Selling You An Incomplete Product

You know what sucks? Having to install a patch upon a game’s release! This issue can also be tied into my previous new gen load time article and lacking hard drive space article, but being forced to install a patch on day one is a swift kick to the junk for consumers.

For developers, having the ability to patch games, even on day one, is a most welcomed gift. This allows developers to bundle their game to hit that all important deadline but still work on the final product.

For us, the consumer, this couldn’t be more annoying. Remember taking home Fallout 4, Destiny, or any recent Halo game and being super excited to play… but then have to wait twenty minutes (or much longer) to download and install a patch when the game first came out? It is beyond annoying. Worse yet, these patches can take up a decent chunk of valuable hard drive space. Combine these early patches with the fact that new gen games need to first be installed on your hard drive and now the consumer simply doesn’t win.

Imagine walking into a McDonalds and ordering a Big Mac meal. After standing in line for a few minutes, your order is placed on a tray and you pick a place to sit and eat. As you unfold your napkin and take the burger out of the wrapper, a McDonalds employee forcefully rips that burger out of your hand and says “oh wait, hold on, we have to finish cooking this,” then takes your burger back behind the counter. You then have to wait, again, for your meal to finish cooking when you thought it was already good to go while you look like an idiot just sitting there. Then the employee hands you your greasy burger fifteen minutes later for you to enjoy. By now, your excitement has gone cold along with your fries.

This analogy is what day one patches are to consumers. You think you are buying a finished product, you take it home and are psyched to play it, only to be delayed because you need to wait just a little longer. In a way, I am not sure how this is even legal. Imagine if you went to the theater to see Star Wars: Rogue One and the movie just stops twenty minutes in. Then the manager comes out and says something like “they are still finishing the movie, please wait.” This would obviously be unacceptable. Not only would this piss off fans, they would demand their money back. So my question is, how and why is this acceptable with games? Why are we letting developers get away with this?

Making matters worse, what if your internet connection is slow, or worse yet, don’t have access to the internet? How would you download and play this incomplete and buggy game without having access to this patch?

Look, I am all for patching games to make them better or to add additional content. Granted, the consumer often has to pay for these types of things as most DLC is not free, but at lease this type of content is optional. As an example, Bioware completely changed the ending on the last Mass Effect game from player feedback and Halo wouldn’t be the same without new multiplayer maps. But forcing gamers to install patches in order to play their games, especially on day one, is simply disrespectful to the consumer. If you purchase a product, you expect it to work. Is that difficult to ask for? If so, many gamers will probably be forced to eat an uncooked burger. And last I checked, no one likes diarrhea or a violent case of the pukes.

By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
Twitter: @ZackGaz

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