How much time do you like to wait between updates?

[Meaning Less]

Some games have weekly small updates while others just release a big update after a few months.

Regardless of how often the game is being updated do you always check them as they are updated or do you give it extra time to let enough content accumulate before downloading it again?
How much time would you say is the sweetspot you like to wait?

 

[Veileos]

Ideally I like updates once a month. Usually the best mix between small and big updates. Though I will still follow a game with a good story no matter how slow or small the updates are.

 

[Jaike]

I would like monthly to quarterly updates in theory, but I usually only play two or three versions of a game per year in practice.

 

[Meaning Less]

Ideally I like updates once a month. Usually the best mix between small and big updates. Though I will still follow a game with a good story no matter how slow or small the updates are.

But do you actually follow it every week even if the updates are small? Or do you give it a month before downloading the next version regardless?

I'm just wondering how many players actually redownload their games weekly considering how short some of these updates are.

To me a month is the bare minimum I'm waiting.

 

[Ambir]

Depends. For a while, I was redownloading corrupted kingdom every week, but lately I just check the patchnotes to see if anything interesting was added. If so, I download, otherwise, I just wait. No sense in downloading an update if there is nothing I find interesting in said update. Most of the other games I follow are not updated very frequently, so I just download them whenever a new update is released.

Edit: Just to answer the question better, I would say that I dont have a set time I wait for. All I'm interested in knowing is, is there interesting content in this new update. If there is, I download it, otherwise, I do not. Time doesn't seem like a metric that is useful to determine if the update is worth downloading or not. If a game just keeps making updates I don't give a shit about, I will just stop following it until there is an update it releases that makes me want to download it again.

As such, I can't really answer your question, as I just don't think in terms of time, but in terms of content, which is something I consider to be fundamentally different.

 

[LoneKaiser]

Depends on how much content is added per update.

If a game provides a good chunk of gameplay value with an even (or somewhat even, at least) pace I'll probably stick around that game.

If the game used to provide decent amounts of gameplay but takes forever and basically provides no gameplay... eh, who cares?
To clarify: if the new stuff added wasn't a lot and it was random to begin with, I have a "who cares? I'll just wait for something interesting" view on it.

Generally, I'm fine waiting 3-4 months if it's random to begin with but if a game releases updates maybe 1-2 times a year and said updates provides effectively nothing, I'm gonna drop it. Done that to several games that seemed promising at some point.

 

[♍VoidTraveler]

An odd choice of words, "like to wait."
No one likes to wait mate.
From the choices in the poll i guess i'll go with:
Once or twice a year to check how the game is progressing, I can wait.

 

[Meaning Less]

An odd choice of words, "like to wait."
No one likes to wait mate.

Even if it means playing a more polished/complete product by the end? I love to wait, there are plenty of other games to play meanwhile....

I'm still waiting for cyberpunk to release all updates and dlcs before delving in.

 

[toolkitxx]

Most of the games i follow fall into 2 categories:

Pure entertainment and not finished: I follow them but only loosely and only pick up updates after longer time periods
Finished or technically/game design wise interesting: follow more regular and pick up updates pretty often

My 3rd category is a lot of mods for various reasons - mostly ones that actually create interesting things compared to the original. So no pure cheat mods but mods that provide quality of life , extra content, overhauls

 

[♍VoidTraveler]

Even if it means playing a more polished/complete product by the end?

Yes, even then.
Maybe patient people will wait, but the far more numerous impatient people (passengers of hype trains) will not.
Neither will most companies who always chase after profits.
Cyberpunk 2077 is the most prominent example of this from the recent ones.

 

[Meaning Less]

Maybe patient people will wait, but the far more numerous impatient people (passengers of hype trains) will not.

Passengers of hype trains are great beta-testers though, so I appreciate their efforts of going through shit so patient people can have the full polished experience later by doing nothing aside from just waiting.
Patience is truly a virtue.

 

[♍VoidTraveler]

Passengers of hype trains are great beta-testers though

Not at all.
They pay to get into alpha/beta tests only for one purpose: To play earlier.

 

[Pitrik]

2-3 months

 

[Veileos]

But do you actually follow it every week even if the updates are small? Or do you give it a month before downloading the next version regardless?

I'm just wondering how many players actually redownload their games weekly considering how short some of these updates are.

To me a month is the bare minimum I'm waiting.

I still follow it but if I see that someone says its like a 5min update I will wait a few updates to play.

 

[Hagatagar]

Generally speaking, I'm not a fan of these episodic or periodic updates. Ideally, games should be released finished, but this is not really feasible for small dev teams.
Nevertheless, I still would prefer if these updates worked more in the likes of a story arc. But mostly it's just a few more scenes with occasional story development, even if they are wrongly called episodes.

I do understand why it's done this way. Devs want to give players frequent updates, so they don't have to wait too long between new content. And with some devs, so their patrons won't stop paying.


That's why I usually wait several updates until I check in again.
Personally I don't mind waiting a year or so, if that means I get a whole bunch of new stuff.

 

[NukaCola]

3 month is a reasonable time imo.

 

[Jethro Hatfield]

..... I cannot even believe that this question is even being asked.

Not to say that its unacceptable to have to wait for an update for our favorite games. But ask just about any Dev and practically a day or two after the last update was released they're already getting messages, or seeing messages on forums like this asking "When's the next update?"

I myself have a few games that I am anxiously waiting the next release of, and yet I am working on my own project that will without a doubt have some asking me at some point down the line, "When's the next update?" A perfect example is WVM, when Braindrop was updating every two weeks people were still asking at some point between releases when the next one would be. Even more nowso.

Posting public polls like this I think are unwise. This provides an opportunity for the consumer to not only lie to a potential dev, like yourself for example, but to themselves as well. Especially since this is a Piracy forum, and let's face it. Historically speaking Pirates have no patience to begin with.

Though I am curious as to how your poll will turn out, I won't lie about that. But I won't necessarily be casting a vote.

Good luck with your poll, and I am curious to see where this ends up.

 

[Pretentious Goblin]

I said a month, but mainly because I like devs I support to have a steady and transparent workflow instead of "When It's Done™". From experience though, I can say that actually playing each month's update leads to burnout. It depends on the game - I think shorter, more replayable ones fare better with frequent playthroughs. Full-length JRPGs with slow corruption, not so much.

 

[jamdan]

2-3 months for most games and 3-5 months for the bigger games.

Some games manage monthly releases, but I'll usually skip those to let the updates stack to get more content in my playthrough. Some games I skip for longer periods of time. I don't have many "must download" games as soon as they're updated. The game isn't going anywhere, I'll play it when I feel like it.

Games that get updates more than once a month aren't sustainable. Corrupted Kingdom and NLT manage it, but others seem to burn out. Like WVM.

The people who ask "when update" in all these threads don't reflect the majority. Those are people who can't be bothered to read the previous page that answered all their questions.

 

[anne O'nymous]

I'll pick the none present choice: "As long as it's needed for the update to not be an insignificant rushed mess."

By example, it's been 5 months since the last update of Heavy Five, what is a long time. But so far, the update will have a bit more than 30 000 renders ; removing the ones used for the animations it should still less around 5 000 CG just for one update. And the words count generally match the amount of renders ; it's high.
So, yes, 5 months is long, but in the same time it's short when the update provide almost as much content than too many finished games.