The Daily Grind: Is your glass half empty or half full?

Depends on a problem. If it's just an animation glitch, or some minor bug, it's ok to deal with it. If it's something like annoying 3 sec interface delay like in FFXIV then no, I can't and i don't want wait a year until they remake the damn interface so i don't need to wait 5 secs in total do open and close the inventory.

I don't expect a game to be perfect at launch. I'd rather not see severe problems, naturally, but I can turn a blind eye to those. For a time. On the whole I'm far more interested in how quickly problems are addressed, and resolved, following launch. Problems at least being acknowledged gives me hope, though if a month or two later that problem is still only acknowledged I will start to feel like they're jerking my chain.

The speed at which new content comes out is secondary if there are significant issues that need fixing. What's the point, otherwise? More content in which I can experience these problems! Yay! /sarcasm

I believe I gave Champions Online two or three months before I concluded that if the game was going to live up to its promises, it wouldn't happen in a time frame I'd be willing to pay for. My decision was in large part influenced by how much promised content was missing and how little was there to begin with.

No plan survives contact with the enemy. Every MMO has had launch day bugs. Anyone really bothered by them should wait 6 months before trying a new MMO.

I give the devs time to sort things out. I understand to some exten how hard it must be to balance everything and make sure the game is bug free day one. MMOs are huge and players try all sorts of things to fudge the system.

Untill RIFT relased (smothest big budget MMO leaunch ever hands down), games where often realsed in a buggy, crash prone and sometimes unfinnished state, (look at the early SOE games as an example). Patches where often slow in coming so some game breaking bugs took forever to be fixed. How times have changed.

So anyway I give the devs a grace period. It would take alot for me to go raging to the forums to QQ over something.

Oh did Massively ban Ren54? his pots are gone. I'm sad he was my hero:(

RIFT showed that you could have a stable, polished, "complete" launch with decent-ish balance on day 1.

The games longevity may not have been all that great for me personally, but I cannot fault Trion for the very, very impressive launch and pre-launch.

I highly doubt Trion had anywhere close to what would be considered "AAA" funding.

Shows that launching somewhat "smaller" yet very stable and polished and adding lots and lots in very quickly after launch is a good plan.

My glass isn't as nearly empty for launch day problems as it is for the general state of MMOs at the moment.

Launch day problems are so prevalent now, even in single-player games that we as gamers have been conditioned to deal with it. Its disappointing and it does cause its share of outrage, nor should it be necessarily tolerated, but it is what it is. Welcome to modern, release-now-cash-in-patch-later gaming.

However, the better topic, as I previously mentioned, is the general state of MMOs. There's some promise out there in games like GW2, maybe Wildstar, and maybe some aspects of TSW, but with big budget games like SWTOR seeming to take a far less innovative stance than would be desirable, while still being positioned for financial success, as well as the constant barrage of F2P garbage being put out on a weekly basis and somehow being able to persist, it doesn't bode well for the entirety of the genre. There's not a whole lot to be excited about these days, and that really drains my care cup.

I'm not sure what my glass is... I'd have to purchase it first from the in-game store.

Really, though, you have to give them a bit of time. All the polish in the world can't give you a perfect game. Thats why the developers are always refining, always balancing, always retooling. I give them a lot of slack, especially when a game first launches or relaunches.

Now, if its a single-player game, not so much, as updates are so far and few between that I'd usually be done with it before any updates are made. But thats what makes MMO's different... they're always in a state of development.

I'm pretty forgiving when it comes to minor issues, but when something actually stops me playing or progressing in any meaningful way then I start losing my favor for the developers. What really strikes me as odd is games having some times extensive stress testing sessions pre release then still having extreme lag, latency and rubberbanding post release. It really doesn't do anything for your faith in the guys in charge when they can't even properly test the right things in said phases.

I'm an engineer. So my glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

I'm cool with waiting a day or so for a game to get it's act together ( server issues etc). It's not the end of the world to me if I have to go and do something else.

Sometimes I volunteer to play games that aren't even finished yet; that's how much I love bugs. And some of my favorite games over the years have been riddled with unresolved bugs.

Any game that launches too polished is probably a game that's not pushing the envelope enough. You know, safe boring formulaic romps like...

Well. You know who you are, devs.

I've honestly beta tested almost every MMO I've had any interest in playing recently - or otherwise joined them long after release. So launch day bugs hardly ever come as a surprise for me.

The alpha and beta for FFXIV saved me a few bucks in that regard - picked it up in a bargain bin a few months later.

I'm usually pretty forgiving when it comes to issues though, as long as the devs and/or community reps make it sound like they're putting effort in to fix it. Now whether my attention can stick on any given MMO for very long is another story... regardless of issues or fun factor, my mind wanders a lot.

My glass is ALWAYS full, but it has all these little small holes poked in the bottom from continually bad games.

Here's to Dec 2012-2013!

It really depends how keen I am on the IP before I start playing. That enthusiasm alone can usualy make me put up with niggles for several months.

However sadly with my failing eyesight the UI must be resizeable including the fonts otherwise all the will in the world can't keep me interested in a game I can't even see without squinting all the time.

Most of my problems at a MMO's launch are fundamental ones. Do I or don't I like the crafting system, for example. Do I or don't I like how combat works (though this is relatively less important). How is character advancement handled, etc. From my experience as QA, bugs are just hiccups: it's the features (or lack thereof) that bother me.

It depends on whether my glass was full or empty at the start.