Why people shouldn't complain about all of the bugs.

[DrakeTheDragon]

@DrakeTheDragon Nice rant. Not sure I agree with all of it, though. You make the assertion that the game is buggy because of the fixed release date, but I don't know if a few more months would have helped. Time will tell if a few months of patches brings the game to your desired finished state. But I'm happy to take the game, as is, on time, because come April/March, Borderlands 2 will be released. 'nuff said.

 

I totally disagree that the game is "inoperable", and that stuff about Skyrim being less than pre-alpha. I mean, come on. That's troll bait right? And if I turn in a unfinished product to my boss, that becomes the company's highest selling product ever regardless (well, at least on Steam), I'd think a raise and promotion would be in order. :dance:

 

Hmm, alright, a response won't hurt I guess.

 

The difference is, we got "business" customers. They just won't buy it. That's a fact. It won't get best-selling product, as noone'll buy it. Those big-business project leaders have higher standards (for what they're going to invest their money in, that is) than we players... apparently.

 

And no, that pre-alpha classification stays, from my point of view. I'm not telling anybody what his point of view has to be though, so it's only "my" opinion to the matter, which of course is of no value to anybody else than me. I only know I'd be ashamed to death would I ever have released a project as unfinished as this. But maybe my expectations of my own work's quality are just higher as well, as I also don't expect anybody else to meet them.

 

Oh, and don't compare months of "patching" to months of "additional development", please. The difference between the two is far beyond comparable.

 

...now I wish I wouldn't have even started it. It was so peaceful in my mind before I did, only the usual things to worry about, enough already to drive me crazy thinking about them for too long, but far less than now... No, I really shouldn't have started it... This is none of my business.

[gigantibyte]

And no, that pre-alpha classification stays, from my point of view.

 

But have you played many alpha game releases? I must assume you haven't, or you are exaggerating on purpose. In most game alphas, one is lucky to even get into the game's environment. In beta games, there are usually still aspects of the game included that may not be in the final version and most likely some functions that don't work at all, and certain visuals can be a mess. Skyrim is nowhere close to a game that is normally seen at alpha or beta stages, and I've been playing pre-releases since the days of the BBSs.

[DrakeTheDragon]

But have you played many alpha game releases? I must assume you haven't, or you are exaggerating on purpose. In most game alphas, one is lucky to even get into the game's environment. In beta games, there are usually still aspects of the game included that may not be in the final version and most likely some functions that don't work at all, and certain visuals can be a mess. Skyrim is nowhere close to a game that is normally seen at alpha or beta stages, and I've been playing pre-releases since the days of the BBSs.

 

You are assuming right, in both points I guess, as I'm often exaggarating on purpose to get the message across. I've got no experience with what a real alpha version of a game is so far. I may have started with a C64, but I was always the programmer more than the gamer, so I don't have much experience with games, or even pre-releases. But before I release a product I put it through a "binary" decision first: Is it release-worthy or not? Then the least-finished yet release-worthy state gets labeled pre-alpha... and note, to me this means "completely working, at least", which Skyrim obviously must be or we wouldn't be playing it already. Anything inferior to "this" state won't even get a label by me!

 

So far I only released "1" mod I labeled pre-alpha myself, and only because the other option was to loose all of it with my dying hard drive... and people kept asking for it (no debating, it was the people asking for it which made me upload it instead of just backing it up). But feel free to ask them, it's completely working and usable. It has its bugs still, as I wasn't yet "done" with it, but nothing game breaking... or close to the things you people keep reporting about Skyrim and I witnessed myself so far.

 

A game where one is "lucky to even get into the game's environment", as you described it, would've never been considered release-worthy by me, would've never been released, and in turn would never have received a label like "pre-alpha", to begin with. But it's just like I told, I simply demand higher quality standards from myself than from anybody else. That's where the gap's coming from.

 

Only from "my" point of view Skyrim the way it is at the moment should have never been released to a public audience. This is a sure-fire way to destroy a company's reputation. Take the countless statements into this direction from long-time customers as a proof for this. They're already loosing "them".

 

edit: But btw., why is this even discussed here? Does this serve any purpose? The OP was already banned after all.

Edited January 4, 2012 by DrakeTheDragon

[gigantibyte]

But btw., why is this even discussed here? Does this serve any purpose? The OP was already banned after all.

 

Banned perhaps for flaming, not griping? There certainly are many other threads of dissent we could be haunting, but I doubt it will make much difference in the end. I'm definitely no fanboy, and since I have my own issues with Skyrim, I enjoyed reading your admitted rant because misery loves company. Unfortunately, no amount extra development time, patches or mods will fix the game into the one I would have liked to see released. Besides the fundamental game design, the bugs that are the most annoying and aggravating (to me), are the same that plagued Oblivion and Fallout 3. At this point I think the best we can hope for is a usurper of the RPG crown, and leave Bethesda to their die-hards and console players. I'll continue playing for the time being mainly because I've already spent the money, and will probably release a few mods. However it will not take much for my gaming attention to switch to something else, and I've never been less anxious for the next Elder Scrolls game, or even Fallout 4.