Wow. I was waiting for the patch before my first foray into the realm of Gothic. Now I don't know what to do. I'm not up on the history, but was one of the strengths of the previous two games that they were well supported?
As PC games evolved from labor of love to fun business to scary business with tight margins and giant risks, the whole "lifetime support for free!" model has seen a crosshair on its back grow larger daily*. I'm sure we all agree that a company has an obligation to get its game working as intended, preferably before they take your money, but at least soon after. Still, the costs involved in making a post--production patch (for free) must seem like a strange expense to executives familiar with the console game business model.
Say what you want about subscription fees, but at least they guarantee there'll be people working on the code. And of course, there are still some companies you can count on to support their products to the end, foremost among them the underappreciated-around-here Blizzard. We should make a list of companies you can count on.
*Using two mirrors, that's how you see something on your back.