Author:
Simulacrum
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Date:
11/17/2018 10:49:00 AM
Subject:
"In coming weeks . . ."
So Bethesda has decided to spin the $60 launch version of Fallout 76 as their "starting line" for something that, over time, will creep toward a thing that is kinda sorta more finished.
To their credit, they're planning a Nov. 19 patch that will address performance and stability issues, and in the "coming weeks," they will add an FOV slider, a push-to-talk option, and widescreen support. They also intend to increase stash space and more content in the form of events, and so forth and so on.
All of which tells me that sometime in 2019, this game might be worth picking up on sale. The problem is that by that time, the existing player base will be high-level, with intimate knowledge of the map and every exploit, including how to gank new players, how to take advantage of the 6,087 things Bethesda will never fix, etc., etc.
This is what a so-called beta accomplishes in a multiplayer game, and it's why every such game is ruined for anyone who didn't get in on the beta from day one. Open betas and "early access" are really just invitations to people with pre-ordered games to gain a massive advantage over people who sensibly waited for a more finished product. It's a toxic practice that results in a short-term cash injection but ruins a game in the long term. New players can overcome the damage if they form regular groups, but if they can't, they're more likely to lose interest. This is not so bad for developers and publishers as long as they get their money from these new people, which they can keep doing by advertising new content. But eventually, they're likely to start consolidating servers and changing their model to free-to-play because that original beta group keeps running off the new buyers.
Bethesda believes they have solved this problem by making PVP damage negligible. That is, if I want to start a PVP match with you, I can shoot you, but unless you start shooting back at me, the damage I do to you will be so low that I might as well not bother. Also, if I kill you, all I'll get will be the junk you've picked up. I'm not supposed to be able to take your gear or caps.
They know that some people will probably get around this, so such people are labeled "murderers" and are advertised as killable on sight to the rest of the world.
This might be an interesting system if it weren't in the hands of developers who can't build worlds without people falling through the ground and winding up in outer space -- developers who are trying to shoehorn an mp element into a very old sp engine, which traditionally has been very moddable and which has been studied to death by multitudes of people with access to various iterations of the Creation Kit.
Anyway, I'm not really worried about griefers and cheaters. I'm more worried that Bethesda resisted putting in all the above-mentioned fixes until people started pitching fits about them. I really like their take on the Fallout world -- I've liked it since FO3, and I earnestly want to throw more money at them, but they've made such dumb decisions about FO76 that I'm sitting here with no new Fallout game to play during Thanksgiving. I'm having to wait until January or February to see if they feel like getting this $60 game to a $30 state of readiness. Did I say $30? I meant a F2P early-access state of readiness.
Meanwhile, why hasn't anyone told me about Warframe? This thing looks so great that there must be something wrong with it.
