Roadmap To Nowhere (The Jimquisition)

Antrax · Apr 1, 2019

Watchtower said:
The point of a roadmap is supposed to be that a game is shipped out at 100% and then it's continually worked on to be even greater. The problem is developers/ publishers use it as an excuse to ship a game at 60% or even 40% and use the roadmap to "strive" for 100%.

It's not the model that's fucked, it's the way it's abused to get away with unfinished crap.

Right, I agree with a lot of Jim's examples, but those aren't indictments of the concept.

This ends up being another issue where I wonder what Jim actually wants these games to do. I hear the sentiment "Don't release unfinished games" but the justification for that is often just "they put out some new content, should've been at launch." But we're talking games that plan on releasing new content for years. If developers don't ship those products until they've added every piece of content they want to add or think of, then the game just won't ship. Eventually, you gotta pull the trigger and put it out there. It should be feature-rich at launch, I agree, and often, these games are! But it feels like the idea of new content makes certain people think content was cut when it's all just extra. In the old days, that content just never got made if it didn't fit with a sequel (or if a game didn't get a sequel).

darksteel6 · Apr 1, 2019

OneBadMutha said:
Once again Jim uses hyperbole and cherry picks his examples to make his case. The industry has always had its share of overhyped, disappointments...in every fucking generation. Difference now is that games continue to get support after release. Unheard of in past generations because it made no financial sense. The idea that the industry is ok with bad 1st impressions because of GAAS is laughable and lacks all sorts of common sense. Some publishers push out rushed games to make earnings calls like they always have. In the past, those games quickly died and were quickly forgotten. With GAAS, those blemishes don't go away after the initial sales. Publishers are under more pressure to improve GAAS games than they were to fix other types of $60 disappointments.

The industry offers more value and choice than ever before. Jim's arguments continue to lack context or perspective. His fed up gamer routine isn't even interesting at this point.

What I should do is cherry pick the loads of shovelware I bought the past 20 years that were broken, glitchy unpatched single player games that cost near $80 for the base game when factoring time value of money.

The truth is making games has always been hard. Developers and publishers make timeline commitments that investors hold them to. When they are not able to deliver, we certainly need to reaccess the realistic nature of their commitments...but targeting a segment of games that many consumers want isn't the right answer.

It's not "laughable" in the least, why else would EA rush Anthem out the door when it clearly was not ready for prime time yet as evidenced by having the game's loot system keep getting unintentionally broken by patches not once but twice.

I disagree, I actually like there is less choice and value these days. As Jim has said in the past, this obsession with live-services actually devalues games as a whole since they can be rushed out unfinished and then the price drops big time within mere weeks(Fallout 76 got discounted within only a week, truly embarrassing for Bethesda).

Actually in the past games didn't die quickly, if they were successful enough, they got a second reprinting under a new banner(Greatest Hits for Playstation, Player's Choice for Nintendo and Platinum Hits for Microsoft).

Vincent Alexander · Apr 1, 2019

carlsojo said:
Roadmaps are obviously a crutch for unfinished games, but with games like Odyssey and Division 2 where they're content complete at launch the roadmaps become actually a bit exciting.

Agreed. For me, a roadmap helps me get excited for a great game even more. And for a game with shit content, it makes it too easy to realize you got shit in the first place. Division 2 is already so rich with content that when I read about future updates and content, I was like, "there's more?! Give me a moment to finish what I have already!"

darksteel6 · Apr 1, 2019

Antrax said:
Right, I agree with a lot of Jim's examples, but those aren't indictments of the concept.

This ends up being another issue where I wonder what Jim actually wants these games to do. I hear the sentiment "Don't release unfinished games" but the justification for that is often just "they put out some new content, should've been at launch." But we're talking games that plan on releasing new content for years. If developers don't ship those products until they've added every piece of content they want to add or think of, then the game just won't ship. Eventually, you gotta pull the trigger and put it out there. It should be feature-rich at launch, I agree, and often, these games are! But it feels like the idea of new content makes certain people think content was cut when it's all just extra. In the old days, that content just never got made if it didn't fit with a sequel (or if a game didn't get a sequel).

He's not saying they should add EVERY single piece of content before release, just enough for the game to actually be satisfying at launch. There's no possible way you can defend Battlefront 2015 launching in such a barebones state, that game was DOA on PC as as a result of it's dearth of content. Destiny 2 was satisfying enough on release that I didn't mind new content being planned for it, same deal with the new Spider-Man and Ghost Recon Wildlands. But 76 sucked on launch and i've got zero desire to check out any of it's planned content.

Likewise No Man's Sky had no excuse for launching without so many of the features that were promised, it was worse then Colonial Marines in terms of blatantly misrepresenting and lying about the final state of the game.

Deleted member 8593 · Apr 1, 2019

Not sure why people are defending the concept of roadmaps when Jim is clearly criticising its implementation.

Nintendo · Apr 1, 2019

carlsojo said:
Roadmaps are obviously a crutch for unfinished games, but with games like Odyssey and Division 2 where they're content complete at launch the roadmaps become actually a bit exciting.

Ubisoft have been very good with roadmaps. Rainbow Six Siege has yearly roadmaps with planned content and changes.

darksteel6 · Apr 1, 2019

darksteel6 said:
It's not "laughable" in the least, why else would EA rush Anthem out the door when it clearly was not ready for prime time yet as evidenced by having the game's loot system keep getting unintentionally broken by patches not once but twice.

I disagree, I actually like there is less choice and value these days. As Jim has said in the past, this obsession with live-services actually devalues games as a whole since they can be rushed out unfinished and then the price drops big time within mere weeks(Fallout 76 got discounted within only a week, truly embarrassing for Bethesda).

Actually in the past games didn't die quickly, if they were successful enough, they got a second reprinting under a new banner(Greatest Hits for Playstation, Player's Choice for Nintendo and Platinum Hits for Microsoft).

Yeah with the first game I spent hours gathering all the collectibles and was pumped for the new stuff as a result.

Ubisoft in general is really good about this, the Far Cry games and Ghost Recon Wildlands were already packed with content on launch and then the additional DLC was icing on the cake.

darksteel6 · Apr 1, 2019

MatrixMan.exe said:
This guy is an absolute tool, and your take is terrible OP.

The problem is companies launching products that feel incomplete at launch. Even then, if people think companies intentionally put out games with a perceived lack of content on purpose so they can just update it later and maximise profits then they're also tools.

That's not how game development works.

Nah the people that support publishers releasing unfinished games are the real tools here. I'm sure a lot of the developers don't want to rush out games out before they are ready, that crippled Driver 3 and is the main reason why that game turned out the way it did, Reflections wanted more time to finish the game but Atari wanted to rush it out to compete with GTA San Andreas.

MatrixMan.exe · Apr 1, 2019

darksteel6 said:
Nah the people that support publishers releasing unfinished games are the real tools here. I'm sure a lot of the developers don't want to rush out games out before they are ready, that crippled Driver 3 and is the main reason why that game turned out the way it did, Reflections wanted more time to finish the game but Atari wanted to rush it out to compete with GTA San Andreas.

So you understand that the overwhelming majority of the time it's a case of developers having to get something out of the door, rather than some malicious attempt to screw over their audience?

Good. Someone gets it.

Antrax · Apr 1, 2019

darksteel6 said:
He's not saying they should add EVERY single piece of content before release, just enough for the game to actually be satisfying at launch. There's no possible way you can defend Battlefront 2015 launching in such a barebones state, that game was DOA on PC as as a result of it's dearth of content. Destiny 2 was satisfying enough on release that I didn't mind new content being planned for it, same deal with the new Spider-Man and Ghost Recon Wildlands. But 76 sucked on launch and i've got zero desire to check out any of it's planned content.

Likewise No Man's Sky had no excuse for launching without so many of the features that were promised, it was worse then Colonial Marines in terms of blatantly misrepresenting and lying about the final state of the game.

But that's got nothing to do with roadmaps. That's just a game releasing with not enough content. Do you (or does Jim) think that this didn't happen before roadmaps became a thing? It's just silly.

An issue I have with a lot of Jim's arguments in these videos is that he takes a problem (here, games that are light on content) and claims that some modern day concept is to blame for it when the problem is always something that happened in the past. It's like a parent saying that cell phones are why their older kids don't talk to them as much when kids pre-cell phone still ignored our parents because they weren't cool. It had nothing to do with the modern feature at all. It was just correlated.

So again, I'm unclear on what Jim wants. Let's say we axe roadmaps altogether. They're illegal now. What does Jim posit will happen? I think you just get players mad at a lack of information, and you still will see some games that needed more content at launch.

Dardan Sandiego said:
Not sure why people are defending the concept of roadmaps when Jim is clearly criticising its implementation.

Eh this isn't really accurate for how Jim does the Jimquisition. You get nuance in his other content more often, but the Jimquisition (hence the name and character schtick) is entirely for calling things bad. He throws out the "now, not all games do this" every now and then, but that's just to try and head off angry comments. He quickly gets back to the angry bit because that's the point.

Olaf · Apr 1, 2019

Some people are missing his points. Yes, roadmaps can be good for some games, but not when they are used to mask the lack of content on release.

aevanhoe · Apr 1, 2019

carlsojo said:
Roadmaps are obviously a crutch for unfinished games, but with games like Odyssey and Division 2 where they're content complete at launch the roadmaps become actually a bit exciting.

Yes, like with everything, a roadmap can be a good or a bad thing.

Personally, I love the idea of Games as a service - if the base product is good. I like getting updates/content throughout the year(s). However, it must not be an excuse to offer an uncomplete game for a full price (if the game is f2p or has a significantly lowered price for Early Access, than I don't mind if it's not fully baked)

IronicSonic · Apr 1, 2019

I would like to see data about how many of players can roadmaps retain at the end of it. Like how many player buy X game day 1 and at the end of the roadmap. Also are roadmaps or GaaS hurting day 1 sales? It seems buying a GaaS day 1 is like a waste of money (at least with some games). GaaS make sense if the business model is more like that Rare's pirate game.

Professor Beef · Apr 1, 2019

He's spot on.

OneBadMutha · Apr 1, 2019

darksteel6 said:
It's not "laughable" in the least, why else would EA rush Anthem out the door when it clearly was not ready for prime time yet as evidenced by having the game's loot system keep getting unintentionally broken by patches not once but twice.

I disagree, I actually like there is less choice and value these days. As Jim has said in the past, this obsession with live-services actually devalues games as a whole since they can be rushed out unfinished and then the price drops big time within mere weeks(Fallout 76 got discounted within only a week, truly embarrassing for Bethesda).

Actually in the past games didn't die quickly, if they were successful enough, they got a second reprinting under a new banner(Greatest Hits for Playstation, Player's Choice for Nintendo and Platinum Hits for Microsoft).

EA rushed their game out the door to make an earnings call. They also rushed Mass Effect Andromeda our the door.

There's shit tons of single player games. We just got a bunch of great ones in the first 3 months of he year...and here we go bitching that GAAS is ruining the industry. EA doesn't stand for the entire industry.

Meanwhile Apex is free, Division 2 had a great launch and we got as many great single players games in the first 3 months of this year as we used to get in the Fall last gen.

Lots of people are enjoying and buying both single player games and GAAS games this year. I'd argue the consistency this year has been unusually consistently high. DOA and Anthem were the exceptions.

Mr.Deadshot · Apr 1, 2019

He is 100% on point and right. This whole GaaS and Mega-Patches needs to die quickly, especially for established franchises that worked perfectly before and got worse because of GaaS. Battlefield 5 is a prime example for that.

OneBadMutha · Apr 1, 2019

On a side note, just played Dead Cells again a few weeks ago and the updates made an already very good game a great one.

The fact that consumers have become conditioned to look for updates and games get 2nd and 3rd lives has resulted in a lot of positive results. Fallout 76 and Anthem are not the standard. That's why they stand out.

hurroocane · Apr 1, 2019

Tawpgun said:
This dude is just fundamentally against GaaS as a concept so of course he isn't a fan.

That is not true. He's talked about it in detail on his podcast a couple of times - his issues with GaaS are not with the concept but with games that try to rip you off or are extra grindy to push boosters et cetera. Warframe got a lot of praise from him more than once.

Prototype Viktor · Apr 1, 2019

i dunno Anthem is maybe a thursday hamburger

Deleted member 1003 · Apr 1, 2019

Roadmaps are only bad if the game released is bereft of content, full of bugs or glitches, or both. In concept, if a product has plenty of content, gameplay is good and it performs well, then the roadmap shouldn't be a problem. But EA and Bethesda act like the roadmap will be a bandaid for players and telling them to "comeback in a few months or a year, it will be good, we promise."

I do like that he acknowledges that he like complaining about Anthem. As a Destiny player, I love to complain about Destiny.

Thank God for Jim and the Chunky Grumbler.

stan423321 · Apr 1, 2019

ckareset said:
Why do people post in these threads without watching the video

Because it's a video. It's inconvenient to watch in some situations where writing and reading is convenient, and subject is boldly stated in the title, so people write about the subject. You could have had a point if it was a freely accessible, reasonably long blog post or something, since that's pretty much the same thing a forum is.

Nuclear Muffin · Apr 1, 2019

This episode was hilarious. Howled like a hyena all throughout!

Why would anyone bother to buy or play a game with a roadmap anyway? If you're interested in the game at all, why not just wait until the game is actually finished and the actual content that is supposed to be in the game is actually released?

A roadmap is a big fat red flag saying "This game is unfinished and may never actually be". It is a clear sign that you should not bother playing it at all as the current game is nothing other than a waste of your time and money; and may never actually be worth your time and money.

LuisGarcia · Apr 1, 2019

Nuclear Muffin said:
This episode was hilarious. Howled like a hyena all throughout!

Why would anyone bother to buy or play a game with a roadmap anyway? If you're interested in the game at all, why not just wait until the game is actually finished and the actual content that is supposed to be in the game is actually released?

A roadmap is a big fat red flag saying "This game is unfinished and may never actually be". It is a clear sign that you should not bother playing it at all as the current game is nothing other than a waste of your time and money; and may never actually be worth your time and money.

What an absolute load of shite. Look at games like Division 2. Absolutely crammed full of content on release and the Devs gave a full road map of the free content coming up.

OneBadMutha · Apr 1, 2019

For me personally...I don't think always ranting and using hyperbole against the entire industry makes you pro consumer just like acknowledging what's good about the state of the industry doesn't make you a corporate shill. My problem with Jim's rants is that he's not this pro consumer, fight for the little guy warrior he pretends to be. He's pro Jim. If you were going to open up healthy discussion, you'd introduce more context. You wouldn't shy away from the positives within the industry as a result of GAAS and road maps. Instead you'd ask questions like do the positives outweigh the negatives and here's a lot of stuff on both sides. Maybe you'd find some ideas or solutions to make GAAS products better in terms of transparency pre-release.

Being pro or anti-consumer to me comes down to honesty and transparency. If I know I'm getting an early access game but I'm willing to buy into the product early because I want to be part of the community that helps shape the game, there's nothing wrong with that. At the same time, when stuff is promised, hyped and advertised and it's either never in the product or comes out a year after release, that is a problem.

Fallout 76 was basically an Early Access game sold as a finished game. There wasn't good communication or transparency about the state of the game. It's a problem. Call the publisher out. On the other hand, Division 1 kept iterating to make it reach a really good state and released a pretty damned great game Day 1 with Division 2...that probably doesn't happen in a non GAAS, non iterative environment.

Fafalada · Apr 1, 2019

Claven said:
Jesus tapdancing Christ. Roadmap for store features, what fresh level of hell is this.

Well to be fair - the most recent precedent for a big store launch on PC was to just ship without those features and then deliver it... some day(IIRC it took more than 6 months to get cloud saves on Oculus store, minus one game that shipped a custom implementation at launch). So a roadmap is actually an improvement...

TheRuralJuror · Apr 1, 2019

Dardan Sandiego said:
Not sure why people are defending the concept of roadmaps when Jim is clearly criticising its implementation.

Folks would rather take shots at Jim rather than watch the video.

Professor Beef · Apr 1, 2019

stan423321 said:
Because it's a video. It's inconvenient to watch in some situations where writing and reading is convenient, and subject is boldly stated in the title, so people write about the subject. You could have had a point if it was a freely accessible, reasonably long blog post or something, since that's pretty much the same thing a forum is.

So laziness then, got it

Timeaisis · Apr 1, 2019

Yeah, how dare a game tries to improve after release.

Pasha · Apr 1, 2019

Timeaisis said:
Yeah, how dare a game tries to improve after release.

Yeah because that was totally the point of the video.

stan423321 · Apr 1, 2019

Professor Beef said:
So laziness then, got it

Funny thing, Beef, but half an hour ago my internet was in an interesting state where the only thing working was Era. No YouTube, no Twitter, no Steam, no neverssl, no imgur even. A lot of posts in 04.01 thread got unreadable.

I guess not proceeding to start World War 3 over this malfunction classifies as laziness. I should rectify this vice of mine and start with saving up for Deafening Canon 4 Pro right now.

Kenstar · Apr 1, 2019

stan423321 said:
Funny thing, Beef, but half an hour ago my internet was in an interesting state where the only thing working was Era. No YouTube, no Twitter, no Steam, no neverssl, no imgur even. A lot of posts in 04.01 thread got unreadable.

I guess not proceeding to start World War 3 over this malfunction classifies as laziness. I should rectify this vice of mine and start with saving up for Deafening Canon 4 Pro right now.

tether your smartphone's 4g gramps

Deleted member 46948 · Apr 1, 2019

Fafalada said:
Well to be fair - the most recent precedent for a big store launch on PC was to just ship without those features and then deliver it... some day(IIRC it took more than 6 months to get cloud saves on Oculus store, minus one game that shipped a custom implementation at launch). So a roadmap is actually an improvement...

I never heard of Oculus store until now, I guess it's safe to say it didn't take the market by storm?

stan423321 · Apr 1, 2019

Kenstar said:
tether your smartphone's 4g gramps

Oh, but then I'll run out of my 2G data cap in thirty seconds of Jim's Big Ego. Not so smart move, eh, junior? Now tether your eyes to a wall until I adjust them with Deafening Canon.

Claven said:
I never heard of Oculus store until now, I guess it's safe to say it didn't take the market by storm?

Dedicated to VR, and enforces using Oculus HW for some reason unless you mod it. So, uh, the target audience is rather limited.

Deleted member 31873 · Apr 1, 2019

No lies detected. GaaS is dogshit.

darksteel6 · Apr 1, 2019

MatrixMan.exe said:
So you understand that the overwhelming majority of the time it's a case of developers having to get something out of the door, rather than some malicious attempt to screw over their audience?

Good. Someone gets it.

Jim never blamed developers, he blamed publishers. Also it's possible for a roadmap to be both of those things at the same time.

darksteel6 · Apr 1, 2019

Antrax said:
But that's got nothing to do with roadmaps. That's just a game releasing with not enough content. Do you (or does Jim) think that this didn't happen before roadmaps became a thing? It's just silly.

An issue I have with a lot of Jim's arguments in these videos is that he takes a problem (here, games that are light on content) and claims that some modern day concept is to blame for it when the problem is always something that happened in the past. It's like a parent saying that cell phones are why their older kids don't talk to them as much when kids pre-cell phone still ignored our parents because they weren't cool. It had nothing to do with the modern feature at all. It was just correlated.

So again, I'm unclear on what Jim wants. Let's say we axe roadmaps altogether. They're illegal now. What does Jim posit will happen? I think you just get players mad at a lack of information, and you still will see some games that needed more content at launch.

Eh this isn't really accurate for how Jim does the Jimquisition. You get nuance in his other content more often, but the Jimquisition (hence the name and character schtick) is entirely for calling things bad. He throws out the "now, not all games do this" every now and then, but that's just to try and head off angry comments. He quickly gets back to the angry bit because that's the point.

Jim never said anything like that so obviously no.

A lot of the time it is a modern-day concept that is a problem with it, and your cell-phone analogy makes zero sense since cell-phones have an actual practical use.

Jim never said anything about getting rid of road maps altogether, you thinking he meant makes me think you didn't watch the whole video(or you are relatively new to watching Jim's content and don't really get what he stands for). Jim said in the video that road maps were not an inherently bad concept, but too often AAA publishers mis-use them like with rushing out a blatantly unfinished game and then fixing it later. With how buggy Fallout 76 was there was no excuse for it to release in such a bad state.

Also no JQ is not entirely for calling things bad, Jim has done positive ones before like the one where he praised Bloodborne.

Mars People · Apr 1, 2019

It's fine having a plan for extra content.
It's not fine releasing a unfinished, undercooked, incomplete or straight broken game with the promise of "we'll fix/finish it later". (And sell you the missing bits)
Fuck that noise.

darksteel6 · Apr 1, 2019

Ramjag said:
Folks would rather take shots at Jim rather than watch the video.

I noticed that for the thread about last week's JQ episode. Jim decided to criticize the Epic Store after people criticized him for not mentioning their flaws in the "Screw Steam" episode, and people still bitched about it, I just feel like some people are never going to be happy with Jim no matter what he does and just like finding excuses to complain about him.

Personally I thought Jim did a fine job of tackling the Epic store situation. As someone who's mainly a console gamer I don't really have a dog in the Epic vs Steam war(I do have a decent sized Steam library, but it's mostly made up of sixth generation titles and the occasional PC exclusive, I prefer playing modern titles on console as I simply do not have the money to upgrade my PC) but nevertheless i'm glad to see Valve finally get some damn competition, even if the Epic store does have some glaring flaws that need addressing(that being said the vast majority of gamers likely just see it as another launcher and don't really care that much about the war between Valve and Epic).

PrimeBeef · Apr 1, 2019

FliXFantatier said:
It's hard to disagree with Jim here, how can companies expect us to be engaged with a husk of a game for a year till everything has been implemented that should have been implemented for a fully functioning game?

All hail the Cunky Grumbler

You could see this trend coming for years and just wait for the GotY edition or until everything is out. Not like that hasn't even a thing for generations now.

Weltall Zero · Apr 1, 2019

Cartridge Games said:
Road Maps informing your customer of what's planned in the future seems like the opposite of a bad thing?

It's bad when the roadmap is used to justify lack of content, particularly when it's used (by publishers and fans) to shut down criticism of an incomplete game. There's some weird illusion of tangibility when a developer releases an official roadmap that makes a lot of people, reviewers even, feel like they have to judge the game with these hypothetical future improvements in mind, because otherwise they're being unfair to the devs' hard work. It happens to me as well, and taking a step back, it's a bit manipulative, even when it's unintentional.

Deleted member 1777 · Apr 1, 2019

Camstun187 said:
Love the nod to Fury road with that title

Showing my age here but I thought it was a nod to the Talking Heads especially with the intro song ;)

Sparks · Apr 1, 2019

MatrixMan.exe said:
This guy is an absolute tool, and your take is terrible OP.

The problem is companies launching products that feel incomplete at launch. Even then, if people think companies intentionally put out games with a perceived lack of content on purpose so they can just update it later and maximise profits then they're also tools.

That's not how game development works.

Thank you...

This is never (well I can't say never, some companies might) the intention when making a game. Nobody on development side deliberately like cutting our games down, we put everything we have into it. Sometimes things don't make the cut and it's nice we can put them back in eventually instead of them being gone for good, but it's never our intention to hold crap back (unless it allows for extra iteration and polish).

Also, I don't think there is a game launched that didn't go through massive cuts at some point, and it's always pretty devastating if its something you enjoyed.

Antrax · Apr 2, 2019

darksteel6 said:
A lot of the time it is a modern-day concept that is a problem with it, and your cell-phone analogy makes zero sense since cell-phones have an actual practical use.

The first part of this sentence doesn't make any sense. Like I literally don't know what you're saying. Apologies if this is a language barrier thing.

As for the second part, road maps also have a practical use! And that wasn't even my point. My point is that it's really common for older people (older in the sense of time spent involved with a thing) to misattribute issues to modern concepts because of rose-colored glasses. I repeat, the road maps have nothing to do with content-lacking launches.

darksteel6 said:
you thinking he meant makes me think you didn't watch the whole video(or you are relatively new to watching Jim's content and don't really get what he stands for)

Wrong and wrong. Some advice, make an argument instead of attacking the person making it. You'll notice I haven't attacked Jim at all even if I'm attacking his argument!

darksteel6 said:
Also no JQ is not entirely for calling things bad, Jim has done positive ones before like the one where he praised Bloodborne.

It is 99% of the Jimquisition, if not all of it (I'd have to check that Bloodborne one). He named it after the Inquisition for a reason.

Vern · Apr 2, 2019

Never bought a GaaS and hopefully never will. Just make good complete games and I'll continue to buy them. Can't understand how people can play this garbage.

Henrar · Apr 2, 2019

Claven said:
Jesus tapdancing Christ. Roadmap for store features, what fresh level of hell is this.

What's so surprising in that? Features take time and you have to prioritize the features you want after you have delivered a MVP.

Kin5290 · Apr 2, 2019

collige said:
Do FO76 and Anthem even have content issues? Most of the complaints I've seen have been technical or gameplay-related.

Don't know about FO76, but Anthem only had three strikes (dungeon equivalents) at launch, and two of them were so disproportionately difficult/tedious for the reward offered that people ended up just farming one of them for loot.

Crossing Eden · Apr 2, 2019

Roadmaps are inherently bad and indicate that a game is unfinished. The following games were all barebones at launch.....

marvels-spider-man-the-city-that-never-sleeps-ps4-2.jpg

Vern said:
Never bought a GaaS and hopefully never will

You own a switch, have you purchased Splatoon, Arms, Smash Bros, or BOTW?

Timewarp · Apr 2, 2019

My fear is he is correct about the industry having no "bottom". They will always find worse ideas to screw over customers. They seemingly have everything they could want: Games as service, pre-orders, multiple editions, season passes, dlc, microtransactions, roadmaps, loot boxes, paying for early access. What novel ways will they come up with next to wring out a bit more coin?

With streaming on the horizon, and digital rights getting reinvented; their total control over the gaming "experience" is worrisome. Be prepared to own nothing, be bombarded with ads we cannot opt out of, and be expected to thank them for the privilege.

VariantX · Apr 2, 2019

Crossing Eden said:
Roadmaps are inherently bad and indicate that a game is unfinished. The following games were all barebones at launch.....

You own a switch, have you purchased Splatoon, Arms, Smash Bros, or BOTW?

Roadmaps are definitely not inherently bad. We should at least just keep the vitriol aimed at the bad actors.

Crossing Eden · Apr 2, 2019

VariantX said:
Roadmaps are definitely not inherently bad

Tell that to Jim and his audience of captial G gamers who lap up every instance of "video games bad now, video essay #901849728673516792034318975642"

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