I recently picked up a new computer game and even though I haven’t spent much time playing it, I’m surprised by the poor quality of the game compared to the first version released several years ago (by poor quality I mean issues that would really be considered bugs, not that the game itself is bad). This idea has been sitting in the back of my mind for the last few days and I’ve noticed that there seems to be a general quality breakdown in computer games lately. Since I tend to spend a lot of free time playing games, I can see this in the quality of the released versions of newer games compared to games released several years ago. One computer gaming realm this is most evident in is the online games. I have spent a little time playing online (mmo) type games and almost every time you log in there is a new patch to download. In one case I was actively participating in a beta and could barely run the game (along with a bunch of other people), but they still released on their target date because it was too easy for them to just patch as they went.
Having the internet has made patching software so much easier that companies seem to release their products before they are really ready, with the full intention of putting out patches to fix the problems they know are there - instead of holding on to the product until it’s really ready.
Unfortunately, as a QA manager, there have been some decisions I’ve made about releasing builds that have fallen into this same trap. The fact that it is so easy to just post a patch out on a web site and have people download it seems to cause a slight blasé type of approach to determining when to release products. This risk is even more intensified when the product in question has an Auto Update feature where people don’t even need to go to a web site to download a patch.
Back to the gaming example – now that the console gaming systems are getting hard drives and online connectivity, we will probably start seeing a drop in quality for console games as well. In the past, console games have always been more stable than PC games, in general, because they are not easy to patch. If a company releases a screwed up console game it’s a lot more detrimental because a customer cannot go download patch. I’m sure we (gamers) will start to see the release quality of console games begin to drop over the next few years as they make consoles systems more connected like the PCs.
posted @ Friday, November 19, 2004 5:43 PM