Culture 5/7/2006

     So... after-market game patches.
     Not that I'm late to join the bandwagon or anything... but... shut up.
     For the time being, let's just ignore massive multiplayer games. These games, being persistant and all, cry out for eventual patching. When a game spans several technology years, it's to be expected. Instead, let's look at two different types of after-market console addition. Patching, and expansions.

     There are two player-made arguments against post-market game patching. First, it has been said that after-market patches, especially to offline games, are generally indicative of an unfinished product. In the recent Oblivion patch, where armor for horses was added, outcry was heard in two ways. First, the feature was never added on schedule, and that gamers were being forced to pay for what was essentually a production delay. Considering how minor the patch really is, who knows. It seems like the feature just could have been let go. The second view was that the patch was thought up after the release, and created just to milk extra money from a dedicated crowd.
     It is essential, especially in offline game patching, to ensure that patch content actually warrants official release. I'm not saying that the price should correlate to the amount of content. I'm saying that the patch should warrant paying anything at all. Feel free to mark up a decent patch; a dedicated audience will pay if the game's already good. However: take, for example, "horse armor". In my eyes, adding armor to a horse - a fictional horse, that no one will ever see, in an offline game, for effect - is not worth money at all. As such, marketing it with a pricetag - any pricetag - tastes like a ripoff to the crowd. You sully a whole game by pissing off it's fans.
     In essense, it is probably worse to release a half-assed patch than no patch at all. With no post-market additions, your game stands on its own merits. Start talk of a small update, however, and the whole game is reviewed again on the merits of the smallish patch. A patch that isn't worthwhile will decrease outlook of the game, an "unfinished ripoff".
     Which, well... no one could say Oblivion is.

     The second type of game addition is full expansion. An expansion differs from a patch in that it offers - along with systems changes and item additions - new gameplay and/or plot aspects. A true expansion increases the playtime of the game as a whole; it adds new elements to play.
     I love the idea of offline game expansions. By the same token, I love the idea of episodic content release. Valve's Steam all but pioneered this stuff. As a game is slowly released (which isn't to say "released after a long wait"), it can improve with time. Rather than waiting four years for a full sequel, a game's features can be enhanced from level one to level five. This reduces the growth time for new gameplay ideas and systems. An idea can be invented, tested, and implemented in just a few months' time, rather than years. If an idea works, each level can progressively build upon it and elaborate the idea. If it doesn't, just one level disappoints; the world can just move on.
     Smaller, more densely released projects increase the speed of inovation, in every way I see. Expansion is, as I see it, a method of episodic release. As opposed to a sequel, we get more gameplay time.
     And I get to play a Corsair.

     Expanding a game sufficiently can replace a full sequel. A well-crafted expansion is faster to create than a sequel, as it uses parts of the already existant game. This means sooner release dates. The price of an expansion is also cheaper, as the guts of the game are already on a disc the user owns.
     Price and time aside, as far as a player's concerned, expansion means more distributed wait time. Personally, I think this involves a player more into an ongoing story. A player with a cliffhanger that has to wait a couple months is more wrapped up into a game than one who must wait four years. Compare a soap opera to a movie. In terms of artistic or gameplay merit, neither one is really superior. There must be a well-crafted soap opera, somewhere.
     It's really just a matter of the players' taste.

     So, there's room for both types of release, I'd say. Soap operas and big movies. Nothing's gunna kill the draw of months of hype and King Kong on a big ol' fuckoff screen. But nothing's gunna take away from Witches sleeping with their Clones, on a Hellmouth, during an Earthquake. An earthquake with amnesia, guys.
     An earthquake with amnesia...
By Danny

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