With MMORPGs, though, it's not just about the bug fixes, though those are indeed important. One of the big selling points is the constant content additions. New items, new quests, new dungeons. Big things like new classes, races, and very large landmasses tend to be saved for paid expansions, but it's safe to say that the world of MMORPGs are constantly growing and changing.

There are several approaches to these updates.

The common one is the "patch when ready" strategy. This isn't to imply that the patches are perfect - in balance, number of bugs, or anything else, simply that the game is patched whenever a patch is ready. Sometimes the patches are small in size and additions, and sometimes a company waits for a longer period and enacts a fairly major patch at once.

The other is the "patch day" approach - where a company basically patches on a fairly constant schedule, though the amount of content in each patch may vary. Asheron's Call uses this approach, with a monthly patch.

Aside from standard patches, there also "hotfixes", also known as emergency patches. Inevitably, something will happen when a game patches, and the company needs to fix it, pronto. Therefore, the servers will be brought back down, re-patched, and put back up. The problem with forcing an emergency patch out quickly is that it doesn't get the benefit of extended testing - there have been a variety of cases where the emergency patches need, well, emergency patches.

Why is this relevant? This month's Asheron's Call patch. The Letter to the Players and Build Notes are enlightening as always, as to both the changes and motivations behind them.

What's the big deal? Well, this patch is buggier than your local cheap Mexican joint. Check out the list of problems in this AC Vault post. Another Microsoft employee, Ken Karl, responded later in the thread to some of the concerns. What's the point? The point is that there will be no hotfix - these broken quests will stay broken until the middle of June.

See, I've always liked the patch day schedule. It's good to have something to look forward to. When reading AC message boards, as patch day comes up and the event teaser is posted, people get excited - it's fun to realize that in a day or so you're going to have a lot of new content to mess around with. Despite the old adage of "Don't play on patch day" (due to the potential emergency patches and possible character rollbacks), people love jumping in and trying to be the first to find things - while quests and new items may become commonplace, there's something about being the first on your world to do it.

Despite Ken's logic, though, I really can't agree with their hotfix stance.

Yes, it might break the game. Do a rollback.

Yes, it may annoy players. They'll cope. In all honesty, they'll complain either way - either they'll complain that the quests are broken, or they'll complain about a rollback. People are stupid, don't let that sway you.

Don't introduce two new quests that are fairly big, and then leave them broken for an entire month. Do a fix.

I understand that there's a lot of content being added each month. That's the advantage of a monthly patch day schedule - lots of new stuff. The players will be a lot happier, however, if it's working stuff.

Developers, take pride in your work. Make it work properly from the start. If it doesn't, fix it ASAP. If you don't have enough staff to manage the amount of content you're producing, then either hire more staff, or scale back.

Ask players what they want - a ton of buggy, unbalanced content, or smaller, well-tested, well-implemented additions. It's not hard to guess what most people want.

Another option is a test server. Some MMORPGs offer these - Everquest has a test server. DAoC has one, despite very low player loads and the fact that much of the patch content can't be tested fully with such a small player base. Asheron's Call has no test server. I'm not saying that they should implement one at this late date, but I find it very, very difficult to believe that the lack of the appropriate weapon glyphs would have made it past even a smaller player base.

With constant content additions come constant bugs. It's a basic fact of life. Is it too much to ask for obvious mistakes to be rectified in a swift manner, though?

Sorry "Cletus", thought you were in the know, at least enough to know that my "wish" for a preview of HMOnline is still just that. I guess if you've never experienced the HM version of love in the fast lane, you would find it difficult to appreciate the tone of my previous post. I will certainly watch for any news on it though.:)

Re your topic on the objectivity of gaming reviews, or not, I don't think an honest review could be too objective, either you like a certain style of game and are reasonably qualified to state the pros and cons of new ones within those parameters, or you don't and you can't. Besides, reviews are really just the reviewer's opinion, which makes their objectivity questionable at best. The only reviews I trust are from those who first off state what genre, with examples, are their favourites. That way I can judge whether my taste will be somewhat in sync with them, or not.

BTW, the raccoon pic is cute enough, but cats and bunnies have a special place in my heart. I know, they all bite and claw the same but raccoons, IME, have a certain penchant for savagery, just like the mother of that 11 yr old blue "naked" angel you're pimping for.;)

G.C.

Next time: E3 stuff! I'll be checking out all the latest MMOGs at the show, perhaps to laugh at them, perhaps out of interest. I haven't sworn off the genre yet, after all...

- Tortolia (tortolia@rpgfan.com)