Dominic TarasonOne of the weirdest bits of ingrained Steam Consumer Culture is declaring that any game that hasn't been updated in a few months to be 'dead'. Even if it's a fully complete single-player game.
This is doubly weird because I *WANT* to play the final, locked-down version and static of any SP game.
It's almost a given that AAA games will get long-term support - expansions, updates, etc - but that's all the more reason to come to them late. They can often transform enormously between launch and their final patches.
But indie devs often get harangued if they don't do the same, which is nuts.
Oh dear, this has brought out the 'Things were better back in the pre-internet days when games were just released complete and bug-free' crowd.
No, you clowns. Things were absolutely more busted back then. Bugs just remained unfixed. A whole pile of games were released so busted they did recalls!
If a game has outstanding, obvious issues, it (usually) gets fixed now! And people find out about bugs a lot quicker because it all gets clipped and shared!
But after a point, creators just have to move on in their lives. And Steam culture seems to object to that - you buy the game, you buy the dev
Also no, this is not an argument against early access! SO MANY of the best games of the past 15 years owe their success to developers being able to fund early and react to feedback.
And sometimes games never leave early access. This is sad, but it happens. But past v1.0, anything extra is a bonus.