The Most Exciting Stage of the Life of a Game

[Angelspit]

What do you think?

[theLuckyDragon]

Voted for Expansion Stage, because I think in this stage the game can be played at its full potential, with all official patches applied, with mods offering diversity. Also, all the other stages imply a greater degree of risk for disappointment than this one.

My most recent experience with this topic is when I bought Civilization 4. I only played it once when I got it, and after that waited a while for patches to appear. Indeed, the two patches appeared, and soon after that tons of mods became available, so now playing the game is more exciting than ever.

P.S. Oh, and why "short life of a game"?

[Angelspit]

I find the post-release stage the most exciting. It's quite fun to see lots of new visitors, read their impressions, and hunt for the first reviews.

[Derek]

I'm going to say the expansion stage.

Tournaments?! Need I say more...we can finally see how good that csarmi guy really is.

[Thelonious]

I'm going for the Pre-release stage, as it is the stage which makes or brakes the game.

[davidtaylorsmith]

No question about it for me - it is the Announcement Stage. Seeing a report on gamespot or some other site of a game that I know I would LOVE, as it just starts to develop - nothing like it. I remember seeing the first early movie preview for Gladiator in theatres - thought I was going to die of excitement, it looked so cool. Games are the same way in the early, early stages.

Also, noone knows enough about it to flame it yet, its just the basic idea and my imagination and that's what I love....

[Orfinn]

voted Expansion Stage

After that stage the game can be played to its fullest.
The expansion stage is exciting because features etc that didnt get included in the original may be included in the expansion.

[Infiltrator]

Voted pre-release. With all the quality games I've beta tested (like WC3/WoW) I must say that the feel when I was seeing areas and discovering things for the first time was most exciting for me.

[Vlad976]

Vote Post-release
Because I might actually be playing the game at this point.

[Corribus]

I think it depends on what you mean by exciting. For "most buzz", I'd say post-release, because that's when everyone is exploring the game. As for my favorite, I'd have to go for the last option. By this point bugs are ironed out, there are more options in the expansions, lots of user made maps, etc.

[frozd]

Voted expansion stage. The reasons why have already been stated by other users that made the same vote as me. So no need to repeat the already said.

[Kalah]

Expansion stage, but only if I liked the game as it was released.

[Kareeah Indaga]

Vote Announcement Stage

I think I danced about my house for a good two hours when I found out HV was being developed. This is the stage where all signs point to the new game being completed, and the possibilities are endless. Little if anything has been confirmed to be OUT of the game, so there is no concrete reason not to get excited and there is more than enough material to speculate on to keep oneself very, very busy.

P.S. Oh, and why "short life of a game"?

Maybe short because it’ll only work well on technology that gets out of date fast and sell well for a comparatively short time compared to how long it took to make?

[chaosgorgon]

definitivelly the most exciting isnt the expansion, dont know why ppl think about that.......

the xpansions only can be great if the game story is also very,very,very good, xpansions is all about the story...

of course the guys here are Heroes fans, and maybe u like the story and all that, but for example, in W3, most ppl didnt bought the frozen throne only by one new heroe or some new stuffs, most ppl bought by the campaings, u know "what happened with Arthas??", "what about the night elves", etc, the same to SC..., i mean i never was an W2 fan, but i found the W3 story very intersting

so obvetively -what i try to be-, the most exciting is the pre-launch, quiet obvious why, u know, u see how cool could be the game and u just cant wait more!!!

[gravyluvr]

I voted for Post Release because if you have a general love for the game, this is where you really fell in love with the game.

All four are exciting, especially in the HOMM world but the influx of newcomers, the real information sharing among players, and the time that we become "experts" of the game is always in this phase.

The expansion phase is where you can test your expertise against new features and continue to re-live the new experiences, but by this time you have logged most all of your learning hours so it's not the same as when the game is new and information from other players has been pouring into the forums.

The announcement and pre-release are both very exciting as well but you don't have the "finished" product to experience so it lacks the gameplay that we all crave.

[Pol]

voted: Announcement Stage

Until all expecations come to the true, because in that time, most of them is born...

[Campaigner]

Pre-release stage

Tough choice, but I think I got it right. I see it like this:

Announcement stage: You get to know that game you like is under development and so you check back to that website every day to see if something else has been said just like I check warlorders.com too see the status on Warlords V.

Pre-release stage: This is the most exciting one for me since this is when were overwhelmed with info, screenshots, videos, developer interviews and more.

Post-release stage: Now you got the product and sit down playing it. The magic is gone, there is only fact left.

Expansion stage: This is also interesting but there's only ONE instance where I followed an expansionpacks development and that is of StarCraft: Broodwar! I remember reading about the new units and fantasising about their role and power. Superior magic characters such as Protoss Dark Archons. Heavy battleships such as Terran Valkyrie Frigates and groundterror containing Zerg Lurkers.

Actually I've never followed development of any HoMM expansion ^^[/b]

[DaemianLucifer]

Voted post release,when all of the tricks are being discovered.Although in some games,expansion stage is much more interesting.

[Gljivko a.k.a Vortex]

My vote goes for Expansion Stage.

Just remember the time when Heroes 3: Armageddon's Blade came. One of my happiest moments

[Caradoc]

I like post-release, when the game is offering up new surprises and I am beginning to improve my play.