Quoting Answulf, reply 25
I'm still playing it, but it needs some serious patching too. Between Elemental and Civ5, I am going to start waiting about 3 months before I buy a new strategy game.
I can see myself switching between the two as each one gets patched...
Yeah seriously. I'm getting to the point where buying games at full price is only for suckers. Give me a sale six months after release and an already patched product. (Or in the case of Dragon Age, basically the same game only with $100 in DLC thrown in free.)
It kind of depends on the game and the company. Companies are starting to get reputations of either putting out gold on Day 1, junk on Day 1 and turning it to gold, or just junk. Creative Assembly games (Total War series) are generally regarded as "don't buy on day 1, wait for patches" because they have a tendency to be buggy on release. I hear the same of Paradox (especially the Hearts of Iron series). And on the other hand, you have companies like Blizzard, which release highly polished games on Day 1.
Ultimately, I feel that Stardock's next major release (new game, not an expansion) needs to go smoothly and it needs to be a finely polished product on Day 1, or it will start a rapid fall into the "wait for patches on SD games" camp in the Eyes of the Internet.
Sales of course are another matter entirely, and it's always nice waiting for deals for games that aren't "must-have" 