S.T.A.L.K.E.R. seemed very promising and I read that the pulishers were unhappy whith all the delays and setbacks so they are now pushing to get it released regardless of what state it's in...which really would be a shame.Dinoguy1000 wrote:Sadly, publishers often set unrealistic deadlines on developers for the completion of games, rather than doing the *logical* and most likely *money-saving* thing of giving the developers enough time to actually finish all planned features, get them tested, and add extra stuff they might think of towards the end... I think if publishers would just start pushing deadlines back, we could potentialy see the quality of games increase.Mr.Mouse wrote:I also thought that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. would be something different as a shooter, but it is plagued with setbacks and delays that makes me wonder if it will be as good as expected when it's released.
In general, I agree with your statement that not stressing developers with short deadlines would be better for quality.
However, as long as cool graphics and supporting the latest hardware is expected from the consumers (or the publishers firmly believe this to be the case) the developing timeframe will be dictated by the release of new hardware (graphic cards etc). No one seems keen to take the extra costs for switching engines in mid-production for example...and we all know too well about games like Duke Nuke 'em Forever...which has been in "development" for how long?
Also, as games become more and more linked together with movies and the movie industry, keeping deadlines becomes even more crucial. You need to release the game title roughly around the same as the corresponding movie...or the positive mutual promotion effect will be lost and so on.
Bottom line, I agree with you that quality should not be compromised...but that would also mean that we as consumers also can't ask for our games to utilize the latest technology. The stakes are just too high on the producing end...longer developing times are extremely costly and a high riskfactor for all involved.
I'm not saying I like it any more than you do. I'm just saying that us consumers might have a big part in it by always wanting the latest and coolest looking stuff. To be completely honest...aren't we all in the end just suckers for shiny and pretty stuff if we can get our hands on it?
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