Level 3
Hey.
I just thought I'd pose a question to you all. With so many games being released every year on various platforms and let's face it with a infamous amount of problems from launch for these rather big and well known series ( Diablo III , Skyrim, etc ). Would a gaming guiding body who set down basic rules and standerds for a devolper to follow by law help ?
The only way I can explain this would be to compare it to say the construction industry. I am a plumber by trade in domestic and commerical work. We have to by law follow laws and regulations set down by governing bodys to make sure our work is safe , practical in working conditions for others to use and live in and around.
This ranges from Health and Safety act to the British Standerds and their numbers (BS) and WRAS ( Water Regulations Advisory Scheme ) regulations that I follow everyday to make sure everything I fit or decommission is done safe and works proper from 1st use. If I don't and something happens I can face fines, lose my job shut down entire sites and even prison.
Now as far as I know their is nothing like this for game or devolpers to follow. I may be wrong and you may correct me. Saying that if there is nothing like this, should it be introduced to make sure we as customers get the best for our buck and protect us from the numerous hazards that befall PC or consoles with hackers and bots etc ?
Obviously the rules wouldn't be enforced by job losses or prision terms as a faulty game cannot kill as a faulty boiler install can.Still, I think their should be a line in the sand and every devolper should not only follow it but also have someone to answer to when massive titles like Diablo, Skyrim are ruined at launch by shoddy structures and bugs.
Level 1
going with your Heath and safety comparison, here in the uk H&S is a big thing and thus is stricter, but in say india they don't care as much about H&S.
so unless they can agree on a world wide set of standards which everyone agree's on it won't help, as a company can just say the country we are in now is too strict, lets move to a different country and release the game
I think the development team will have such a thing in their policy anyway, but sometimes these problems don't become apparent until the game goes mainstream. Think about several people testing a game internally and there is less chance of any issues being uncovered and can slip through. Now think about millions and millions of people playing a game, faults become more apparent, especially with the likes of Skyrim were individual actions played a part in whether your game was worse then someone else's or not.
Then there is the production budget. A problematic game can cost more then the developer maybe hoped for so if its not right in the run up to launch they have 2 choices. Scrap the game completely which would just be a waste of time and money, or sell the game and fix it with the profits from sales.
That's how I kind of see it anyway. Some developers are bad, some are unlucky. Its just a shame we have to pay for it though.
But as for games being perfect. I dont think that is even possible, is it?
Mikal_Drey wrote:
ytevo79 wrote:
But as for games being perfect. I dont think that is even possible, is it?
games have taken a serious downward trend in terms of QA. I get the impression that because it can now be "patched in" that QA has been less of a requirement.
chuck in development timescales, budgets, release schedules, publisher pressure, etc and you can begin to understand why.
Personally i would be happy to wait till a game was polished and bug free before release.
Don't we all. But I don't think we'll ever see that day, not with the complexity of games these days, and the high development costs. They all have minor bugs or issues of some sort.
I'm sure the developers don't like to release a poor game. They know just as much as the next developer that its a dog eat dog world and they can go under from lack of sales by releasing a poor quality game.
Saying that though look at Skyrim, absolutely disgraceful, but it was still the most played game that year and won GOTY 
By no means am I defending this, just saying it how I see it.
Level 1
ytevo79 wrote:
Mikal_Drey wrote:
ytevo79 wrote:
But as for games being perfect. I dont think that is even possible, is it?
games have taken a serious downward trend in terms of QA. I get the impression that because it can now be "patched in" that QA has been less of a requirement.
chuck in development timescales, budgets, release schedules, publisher pressure, etc and you can begin to understand why.
Personally i would be happy to wait till a game was polished and bug free before release.
Don't we all. But I don't think we'll ever see that day, not with the complexity of games these days, and the high development costs. They all have minor bugs or issues of some sort.
I'm sure the developers don't like to release a poor game. They know just as much as the next developer that its a dog eat dog world and they can go under from lack of sales by releasing a poor quality game.
Saying that though look at Skyrim, absolutely disgraceful, but it was still the most played game that year and won GOTY
By no means am I defending this, just saying it how I see it.
GOTY means nothing though, there isn't an official body that awards GOTY to anyone, all a company needs to release a GOTY edition is for someone somewhere to say its their game of the year.
This came up in a mailbox video from TotalBiscuit http://youtu.be/9Eo5pi4LlIA?t=7m58s
webrosc wrote:
ytevo79 wrote:
Mikal_Drey wrote:
ytevo79 wrote:
But as for games being perfect. I dont think that is even possible, is it?
games have taken a serious downward trend in terms of QA. I get the impression that because it can now be "patched in" that QA has been less of a requirement.
chuck in development timescales, budgets, release schedules, publisher pressure, etc and you can begin to understand why.
Personally i would be happy to wait till a game was polished and bug free before release.
Don't we all. But I don't think we'll ever see that day, not with the complexity of games these days, and the high development costs. They all have minor bugs or issues of some sort.
I'm sure the developers don't like to release a poor game. They know just as much as the next developer that its a dog eat dog world and they can go under from lack of sales by releasing a poor quality game.
Saying that though look at Skyrim, absolutely disgraceful, but it was still the most played game that year and won GOTY
By no means am I defending this, just saying it how I see it.
GOTY means nothing though, there isn't an official body that awards GOTY to anyone, all a company needs to release a GOTY edition is for someone somewhere to say its their game of the year.
This came up in a mailbox video from TotalBiscuit http://youtu.be/9Eo5pi4LlIA?t=7m58s
Not always though.. Yeah I'd understand if you was talking about the recently announced Dead Island GOTY But games that sell well and hit a certain target in a certain amount of time usually get a GOTY edition to celebrate. Or in this case won the award for GOTY.
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