Gaming Patches: Are They Worth It?

If you have been playing online games for any period of time, then you are probably familiar with gaming patches. The problems of is some are for the best; while, others are for the worst.

One thing most people hate about gaming patches is the fact they delay your game play. That means one has to ask whether they are really necessary. For many games they are a necessity simply because the patch improves the quality of the game.

What are gaming patches?

A gaming patch is effectively an update.

In the past we would simply buy a game for our console and that would be the end of that. There was no internet, and so no patch. If there were any bugs in the game, they would remain. However, with the birth of the internet gaming patches became a new fad for online gaming designers.

The designers of the game could now release the online game without having to worry about minor bugs. Later after the release, they could then release a patch to filter out the bugs.

What is a gaming bug?

A bug is usually a glitch in a game. It is an error in the code that the designers probably knew about. Most of the time they just did not have time to change the code or find a solution to fix the bug prior to release.

This is common practice in today’s gaming industry. With so many competitors out there and the need to release games on certain dates, not all issues with the game’s code can be fixed. So long as the bug is just a minor glitch, then the gaming company can still pass quality testing.

Do gaming updates only fix bugs?

Gaming updates not only fix bugs – they also update features in online games. Most of the time these updates are welcome by online gamers. These updates are also known as patches.

Most of the time the updates are performed because the designers of the game have been out there and collected market insights using surveys and player feedback. They collect information about what could make their game better, and then apply these updates.

For example, a football or soccer game may want to update the game to reflect the latest transfers. New players are brought into teams and taken out of teams to reflect a more up to date version of the game. This is very clever because if a competing company releases their game let’s say after New Year, their game will be the most up to date.

To avoid the competition from having a more up to date version with the latest transfers between teams and clubs, an update can be released. This is just a matter of the gaming company keeping an eye on the football and soccer markets, so it makes the correct changes without missing any out.

What happens when an update/patch ruins a game?

Some gaming companies have gotten their updates badly wrong in the past. They update the game and their thousands of players discover that the game has been changed so much that it is no longer worth playing.

Recently, there was a mobile soccer manager game, (mentioning no names), that did this. They allowed managers to spend money on their players to train them to play in other positions. Each player could play in 3 different positions on the pitch. Left wing, Left Back, or left centre mid. A defender could play sweeper, right back or center back. A winger could play upfront or in defence.

Player spent a tonne of cash on training their players to play in several positions. Some of these gamers had been playing the game for more than a year. Then suddenly the new patch came out and players on the managers’ teams were now no longer allowed to play several positions.

You can imagine just how annoyed some of the managers were. It led to multiple bad reviews about the game to which I also read. I was at first intrigued by the game, then after reading about the updates, I personally decided that I would not play this game because what happens if they later release a patch that destroys all my hard work.

Nonetheless, there are others that relished the change. Newer players to the game were given a breather from those that had been playing the game for months and had trained half their squad to play several positions. It meant that the newbie would be up against the experienced player that did not have to worry about injuries too much.

Why can’t we just upgrade to the next game version using a patch?

This is a very good question. You will find that on mobile games the newer version can usually be downloaded through a simple patch. However, there are many games such as console games that will not do this. Mainly because their game is not free.

If you look at free games, they do not need to release a huge marketing strategy to get people to play the new version. They are generally not making sales from the game itself. The game usually makes its money in-game through unlocking features that cost money – you will generally need a PayPay account or payment method to buy the in-game features – and this was the case with the soccer game mentioned above.

The Future of Gaming Patches

I would say that the future of patches is going to be paid upgrades. You will need to pay for the upgraded version of the game which will be installed over the top of the newer game. Some games are already doing this, so there is no need to go to the shop and buy the game because it can just be purchased instantly online.