The Firebug Problem
Michael Love
February 6, 2009
Glitches annoy me. How much do they annoy me? More than trying my damnedest to remember a word, a name and getting more and more frustrated as I use more effort in my attempt. More than a foreigner telling me I am saying, for instance, the word film wrong (Disclaimer: This is not a case of rampant xenophobia, just comedic self deprecation. You’d know this if you’ve ever heard me speak). Now I imagine some of you are sitting there rolling your eyes or tutting or something and thinking “Oh God, here we go, another person’s rant about game bugs!”, right? Well, stop that right now, ya hear me? NOW!
What annoys me, what really gets on my nerves, is people complaining about glitches. Yes, that’s right, I’m complaining about complainers! OK, now I know glitches – and by glitches I mean stuff like lag and just general game faults – are a bane of gamers everywhere; I get that, I’ve experienced that and know how it can spoil a game. But have you ever stopped to think why games are so rife with such issues? Are you thinking now? Good.
The problems, of course, stem from potentially inadequate playtesting or quality assurance (aka QA) due to the demands of publishers on developers to make with the monies or (and I’m going out on a limb here) the demands of consumers. I’m not saying people are going out en masse to make sure their favourite game is released – though maybe some do, who knows – but that even the slightest mention of a release date or quarter stokes the fires of anticipation. Slipping from that fixed point damps down the flames; given long enough, interest wanes to maybe terminal levels and new flames burn. The flames of development hell.
The personal hell of Starcraft: Ghost
And here’s the stickler, the big issue. I’ve heard gamers pine for acceptance, to be viewed by the mainstream as normal, and I’ve seen that plea start to come to pass. Non-gamers are flocking to be converted to our ways, ones we’ve had for years, and I am pleased with that. Yet the increased userbase means more money can be made than before and the stakes and demands are bigger. Result? Shorter playtesting, quicker production and distribution? More bugs? But, in what I think is an ingenious move on the industry’s part, that’s where the rise in public beta testing comes in. It’s a price we pay to get what we want. It’s the question and the answer.
February 6th, 2009 at 8:27 am
I know what you mean,
For me, 2008 seemed like the year of the rushed release.
Tomb Raider Under World, Spore, STALKER Clear Sky, GTA IV (pc version is STILL fucking buggy, sort it out rockstar).
Its just stupid, I mean TRU for example, I am a HUGE TR fan girl, I love Lara, I really do… and after meeting Eric Lindstrom in November and hugging him (well I had to really), and then playing my pre-ordered special edition a day before everyone else… I felt utterly let down, let down and cheated.
I havent even completed it because I got that pissed off with it.. *sigh*
I dunno, its all swings and roundabouts, I mean yay for beta testing, its something I have always loved doing, but seriously, if 2009 is another buggy year I just dont know what i’ll do with maself.
February 6th, 2009 at 9:13 am
Yeh, this year was bad for bugs, and I agree with the Tomb Raider issues, but I’m still attempting to play it.
In my experience, the people in QA are very thorough, though things do go amiss now and then. And I do think it’s defiantly more to do with release dates, getting the game out on time and seeing what you can ‘get away’ with out fixing.
February 6th, 2009 at 10:15 am
Maybe I was playing the wrong game, but I completed Tomb Raider Underworld and don’t recall seeing a single bug or glitch?
What bugs are we talking about?
February 6th, 2009 at 10:24 am
I have also had no TR bugs thus far, however, Fable 2 can be a little finicky about getting you stuck in scenery and other half had a good rant about spending half an hour getting stuck in a table in Fallout 3 recently.
I think Michael’s right though, us clamouring consumers pile pressure on the devs and co to rush these things, though it isn’t all us. The influx of the casual gamer and the fleeting cash cow that they represent has no dobt led to rushed releases and slipped standards before this well of plenty dries up and the Wii generation either sticks and evolves to Xbox/Ps3 or else moves on…
February 6th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Its mostly down to bad clipping etc
Camera glitches on ledges or around walls, tripping over invisible rocks (this was espcially frustrating during the mayan calender thing on the motorbike). This is all on the PS3 version, I havent played it since just before xmas, I will probably pick it up again after its patched to include trophies.
February 6th, 2009 at 11:06 am
I think for me, it was the Camera on a level actually. If I remember rightly it was when i was trying to escape the rising water on one of the levels. I forget which.
But because I couldn’t turn the camera to see behind me, and its constant flickering back and forth, all when I was trying to swing on the grapple-ma-thingy, It took me hours and endless swearing to just jump across a gap. And that was on 360.
…Or maybe I’m just shite :(
February 6th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Lordstar here (this seems to make me anon on this pc) Publishersjust push them out the door. sell now fix in the patch online world we live in. Sucks to be dial up i guess :-p
I recall reading an interview with the old school nintendo PR guys about mario 3 in the UK/EU they pushed back the date which they said was so they could meet the demands of the market and there would likley be shortages even with the up’d stock. Years later turns out it was all a publicity scheme to whip buyers in to a frenzy. Sales for mario 3 were real fucking good too.They sat on the carts for a few months too. That was back in the day when games cost fuck all and sold for insane ammounts. If i ever pay 70 quid+ for a game shoot me now
just a thought
February 6th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Imagine the horror I went through after finally buying a 360 last September, only to for it to give me RROD after a week. I did end up getting a brand new elite model for the same price… but thats not the point!
It was brand new and years after release meaning they should have ironed out all the infamous manufactoring issues I still managed to handpick a faulty 360!! Bad luck or Bill Gates redemption?
February 6th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
damn this computer to hell, wrong blog… lol
anyway…
Gears 2 was full of glitches, but they have patched most of them.
-Horde mode, the locust warping from one end of the map to another.
-Sheild glitch (has now been fixed in the last patch)
As for Tomb Raider, Ive not seen any glitches at all, the camera is all over the place sometimes but isnt that just bad design and execution.
February 6th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
The thing I hate the most?
People bitching about DRM, CON-STANT-LY…
Yes, it sucks. Yes, it would be better without it (or with a DRM system like Steam which is positive to the consumer) No, it does not need to be “discussed” the amount you wish to discuss it…
Grrr!! As far as glitches go, I’d say the worst is when people buy a game that is quite clearly designed to be played on a console, and buy the PC port; then moan that the controls arent very good…
Well, duh, it was designed to be played on a console; of course they’re not.
(This is definitely the minority of games; most are perfectly portable to PC – especially FPSes, but some, like Lego games – why would you want to play it on a PC??)
February 6th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Yes, Fable 2 was buggy, I lost my wife for a bit and then she just re-appeared one day; I’d been offline the whole time I played the game. And then… THEN she divorced me! What a cow! There’s a lesson to be learned there – you can’t save the world and have a successful marriage.
It seems to be the norm – for Microsoft/Xbox 360, at least – to rush things from the console to the games themselves. Maybe.
Yeah, Fran, I didn’t want to paint myself into a corner with QA so I chose my words rather carefully! ;-)
Not to worry Baz, you can be deleted! *evil laugh* Not that I would do that, you understand…
February 10th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
I saved the world and have three successful marriages.
They didn’t even blink when I refused to pay the bribe, and some guy touted telling my wives I was a bigamist. Just loved me as completely as always. :)
I think I worry less about bugs than I do about polishing. In a game like Fable 2, sure there’s bugs, but the game’s wonderful and has had all sorts of attention lavished on it.
Whereas with TR:Underworld, I get the feeling that another couple of months development time would have improved the game no end. But then it would have missed the Xmas window. :/