I prefere being able to read what has happend so something doesn't all of a sudden work, or not work.. For one, I like getting a heads up along the lines of "hey that skill that you don't use because it didn't work or wasn't good enough, not it should work" so i can check it out, and maby start using it, same goes for areas and the like
Yeah, I ilike the option, espeically if they've been curated and aren't just a dump list of stuff that might only make sense to developers.
I think it's an important part of transparency and communication from developers these days.
Thinking about it, I certainly find it annoying in other games when they introduce new, quite fundamental, features and don't tell everyone and you end up not realising for an age.
Patch notes are nice.... Sometimes.
I like to read them with games I play regularly so I know what to expect.
With games I don't play regularly, or games that see significant changes in short periods of time, they're a bit moot. Often it's just too much information to try and keep track of, and I'd rather just jump in and get a feel for the game all over again.
Patch notes, especially when you're in testing phases (like you are right now) is critical because testers need to know what has changed if they are to provide accurate feedback on those changes. This is testing...not #%!@% playing. If you don't want to tell your testers (the people who actually put up the money to get this whole project off the ground) what changes you are making, then you really do not care one bit about accurate testing and what you've got is just early access to appease those early backers.
In all seriousness, why would you not tell your testers all the changes you're making to the game? Why would you deliberately hamstring your testers by withholding information many see as critical to providing quality feedback, feedback that would help ensure the long term health of this game? Many testers want this information and by not providing it you are basically saying to them "we do not care about your approach to testing." I've listened to people talk about what they want to know with regard to patch notes and everyone is different, but when you combine it all together, you end up in the same place: Complete patch notes of all changes from the last session.
Oh, and lets not forget about timing. You're having testing sessions that are multiple months apart and for just a few hours at a time. And you think your testers will have perfect memory of what the previous session felt like compared to the current session when they aren't told what things have been implemented, what things were fixed, what things were adjusted and what things are still broken or missing?
Patch notes, most definitely. Even more than seeing what is new I want to know what is *old* and that no longer works.
But, as with most of us, I am thinking of game mechanics, changes in abilities and the like. It is neither necessary nor desirable to go into much more detail about new content than to let us know of its existance.
IMO:
Historically, patch notes have been the only way players are informed that changes, or attempts of changes, have been made.
Especially with games developed in north america that fall into the category of fantasy themed first/third person MMO, and as a consequence, use a nerf/buff cycle of class & content balance.
Often the changes in-game are rarely if ever reflected in any public documentation maintained by the company, studio, publishers, or developers, so.. to have a chance at knowing the updated intended role or ranking that a class has, post-patch or post-update, parsing is required to verify the patch notes.
Personally, I've seen 2, 3 or even 4 attempts made to push a new nerf or buff into production, only to have community parses show there is no measurable change. The developers then acknowledge the change didn't make it, and try again. Then again. And again. And finally, the actual change goes through, the table or row is updated for the effects of that ability, and the role effectiveness of that class is adjusted.
But the web site is rarely or never updated to reflect those fundamental changes in class role. Often, the delay between the in-game reality of changes and what the web site says is years apart.
This scenario then leads itself to new customers experiencing bait-and-switch, as they read what's on the web site, take it as true, then find what is in game is entirely different. Not ideal for subscriber retention.
As long as imperfect humans are involved, I expect this to mostly/often/always be the case.
I'm going to assume that the patch notes mentioned in this thread are for the post release patch notes. That being said I prefer:
The reason I like the patch notes to be notified while logging into the game, but accessible and recorded outside of the game, is because if i'm running "late" for my group/raid I want to be able to quickly skip past the patch notes and get into the game. I like the communication and transparency with a searchable history of patch notes and hopefully an easy way to search individual items that affect crafting, classes, skills, zones, items, etc. I think Alpha/Beta would also benefit from this kind of system so that people can "brief" themselves on recent changes and set an expectation of functions in their next testing session, but this may already be in place with PA.
I once spent several hundred hours farming for an ultra-rare Spectre Cloak in EQOA after it had been removed from in-game loot tables. I didn't know that it was removed because the change was never notated in patch notes. I had to send in a bug report that the item wasn't dropping before I was eventually made aware that the item was removed from the game. I always read patch notes and appreciate transparency.
I usually read the patch notes on MMOs I'm active in, that said its kinda annoying when you cant read the notes until after you've already completed the patch and logged into the game ready to play.
It works better to have the notes on display either before or durring the actual patching since the user is waiting anyhow.
Of course now a days you would just open the notes on a 2nd display or your phone while you wait.
I like, and read patch notes but not at the expence of game play time.
If the game is UP, and I have time I'm playing..
If the game is down and being patched (downloading), I want access to the patch notes while I wait.
IF something seems differant while playing, I will go back and read the patch notes to see if it was the result of a patch.
I think a mix of surprise and information is good. If you are changing features, skills, etc. already in the game in a patch post those so people are aware of the changes. If you are adding content, quests, etc. feel free to leave those out. I think FFXiV does a decent job of keeping everyone informed and not spoiling future story quests in their patching.
I love patch notes, in fact I NEED them.
A couple months ago we had 2 big forum posts debating the need for details on Stats. I started one of them. I was saying that I want to know what each stat meant. Meaning 1 stamina = 10 health or 1 dexterity = .1 melee casting speed (for example).
To that end, if there is a change to stats, or a the way a spell works, I want to know about it. I don't need the complicated formulas, I just want to know what stats do and the caps for thing like Crit cap, or Block Cap. Each change should be noted in the Patch Notes.
Additionally, if I lose a spell, or if it's nerfed, I want to know about it. I shouldn’t find out after several hours of combat. Once I memorize my spells, I assume they stay the same over time. I don't think it's reasonable to assume I will re-read the damage output and details of each spell every Tuesday morning after the weekly updates.
EppE said:If you are changing features, skills, etc. already in the game in a patch post those so people are aware of the changes. If you are adding content, quests, etc. feel free to leave those out. I think FFXiV does a decent job of keeping everyone informed and not spoiling future story quests in their patching.
I always read the patch notes. I like what Eppe said, but I would rather see some sort of generic comment made about added content such as "We added 5 quests to the game." or "We added 15 new items to the game". I don't what to know what zone they were added to as that is too specific.
I like to read patchnotes while the game is updating, so short and to-the-point notes are best there. Of course, for bigger updates, external notes on a website (with pictures ;) are great too.
For content:
- any mechanics changes (class ability updates, or how certain game mechanics work) need to be detailed precisely, or at least detailed enough so players understand them and can check them out
- content updates can be general hints. For example "We added several recipes for blacksmiths". For quests, I would like to see at least a starting point, like "A new chapter has been added to the quest series revolving around ". Just saying "We added 5 new quests" is a poor way...do you expect the players to run around and check/re-check every NPC they talked to already? Not fun.
Sarim said:Just saying "We added 5 new quests" is a poor way...do you expect the players to run around and check/re-check every NPC they talked to already? Not fun.
Fun is a subjective thing and it seems we both find ours in different places.
In my opinion, a "new content" patch note given in the form of a hint, that others have suggested, would be much better delivered in a tavern setting via an NPC's "rumors" dialogue.
I've always equated patch notes with the opening crawl text of Star Wars films. As others have said, they help with getting up to speed on changes made to certain mechanics and what not. A bit of flavor text never hurts either; anything that encourages players to explore the world, exposing themselves to risks they otherwise might not. Beyond that, patch notes also provide streamers and uploaders with a reliable source of content, which means more attention will be brought to the game in between expansions. Using Dota 2 as an example, regular matches typically only net a fraction of the views that patch update videos do.