The rage is swirling thick and deep from those for and against Bethesda's strategy of updates for Skyrim, but here's what the horse's mouth has to say.
So, commenter devilsmurf thinks Atomic is worse than Hitler for not reporting this. So, we're taking time out from torturing kittens to share what Bethesda's been cooking to mollify the ravaging hordes of Stormcloak PC gamers wanting to batter down the Imperial doors of the developer's head office.
Yes, even we think that's one hell of a stretched reference.
Bethesda posted a large 'what we're working on' post over on its official blog, covering off on everything from upcoming toolsets for content creation, Steamworks integration, and, of course, the bugs.
This week we released update 1.2 across all platforms, and we’ll be releasing an incremental update next week. We anticipate it will be up on PC first, and then hit PS3 and Xbox 360 later in the week. Among other things, the update will fix issues like magic resistance not calculating properly and the rare, amazing backwards flying dragon. Once the update is released, we’ll share the full release notes.
We're not saying Bethesda's doing everything right - the DRM patch has certainly and justifiably angered many gamers. Those who have dedicated tens of hours to the game only to have that progress locked out, too, probably have good reason to be shitty. But there's a certain... 'mea culpa with one's tongue in one's cheek' attitude we kinda like about the post.
And hey, let's be honest - Skyrim is probably one of the most ambitious games to come out on any platform in years. Bugs are, like it or not, going to happen. So why then is it sometimes excused, and other times scores a developer a one way ticket to flameville (which is not far from FarmVille, I hear) on an already burning horse?
Expectation is a big part of it, I think. As games start to approach films in the complexity and reach of their marketing, we're starting to expect the same level of quality; and, certainly, Skyrim had a hella marketing campaign behind it. But the most important part is how those bugs are addressed from the get-go. Skyrim's not the first game to be buggy, so why is the reaction so strong?
Well, making your first patch not an update or a fix, but rather DRM... not the smartest move. It kinda goes downhill from there with the 1.2 patch that got Ashton so steamed yesterday. And by the way, if you don't know, he really is one of the number one modding guys around today. Mad Martigen's mods are known all over the world, and Ashton's Oblivion modding guides still rank up in our daily traffic roundups. If he's upset at Bethesda, that's almost news in and of itself.
(It's also worth noting that while Ashton and many of my readers are lighting pitchforks, I'm not - I stand by our Hot Award for the game, and pretty much play it every spare moment I get, and already have about four character ideas waiting for my next playthroughs. But I'm not going to naysay their experience, because that's a dick move.)
And yet, at the end of the day, I personally have no doubt that Bethesda will deliver what it's promising. Yes, the company is being a bit cagey, but Skyrim will literally get better and better, and have more and more tools added to help it become so. However, don't be surprised if, along the way, a few save-games get violated, and a few gamers get angry.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012