Do you care about game updates

[almoststew1990]

These days there seems to a binary of a game is either getting updated and the game is alive or a game does not get updates and it is immediately a dead game, don't buy etc. People, by which I mean Gamers™ on Twitter, can't seem to accept a game that doesn't get updated is just a fun game to keep playing.

I find this odd as I grew up with a game being what came on the disk and also as a largely single player gamer. A non live service game doesn't magically disappear if it doesn't get updated and I am fine to keep playing if I like the game in the first place.

However, even old multiplayer games like COD4, I think on 360 you could pay for map packs but I don't think it received patch after patch (which itself is different from a content update) of game play tweaks. The PC version has a couple of patches only.

Forza Motorsport 4 was feature complete on day 1 with hundreds of leagues, and is widely considered the best in the series, and didn't significantly change over it's life. but Forza Motorsport 2023 is constantly fiddled with (and still bad) until the developer closed this year and now it's a Ded Game even though you can still play it.

Grab Turismo 4 being on PS2 received no content updates but is loved by single player racing game nerds. GT7 meanwhile seems to need regularly scheduled updates.

Today I saw a post about how DuckStation on Android is stopping development, it's all over guys. DuckStation works perfectly it doesn't need any changes (er, or so I hear).

The exception for me is Cities Skylines which received updates that I did value but that doesn't make me want to play a game or not.

Does a game update make you log back on for a multiplayer game? What about single player?

 

[McCarthy]

These days there seems to a binary of a game is either getting updated and the game is alive or a game does not get updates and it is immediately a dead game, don't buy etc. People, by which I mean Gamers™ on Twitter, can't seem to accept a game that doesn't get updated is just a fun game to keep playing.

I find this odd as I grew up with a game being what came on the disk and also as a largely single player gamer. A non live service game doesn't magically disappear if it doesn't get updated and I am fine to keep playing if I like the game in the first place.

However, even old multiplayer games like COD4, I think on 360 you could pay for map packs but I don't think it received patch after patch (which itself is different from a content update) of game play tweaks. The PC version has a couple of patches only.

Forza Motorsport 4 was feature complete on day 1 with hundreds of leagues, and is widely considered the best in the series, and didn't significantly change over it's life. but Forza Motorsport 2023 is constantly fiddled with (and still bad) until the developer closed this year and now it's a Ded Game even though you can still play it.

Grab Turismo 4 being on PS2 received no content updates but is loved by single player racing game nerds. GT7 meanwhile seems to need regularly scheduled updates.

Today I saw a post about how DuckStation on Android is stopping development, it's all over guys. DuckStation works perfectly it doesn't need any changes (er, or so I hear).

The exception for me is Cities Skylines which received updates that I did value but that doesn't make me want to play a game or not.

Does a game update make you log back on for a multiplayer game? What about single player?

Definitely think it’s worth revisiting for online multiplayer games.

For single player, as long as the game is finished and free of game breaking bugs I’m happy. I’d definitely play an old favourite just for nostalgia if nothing else as I think games are like music in that respect, they can make you feel like you’re back in the period you first played them.

 

[throwaway4372]

I usually don't play a game long enough to notice whether it gets updates or not. I'll get a game, play it for a week or two, then never touch it again. I'm not expecting improvements after that because they've already got my money.

A recent exception is BF6 which released regular updates and none of them improved the game so I lost confidence in the company and won't buy their future games.

And old exception was EVE Online, which updated to introduce microtransactions so I stopped playing.

Situations where updated have made me revisit a game are usually community driven rather than the company. For example Freelancer can be played now, but it requires community mods.

This situation is symptomatic of how software engineering works. As a dev you lose regardless of whether you deliver or not - because the MBAs running the show set you up to fail.

 

[OspreyO]

Don't think I ever played a single player game that didn't have bugs. They've all benefited from a few fixes and updates.

That said I've lived with bugs in games and still played the game for years.

One that's burnt into my memory was DID Tornado 1993 flight sim which used to crash if you used the guns you had to remember not to touch the trigger.