Being relatively new to Destructoid I have yet to write in a Monthly Musings, let alone write much at all. Since it is nearing midnight on the final day of September, that means that I have nearly missed another deadline for writing something. As I stared intently at the screen, finally throwing my procrastination to one side, it is then that I realized what I truly hate: deadlines.

Living as a teenager, myself and my peers are constantly bombarded with one deadline or
another. Whether it be a deadline for some sort of homework assignment, a term paper, an experiment or project, I have had my fair share of deadlines. Now when you add the trials and tribulations of teenage, high school life to the problems faced in true adulthood, you get a worse concoction of stress and deadlines. Showing up to interviews on time, making it to work, sending in college applications and scholarship papers; it can all become overwhelming if you're not careful.

But I digress, my reason for writing this blog is simple; there's a love-hate relationship with deadlines in the video game making progress that simply drive me nuts when it comes to hating them. On one hand, deadlines allow for the games to reach our much-awaited hands much sooner, but at what cost? At the same time these deadlines usually make game developers take massive amounts of game content out of a otherwise near-perfect game, or they force us to wait for said content after a set amount of time.

A perfect present day example of rush was Grand Theft Auto IV. With the rush for the final date of April 29th, Rockstar decided to leave otherwise great things out of the game. This partly is to blame because of the sharp turn at the corner of gritty and real, but if one thinks about all the things left out of the game; a true multiplayer lobby, a more fulfilling story and all the weapons from previous games, as well as some mini-games and other minor features, you begin to realize that they had all that planned, but they had a deadline to meet! So, we have to pay more money AND wait a longer time for some sort of DLC to come out and satiate our desire for all things left out, which is yet again limited by a deadline!

Of course, with the trend of "Release it, then patch it when people complain" the deadlines are seemingly less of a nuisance. However, do you really want to buy a game on day one only to be met with completely unplayable content you just cannot take? Granted, a patch will inevitably come out, but why should there be one in the first place? The initial wave of disgust will turn people off, as well as make some of the fanboy types absolutely abhor your company.

But listen buddy, the point is: I fucking hate deadlines.

/irony