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This week was all about GTA Online. Or rather, its entertainingly shambolic launch. I haven't been paying too much attention to how the general UK gaming public has reacted to it, but over in the states there's been an endless amount of complaints, many of which are mind-boggling in their vitriol and anger. Of course, this is to be expected, but at the same time, it does throw up an interesting discussion. I made a Twitter quip about GTA Online's issues sorting out the people who've played MMOs and understand server issues from those who have no clue, and that elicited some interesting responses.One person branded me a “Rockstar apologist,” which I did rather like. But I wasn't really defending Rockstar at all. The reality is, they messed up. Rockstar is so secretive, that I can't imagine there was a particularly large beta testing phase of the product. At least, compared to most MMOs these days that have extensive open Betas that go on for months. So when GTA Online opened its gates and its servers began to feel the sheer weight of a fairly large portion of the 15 million people that bought the game trying to play together online, I can only imagine what happened: Bzzzzzzzt. Smell of plastic melting.
I also talked to some people who played the “I paid my £50 for the game, and it wasn't ready, and that's unacceptable” card. That's a very valid and fair point, and I have no argument with that. Yes, money was paid for a product, and we should expect it to work. But just because you paid money for it, it doesn't guarantee that it is going to work. Many people accept that, but the loudest complainers just don't seem to be able to.
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