TheShermanator
Sergeant
Back in the armchair psychologist's seat :
With respect to all posters, I would propose that the volume + heat on this thread have less to do with any actual specific hot-fixing events and more to do with varying definitions of acceptable EA release. The response to the hot-fixing complaints - that it's EA, what did you expect, how could they possibly account for mods etc. - is so obvious that it beggars belief that the complainants don't already know that. It has to be about something else - about underlying frustrations with the whole EA premise.
For simplicity, let's describe player attitudes by 2 poles:
Extreme player type 1 has zero expectations for EA game playability; they are happy to pay the $50 even if it only buys them an chance to see a version of the game months before it otherwise would have been released.
Extreme player type 2 is fundamentally suspicious of EA as a concept; they expect a fully playable and basically finished game, with the EA tag either indicative of superficial changes before full release or otherwise lacking in any bearing on their rights to expect quality at launch.
Most of us, in some capacity or another, fall between these extremes.
Within that context, I think those who are complaining about hotfixes breaking mods are a little closer to type 2 relative to the center. That is, even if they were understanding that the EA game wouldn't be perfect, they thought that at least all of the basic core features - e.g. diplomacy, messengers, basic garrison management, etc. - would be present in some form, such that the game is essentially playable even if flawed or lacking in narrative fluff. As it is, though, the lack of some of these very basic features arguably makes some mods - e.g. Diplomacy Fixes, Community Patch, etc. - essential to playing the game in anything like a basic way. So, when hotfixes from TW devs break the viability of those mods which add in very basic game mechanics, it activates their underlying frustration that TW released the game in EA with those basic features missing in the first place.
I personally can see it either way. But let's not pretend that this is really about adjudicating the finer points of hot fix behavior.
With respect to all posters, I would propose that the volume + heat on this thread have less to do with any actual specific hot-fixing events and more to do with varying definitions of acceptable EA release. The response to the hot-fixing complaints - that it's EA, what did you expect, how could they possibly account for mods etc. - is so obvious that it beggars belief that the complainants don't already know that. It has to be about something else - about underlying frustrations with the whole EA premise.
For simplicity, let's describe player attitudes by 2 poles:
Extreme player type 1 has zero expectations for EA game playability; they are happy to pay the $50 even if it only buys them an chance to see a version of the game months before it otherwise would have been released.
Extreme player type 2 is fundamentally suspicious of EA as a concept; they expect a fully playable and basically finished game, with the EA tag either indicative of superficial changes before full release or otherwise lacking in any bearing on their rights to expect quality at launch.
Most of us, in some capacity or another, fall between these extremes.
Within that context, I think those who are complaining about hotfixes breaking mods are a little closer to type 2 relative to the center. That is, even if they were understanding that the EA game wouldn't be perfect, they thought that at least all of the basic core features - e.g. diplomacy, messengers, basic garrison management, etc. - would be present in some form, such that the game is essentially playable even if flawed or lacking in narrative fluff. As it is, though, the lack of some of these very basic features arguably makes some mods - e.g. Diplomacy Fixes, Community Patch, etc. - essential to playing the game in anything like a basic way. So, when hotfixes from TW devs break the viability of those mods which add in very basic game mechanics, it activates their underlying frustration that TW released the game in EA with those basic features missing in the first place.
I personally can see it either way. But let's not pretend that this is really about adjudicating the finer points of hot fix behavior.
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