作者：Josh Bycer

电子游戏开发总是不断发展着，这也意味着全新标准和原理总是能够很快被接纳。而最让粉丝们恼怒的应该是首日补丁的出现吧。每次当一款知名游戏带着一个补丁出现时，记者和玩家总是会对设计师感到生气。

No-Mans-Sky(from gamasutra)

就像今年的《无人深空》。所以我认为是时候去谈首日补丁的重要性。

你们可以先去阅读开发者Rami Ismail所谈论的首日补丁的重要性及其认证过程。

Gone Gold：

如今的电子游戏开发被分成两个部分，一个部分是数字游戏/内容和系列设计的快速发展，另一个部分则是主机开发的一体化。

而开发者所认同的最大完善便是数字游戏的即时修补能力。在PC或数字平台上，开发者能够随时上传补丁；也就是他们可以快速迭代自己的游戏。而因为无需担心实体副本，开发者将清楚自己在Steam或任何数字平台上的游戏版本都是最新的。

主机开发和实体副本并不相同，并且仍需要使用早前的系统进行处理。如果你是游戏产业中的消费者，你便对过去常出现的“Gone Gold”这一术语不会陌生。Gone Gold指的是作为零售版本的游戏主副本。因为“完成”游戏并不意味着它隔天就能在商店中销售。

为了被当成“gold”，每一款游戏必须获得平台制造商的认证，即必须符合他们的要求。

开发者/发行商需要在经历最终步骤前发送最终代码进行测试与认证。如果游戏代码不能满足认证要求，开发者需要回去重新修改代码直至通过认证。

不幸的是，只有开发者/发行商才拥有有关这一领域的准确信息，也就是相关内容都是基于保密协议之下。

此外，游戏的任何更新都必须经过每个全新补丁的认证过程。这也是Overkill不能即时更新《收获日2》主机版本的原因，也是我们很少能在主机平台上看到独立游戏补丁的原因。

因为认证要求，独立游戏开发者总是需要等待游戏内容完成或即将完成时才能移植游戏。所以他们通常都不能花太长时间于该过程中。就像关于《暗黑地牢》，Redhook便需要等到PC版本完成创造时才能致力于游戏的PSN版本中。而这么做能够避免在游戏发行后需要重新认证游戏的问题。

当游戏获得认证时，我们仍然不能马上将游戏摆到货架上。

开发者/发行商必须将游戏送去批量生产成零售版本：包括游戏图像，指南以及磁盘本身。然后所有的这些副本将被运往世界各地的零售店。

而做完这一切后，在开发者的游戏真正出现在商店货架前还有几周甚至几个月的时间。所以开发者在这期间该做些什么？

加班：

一旦游戏通过了认证，游戏代码便不能再进行篡改或完善。鉴于游戏发行还需要一段时间，这时候的开发者可以继续致力于游戏中。即包括致力于可下载内容，寻找任何微小漏洞或添加更多内容到基础游戏中。

如此一旦游戏官方发行，开发者便能够添加全新内容并更新游戏。而首日补丁则是指开发者为了完善游戏的持续工作。有人会认为过去的游戏并不需要首日补丁，但你也必须意识到过去的游戏除了修复漏洞外很少再进行更新。此外，如果不存在数字工具，大规模更新零售副本是绝对不可能的事。

需要注意的是在这里我并不是指代那些拥有可下载内容的游戏。因为这些内容已经包含于游戏文件中的，而这也是其它需要讨论的问题。

在之前的文章中我曾讨论过长期游戏设计是开发者不断完善自己的游戏并创建社区的一种全新选择。数字发行也能让这些游戏在最初发行基础上继续发展。

但话虽这么说，我们也必须重视反对者的一些观点。

完成工作：

就像我们所说的，首日补丁意味着开发者将在gone gold时期以及游戏运送到零售店期间继续致力于游戏中。对此批评者的想法是，如果游戏的零售代码仍然带有一些主要漏洞或问题，游戏又怎么能说是“完成”了呢？

再一次地，过去的开发者不能进行大量的数字更新，所以他们只能在最初版本中做到最好。这便意味着他们需要在致力于满足认证和发行需求的同时花大量时间和精力去完善游戏。所以尽管有人表示反对，我还是支持开发者采取首日补丁的做法。

因为如果你的游戏并不能出现在商店货架上（游戏邦注：不管是零售还是电子销售），你便不可能赚到钱。从工作室的观点来看，如果你的游戏能够越快获得认证并开始发送给商店，你便能够越快赚到钱。

这对于我们所说的游戏发行高峰期也很重要。对于在10月份和11月份以及在12月份和1月份发行游戏的市场营销与品牌认知其实是截然不同的。

如果开发者能够在适当的时间完成工作并将游戏发送给商店，应该也就没人会再去抱怨首日补丁的问题了吧。

未来：

另一个较难进行讨论的要点便是在线访问的未来。让我们假设有人购买了一款基于5年或10几年首日补丁的游戏。如果他们不去更新游戏，他们所面对的便只会是并不完整的次等货。

这便是Steam需要去完善的一个领域。即比起通过下载问题去追踪补丁，如今的补丁和更新是被储存于Steam的服务器中。

现在的游戏产业仍然缺少不会过时的游戏和硬件。更别提我们所说的单人游戏了，因为人们总是可能遇到缺少网络连接的情况。我知道你们中的某些人可能不会相信，但是你们必须牢记主机连接对于市场来说仍是个全新领域。

虽然这时候我们所面对的是不断变化的世界，但我们却不能保证所有人都会去下载你的首日补丁。

所以关于未来，我认为消除首日补丁是合理的，但同时也存在需要我们注意的内容。即如果发行商基于更新代码重新创造的游戏成为了全新游戏版本，情况也就不同了。

当然了，他们也必须愿意将游戏更新副本发送给最初游戏版本的所有者。

也就是说这仍然是一个棘手的问题，而因为这个问题过大所以单靠本文是很难将其解释清楚的。

开发改变：

首日补丁的方式是不会这么快消失的，并且它的优点也是值得开发者去这么做的。我认为就像众筹和捷足先登那样，消费者对于该方式的看法也是取决于开发者是如何使用它的。

通过首日补丁去创造更出色的游戏与早期发行一款未完成游戏并希望在发行前完成所有内容是截然不同的。对于我来说真正好奇的地方便是是否会有更多主机游戏去使用这种方法。

网络连接和数字平台已经改变了PC游戏的状态，而这对于主机的影响也将只是时间问题了。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转发，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Why You Should Want Day One Patches

by Josh Bycer

Video game development is constantly evolving and that means new standards and philosophies are quickly adopted. One of the more rage-inducing for fans would have to be day one patches. Every time a big name game comes out with one, journalists and gamers alike tend to explode in the direction of the designer.

With the big example of this year being No Man’s Sky, I figure it was time for a post to talk about the importance of day one patches.

If you haven’t read it yet, developer Rami Ismail talked about the importance of Day one patching and the certification process and is another good post to read.

Going Gold:

Video game development these days is split between the rapidness of digital games/content and the set designs and institutions of console development.

One of the biggest improvements that developers can agree on is the ability of instant patching of digital games. On the PC or digital platform, developers are free to upload patches whenever they see fit; allowing for rapid iteration on their games. Because there is no physical copy to worry about, you always know that your version on Steam or whatever digital platform is the latest.

Console development and physical copies aren’t the same, and are still handled using older systems. If you’re a consumer of the Game Industry, you’ve probably heard the term: “Gone Gold” used in the past. Gone Gold refers to the master copy of the game that will be used as the retail version. Just because a game is “finished” doesn’t mean that it’s going to be on store shelves the next day.

To be considered “gold,” every game must be certified by the platform maker to make sure that it conforms to their requests.

The developer/publisher has to send the final code to be tested and certified before the final steps are taken. If the game code doesn’t meet certification, then the developers must go back and work on it until it passes certification.

Unfortunately, this is one of those areas that only developers/publishers have direct information on, as a lot of it is under NDA. Be sure to read the post linked above for more information on this part.

As another factor, any updates to a game must also go through a certification process for each new patch. This is part of the reason why Overkill has had trouble with constantly updating the console versions of Payday 2, and why we don’t see Indie games on the consoles patched as much.

Due to the certification requirements, it’s also why Indie developers wait until their game is either content finished or close to be done before porting the game. This is so that they only have to go through the process as few times as possible. With the Darkest Dungeon, Redhook waited until the PC version was finished content-wise before working on the PSN version of the game. This was done to avoid any issues with re-certifying the game if any changes were made after release.

After the game is certified, we’re still not ready to have the game on store shelves.

The game must then be sent for mass producing the retail versions: Including game art, manual and of course the actual disc itself. All those copies will then have to be shipped to retail stores around the world.

With everything said and done, the developer may go gold and still have weeks or even a few months of time before their game is actually on store shelves. That begs the question: What should the developer do in the meantime?

Overtime:

Once the game goes gold and has passed certification, the code essentially becomes locked from any further altering or improvements. Given the amount of time that can pass before the game is out, developers these days tend to continue working on the game. This can include starting to work on DLC content, finding and squashing any minor bugs, or even adding more to the base game.

Once the game is officially out, the developers already have a leg up on putting out new content and updating the game. The day one patch is just that: The continued work by the developers to keep improving the game. People will point to games in the past not needing day one patches, but you also have to realize that most games in the past were rarely updated beyond bug fixes. Additionally, without having digital means, it was absolutely impossible to update retail copies on a grand scale.

It’s important to note that we’re not referring to games with on the disc DLC for this talk. The reason is that this content was already worked on and included in the game’s files; that’s another issue to discuss at some point.

In previous posts, we talked about long-term game design as a new viable option for developers to keep improving their games and build a community. Digital distribution has allowed these games to keep going and growing beyond their original release.

With all that said, detractors do have a few fair points that I want to address.

Finishing the Job:

As we talked about, day one patches means that the developers were still working on the game between the gone gold period and the game being shipped to stores. The big point that critics have is the fact that the game was considered “done” if there were still major bugs or issues with the retail code.

Once again, past developers didn’t have the luxury of digital updates and had to get everything right on the first pass. That meant spending more time and energy on games while still working around the certification and shipping demands. Even though critics have a point, I still side with the developers for day one patches.

The reason is that you have to remember how profits work in the Game Industry. If your game is not on store shelves (retail or digital), you are not making money. From a studio perspective, the quicker you can get your game certified and begun shipping to stores, the faster you can start earning money for your studio.

This also matters when we’re talking about peak times for game releases. There is a huge difference in terms of marketing and awareness of releasing your game in October and November for the holiday season vs. December/January.

If the developer can get the work done and still are able to get the game shipped to stores at the right time, then I see no reason in decrying day one patches on this point.

The Future:

Another good point and one that’s harder to talk about is what the future holds for online access. Let’s say someone buys a game with day one patches 5 or 10 + years down the line and the servers are no longer being supported. If they can’t update the game, they’ll be left with an inferior copy that may not even fully work.

This is another area that Steam has improved on things compared to the past. Patches and updates are now stored on the Steam servers, instead of having to hunt down patches through download mirrors.

The Game Industry is still very bad at future-proofing games and hardware. Not to mention the fact that if we’re talking about singleplayer games, there’s always the chance that the person may not have internet access to their console. I know some of you may not believe that, but it’s important to remember that console connectivity is still very new in terms of the market.

Things are certainly changing on this front, but we’re still not at the point where we can assume that everyone will be able to download your day one patch.

Regarding the future, this is where I do see a fair point against day one patches, but with one caveat. If the publisher does a reprint of the game with the updated code that becomes the new standard version of the game, then that’s a different story.

Of course, they would also have to be willing to ship copies of the game to owners of the original version.

With that said this is still a sticky issue, and also has parts in game preservation, but that is something too big to go into detail about in this post.

Development Changes:

Day one patches aren’t going to go away anytime soon, and the pluses are worth it for developers. I think just like with crowdfunding and early access, the consumer’s view on it will be dependent on how developers make use of it.

Using a day one patch to make a game better is different from releasing an unfinished game early with the hope of getting everything done by launch day. The big question on my mind is if we’re going to see more console games make use of this.

Internet connectivity and digital platforms have changed the state of PC games, and it’s only a matter of time for more impact on the console front. Let me know what you think of day one patches below, and if you have any examples of games where it was done right, I would love to hear them.（source：gamasutra）