Let me be uncharacteristically blunt for a moment: PC gaming sucks. If you’ve played one RTS game you’ve played them all, and the compatibly of one minor genre to PCs over consoles does not make up for the myriad of problems that PC gaming brings to the table. The hardware costs more then doubles that of even the newest consoles, not to mention the costs of video cards, sound drivers, a compatible monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse. Furthermore, the technology can change in a matter of months, not the years between new console releases. I admire the PC gamer’s wallet size more then his dedication to his recreation.

None of that holds a candle to the all time number one problem with PC gaming: patches. Patches are the ‘batteries not included’ of the gaming world, that dried up pen you keep stumbling across that never works, the missing screw in you Ikea box that keeps you from completing your fine Swedish dinette set. Now, not all patches are bad (Diablo 2’s 1.11 comes to mind) but it’s what they represent that’s the problem.

Like doing extra credit in a class you’re failing, patches are fixes to problems that shouldn’t have existed in the first place. Now granted (and as stated above) programming games for PC is a complicated process, and thee always exists a chance of failure with any endeavor, but there is nothing in this gaming world worse the dropping fifty-plus dollars on a game and not being able to get it to work right out of the box. The producers of the game didn’t just take your system setup into consideration; they didn’t take YOU into consideration. Now you have to wait, either just minutes for an existing fix, or days for a new fix, all the while your time and your money are being wasted.

Consoles on the other hand don’t have that problem. Games are designed to run on specific hardware that you don’t change (don’t have to change, if you get my meaning). If the name of the system on the box matches the one on the front of the system, you’re good to go. Quality is built in as well as compatibility. Console games are produced on read-only memory like CDs, DVDs and cartridges can’t be altered once they go to press and hit the stores. This ‘handicap’ requires that game producers quality test their products extensively, a fact I can personally testify to. In fact, in my long gaming career I can think of only two serious bugs out side of the typical ‘lock-up’ variety. The memory card erasing Sony Underground demo disk and Relm’s sketch bug in Final Fantasy 3 for SNES. For decades now, console gamers have enjoyed a high level of quality in the products they purchase, but that’s all coming to an end.

We have become victims of our tireless quest to advance our technology. We’ve let our own nuclear genie out of the bottle in the forms of online gaming and internal hard drives. We can now connect seamlessly to the internet and store vast amounts of information electronically on our home consoles, just like a PC, and now we’re going to pay. Now we too have gaps to patch.

They’ll sell it to us like it’s an opportunity; the first moves were Ninja Gaiden’s Hurricane Pack, and Halo 2’s multiplayer expansion, both available in stores. You won’t “need” to buy an expansion, but you can if you want to, if you can afford it. Next will come ‘opportunities’ to upgrade your games; want a new skin for your avatar? Tired of driving a Burger King race car and want to ‘upgrade’ to a Wal-Mart car? Now you can download them for a small fee. Have you extended the game’s replayability, or gotten nothing for something? How much longer until you can buy an advantage in a game as opposed to earn it? A dual wielding mod for 5 dollars, $10 for a level skip, and a price on extra lives.

It’s already begun; Bethesda Softworks has recently announced an update for Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, one that can be downloaded for the XBOX 360. It will have both new content for the game (at a cost, naturally) and (logically for free) a patch to fix bugs. A patch to fix bugs on a console game! While we slept, a line was crossed; Pandora’s Box has been opened.

What we are looking at here is the end of quality, and as any business school grad is way more important it sounds. Now that games can be fixed after sale, there’s no good reason why production deadlines can’t be moved up. That means more buggy games on the market, so that publishers and cash in on their inverstments sooner.

“But Seth,” you’ll say, “they’ll just patch them!” Yes they will, but not right away. You’ll have the incomplete game now; and your money’s already been spent. And how many times do you want to go through the patching process before it’s not worth it anymore?

“You pays your money and you takes your chances?” is that really the way of the future? There can be only one ultimate result, a backlash that could ruin the industry. We must demand quality now, and not let the opportunity to fix problems become the problem.

This is my stop.

Comments? Questions? E-mail me at seth410@gamertransit.com. Complaints? The complaint form will be available in the next update.
Back of the Bus is © 2006 by Seth “4:10” Robison, used with exclusive permission by gamertransit.com. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.