It is a very safe assumption to say that delays are one of the causes, if not the major one, of agitation and rage amongst gamers. There isn’t whole lot worse than setting a date on your calendar, waiting for the game you’ve been following, and then finding out you have to wait an extra few months or even years for it to hit shelves. Most gamers don’t really like to listen to the reasons why the game is being delayed. Some developers give sound reasons for delaying games, such as tweaking combat, adding necessary content, or fixing bugs. Other developers may hit a wall in a particular stage due to poor planning and find it necessary to delay the game in order to sell a finished project. Once gamers see their title pushed back, they tend to neglect all of the possible benefits. Such benefits include a smooth combat system, an intriguing plot line, or just a lot more juicy content. The real problem lies when a developer delays a game and promises to deliver a much more polished game in return, then falls short.

Take a very hyped game, such as Age of Conan. Funcom promised an intuitive combat system along with an eye-popping environment. Along with these were supposed to come siege warfare and even bar fight PvP. Who wouldn’t want to bash in your friend’s skull with an iron mace while being drunk to boot? It was no secret the game would be delayed as more promised content was not seeing much progress during development. After the game was finally released, the most anticipated feature was not implemented into the game properly and rarely functioned. (more…)