So true. The pre-release hypes and the lack of support after release are the biggest problems. Not only for games, but for many other products as well, be it software, hardware or things unrelated to computers at all.
First of all there's a hype. Games get announced when they are still in beta stages. Features are announced which are impossible to hold. In the case of games it would be insane graphics, a revolutionary gameplay and so on. Especially if it's a sequel to another product, the expectations will be high. Naturally, the final product will be quite different to the product that was hyped initially.
One example would be Master of Orion 3, which the 4X fans in this forum will likely remember. Moo2 was awesome and concept-wise it still is. Then Moo3 was announced, and every fan of the series was looking forward to it. The expectations: Moo2 gameplay + modern technology + many improvements and new features
At first it looked promising, the reports from the beta testers looked great, not to say enthusiastic. They pointed out some problems (e.g. bugs, missing features) but it was still a beta.
But then came the release day. The reviews in various magazines gave it great ratings and like many others, I ordered a copy. At first all was good, but then the problems appeared. Some previously announced features were missing (ethos system for example) and the game had some serious bugs. Felt like a beta still. The usual three patches later (see below), not much had changed, the game still felt like in beta.
Don't get me wrong, concept-wise the game was interesting, it just didn't live up to its expectations and the support was horrible.
I still have the copy of Moo3 at a prominent spot in my shelf, partially as warning for future hypes.
A different, blatant example would be A.D. 1503. It had "multiplayer support" written on its box. Even after three patches, said feature was nowhere to be found in the game. And it did get good ratings. If I were a reviewer and a product would not live up to its official feature list, it would get 0/5 stars. (*)
Another problem are the sequels per se: You just cannot take a product and produce something totally different under the same name as a sequel. An example I've had to suffer from recently was the movie "Lawnmower Man 2: Jobe's War". I liked the first part due to its story and the extremely crude CGI in it (I like it retro technology). But the sequel had absolutely nothing in common with the first part despite its title and the name of two (completely different) characters. The 'sequel' was an average B Movie, not good, not bad, but calling it Lawnmower man killed it.
A more common example would be Star Wars Episode 1-3. Pretty visuals and such, a great story we all knew, but it just didn't feel like the Star Wars we were used to.
The last problem I'd like to address is support, especially in the software world. To blame are mostly the publishers. I found it hard to believe, but in the contracts with the game development companies there are actually hard deadlines and support is limited to either a ridiculously short time or a very limited number of patches. A rule of thumb seems to be three patches at most.
The result is obvious: Games in early beta stage marketed as final product, three patches that iron out the most extreme bugs and after that nothing. Disappointed customers who paid real $$$ for a broken product. And there the companies wonder why more and more people use P2P.
That leaves one question: Why am I writing here? Ah right, GC2. Why do I play GC? Simple: Quite a while ago I played the first part. Didn't like it much, lost interest in it quickly. Between I occasionally heard things about Stardock and GalcivII, most important being the Starforce issue.
Last month I had been browsing Wikipedia about the history of 4X games and stumbled upon GC2. By coincidence, I was somewhat bored and was looking for a new game to play. A couple of screenshots, independent reviews and a visit to this very forum I decided to play this game. Especially since the long-term support seemed to be exceptionally good.
At that point I had two options: Use a torrent and fiddle with patches, activation cracks and so on, or use Paypal and download instantly. Now I'm a user, I'm lazy and I always choose the easy way (**). And so far I didn't regret, well invested money.
Dear Stardock team, keep up the great work. Please just post more Dev Journals, I love reading them
(*) The corrupt press praising these abominations is another issue, I'll leave that topic to someone else
(**) Downloading one file and mounting it with Daemon Tools is far easier than trying to play a real physical game CD/DVD nowadays each and every time you want to play.
