Post by Gmr Leon on Nov 22, 2015 5:05:40 GMT
Since you brought this to my attention Matthew Allen, and were considering making a thread anyway, thought I'd preempt it with one of my own. =P
Personally, I think bugs in games, when they get increasingly complex, are an inevitability that must be recognized. However, recognition of their inevitability does not entail neglecting them, in the same manner that any lived in home will get dusty and dirty is an accepted inevitability, yet this acceptance will not lend itself to allowing the home to gather thickened piles of dirt and layers of dust. It's in this respect that I think that while some bugs may be permitted to slip by, in the same manner that some stains or scuffs are permitted in one's home, it makes no sense to let them compound to the point that you're content to live with broken floorboards and doors that never shut properly.
In a game's case, the latter emerge in the form of game freezes, dramatic FPS drops (not like 2 to 5 frames, like 10 to 20, something immediately noticeable), players falling through environments, and so on. These aren't bugs that add flavor or character to the game, these are inarguably disruptions to the game, same as a door not shutting properly or a floorboard being broken disrupts the nature of your home (now you have to walk around parts of the floor, shove aside the door to walk through a hall or pull it to a little more firmly to ensure it stays shut). Bugs such as clipping through environments (but not falling through them or gaining an advantage by it), while disruptive to an experience, are not as thoroughly disruptive to the game, same as aforementioned stains/scuffs, and as such are arguably somewhat more tolerable and sometimes even fun (e.g. ragdoll bugs are some of the best, easily adding to a game's character rather than spoiling it).
However, that's only my opinion, and to be fair, my opinion in that regard is largely shaped by what I anticipate from my experience with a game. With most games, I never anticipate a realistic simulated experience or a thoroughly immersive experience, so clipping in my mind while ugly, isn't incredibly disruptive to the game. That said, I do think there's a segment of gamers out there that prioritize (and I think this article may relate to that segment) their experience over the game, so much so that they're willing to accept flaws as augmenting their experience (adding character to it) rather than disrupting the game. Where I stand, though, is that to properly engage with the experience of a game, the game must itself first stably serve the experience, which is to say without blatantly disrupting it at every turn (e.g. crashes, quests not completing, characters phasing through environments, performance drops, etc.).
As I see it, it is I that should be augmenting my experience with the game, not the game augmenting my experience to suit itself. I think the problem with others accepting these flaws is that they fail to recognize that these are not their stories when they speak of their glitched experiences, these are the game's stories of its development. That's not to say, mind, that I don't get a mild kick out of hearing of others speaking of their glitched experiences with a game like anyone else, such as the great old basket/bucket over the head trick of Skyrim, for a poignant example, but I'm not terribly impressed with them either. I would much rather hear of the elaborate stories they made up with their characters as they played, like say an Argonian drug mage that swam their way up to the Mages' Guild sampling the local herbs along the way to learn new potion recipes, or a person's timid parent playing a wild barbarian woman getting into fights everywhere or what have you.
Those are player stories, and that's what I enjoy more than a player story shackled to the game's story. Although, if they can be peppered with some fun tales of headshotting an enemy and seeing them slide off a tower and crumpling below, twitching endlessly, you won't hear me complaining. =P
Personally, I think bugs in games, when they get increasingly complex, are an inevitability that must be recognized. However, recognition of their inevitability does not entail neglecting them, in the same manner that any lived in home will get dusty and dirty is an accepted inevitability, yet this acceptance will not lend itself to allowing the home to gather thickened piles of dirt and layers of dust. It's in this respect that I think that while some bugs may be permitted to slip by, in the same manner that some stains or scuffs are permitted in one's home, it makes no sense to let them compound to the point that you're content to live with broken floorboards and doors that never shut properly.
In a game's case, the latter emerge in the form of game freezes, dramatic FPS drops (not like 2 to 5 frames, like 10 to 20, something immediately noticeable), players falling through environments, and so on. These aren't bugs that add flavor or character to the game, these are inarguably disruptions to the game, same as a door not shutting properly or a floorboard being broken disrupts the nature of your home (now you have to walk around parts of the floor, shove aside the door to walk through a hall or pull it to a little more firmly to ensure it stays shut). Bugs such as clipping through environments (but not falling through them or gaining an advantage by it), while disruptive to an experience, are not as thoroughly disruptive to the game, same as aforementioned stains/scuffs, and as such are arguably somewhat more tolerable and sometimes even fun (e.g. ragdoll bugs are some of the best, easily adding to a game's character rather than spoiling it).
However, that's only my opinion, and to be fair, my opinion in that regard is largely shaped by what I anticipate from my experience with a game. With most games, I never anticipate a realistic simulated experience or a thoroughly immersive experience, so clipping in my mind while ugly, isn't incredibly disruptive to the game. That said, I do think there's a segment of gamers out there that prioritize (and I think this article may relate to that segment) their experience over the game, so much so that they're willing to accept flaws as augmenting their experience (adding character to it) rather than disrupting the game. Where I stand, though, is that to properly engage with the experience of a game, the game must itself first stably serve the experience, which is to say without blatantly disrupting it at every turn (e.g. crashes, quests not completing, characters phasing through environments, performance drops, etc.).
As I see it, it is I that should be augmenting my experience with the game, not the game augmenting my experience to suit itself. I think the problem with others accepting these flaws is that they fail to recognize that these are not their stories when they speak of their glitched experiences, these are the game's stories of its development. That's not to say, mind, that I don't get a mild kick out of hearing of others speaking of their glitched experiences with a game like anyone else, such as the great old basket/bucket over the head trick of Skyrim, for a poignant example, but I'm not terribly impressed with them either. I would much rather hear of the elaborate stories they made up with their characters as they played, like say an Argonian drug mage that swam their way up to the Mages' Guild sampling the local herbs along the way to learn new potion recipes, or a person's timid parent playing a wild barbarian woman getting into fights everywhere or what have you.
Those are player stories, and that's what I enjoy more than a player story shackled to the game's story. Although, if they can be peppered with some fun tales of headshotting an enemy and seeing them slide off a tower and crumpling below, twitching endlessly, you won't hear me complaining. =P
