Developers Cut Corners

[klarax]

Hi everyone. I was just wondering...

Why is it these days, games are being released containing a number of bugs/issues. I know we live in the world of technology and most people have the Internet, so patching a game is no biggy. But were is the moral responsibility of the developer gone. You would never get a game on the consoles of old that would contain errors/bugs/issues... So why do they let games get released with major issues. And, not everyone has the Internet to patch a game, so what are they to do ???

Take for example, condemned 2: bloodshot. The game is full of issues, every 20-30 seconds there is a static noise that takes away from playing the game, and can be really annoying... Sometimes the scripting don't kick in, and when something is supposed to happen, nothing does... This is just one example of a game not living up to the standard.

Seems to me, as long as the games company gets your money, they don't give a shit anymore, where's the pride gone people ???

What's your opinions on this matter? All feedback welcomed.

Klarax.

 

[PurpleRain]

Take for example, condemned 2: bloodshot. The game is full of issues, every 20-30 seconds there is a static noise that takes away from playing the game, and can be really annoying... Sometimes the scripting don't kick in, and when something is supposed to happen, nothing does... This is just one example of a game not living up to the standard.

That didn't happen to me once while playing it. What system was it on?

Also, isn't this in the wrong section. (Whispers) We're not allowed to talk about games here.

 

[klarax]

I was on PS3, and that was just one example of a game that has bugs. There are countless. I was just trying to make a point, of developers/companies releasing stuff thats not finished.

A store wouldn't sell someone a fridge freezer that didn't stay cold. so why do companies release unfinished stuff... know what i mean?

I didn't really mean to talk about games, it was supposed to be about Developers guess i got carried back onto the subject of games tho... i usually do

 

[Knight Templar]

Hey wasn't the title someting less insulting a moment ago? Whatever moving on.

Do you really want them to be careful? Do you? 3D realms is careful.

 

[Fire Daemon]

I havn't found a game with large amount of bugs in it......in ever.

Sure some MP games have tweaks to be made (has anyone played gears of War online) but apart from that nothing has made me thinkgame DEVS are a bunch of SOB's.

 

[klarax]

Hey Fire,

Im ok with games with little bugs in them, because that's the norm. Its next to impossible to get all bugs out of a game. (unless yuor nintendo apparently) but take Pro Evolution Soccer as another example, it couldn't even maintain a 30 fps when released, its stuggled to do 20, and was latter fixed with a patch/update.

What happens to the people who dont have internet to update that game. are they supposed to play a game that dont have a framerate that allows your to play it...

Maybe its just me having a problem with this...

 

[Fire Daemon]

I have heard that PS3 games have more bugs in them, but that was from a 360 fanboy. Lets no go there.

However I sually buy big name titles like The Orange Box, halo3, CoD4, Mass Effect etc. Maybe I just avoid the games with bugs.

 

[nightfish]

Developers are slaves to publishers. If a game is not released then quarter profits are down, shareholders get nervous, company value goes down etc

EA is a good example with Command and Conquer 3. It was a big release for them so they wanted it out at any cost and thats the way it worked hence patch upon patch which in effect rebalanced the entire game. It could have done with more testing but EA never gave them time.

Its one of the reason I very rarely buy a new game now; couple of years back I would but now I will wait until a fair few months and wait for the inevitable fixes.

 

[klarax]

very good point night, but what about people with NO Internet, they got a game that does not deliver...

surely, releasing a game unfinished hurts the game overall. example: if two people wanted a game, and one was definatly getting the game, the second person thinking about it. Then the first person buys that game, see's it has problems, he then in turn, tells the second person, and then the second person wont get it.

That has hurt the company in sales... And that one person aint just gonna tell person two, he will be on the internet telling the world within minutes of playing it.

 

[tooktook]

We, as humans, are lazy. If developers can get away with releasing buggy shit then they will release buggy shit. They are not our friends they are a business...less expenses = more profit.

Call me pessimistic but I don't see much pride in the work people create today...obviously with a few exceptions.

 

[klarax]

Hey took, good point there... so why do we as gamers accept this? Surely, if you bought a product from a store and it wasn't up to par, then you'd take it back and complain. But as gamers we seem to just let them get away with it. If people complained more and made a stand, then maybe companies will sort their shit out.

 

[nightfish]

very good point night, but what about people with NO Internet, they got a game that does not deliver...

surely, releasing a game unfinished hurts the game overall. example: if two people wanted a game, and one was definatly getting the game, the second person thinking about it. Then the first person buys that game, see's it has problems, he then in turn, tells the second person, and then the second person wont get it.

That has hurt the company in sales... And that one person aint just gonna tell person two, he will be on the internet telling the world within minutes of playing it.

a good point but things like C&C will be bought on brand name so in effect its not hurting the company.

 

[Cousin_IT]

Publisher Deadlines, inadequate Q&A (since no1 wants to do real Q&A/bug hunting etc for an actual living), general mentality of bug hunting etc taking 2nd place to ensuring all the content gets in the game before shipping (you can fiz the problems in patches later)

edit: plus what angryman says below

 

[AngryMan]

your average game contains MILLIONS of lines of code, thousands of resources (textures, models, animation, sounds) and is being released onto a market where each person playing it (on PC at least) will probably have a unique (or nearly-unique) setup, with their own individual hardware and software configurations AND where you can be damn sure that pretty much anything that can be done in a certain area WILL be done at some point, eventually.

I'm honestly consistently amazed at how FEW bugs there are in commercial game releases.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

In response to something you mentioned in your original post:

Games on older systems had PLENTY of bugs, but back then we called them glitches and secrets, and finding them was akin to finding an easter egg or hidden level.

 

[stevesan]

Well, it has nothing to do with morality. There aren't many developers out there going, "Oh, we do have time and energy to fix this, but screw it, we'll just release now." There are 2 factors to this issue:

1) Games are expensive and COMPLICATED these days. Developers cut corners because otherwise, they would die from exhaustion.

2) It sucks for the consumer, obviously. Yet, consumers seem to demand these expensive, complicated games.

How can we reconcile this? If you could answer that, then go start a studio.

 

[stevesan]

In response to something you mentioned in your original post:

Games on older systems had PLENTY of bugs, but back then we called them glitches and secrets, and finding them was akin to finding an easter egg or hidden level.

Eh...there's a huge difference between a glitch and the bugs you see these days. When I was half way through Sands of Time, some script didn't trigger, leaving me no way to proceed in the game. I can't recall any bugs of that severity back in the day.

 

[stevesan]

One way for developers to deal with this is to remove unnecessary complexity. Do you really need interactive scripted sequences, that are notoriously hard to get right? If they screw up, the player could get stuck. It could also mess with your save game systems. It's also hard to deal with what happens when the player is in the way of something. The issues are endless. Would having it that really make your game totally awesome in a way that's worth about 10-20% of your budget? Probably not - the MGS games never had interactive scripted sequences (R1 zoom doesn't count - that's much simpler to implement).

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Talking about bugs....what about the non-existant level in StH2? Or those 10 million glitches used and abused in speed runs on almost any older game? Do those not count?

 

[Unknown_Exile]

Eh...there's a huge difference between a glitch and the bugs you see these days. When I was half way through Sands of Time, some script didn't trigger, leaving me no way to proceed in the game. I can't recall any bugs of that severity back in the day.

I remember that when Max Payne first came out on PC that a lot of people complained to the dev's that the game wouldn't start a day later we got a patch that fixed it, but seriously we actually couldn't run the damn game. If there has been a bigger bug in a game then I haven't seen it.