Software Complexity and Games

[VideoGameCritic]

This article wasn't talking about games in specific, but games are still software so the same applies - especially the legal part.

https://www.infoworld.com/article/35196 ... works.html

I've long lamented how modern games are so buggy and people have rightly pointed out it's because today's games are so massive and complex. I think this article bears that out.

In the 1980's, one person wrote a game from the ground up, so they had full control. Today, software developers (like me!) rely on massive libraries to support our code. While this allows us to "stand on the shoulders of giants" it also comes with a certain amount of baggage. You take on any bugs/maintenance/updates required by those libraries. Sometimes you'll include a library that's several hundred MB when you really just need one small feature. But the libraries bundle everything up so your code balloons in a hurry.

This is why I don't review online games. Offline games will play the same 20 years from now. But those that rely on the internet will not. The internet is constantly changing so the underlying software to support them is constantly changing. How could you even review Fortnight? By the time you finished the first draft the game has changed!

I'd like to hear your thoughts on the subject.

[ActRaiser]

Perhaps, you're getting hung up on the word "review"? It implies a complete and total understanding of a respective work.

Instead of "reviewing" an ever changing game why not consider writing an "impression" of the game? It would be your experience on a set date. Three years from the original impression you may want to revisit it and see if the experience still stands or has been drastically altered.

Then again maybe no one cares? It seems like for folks that like online games there's Twitch. I'm old and don't get watching others play games when I could be doing the same. But, then again, that's me.