I’m here today to talk to y’all about a strange kind of positive reinforcement we’re offering publishers for pushing out unfinished, unpolished products. Let’s consider the following definition from Dictionary.com just to keep things simple: Positive reinforcement – noun – the offering of desirable effects or consequences for a behavior with the intention of increasing the chance of that behavior being repeated in the future. I’m going to take a moment, using two of the biggest games of the year, to point out some awful, increasingly common behavior and contrast it against our responding positive reinforcement. I say our reinforcement, because I’m part of the problem here; I bought both of these games, and I’ve let my money speak for me in a way that I didn’t intend.
The two games in question are Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 and Fallout 4 . There can be no doubt that (along with Halo 5 ) these were two of the biggest launches of the year, and I doubt very much that anything else this holiday season will outshine them. Both of these games shouldn’t have been released in the state they were in. Both games suffer from unique issues that could have been ironed out with another month or two of testing and development, but we now live in an age of day-one, week-two, month-three patches. With DLC, season passes, and microtransactions, we no longer expect to get the full game experience right at launch. That’s not cool, but that’s the direction the industry is moving in and I have a feeling that we’ll have to adapt. What I refuse to accept, however, is the lowering of our expectations for a polished core game at launch. It should be finished. Server failure and game-breaking bugs should be a non-issue. Period.
Fallout 4 had a huge launch; it exceeded even Bethesda’s expectations. In order to meet day-one demand, Bethesda shipped out around 12 million units to retailers, representing over $750 million in sales. It broke records on Steam, and the Pip-Boy Edition was the fastest selling collector’s edition of any game in history. Review scores across the board were glowing with a few exceptions like our own review here at CheatCC, which I’m proud of; not because it makes us stand out as a bunch of hardass elitists, but because our reviewer assessed the game objectively in a context of high, modern expectations. Is the game fun? Absolutely, but literally the day after launch, and all throughout the week, the overwhelming majority of articles about Fallout 4 were about its bugs and its glitches. Some are funny, some are advantageous, some are game-breaking; none of them should be there. Have we risen up to let Bethesda know that this is unacceptable? No, instead we’ve shrugged it off and said, “Bethesda games are always a little buggy at launch. Here’s a workaround for this glitch. Here’s what to do when you can’t complete that quest.” We’re letting Bethesda and every other publisher know that it’s ok to release a buggy mess.
Activision seems to know exactly what we’ve come to expect. Here’s the behavior: Black Ops 3 is released with performance issues right out of the gate. Resolution and framerates aren’t up to the typical Call of Duty standard on the Xbox One or the PS4. The campaign, which historically in this series is the most thrilling in the genre, is a lengthy, redundant chore. Playing online with friends is hard, and there are frequent, widely-experienced server issues. Just last night I was trying to play with a friend, and we could not load up a campaign mission together. We tried Zombies instead; first I’d get an error and get kicked out of the lobby, and then she would. We never made it into a game together. Despite all of this, what does Activision see on its end? Rave reviews, a three-day opening weekend of over $550 million in sales, and the highest player engagement ever recorded for a Call of Duty game with over 75 million hours of online gameplay logged. That’ll show ‘em.
Like I said, I consider myself part of the problem here because I have both of these games in my library. Activision and Bethesda got my money, and I’d be a damned liar if I said I don’t plan on checking out some DLC or map packs. Now I ask you, fellow gamers, how do we get the message across that we expect more from our games at launch? Is there any meaningful way to augment the reinforcement given to developers and publishers to persuade them to take the time needed to properly polish and debug their software? Would you rather have a buggy Fallout 4 this month, or a well-oiled Fallout 4 next month? Also, should bugs, server and matchmaking issues, and outdated engines be factored into review scores, or is it OK to don a pair of rose-tinted glasses when reviewing this kind of AAA hype-beast?