| Next |

Page 1

Can I have my money back please?
by Steve MacGregor

I have been playing computer games for around 20 years now (I started with a Sinclair ZX-80). Over the years, I have gained a huge amount of pleasure from games and simulations, and there is little I enjoy more than a well-designed and produced flight simulator. Generally speaking, current software is pretty good, but recently I have seen a worrying trend toward games that are less than satisfactory. Specifically, two things consistently irritate me beyond reason. The first is when I buy a game, and it runs too slowly to be playable even though my system far exceeds the claimed “minimum requirements” on the box. The second is when I buy software that is unfinished, incomplete, or just plain shoddy.

In recent years, the computer games industry has moved out of the age of bedroom programmers, and into the age of multi-national companies. In many respects, this is a good thing; larger companies mean larger development budgets and more games with ambitious design spec's. Unfortunately, it also means that games are no longer designed by passionate individuals who take pride in their work. Instead, some games seem to be designed and developed by faceless marketing divisions who are solely interested in moving product.

The result of this in some cases is games of worse, not better, quality. Some recent games seem to have been produced solely based on how much revenue they can generate, and have ignored completely the need to give the customer value for his money. This isn’t how it is supposed to be. If I buy a microwave oven, or a radio, or a car, or any other item, I have every right to expect that it will perform as advertised. If it doesn't, I get my money back. If I buy a computer game and it doesn’t perform as advertised on the box, I am often left to hope that unpaid but talented individuals will assist me via the Internet. It seems that we gamers are getting a poor deal here, and I believe it is time to take a stand.

I think we are all aware that many companies are drawing back from what they regard as “hard-core” simulations; usually citing poor sales as their reason. When you look at some of the poor quality, bug-ridden software that has been released recently, perhaps it isn’t the genre that is in decline so much as that we consumers simply aren’t prepared to pay for poor quality games, or games that won’t run on our systems.

 

| Next |

Click Here for Printer Version

© 1997 - 2000 COMBATSIM.COM, Inc. All Rights Reserved.