The new hires certainly seem to indicate that Stern realized they had a problem with programming they needed to address. Whether you think "throwing bodies" at it will help or not, it clearly indicates that Stern is working to improve. I don't know why anyone would take that negatively.

Some of the new guys just started; I wouldn't have my expectations too high yet.

The SW update was lighter than I hoped for but at least there was an update and it included one meaningful big fix.

It is very positive that Stern is highlighting code updates for some past games and they have added staff to back it up and make it credible. You can't expect to bring on new resources and have code updates out the next month and they were clearly way behind and falling further behind with the resources they had up to this point. Whether it is the new resources that work on the older games or existing resources that take that on while new staff take on new projects; either way it's all bodes well for better, more complete code. I think we can take it to mean that Stern is feeling the competitive pressure and 'constructive' feedback and whether its Gary that cares or others, I'm just happy that some action is being taken and some credible statements are being made about what will be updated and when.

I wasn’t expecting much. I was hoping for a little more. Rebellions are built on hope.

I remember this with my AV receivers as well. The onscreen menus looked like crap for years before they got around to updating them to look decent on a HDTV. They will update it eventually but you can't expect it to be a high priority.

EDIT: The JJP screen looks great. They weren't dealing with legacy software, but looks like they did a nice job designing a service menu that takes advantage of the LCD screen.

To me its about the journey, not the destination. Whether a game is deep or relatively shallow, it has to be fun. I have played both shallow and deep games that were a lot of fun and, conversely, there are shallow and deep games that I don't like at all.

I will say that I'm more likely to purchase a deeper game. The games are heavy and a PITA to move around. I keep them for awhile. A fun deeper game keeps my interest longer than a fun shallow game. While I love IM and play it whenever I see it on location, I probably won't buy it for home.

I know most assume SW is pretty much "done", but I'm still hoping for a little more meat on the bone with the next update. There are several fairly straightforward suggestions for fine tuning the SW experience that folks have made on a recurring basis -- so it shouldn't be hard for Stern to figure out the tweaking/fixes that people want to see occur. Just a little bit of improvement could move this game from a B+ to an A.

SW Topper - If it doesn't happen (why would it at this point?), I wonder what the value of the production prototype is?