth, but not all of them are that bad. All these are minor steps towards releasing a game the community (the individuals who read previews, hunt for pictures online and discuss your work for hours) will be very happy with.
It goes without saying your hands are tied at times but I really think you have to sell your co-workers on this. Our interaction will only be beneficial for us all, as you make more money from sales and we get the game we really want.
It's a win-win if handled appropriately.Sorry for the long post, but perhaps this helps you understand why I look at a patch as a crutch; It's because that's all it has been the last few years. Until something changes where a patch can have enough ability to add new features AND you can address the issues you might need to (damn MS and their patch size limitations) something needs to be done to help ease the game making process for us all so we have a product we all enjoy.
Comment