There is no denying that Microsoft (M$) really hung us all out to dry with the release of the Links 2k3 patch. They made an effort to collect info from us all in the forums on what issues needed to be addressed. Although they never promised they would fix/change everything that we asked for,  they never gave the impression that they would only fix the most minor of issues and hang us out to dry with the rest. I believe that they spent as little time as possible on both collecting the data from us about what needed fixing and actually implementing these fixes/changes. 

I've been a programmer for 9 years and although I don't do game development, I have a friend who works for a big gaming shop and we always talk about our work when he visits. Here are some estimates on the time it would have taken to fix most of the issues addressed in the patch, IMO:

1. Removed space bar as a hot key for swinging. This will make it so people who were using the chat window while paying Links 2003 online will not accidentally begin their swing. 

2 minutes.

2. For users with Radeon 9000, we added better detection for that card. 

15-20 minutes once the card is installed and working properly

3. Upgraded and enhanced cheat detection during tournament play. 

too vague (rightfully so) to quantify

4. Fixed ambient sounds not playing in courses other than Links 2003 courses.

I'm not so sure from the comments I've seen that this is even fixed. Either way, this is not something that is easy for an outsider to quantify. 

5. Fixed problem that allowed Elite/Champ level players to see the RTS gauge when playing with a Pro or Amateur player. 

10 minutes

6. Disabled mouse keys during swing. 

2 minutes

7. Fixed numerous hard and soft crashes within the game. 

too vague a description to try to quantify

8. Connection Status screen – focus somehow being set to non existent window after the connection status dialog closes. 

15 mins to figure out the actual cause and 2 more to fix it

9. Writing Course DB – fixed several crashes that were happening due to the course database file failing to open for write. 

too vague to quantify but I seriously doubt that this was due "to the course database file failing to open for write". If it was the someone must have said a big "OOPS!" when they figured it out because no code that attempts to write to the database should ever execute without knowing if the file is opened...

10. Sounds – Fixed a problem that was causing the sound code to crash as it was trying a new load between shots. 

20-30 mins to trace and another 10-15 to fix

11. With WinME, fixed Hapuna graphics detail crashes. 

honestly, who even knew or cares about this one. I wont even attempt to quantify this because it is an insignificant "fix". ME was probably the MOST unstable platform released by M$ and I cant say I don't know a single person who still uses it. Most have upgraded to 2k or XP and some have even gone back to 98.

12. Alt-J will now toggle between putting gauges. 

10 minutes for me to do what M$ did and that includes time for me to look through the code. For the actual Links programmers, 30 seconds, no joke. This isn't even what ppl asked for. All the complaints had to do with setting a DEFAULT putting meter. This would have required a user interface change, specifically, adding this option to some screen, storing and retrieving this value when the screen is displayed and adding code to init the putting meter to the chosen one when the screen renders. Talk about taking the easy way out huh, jeez. My boss would laughed at me if I was asked to fix this and I came back with this solution.

13. Fixed problem where upon resuming a game, the only club available is the Sand Wedge.

30 mins to track this down and about 5 mins to fix it and that's being generous here because I doubt they did this. This is one of those problems that can easily be fixed by copying some code from one place and pasting it in another place while ignoring what was causing the real problem in between.

I'll throw in another day or two for testing before they pass it to the beta testers. As you can see, they really didn't put in much effort in this thing. Heck, I don't even think they put in much effort studying the list of items that needed to be fixed that we were all asked to supply in these forums. If they did they would certainly have fixed the other bug with the chat box regarding loss of text not sent between shots. If not for anything else it is by far the easiest item to fix and would have given them another bullet item on the list of patch features. This was one of the FIRST things we all bitched about. This is how much time it would have taken to fix this: 

When the screen re-renders, they ARE already storing the text in the chat box that has NOT been sent yet because they ARE already updating the intra-shot dialog (the one where u can choose continue or mullie) with this text. All they need to do is add one (yes one!) line of code to update the main chat box with this text when the screen finishes re-rendering. 

That doesn't say much for the effort M$ put into this patch. I can honestly say that I doubt more than three programmers were involved with this patch (three because of the different areas of the game that were worked on) and I seriously doubt if any of these 3 spent more than one day on it. 

Oops, I almost forgot. Someone at M$ spent a couple of hours to write an installation program for the patch that actually looks for the directory where the game is installed and updates the files there. When the 1.22 patch came out for 2k1, I bitched about the installation instructions because I was getting so many questions asking for help by pc-handicapped users in the zone. I was told by some smart asses that if I thought I could do a better job then I should have written it, so I did. It took me less than a couple of hours to write a smart patcher, user interface and all, which I called EZ-Patch and ppl are still using it to this day in the 2k1 room.

To sum it up, I estimate they spent about 142 minutes on the quantifiable items and a couple of hours on the patch installer. They spent more time on the remaining 4 items they could not be quantified and wasted some time fixing the Hapuna graphics detail crashes for WinME.

Now here is list of estimates on some of the other items that we all screamed about:

1. NVidia issue. It don't affect me but it is a problem for a lot of ppl. It doesn't really matter that there are "tweaked" versions of NVidia drivers (omega) that resolve the issue for some ppl. They don't for others and besides, hardware manufacturers pay ten's of thousands of dollars (yes, that much) to get WHQL Certified. This money goes in M$'s pocket so the least M$ could do is get their software to work with these certified drivers. 

These issues take a long time to isolate an fix. They could take a day, or several days or even weeks..

2. Fast Play Games. If one person drops (or usually quits), the game ends. This is different than 2k1 in a negative way and should be fixed. 

It seems like they took the easy way out on on this one when they originally released 2k3. Although 2k1 generally holds up to someone quitting or being dropped, sometimes it doesn't or if it does hold up, sometimes the scores for everybody get messed up. M$ knew about this from ppl complaining in the forums a long time ago. In 2k3, instead of spending the time to fix these issues, they took the easy way out and changed the game to just end when someone quits. My guess is our request to "fix" this got shot down by the same ppl that made the decision to change 2k3 to originally behave this way. That's a shame and if there's any indication on how M$ felt about releasing a quality "upgrade" to 2k1, this is it. They just did the bare minimal. As far as estimates to fix these issues, I would conservatively guess about 1 week. Probably a little more though because communication code is always tuff to change and debug. You might think you fixed one thing and end up breaking another thing and testing get complicated because of the setup issues involved.

3. Online Stability. You all can correct me on the following assumptions but from my experience playing in the zone every night, I think these are accurate.

Number of resumes with 2k3 4-way alt-shot no waves = 1-2

Number of resumes with 2k3 4-way alt-shot with waves = 2-3

Number of resumes with 2k3 6-way alt-shot no waves = 3-4

Number of resumes with 2k3 6-way alt-shot with waves = don't even think about doing it

Number of resumes with 2k1 4-way alt-shot no waves = 0

Number of resumes with 2k1 4-way alt-shot with waves = 0

Number of resumes with 2k1 6-way alt-shot no waves = 0

Number of resumes with 2k1 6-way alt-shot with waves = 0

Sometimes the same group of 4 to 6 players will leave the 2k3 room and go to the 2k1 room just to play a decent game that doesn't piss us off.

This is the one that angers me the most. This is another example of something that worked fine in 2k1 and is now "broke" in 2k3. What makes matters worst is that both 2k1 and 2k3 are both DirectX 7 games and both us the same DirectPlay 7 interfaces for online play. The underlying communications code is the same and you would expect the higher level game communications code to be almost identical to that in 2k1. If I had to guess, I'd say that the addition of the feature to switch to an opponents shots when you finish a hole has a lot to do with the reduced stability of online play in 2k3. This is the only "additional" communication code that was added in 2k3 during the actual duration of the game, i.e. not including the common course list feature in the pre-game setup. It's also a feature that almost everyone can do without. Except for the ability to watch RTEdgers cheat against you, there is no real added "value" in having this feature. It has no impact whatsoever on game play. As far as fixing it goes, again, changing communications code is not as simple a "fix" as making Alt-J toggle the putting meter. It's takes time to get all the bugs ironed out and even then it's not perfect because you still have the unknown variable of the players connections. I'd say devoting one to two weeks worth of work should yield results in improved online stability but even that isn't a guarantee. You can see now why M$ tossed this one in the trash. The least they could do is get it to behave like 2k1 did.

4. Career Mode. This don't affect me but ppl use it and have been pointing out problems for a long time now. To be honest, this sounds like something that was tossed in to add another bullet item of new features similar to the new TW game but even then it falls short comparing the two.

I'd say 2-3 days of working on this should fix the problems in Career Mode. Unlike the communications code, the Career Mode is very isolated and should be easy to find and fix. From what I understand, most of the issues are strictly logic related.

5. Weak Shot. There is a problem that some ppl have brought up before and I've seen first hand. It's happened to me and other ppl I've played with. You hit a shot perfectly (12-6) or pretty damn close, from a good lie and the ball only goes about 20-30 yards. I've seen it happen with a driver (to me) and with irons.

If this were readily repeatable, I'd say it would be a very easy item to fix but it isn't. This may have something to do with the cheat detection they've added to the swing meter. One things for sure, I've never seen it in 2k1 and I've seen it MANY times in 2k3 and the only meter changes (other than making it harder to see the dots) that I've heard of in 2k3 are cheat detection related. This may be a matter of adding a bit of code to make sure the meter data is really the same as the visual feedback the meter is showing before calling the code to calculate the shot path. This is more of a work-around instead of fixing the actual problem but non-repeatable problems are very hard to track and the result will be the same. Estimated time for work-around 1-2 days.

6. Change the chat box to work like in 2k1 so that the text you have typed, but haven't sent yet, doesn't disappear when someone hits. 

Time to fix, 5 minutes. When the screen re-renders, they ARE already storing the text in the chat box that has NOT been sent yet because they ARE already updating the intra-shot dialog (the one where u can choose continue or mullie) with this text. All they need to do is add one (yes one!) line of code to update the main chat box with this text when the screen finishes re-rendering.

7. Plugged lies from bunker in multiplayer opponent doesn't see anything close to what person hitting sees. The opponents see the shot as if it were hit from a normal lie and the post shot info reflects this data. But later the ball is place where the players ball ACTUALLY end up.

Unfortunately this is also a communication code issue because the fact that the lie is a plugged lie is one more bit of info that needs to be sent to the other players. It's probably better if they never attempted to fix this based on their own lack of faith in fixing communication issues (see above item about game ending in FP when one person quits) and their dismal performance in adding new communication code features (see above item on online stability). If they set their mind to it, I don't think it would take more than a day or two.

The following is a list of items that would be "nice" but certainly not critical to be changed/fixed in the next patch (IMO of course):

8. Online putting from the fringe. It's been mentioned before so you know the details. It feels kind of stupid to tell someone "nice putt" or "nice try" in the chat box if you and everyone else never really seen a ball move... 

Unfortunately this is also a communication code issue also, because the fact that the player changed clubs must be sent to the other players. Again, it's probably better if they never attempted to fix this based on their own lack of faith in fixing communication issues (see above item about game ending in FP when one person quits) and their dismal performance in adding new communication code features (see above item on online stability). I don't think it would take more than a day or two.

9. The manual/help for online play. Nowadays most ppl are behind firewalls or routers and if they aren't, they should be. I cant begin to count how many times someone has come to the the zone and asked about the "connection failed" message. All games nowadays either have a section in their manuals, online help or at least a readme file that tells users what ports they need opened or forwarded. Their authors acknowledge that most users are security conscious and make an effort to get them up and running. Wasn't M$ supposed to be implementing a new security initiative this past year?? I guess that don't apply to their non-commercial users... It should.

Heck they can copy and paste my web page dealing with firewalls and NAT routers. They have my expressed written permission to do so. This should take a knowledgeable person a few hours to create a readme file that they would distribute.

10. When someone changes clubs, i.e. an iron to a wood or vice versa, in 2k1 it showed that but not in 2k3.

Unfortunately this is also a communication code issue also, because the fact that the player changed clubs must be sent to the other players. Again, it's probably better if they never attempted to fix this based on their own lack of faith in fixing communication issues (see above item about game ending in FP when one person quits) and their dismal performance in adding new communication code features (see above item on online stability). I don't think it would take more than a day or two.

It's pretty obvious that M$ had higher priorities than a patch to Links 2k3 at this time. I can only form an educated guess as to why they only fixed the easiest of items and left the rest behind. I don't think it had anything to do with their forum moderators. I doubt their pay comes from the Links budget so there really isn't any incentive for them to not report these issues to the Links project managers and developers. I'm sure they reported all these issues and a few more to the Links team. The Links team leaders/managers passed the list to their developers and asked them to come up with estimates of time to fix each item. The leaders/managers then crossed off the items that were more involved to fix because we all know, time is money and lord knows M$ is teeter-tottering on the poverty line. The developers took a few hours in the evening after working all day on other projects and fixed the new "short" list of items and the rest is history. 

Now you all know where this game ranks in terms of priority at M$. I just realized something. I could have fixed a few more items for M$ in a lot less time than it took me to write this rant. At this point the only question that I'm sure we're all asking is, "what's next??". Is M$ gonna release a new patch soon to fix some of these other issues?? Who knows. If you call support, they don't know. If you ask the forum moderators, they ignore you now because they are probably bitter from all the negative comments hurled at M$ after this pitiful patch. Seems to me like they hung us out to dry again. 

Meat