P-hantom Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 Now dont get me wrong, its great to see Bio wanting to enhance our game experience and give us more content so early ! BUT... Wouldn't you guys be better off spending the time and man hours fixing the miriad of bugs and problems the game already has ! ! ! I mean lets face it, the game is far from polished, faults are abundant and yet you seem keen to throw more into the mix ? All this is going to do (most likely) is add even more problems and bugs and cause even more annoyance to the player ! Get yourselves focused Bio, you cant build a skyscraper on rocky foundations ! ! ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imtrick Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 (edited) MMOs need to add content to survive. It would be suicide to ignore that while fixing bugs. They absolutely, unquestionably, need to be able to do both at once. They may have blundered here and there, but at least they're getting that right. Edited January 14, 2012 by imtrick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P-hantom Posted January 14, 2012 Author Share Posted January 14, 2012 MMOs need to add content to survive. It would be suicide to ignore that while fixing bugs. They absolutely, unquestionably, need to be able to do both at once. They may have blundered here and there, but at least they're getting that right. Technically not so. I can say for a fact (was there at the time) WoW didnt start adding content that soon, and despite all their faults now... nobody can deny it was (and is) the biggest MMO in history ! Futher more, I never said they shouldnt add content, I just stated that they should get the basics fixed first ! Adding content is basically just a gimmic to keep the subscribers paying ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blacksunforzero Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 They've already been working on this patch for probably a long while already, and probably on many more content patches still not even announced. They ARE working out bugs. Please do not think they are not. Read all the patch notes. Read their replies to many other threads and their official announcements on many topics. They are well aware of everything posted on the forums and are working on them while working on other content as well. Look at the big picture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imtrick Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 Technically not so. I can say for a fact (was there at the time) WoW didnt start adding content that soon, and despite all their faults now... nobody can deny it was (and is) the biggest MMO in history ! Futher more, I never said they shouldnt add content, I just stated that they should get the basics fixed first ! Adding content is basically just a gimmic to keep the subscribers paying ! Talk to anyone at level 50, especially the ones complaining here, and they'll tell you you're dead wrong about this. New content is absolutely critical. Without it, the game dies. People will put up with some bugs here and there. They will drop a game that doesn't add content on a regular basis like a hot rock. And dude, WoW was 7 years ago. Times have changed, and people expect more these days. That gimmic to keep subscribers paying? It keeps subscribers paying. That's sort of important. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grammarye Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 (edited) Different teams fix different things. You don't ask artists & sound editors to fix bugs, you ask them to draw & mix new content. When you go to work, and you want something dealt with, do you grab the nearest random employee and assume they are perfectly capable of doing anything that the entire company can do, or do you find the individual best suited to it? If I'm employing writers and voice actors and so on every day, do I want them standing idle or do I want them churning out & iterating new content all the time I am paying them? Bioware's priorities sound just fine to me. They're doing both. Edit: Also the Mythical Man Month should be required reading for anyone commenting on software development. Edited January 14, 2012 by Grammarye Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P-hantom Posted January 14, 2012 Author Share Posted January 14, 2012 Talk to anyone at level 50, especially the ones complaining here, and they'll tell you you're dead wrong about this. New content is absolutely critical. Without it, the game dies. People will put up with some bugs here and there. They will drop a game that doesn't add content on a regular basis like a hot rock. And dude, WoW was 7 years ago. Times have changed, and people expect more these days. That gimmic to keep subscribers paying? It keeps subscribers paying. That's sort of important. lol... I am lv50. And even though Im looking forward to seeing/playing the new content. I would gladly wait if it meant myself and all the newer players could have a better gaming experience ! But I guess each has their own opinon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thamelas Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 Only so much staff can work on bugs. If to many people work on bugs, they overlap one another, and possibly create new bugs. The proper way is to assign a bug team, and then allow the content people to proceed with creating new content. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crito Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 What the OP fails to realise is that the people who fix the bugs and the people who design and create new content are totally different people with different skill sets. Its simply not the case that doing one thing precludes the other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lollie Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 (edited) What the OP fails to realise is that the people who fix the bugs and the people who design and create new content are totally different people... In that case the people who fix the bugs are useless and need to be fired, cos the nerfing team manage to cope with their workload just fine. Edited January 14, 2012 by lollie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quaade Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 What the OP fails to realise is that the people who fix the bugs and the people who design and create new content are totally different people with different skill sets. Its simply not the case that doing one thing precludes the other. It would make more sense to have the people who wrote the code also fix it again, most programmers will probably also agree that it's a nightmare to go in and try to fix other people's work since they don't have the full picture themselves, especially if documentation is lacking. So putting those people to do something else seems rather inefficient to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crito Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 (edited) It would make more sense to have the people who wrote the code also fix it again, most programmers will probably also agree that it's a nightmare to go in and try to fix other people's work since they don't have the full picture themselves, especially if documentation is lacking. So putting those people to do something else seems rather inefficient to me. I'm sure that if what you say was true, then that is what Bioware and every other software developer would do. They don't do it however because tracking down the cause and fixing bugs is a highly specialised and difficult job. I mean if fixing bugs was really as easy as some people would have us believe, then they would probably never exist in the first place. Some bugs can be identified and fixed quickly, but in some cases the reason why the code is not working the way it should is incredibly difficult to understand. I'll give you an analogy. In my day job I teach Mathematics and this often requires me to solve some pretty complex problems. Now most of the time I can solve them easily, but every now and then I make a mistake. I can usually spot what I've done wrong, but sometimes I can't. When I just can't see it, I go show the problem to one of my colleagues in the Maths Department. Its often the case that their fresh pair of eyes can spot the mistake that I couldn't. Now, I'm not a programmer, but I imagine that the same principle applies. Any program as complex as an MMO will inevitably contain errors in the coding as well as unforeseen problems caused by different parts of the code not interacting the way the coders thought they would in specific circumstances. Fixing these problems takes time. People just need to learn a little patience. Its a continual process and it in inevitable that each new piece of code contains the possibility of new bugs. The very fact that an MMO is never finished (because of adding new content) means that it is virtually impossible for any MMO to ever be totally bug free. That is why large software developers have a team of people dedicated to bug fixing as a continuous rolling programme. Edited January 14, 2012 by Crito Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imtrick Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 (edited) In that case the people who fix the bugs are useless and need to be fired, cos the ones who obsess over nerfing manage to get their job done just fine. Again, totally different people. Programmers don't decide game balance issues. And you act like there have been a lot of nerfs. I'm pretty sure at this point I could count all of them on one hand -- it's certainly a much, much smaller number than how many bugs have been fixed, and that's not even counting the upcoming patch. Edited January 14, 2012 by imtrick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drintar Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 It would make more sense to have the people who wrote the code also fix it again, most programmers will probably also agree that it's a nightmare to go in and try to fix other people's work since they don't have the full picture themselves, especially if documentation is lacking. So putting those people to do something else seems rather inefficient to me. Actually you have a good point, which is why it's stressed in programming classes now days to notate your work, comment your code blocks as to what they are for, etc. I recall back in the day there being a problem with an mmo where the main coders left/were fired. They had some major issues when the new coders added new features with it breaking things. It was well know in the industry and I doubt any dev allows that to happen any more. The programmer actually said I'm the only one that knows my code you can't afford to fire me. But most companies now see that as not a team player, fire them, and have someone figure out and comment the code. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LexonLightsaber Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 March will be the next patch that fixes a large amount of issues, ie textures, balancing, FPS, and all that stuff. So about $29.97 is the cost to the customer for fixing issues that should have been paid for when you bought the game for $59.99. So in total it cost and average customer around $89.96 for the game to have just the basics of what most computer games have. Add additional amount if you bought the deluxe or collector's edition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rfatcheric Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 Why is it that people think if content is being developed, it somehow takes time or man hours away from bug fixes.... You really think its just all one big department working on one or the other? Seriously? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts