[ZFR]

Originally posted by Luvian: Yes, back then it was about money too, but the companies cared about their customers.

You *cannot* make money without caring about your customer. Your only source of money is your customer.

Originally posted by Luvian: Before you figure out you got ripped on a game, you have to buy it

I can argue with that. You can read lots of reviews about how a game is. Granted these are not always true, but do provide at least some guidance. You won't get all bad reviews for a good game or vice versa.
But what's more important is the fact that even after you get ripped on a game after buying, you will think 10 times before buying another game from same company. The producer knows it, so if he wants your money he won't produce such a game.

Originally posted by Luvian: I think the problem is that these companies are owned by shareholders. The guy is probably on 10 different board in 10 different companies, he probably never played a video game, he want money at all cost, and if after too much abuse it look like the company is going down?

You said it. He cares about his money so wouldn't invest it in a company that makes bad games.
How can you want money "at all cost"? If you really want money you wouldn't want to get it at the cost of not being able to get it ever again.
And there is only so many times you can fool people into buying a terrible product.

Originally posted by Luvian: These days it's always like that, companies release games before they are 100% complete, don't want to spend time to patch them up

Again I'll repeat my point. If so would you buy another game from them? "Hey I brought this game from this company, it wasn't 100% complete and they didn't patch it up. But I'm buying their new game. I bet this time it will be all patched."

Originally posted by Luvian: and in some cases even try to charge you for more stuff.

Some contradiction. Would you bother to buy any extra stuff for a terrible game? If you want to buy extra stuff you're admitting the game is good.
And what's wrong with them wanting to charge for extra stuff. If I want to get any extras for my car, I'd be charged too.

Now back to all the examples you gave at the beginning.
In games, like in all things you buy, there will always be good products and bad products. It was always like this and always will be. The only thing which ensures more good products are being produced and less bad ones is the fact that producers want to make money and in order to make money have to make good products. Money is the only good objective medium to determine what should be produced and what not. Like I said it's the customers who vote what's good with thier wallets. In case of games, it's the gamer's decision.

Look at this example: Warcraft Adventures. This game was not produced because Blizzard felt it was not good enough.
Now looking at the amount of fans waiting for this game, it would have sold amazingly well. So why didn't Blizzard produce it? Was it becuase they "cared for customers"? It was because they cared for money. They wanted to get money from future games like Starcraft, Diablo2, Warcraft 3, WoW... Starcraft 2. It was their love for this money, that made them withdraw the game, because they knew they wouldn't have gotten it if they released a terrible product.