OCTOBER WITH NO FRANCHISE/ASSOCIATION TO PLAY?! WTF?!

[Brandwin]

Re: OCTOBER WITH NO FRANCHISE/ASSOCIATION TO PLAY?! WTF?!

to everyone who seems to be fine with purchasing a clearly unfinished product; i will be stating my own website dedicated to selling unfinished merchandise & i know i will see you guys there paying full pric at that!... (yeah right... )

You mean like yourself? You seem to buy the games year after year. So...

Let me guess, this is the last year you buy a game before it releases and you see what all the bugs and problems are, right?

[Trevytrev11]

Re: OCTOBER WITH NO FRANCHISE/ASSOCIATION TO PLAY?! WTF?!

As far as calling this a "patch video game culture" I am glad we can get patches. All sports games from the past had something wrong with them and could have used a patch, back then we dealt with it, now all of a sudden we can't?

Prior to patches, games used to get delayed if their were major issues. I know for a fact that the MLB 2K series was delayed a few years in a row becuase of one thing or another. I'm sure there were still problems with the game after it released that could have used a patch or not, but I think the developers were probably much more careful back then regarding their initial release. Now instead of the delay, you just get a partial game and then wait for the patch. In the end, I guess you could argue that by the same date, you have their intended "finished" product and you probably end up getting a little bit more with the patch becuase of the additional problems that may be realized by the consumer that weren't by the developer.

Ideally, patches should be used for enhancements or roster updates, etc. not as a crutch so that a company can knowingly release a broken game "on time" and then fix it down the road.

There aren't a lot of products I can think of in which you are charged full price up front and then delivered what the producer considers the entire full product months down the road.

You can compare to cars and recalls or other products and recalls, but usually these issues pop up months or years down the road and weren't realized initially by the consumer or the manufacturer (usually the consumer never would even know about them unless the manufacture disclosed it). With video games, the majority of these problems are realized in hours or days after the consumer gets its hand on it and the developers usually acknowledge they were aware of the problems and are already working on the fix (or partial fix), which means they knowingly went ahead and shipped the incomplete game out.

[Trevytrev11]

Re: OCTOBER WITH NO FRANCHISE/ASSOCIATION TO PLAY?! WTF?!

I think from the consumer side, the bad part is just the perceived attitude the developers seem to have now...We can promise the world and then release the game in whatever state it is in on the agreed upon release date and then spend months patching it as best we can for a few months and then tell them it's too late and we are now working towards the future years game.

I guess what sucks from the consumer side is there is no sense of sympathy from their side. In many other instances of consumerism, when the seller messes up they do something for the consumer to help make things right. If you go to dinner and your order is screwed up, they make comp your drinks or your meal. And obviously every industy isn't like this, but it'd show a lot to the consumer if they did something (free credits for Downloadable content, $10 of next years game, etc.) to alleviate their frustration of this cycle.

[ronyell]

Re: OCTOBER WITH NO FRANCHISE/ASSOCIATION TO PLAY?! WTF?!

You mean like yourself? You seem to buy the games year after year. So...

Let me guess, this is the last year you buy a game before it releases and you see what all the bugs and problems are, right?

so many on here think they know what you've purchased... lol... since i need chronologically list my Madden purchases to validate my point ()

up until 2002 i was a regular Madden early buyer.

bought Madden for next gen in 2004 & was thouroughly dissappointed.

read all the posts on OS & rented & decided against buying until 2008 & was let down by an unfinished product.

purchased in 2009 around November after seeing many posts about issues & they were still patching things at that point that should have been fixed waaaaaay earlier IMO.

this year in anticipation of it being the best Madden ever (which it is) i bought on release & thus have posted this thread.

so to answer your question.... NO; i probably WILL purchase Madden again seeing as i am an optimist AND Madden is THE ONLY football game option that i have. i just feel that it's unaaceptable to monopolize a market & then minimize the effort in releasing a finished product once you you have the world waiting on it's release. then release it bugged as hell just to get it out on time since you marketed & hyped it so big.

BTW... Trev... you hit the nail on the head for me... great posts.

[rspencer86]

Re: OCTOBER WITH NO FRANCHISE/ASSOCIATION TO PLAY?! WTF?!

I guess what sucks from the consumer side is there is no sense of sympathy from their side. In many other instances of consumerism, when the seller messes up they do something for the consumer to help make things right. If you go to dinner and your order is screwed up, they make comp your drinks or your meal. And obviously every industy isn't like this, but it'd show a lot to the consumer if they did something (free credits for Downloadable content, $10 of next years game, etc.) to alleviate their frustration of this cycle.

Here's the problem: what would you do if there was a cockroach in your food the last three times you went to a restaurant? Most people would probably look for another restaurant to eat at.

For whatever reason, sports gamers don't follow this logic. They play a game, scream and holler about how bad it is, how unplayable it is, how they are fed up with all the bugs, etc... and then pre-order next year's edition. What? What kind of message does that send to the companies that make these games?

For all the people that are fed up with "unfinished" sports games, wait until the final patch comes out and then buy the game used. If you buy these games on release day sight unseen, you are putting a stamp of approval on releasing games with these types of issues.

[Brandwin]

Re: OCTOBER WITH NO FRANCHISE/ASSOCIATION TO PLAY?! WTF?!

so many on here think they know what you've purchased... lol... since i need chronologically list my Madden purchases to validate my point ()

LOL well, I wasn't wrong.

Here's the problem: what would you do if there was a cockroach in your food the last three times you went to a restaurant? Most people would probably look for another restaurant to eat at.

For whatever reason, sports gamers don't follow this logic. They play a game, scream and holler about how bad it is, how unplayable it is, how they are fed up with all the bugs, etc... and then pre-order next year's edition. What? What kind of message does that send to the companies that make these games?

For all the people that are fed up with "unfinished" sports games, wait until the final patch comes out and then buy the game used. If you buy these games on release day sight unseen, you are putting a stamp of approval on releasing games with these types of issues.

As a former great OS'er would say
B-I-N-G-O

[Trevytrev11]

Re: OCTOBER WITH NO FRANCHISE/ASSOCIATION TO PLAY?! WTF?!

Here's the problem: what would you do if there was a cockroach in your food the last three times you went to a restaurant? Most people would probably look for another restaurant to eat at.

For whatever reason, sports gamers don't follow this logic. They play a game, scream and holler about how bad it is, how unplayable it is, how they are fed up with all the bugs, etc... and then pre-order next year's edition. What? What kind of message does that send to the companies that make these games?

For all the people that are fed up with "unfinished" sports games, wait until the final patch comes out and then buy the game used. If you buy these games on release day sight unseen, you are putting a stamp of approval on releasing games with these types of issues.

I hear your point and I don't disagree, however I would argue that most (and definitely not all) of those that buy the game year in and year out probably don't know any better. I would estimate that the majority are casual football fans who just don't know that the game is broken. It's just not feesible to expect people to refrain from buying something when they don't experience (or knowingly experience) the games flaws. For the minority of those that do, they're just not a big enough piece of the pie to matter.

Looking at your restaurant comparrison a few things aren't quite comparable. When speaking of NFL football games, there are no other "restaurants" to go to. You either eat ****-roach infested food, or you starve. Also, restaurants have to meet certain health code and safety measures and are (or are supposed to be) inspected on some sort of regular basis and if they don't meet said criteria, they are shut down, regardless of how good their food is. There is nobody governing over the quality of video games and holding any of these companies accountable.

Look I understand your logic and for the most part I agree. Since getting burned by the MLB 2K series starting with MLB 2K6, I've yet to buy a MLB or NFL licensed game brand new. But I do realize that the majority won't ever buy into that logic and I and others like me are still forced to suffer from incomplete games because of the lack of self control the majority may have.

What sucks the most is the lack of accountablilty on the other side of the ball. People need to be resonsible consumers, but unfortunately that same level of responsibility doesn't seem to weigh on the developer.

It sucks because there are plenty of companies out there that can maximize profits while doing things at a high level of quality that is backed by even a higher level of morals...unfortunately, those companies are few and far between in the video game business.

[Ruffy]

Re: OCTOBER WITH NO FRANCHISE/ASSOCIATION TO PLAY?! WTF?!

You shouldn't post in red font. It's terrible to make out and hard on the eyes. Also anyone who is colour blind has difficulty reading it.

I voted who cares...as your just another opinion. Is it right probably not, maybe even not all that ethical, but US big business has proven time and time again its about the $$ and not the ethics.

In the end these are just games, and perhaps because the games look so real your expectation for real stats supercedes the developers ability to make it true.

Enjoy the games. If not, go outside and play them, or keep some older versions and keep playing the games you like.

Life is too short to sweat the small stuff all the time.

[Scottdau]

Re: OCTOBER WITH NO FRANCHISE/ASSOCIATION TO PLAY?! WTF?!

I get what you are saying, but think about the days when if they had these issues you had to wait for the next years game. Some times I wish we could go back to those days. It would be a lot easier to enjoy the game for what it is!