This Just In!

headrock · Rigger Posts: 1567 **354 Gold** -

I'm not going to quote airsaw, but I'm going to have to partially agree with him. The fact that games come out with problems, AND are sold to us at their current prices, remains to be a great fault of our own, the gaming community, the players, for having put up with it. A mistake that most likely would be impossible to undo in these days when the gaming world is huge, and action cannot be taken on all fronts.

But games have been released buggy for a seriously long time, and perhaps coming to terms with this fact wasn't unexpected at all. However, due to our own compliance, game companies (they do this with everything) take our compliance and build new behavioral rules upon them. "So, they accept bugs mor readily nowadays? Sweet, we can cut down on beta testing. If they complain too much, we'll get someone to fix whatever comes up". The advent of the internet as a place to distribute updates has furthered the problem, since the assumption is that 100% of the players wouldn't mind the few seconds-to-minutes of download to fix their game.

Everything of course pivots on the fact that games are NOT buckets of water, and bugs are NOT holes - the "bucket" in this allegory cannot fulfill its purpose. In a game, the purpose is only partially affected by the bugs (Although some games can't be finished at all with the bugs they come with, making you think "What the f*** were the testers paid for?). So the company executives can set deadlines and release the game when they believe it will fulfill its purpose "Satisfactorily", giving themselves a slap on the back. And, in effect, the reason they can do this is that the games DO work, and CAN fulfill their purpose, for a greater percentage of the people who acquire them. The problem is always that there are so many consumers that even if a large number are upset, an even larger number may either not notice bugs at all, not mind, or not have the will to complain and just dump the game, often sadly forgetting which company it was that screwed them up the nether regions.

Sometimes bugs can't be spotted beforehand, especially those that relate to some hardware configurations. After all you can't buy all the different kinds of hardware to test the software on and see if it works on all of them, just like your old bucket manufacturer can't forsee what, where and how you are going to use your bucket. However what really makes my head hurt is that in games like Pirates! (And sadly a LOT of other games, nowadays) some bugs are sitting right in the open, occur too frequently to be missed, or too important to the game to be missed. And they're being missed. Is it the rush-job that most developments go through nowadays? Is it just a rampant lack of regard to the whole beta-testing procedure that publishing companies appear to have, or is it time that the game's own designers begin replacing external beta-testers, paid instead to check their own software before it is released, since no one knows its purposes more than they do?

The truth is, I don't know. I've never published a computer game, and in this day and age the prospect of actually publishing anything I've made seems bleak. The real problem is that the future of computer games seems respectively bleak as well. What can we do about it? I wish I knew. Cause if we don't find out soon, and do it, things are about to get out of hand.
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Blondebeard: "Madre de Dios! Es el Pollo Diablo!!"
<Spanish Guitar Riff>
Guybrush: "Si! He dejado en libertad los prisioneros, y ahora vengo por TE!"

ruf · Seaman Posts: 198 **899 Gold** -

FexFX · Powder Monkey Posts: 13 **354 Gold** -

Did no one notice that I said I have 1.0.2?
If the retail release exists...how far behind can a patch be?
Every forum I've ever visited is full of the same impatient griping over patches...
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But...Why is the RUM gone!?

miko · Powder Monkey Posts: 44 **925 Gold** -

Airsaw · Rigger Posts: 1840 **3281 Gold** -

headrock · Rigger Posts: 1567 **354 Gold** -

It probably wouldn't work for the same reasons your flush project failed - organization and compliance would have to hit the roof, and like I said before most people just either don't notice or understand the damages in the product, or don't care enough to be upset. Sheep, as Pink Floyd so thoughtfully put it (And orwell before them of course).
_________________
Blondebeard: "Madre de Dios! Es el Pollo Diablo!!"
<Spanish Guitar Riff>
Guybrush: "Si! He dejado en libertad los prisioneros, y ahora vengo por TE!"

Airsaw · Rigger Posts: 1840 **3281 Gold** -

Bakas · Seaman Posts: 164 **232 Gold** -

CapnSunwolf · Powder Monkey Posts: 9 **28 Gold** -

Witht he current post of 1.0.2. being sold.. it appears we are close on the supposed patch eh Crew?

Hopefully it will fix the problem i had the other night.. while attempting to change the name of my ship while sailing, I came back into the game "off the edge of the world."

Very frustrating..

Later and smooth sailin mates Sailor

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Stand down lass and prepare to be boarded!

ruf · Seaman Posts: 198 **899 Gold** -

SlipperyJim · Cutthroat Posts: 427 **2045 Gold** -

Just a quick shot of perspective ... game developers aren't the only ones who release buggy software. Major corporate software (Windows, anyone?) is released with bugs, as are open-source projects like Linux & Mozilla Firefox. In fact, I will venture a guess that every major software project is released with at least one undiscovered bug.

Why? Is it lazy programmers? Blind beta-testers? No, I think it's complexity. Most modern software is terribly terribly complex. The problem is made even worse by the multi-tasking environment in modern computers, where your software is not the only running process. Even if a program works fine in isolation, who knows how it will work when running alongside a variety of antivirus utilities, Google Desktop Search, or any of the other programs that people usually have running all of the time? Finally, as others have already mentioned, there are too many possible hardware configurations to predict how they will all work.

We simply can't expect a bug-free product. Ever.

That said, we can and should expect that software will be tested and many bugs will be squashed before release. Certain obvious bugs should never be allowed into the light of day. In Pirates!, I can only think of three bugs that really bother me. First is the Treasure Fleet bug, which was fixed with the 1.01 patch. (Yay!) Second is the annoying captain bug, which was actually introduced with the 1.01 patch. (BOO! Patches should not make new bugs!) Third is the unbelievable slowness of land combat.

As it seems that the 1.02 patch is on the threshold of release, I am quietly hopeful that either the second or third of these bugs might be fixed. We'll just have to see.
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Steal the crew, set fire to the gold, and make the ships walk the plank!

What? Oh, NOW I get it....

Airsaw · Rigger Posts: 1840 **3281 Gold** -

PiratesFan · Rigger Posts: 1689 **23491 Gold** -

Airsaw not to stomp on your thunder but since I had to learn "Cobol" (COmmon Business Oriented Language) I figured I would correct your spelling. Yes i know cobol... do I like it no, and I don't think i am greater than anyone because I know it, but then again I am not from the generation that decided the ipso facto in the first place. Just figure I would shine some light on the cobol theory.

KingWilly · Rigger Posts: 1351 **9821 Gold** -

COBOL....I thought no used that anymore. I had to learn Cobol for two semesters at Uni and just hated it. Good thing I don't have to use it where I work. Smile

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Shiver me timbers!!!
"It's good to be the king" - Mel Brooks

AKA. Will Scarlett.

PiratesFan · Rigger Posts: 1689 **23491 Gold** -

Cobol is still in use to this day. How do you think most banks Worldwide are being run off of. Yes they have fancy graphical online menus now days but the cost to convert all their data to not use Cobol is astounding where they rather pay programmer to fix issues like the Y2K issue. That is the whole basis of that scare and Cobol is the main culprit of it. The Programmers where too lazy at the time to add the extra 2 digits in thinking that they would never use it for that long. Boy were they wrong about the banking industry... How do you think banks stay in business. That is the mainstream use of Cobol ... I am sure there are many other places that still use cobol but aren't as widely known as the banking systems and some other government systems.