Has a miracle patch ever happened?

[Teleku]

Was that the patch that would randomly format your hard drive?

[eldaec]

EVE did have that one patch which wiped your Windows boot files.

[raydeen]

I know this doesn't qualify as 'miracle patch' in the standard given here, but for me, it was the CoH patch that allowed me to play on my old '03 HP laptop. One of the users partially figured out how to get the game running on really old ATI mobility chips and Cryptic picked up on the dude's work and completed it. It was an interesting patch cycle. First it was an unofficial patch that displayed near wire-frame elements of the game, then some things were in color, than after Cryptic worked on it, it was a nice, albeit flat, full color display. I've never known another company to work that closely with the community to get their game playable. I've always given Cryptic kudos for that. Back then, they were the only company that seemed to care about the player. I miss those days.

[Shatter]

I know this doesn't qualify as 'miracle patch' in the standard given here, but for me, it was the CoH patch that allowed me to play on my old '03 HP laptop. One of the users partially figured out how to get the game running on really old ATI mobility chips and Cryptic picked up on the dude's work and completed it. It was an interesting patch cycle. First it was an unofficial patch that displayed near wire-frame elements of the game, then some things were in color, than after Cryptic worked on it, it was a nice, albeit flat, full color display. I've never known another company to work that closely with the community to get their game playable. I've always given Cryptic kudos for that. Back then, they were the only company that seemed to care about the player. I miss those days.

They still care 

[Lantyssa]

They worked with the community on some other bugs.  Early on, if you made your custom key bind file too large the network would start having huge lag spikes and the changes wouldn't save.  I won't say the company cares, but there were individuals who did.

[LeaveMeAlone]

Can we call the patch that allowed people to actually play AO near launch a "miracle patch"?

No, the game was still a wreck and crashed fairly regularly.  Just not a full server reboot every 5 minutes. 

Plus, they followed that up with an anti-miracle patch that hasn't been equaled yet (the 6 patch if  your memories go back that far).

AO beta was the first I ever heard of Miracle Patch's.  (It gets capitalized because if there ever was such a patch it deserves it, such a wondrous thing it would be, Conan doesn't count because the game still sucked.) I can assure you that AO was a train wreck in beta IN THE FUTURE! as it was at launch.  AO beta also had another first, players were convinced there was a secret client for launch, where everything would be cake and cookies.  Also my first real exposure of fanboys, as we know them today.

Patches can make games better in tiny increments over a lengthy period of time.

[kildorn]

Can we include games that were fun and content rich, well paced and whatnot all through beta, and release day came with a 10x progression speed nerf and no corresponding alteration of the content volume leading to large grindy patches?

Because seriously, fuck THAT patch note.

[Numtini]

I thought it was "Miracle Build" but yeah, I don't associate it with long term turnarounds, but with the fantasy fanboys have when the game is unplayable a week before release that the company is just putting the finishing touches on something that fixes everything and haven't released it for some unearthly reason.

[Malakili]

I thought it was "Miracle Build" but yeah, I don't associate it with long term turnarounds, but with the fantasy fanboys have when the game is unplayable a week before release that the company is just putting the finishing touches on something that fixes everything and haven't released it for some unearthly reason.

Guys guys, don't you know the in house version is like 3-4 versions ahead of what we're playing.  I know release is tomorrow but they've got all these problems worked out in the patch, ITS ONLY BETA remember?!

[UnSub]

Can we include games that were fun and content rich, well paced and whatnot all through beta, and release day came with a 10x progression speed nerf and no corresponding alteration of the content volume leading to large grindy patches?

Because seriously, fuck THAT patch note.

What's a catchy name for this kind of patch, where you were having fun right up to the moment it was introduced? The nutcracker patch (after The Nutcracker, with added penis joke reference)? The termite patch (eroded the foundations)?

What's the opposite of the miracle patch?

[Goreschach]

Can we include games that were fun and content rich, well paced and whatnot all through beta, and release day came with a 10x progression speed nerf and no corresponding alteration of the content volume leading to large grindy patches?

Because seriously, fuck THAT patch note.

What's a catchy name for this kind of patch, where you were having fun right up to the moment it was introduced? The nutcracker patch (after The Nutcracker, with added penis joke reference)? The termite patch (eroded the foundations)?

What's the opposite of the miracle patch?

Launch.

[tgr]

Blueballs?

[Lantyssa]

ED.  NGE.

[Paelos]

SB.exe

[Sparky]

Dominion.

[SnakeCharmer]

What's the opposite of the miracle patch?

Anarchy Online trying to reformat your HDD.

[UnSub]

What's the opposite of the miracle patch?

Anarchy Online trying to reformat your HDD.

Or EvE deleting the boot.ini file in an update.

[Yegolev]

Can we call the patch that allowed people to actually play AO near launch a "miracle patch"?

I never got this patch.