how to polish a turd

Day five of the sunless sky, the rain continues... this morning it's subsided to a damp drizzle. It's unusual to go without the sun for this long in the fall. My mood has changed and I'm feeling truly unmotivated today.

Even though I successfully returned Failout: New Lost Wages yesterday, I'm still pissed off about the whole 'gaming industry/marketing machine'. People/gamers have this widespread acceptance that if it is only a game, it is okay to sell you a broken product and then tell you that they're going to fix it.

I know they have to really fix this and make it playable or future sales plummet. But this becomes the movie industry marketing plan at this point. I think the further out that they start showing off/hypeing a polished turd, the more the company is are relying on it's pre-orders to hide the epic fail they will be releasing. Movies are no different. If they start pumping it for a release date 6 months away, 95/100 of the time it's going to be shite.

Release day and the following 3 or 4 days are critical. But does it really matter. No. Because once you buy the product, the company in theory has your money. The risk is all yours at this point. To ensure it works properly, you have to open it. And once you open it, your options for being made whole diminish.

If it works.... awesome... Game On. If it doesn't too bad you opened it therefore you own it. Exchange for the equally defective unopened product, or trade it in for a pittance of the original purchase price.

The problem with Bethesda is trust and a clear lack of deadlines. Saying a patch will be forthcoming in upcoming weeks, is at best, vague. The return clock is usually 14 days on software, which games are, and once you open it... it's yours. Broken or not.

Although it took every shred of my willpower not to open it, it paid off. I got my $91.99 back. A full refund. Good luck to the rest of Betathesda's Beta Testers (aka the customer).