[Luvian]

Originally posted by ZFR: 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.

Tell that to a con artist, or anyone that used fraud to abuse his clients, I'm sure he'll disagree.

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.[/qb]

Most sells happen the day or couple of days after a release, the only reviews you have to go by then are the pre-release ones from big names. Funny how every time they pre-review a game it's the game of the year, and once the game actually came out their second review is often bad. It's almost as if they are lying to us, so that they keep receiving new games to review, keeping their business alive. IGN's title of their Lionheart preview was "Be there when Black Isle and Reflexive change the course of human history." I'm not joking.

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.

They are not bad games from an outsider's point of view. They are a monetary success. If you can make a couple millions and move on, who care? Better that than just making a couple of thousands over the years. Who has time for the long term these days? I've been to that kind of conferences, and the talkers like to throw around phrases like "Buy my book and you'll make your first million before 25", or "This is how I made my first million by XX". That's the way it work, make money while you are young and can still enjoy the coke and whores, not when you are old.

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."

Black Island released Lionheart. They still have a good image don't they? Atari released countless crappy and buggy games, including Temple of Elemental evil, they didn't want to patch it and yet people are still buying their games right? Look like they can get away with it. People will even buy NWN2. That's just a couple examples. It's not rare to see someone post swearing he'll boycott a certain company to turn around and buy another game from them.

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.

Free extras create goodwill and raise your company's image, as it show you care about your customers.

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.

No, that is only true about the people that have their life depending on the company. For someone else, it pay more to make lots of money fast than making some money over a long period of times. It's better to ruin 10 companies and make 5 millions in one year than play nice, and make one million in 5 years. Like you said, it's all about the money.

Money is the only good objective medium to determine what should be produced and what not.

And a company that release tons of bad games that sell well will have a better quarterly report than one that spent time and money polishing one game. By the time the customers realise you're ripping them off you're already on your tropical island.

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.

That is a lie prepetuated by companies to give customers the illusion of control, just like "The customer is always right" Haha.

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.

Blizzard is one company that actually care about their image.