in defense of bugs

from GalCiv2 Forums
i've been reading some of the hate mail here between those complaining about bugs and those defending the game and/or Stardock. what i can't understand is why anyone would defend a product so crappy, buggy, unbalanced, poorly designed, and generally full of errors, mistakes, and stupid decisions (unless they work for Stardock, of course). one of the defenders said that if we want stability, we should stick to the release version. um, the release version is the one that's full of bugs--i shudder to think how crappy the beta is! anyway, i understand the longing for a good open-ended galactic conquest game, but galciv2 is not it and never will be. those who are working on it don't even know the basics of game software design.
7,151 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
LOL... wow... you've really nailed it there. NOT!...

First off the vast majority of people here do NOT work for Stardock. The people who are saying the game is fine are basically people like me that have been running the game since release with zero problems. If it were as awful as you want to make it out to be then NO ONE would be able to play the game EVER. And since that's just not the case go peddle your warez some where else cause no one here is gonna buy it.

As for people saying stick to the release if you want stability you might want to pay attention to the name. If it is Frogboy or Draginol then you are actually talking about Brad and I think he might know what he is talking about .

So enlighten us with the *basics of game software design* oh great programming guru. And if you start out by saying something silly like *Quick Basic* is the bestest programming language ever I'm pretty sure you'll get quite a few nasty replies.

Now where oh where did I put that troll repellant?
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Is it possible to consider this:

Most users aren't running into bugs? 

I remember people on Usenet screaming that Civ IV was "buggy". I couldn't understand it because Civ IV has never crashed no me. Not even once. 

For a certain % of people, there will always be problems. It's unavoidable. It stinks to be one of those people who run into some problem.  All we can do is endeavor to listen to what you are running into and try to resolve it.

But it is never a good idea to extrapolate your experiences onto everyone else. 

In the meantime, I'll work harder to grasp the "basics of software design"..

Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
He he he, great answer Frogboy.

Btw. are you already starting to miss the old days of not being that successfull as you're now?

i understand the longing for a good open-ended galactic conquest game, but galciv2 is not it and never will be


For the protocoll: GalCiv2 is the best space strategy game I've played in the last five years.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
And to extent what Frogboy just said,

Not all problems that users run into (and complain about) are the software's fault. Over half the crash reports I've seen posted are due to very out of date drivers on the users system.

And another percentage of problems (Like a problem I experianced with the game myself recently) are hardware faults on the users system.

Both of these (Among other things) people blame the software for, when there is really nothing (or at least very little) the software company could do to prevent them.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
... and then there are the people who will run around screaming "BUGS!!!!" like they were entomophobic, when in fact, it is not a bug at all and they have just completely missunderstood how something is suppose to work.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Wow...somebody needs to grow up and realize every game has issues...EVERY GAME! this game freakin rocks, so maybe it isnt the game, buit the fact that your computer might just suck...sorry, but i vote user error for you...
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
If you waited till software was completely free of bugs, you'd still be using DOS. Actually you wouldn't even be using that.

Judging from your post, you should be playing Nintendo, and not computer games.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
those who are working on it don't even know the basics of game software design.


First, let us consider the fact that you can't even take the time to use capital letters in your post. In general, that's enough to disregard you out of hand.

Second, I seriously doubt that programmers who don't know "the basics of game software design" are going to be capable of putting together an application as complex as GC2. So your statement is hyperbolic at best, libelous at worst.

I'm sure that the gist of your post (that people on these forums in general are overly-sensitive about bug reports) is not entirely inaccurate, but it's hardly unreasonable. There've been lots of flaming from people who see a bug in a designed feature (whether it is a misfeature or not is open to debate). And I'm not talking about simple, "I found a bug where X happens," I'm talking about actual flaming in the middle of a bug report. There's been plenty of false bug reports, where the person in question doesn't know what a driver is, let alone that he's running one from 2001 and that this might be bad. In short, there's been a lot of bad bug reports out there, and some people are just fuggin' sick of it.

So if you post a good bug report and get negative reactions, ignore them. Of course, if you post a bad bug report, go away
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
wow, this is just insane, why would you post something like this? other then trying to provoke the supporters of the game, i mean it obvious because of your statements you are just trying to provoke something, i will honestly say this, the recent 4 beta versions/bugs whatever has turned me off some, i have stopped playing until the full v 1.1 is released just tio be sure and so i dont have to keep updating to a new beta. but stardock knows what they are doing they have done a great job here, and even with me not liking recent things i still believe this to be one of the best games of this genre. much like frogboy said, most of the crashing problems and other bugs are due to user error, or problems with users machines. not the game, there is NO WAY that stardock can forsee how the game will interact with every machine, so im sorry, suck it up and deal with it or dont play it, its still early the game still hasnt been out that long. like it has been said in other posts people need to grow up and stop trying to make people angry.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Has anyone denied the existence of bugs? Has anyone played a pc game in the last 10 years that didn't some kind of bug or abnormality once in a while? People that finicky about "bugs" need to play console games on XBOX, PS, Nintendo, whatever... Better yet follow the instructions provided by this website for posting bugs and quit your pissing and moaning!!!!!! This is a game for fun and relaxing at the end of the day it is irrelevant in and of itself. I think the game and the support beyond it is a very good value at forty bucks.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Nothing is worse than a buggy game. Makes you swear off a particular company, if it's bad enough. So I can understand how you feel. It's also really annoying when a company doesn't seem to care or acknowledge serious bugs (like crashes). Can't say I see that here. They seem to be on the ball and are apparently hard at work making sure the bugs are squished. I've had a few crashes here and there, earlier, but the last couple of patches are pretty stable. I say, hang in there.

My only complaint performance-wise is how demanding the graphics are, esp. when you zoom in close to a tile with a lot of ships facing many different directions, but in some other cases too. Can't understand how a game with, well frankly, unappealing graphics can be such a resource hog. Of course I don't have a hard-core gaming rig or anything, but my system isn't that old... Oh well, luckily I can turn off ship textures and some other options I don't really care about, and everything is fine.
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
YAY! Trolling time! If you get a bug, post it, along with your debug.err. Chances, are some froum browser will see your post, and you'll get a solution within 24 hours. A little patience is all it takes.