A conversation needs to be had that establishes the expectations of the consumer versus those of the publisher and the developer.
The release of unfinished games has become more of the rule than the expectation over the last 15 years of the video game industry. Ever since the Xbox 360 launched in 2005 — and established that online connectivity is not only a major aspect of a title, but it is honestly a requirement for basic functionality — game development has changed from ensuring the best game is delivered at launch to getting the game out the door by a specific deadline and patch it later. Sometimes this new philosophy works out, and games that would be forever compromised before the days of online-delivered patches can now be salvaged, and sometimes it leads to crippled experiences that can sometimes take months to fix.
We’ve seen these issues pop up again and again throughout the last two console generations. Most recently, “Cyberpunk 2077,” the most hyped game in recent memory, released in such a technically horrible state that it was pulled from the PlayStation Network Store, and still has not returned four months later, despite two major patches.
And then there are games like “Outriders.” “Bulletstorm” developer People Can Fly partnered with publisher Square-Enix to develop and launch the always-online co-op RPG loot shooter. If that genre sounds like a mouthful, thank Bungie Studios and “Destiny” for blessing the industry with this new niche of games. “Outriders” has everything going for it — impressive graphics, great technical performance and fun and addictive gameplay. It’s also nearly unplayable in its current state due to a slate of connectivity issues that prevent most players from even joining the game. Those that do are met with lag-filled experiences that have now been known to delete entire save files, which are stored on the server side and not locally on a system storage device. Players have reported losing as much as 50 hours of progress, as loot — the entire purpose of a loot-based game — disappeared from their inventory.
According to developers, the source of the loot disappearing act has been traced back to a rushed patch released shortly after launch in an effort to curb the connectivity issues. An unintended side effect of the patch was that it now deletes random users’ inventories when the game crashes. The cure is now worse than the symptoms ever were, and it’s because People Can Fly was under tremendous pressure to release a patch for the game that was only on the market for less than a week. The developer simply didn’t have the resources or the time to fully test the patch before it went live, and this is what happens.
Immediately, the pitchforks have come out, and the usual suspects, including professional Internet troll Jim Sterling, are already skewering People Can Fly for releasing a game in this state, and for rushing out the patch that led to these issues. This commentary is about as tonedeaf as one can imagine, considering People Can Fly is based in Poland, a country especially hard hit by Covid. What other famous — or infamous — developer is also based in Poland? CD Projekt Red, developers of “Cyberpunk 2077.”
As much as gaming fans would rather not admit it, the pandemic has taken a sledgehammer to development timetables, pushing many games back as much as a year or more. While Hollywood’s famous delays, such as “Black Widow” and “No Time to Die” get all of the media attention every time a studio pushes back the release dates, the video game industry flies under the radar with its delays because it’s much more secretive until closer to launch. So from the outside, it looks like the industry is chugging along just fine. That’s obviously not the case.
That doesn’t completely let People Can Fly off the hook for releasing an online-based game with so many connectivity issues. But there hasn’t been a single one of these “Destiny” clone experiences that has launched in a perfect state. Even “Destiny” had major connectivity issues in the days post launch. The obvious fact is that games with Internet-based systems are going to run into issues when servers are hit with a massive load of players for the first time — especially developers that have never made such a game before.
Where People Can Fly went wrong was rushing out a patch that ultimately led to more issues. But it’s impossible to blame the developer when social media and messageboards are filled with constant vitriol directed at not just the game and the development team as a whole, but individual members and their families. People Can Fly just tried to get something out as quickly as possible, and didn’t realize the negative effects. Now that vitriol has increased, and matters are even worse.
No one wants to face the fact they paid $60 for a game that doesn’t work as it should at launch. That’s understandable. But the video game industry, unlike almost any other industry, is so predicated on day one sales and hype generation that it’s difficult for many to simply sit back and wait — especially in a pandemic. Fans need to take a deep breath, and either have patience for People Can Fly — and other developers in the exact same scenarios — to develop, properly test and release a patch to fix issues that arise, or simply to wait to purchase the game at a later date. It’s frustrating, but that is the global situation in which we find ourselves in until Covid has been contained. Games will not have the polish to which we are accustomed, and that’s fine. I think we can all agree we would rather have games take a little longer to release, or to patch, than to put the lives of developers in danger for a hobby.
Josh Rouse lives in Lawton and writes a weekly gaming column for The Lawton Constitution.
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April 14, 2021 at 01:00PM
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'Outriders' struggles a symptom of modern gaming discourse - The Lawton Constitution
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