Delaying Content Releases

Hot off of the presses today, it was announced by NCSoft that City of Heroes’/Villains’ much-awaited Mission Architect functionality has been postponed from Issue 13 to Issue 14 (via Massively.)  Now, this obviously isn’t the first time that major content has been shifted back to a later release by a gaming company because it simply wasn’t ready.  Hell, Blizzard has gotten so bad about this that it was practically a given for months before the official announcement that the IceCrown Citadel end-game raiding zone wouldn’t be ready for the Wrath of the Lich King release.

All of this said, while I would argue that individual content delay isn’t as bad as, say, wholesale release date postponement, it’s really only a matter of degrees.  In the case of Issue 13, Mission Architect was Issue 13… so I think you’re going to have a hard time selling eager fans with day jobs and merit rewards.  That said, I would have a hard time arguing that NCSoft isn’t trying to pile together enough content and rebalance that Issue 13 has merit… but that’s a lot like saying, “I’m going to give you a car.” and arguing the difference between a Ford Escort and and Porsche Boxster.  Sure, they’re both cars, but it really is a matter of degrees and for the experienced gamer, the Escort just isn’t going to hype the same way as a Boxster.  Of course, the dutiful fanboi will remind you that a car is a car and that any subscriber should just be grateful for his Escort.

On the other hand, I caution against responding too viscerally to NCSoft over this, for fear over having them go to the other extreme.  After all, this is the sort of mature business decision that any gamer should be glad that his patron MMO company is willing to make in the name of preserving game quality.  One need only gaze over to Funcom to see what happens when quality is given the blind eye in the name of making an easy dollar.  At the reverse end of the spectrum, the Blizzard-esque approach leaves something equal to be desired by the gamer who actually wants to know what the hell is going on.  Recent interviews with NCSoft’s David Reid and EA-Mythic’s Mark Jacobs have revealed that game producers at these “Tenured Contender” development studios are more than willing to lay a lot of cards on the table and really communicate with their fans and the community at large.  This is something that the community ought to continue to encourage.

In totality, all of this goes to managing player expectations.  The obvious best plan is to start small and build up to a crescendo at such a rate that hype doesn’t outpace development schedule and that any setback can be paired with a bigger and better announcement.  Unfortunately, development studios are run by humans and thus suffer the shortcomings that are attendant thereto.  That said, I would admonish players to maintain realistic expectations and to continue to demand rational explanations from development studios when deadlines slip.  When Mark Jacobs says that World of Warcraft’s new release contributes a delay so that Mythic can polish their product, that’s a good thing.  When Funcom pushes Age of Conan to market early to handle the expectations of their investors… not so much.