New Trenches for August 18, 2011

Ten

Ten

Anonymous wrote:

Suppose you found a bug in a game that rendered a console unplayable? Suppose it was something akin to the original Myth II Uninstall problem where it basically formatted your hard drive, only worse?

There was a game that was released in the last 10 years that had a peculiar issue toward the end where you could crash the title just before one of the end bosses by doing a manual save just as it was autosaving.

If you did, it caused the console kernel to overwrite itself, rendering the entire unit non-functional.

After causing this to happen once, I was asked to replicate the issue in front of people who made a lot more money than I did. After sixteen hours of play, I, again, saved while the game was autosaving, and watched with everyone else in the room as the screen turned black and the console shut down. Attempting to boot it up didn’t even result in an error screen, it would just power on and then shut back down.

(To me) “You can do this every time?”
“If I want to, yeah.”
(To a marketing guy) “How long until we’re supposed to ship?”
“We’re supposed to go gold in a week.”
(To a developer) “How long would this take to fix?”
“We’ll have to rewrite the entire file structure. Weeks, at least. Probably months.”

The game shipped.

I got fired.

Franko

highlights of picture finds

also in 78 comics from now these two will fuck

Antimatter

Ten wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Suppose you found a bug in a game that rendered a console unplayable? Suppose it was something akin to the original Myth II Uninstall problem where it basically formatted your hard drive, only worse?

There was a game that was released in the last 10 years that had a peculiar issue toward the end where you could crash the title just before one of the end bosses by doing a manual save just as it was autosaving.

If you did, it caused the console kernel to overwrite itself, rendering the entire unit non-functional.

After causing this to happen once, I was asked to replicate the issue in front of people who made a lot more money than I did. After sixteen hours of play, I, again, saved while the game was autosaving, and watched with everyone else in the room as the screen turned black and the console shut down. Attempting to boot it up didn’t even result in an error screen, it would just power on and then shut back down.

(To me) “You can do this every time?”
“If I want to, yeah.”
(To a marketing guy) “How long until we’re supposed to ship?”
“We’re supposed to go gold in a week.”
(To a developer) “How long would this take to fix?”
“We’ll have to rewrite the entire file structure. Weeks, at least. Probably months.”

The game shipped.

I got fired.

jesus

RMS Oceanic

Talk about shooting the messenger.

Raneados

that's a hell of a story, damn

Iloveslimes

The comic has promise, but I love the stories. It makes my shitty job seem less shitty.

agoaj

And that game?

Spoiler:

Super Mario Bros.

Spoiler:

dun dun dun

Antimatter

so either he gets the job here or he and the girl meet somewhere else

or they somehow aren't coworkers

Framling

Nah, he's getting the job here. They said the guy he was going to interview with was a Mr. Credenza, and that base64 stuff from the about page said something about a credenza for one of the characters. Either he gets this job, or it's all a profoundly elaborate ruse.

Also, note to self: Do not manually save during an auto save

ever.

King Riptor

That story. God.
Honestly its not that I'm shocked its that I'm depressed that this sort of thing happens in the industry constantly.

The comic is okay. Really should have referenced Goofus and Gallant what with the live action move starring Will Ferrell and Steve Carrell coming up.

Antimatter

i half expected a twist

i blame MSPA

Quid

I like the comic but then I read the stories below it and they bring me down.

ArbitraryDescriptor

These people tell us of their torment so we can feel better, Quid.

If you feel bad afterwards then their suffering was all for nothing.

ASimPerson

Hard to feel bad about this one. Dude was probably going to get fired and its not conceivable to fix every bug.

I don't know the game or code in question so I won't make any statements on how easy this would've been to fix or work-around (the latter of which is likely what happened, but again, speculation).

King Riptor

ASimPerson wrote:

Hard to feel bad about this one. Dude was probably going to get fired and its not conceivable to fix every bug.

I don't know the game or code in question so I won't make any statements on how easy this would've been to fix or work-around (the latter of which is likely what happened, but again, speculation).

I would think when said bug is going to cause a console manufacturer to crawl up your ass with lawyers and explode said ass you'd want to fix it.

But presumably this is EA we're talking about so who knows

Dark Raven X

"If you did, it caused the console kernel to overwrite itself, rendering the entire unit non-functional."

Khee righst.

Something of that magnitude got released? I mean, yeah, "Do not turn off while saving" - we know that. We've known that since we were 4. But "Do not save while saving"?

Turambar

Poor Jeff

darleysam

Dark Raven X wrote:

"If you did, it caused the console kernel to overwrite itself, rendering the entire unit non-functional."

Khee righst.

Something of that magnitude got released? I mean, yeah, "Do not turn off while saving" - we know that. We've known that since we were 4. But "Do not save while saving"?

"Yo dawg.."

Nogs

if it only happened at that one particular save point - couldn't they like


disable to start button for 1 minute or something? or move the save point a few minutes back in gameplay?

Ringo

Framling wrote:

Nah, he's getting the job here. They said the guy he was going to interview with was a Mr. Credenza, and that base64 stuff from the about page said something about a credenza for one of the characters. Either he gets this job, or it's all a profoundly elaborate ruse.

Also, note to self: Do not manually save during an auto save

ever.

I am now terrified of autosave.

Tomanta

Would it really have been that hard to fix? Theoretically, at least, couldn't they have just set the manual save to check if it was autosaving at the time and postpone the manual save if it was?

Javen

After seeing hearing enough stories like this over the years, this is why I don't really give a shit when game companies cry over second hand sales. When they can decide it's better to ship a game instead of fixing a console breaking bug because it suits their bottom line, or forcing overtime immediately followed by mass layoffs as soon as the title ships, they don't really have much wiggle room to expect goodwill.

Maigaard

Come for the comics, stay for the stories.

Zek

Tomanta wrote:

Would it really have been that hard to fix? Theoretically, at least, couldn't they have just set the manual save to check if it was autosaving at the time and postpone the manual save if it was?

This is what I was thinking, there are any number of quick fixes they could have done to make sure this never happens.

Druhim

King Riptor wrote: »

ASimPerson wrote:

Hard to feel bad about this one. Dude was probably going to get fired and its not conceivable to fix every bug.

I don't know the game or code in question so I won't make any statements on how easy this would've been to fix or work-around (the latter of which is likely what happened, but again, speculation).

I would think when said bug is going to cause a console manufacturer to crawl up your ass with lawyers and explode said ass you'd want to fix it.

But presumably this is EA we're talking about so who knows

That's pretty presumptive of you.

Henroid

King Riptor wrote:

But presumably this is EA we're talking about so who knows

How'd you arrive at that conclusion? O_o

As for the comic, I sense a new recurring character introduced!

King Riptor

Henroid wrote:

King Riptor wrote:

But presumably this is EA we're talking about so who knows

How'd you arrive at that conclusion? O_o

As for the comic, I sense a new recurring character introduced!

I'd assume this was late 90's before console patches were common and EA was the worst offender of their employees at that time.

Stale

"Most talked about" is not "Worst offender"


Seriously, EA wasn't doing anything that any other publisher wasn't doing, they just made the mistake of hiring a dude with an insanely bitchy wife.

Rolo

king riptor talking out of his assumption hole again

Javen

Activision seems like it would have the worst offenders, based on their general attitude and business practices regarding brands and franchises

Blake T

Stale wrote:

"Most talked about" is not "Worst offender"


Seriously, EA wasn't doing anything that any other publisher wasn't doing, they just made the mistake of hiring a dude with an insanely bitchy wife.

Well at that stage they were also running franchises into the ground a bit more that everyone else.

Other than firing you though stale I think since then they've been stellar!

The Geek

It makes me kinda glad to know that I never saw anyone being treated that way. As I mentioned before, a fair amount of testing was done in house by just anyone and everyone regardless of project or department. But most of that was testing for stuff that would occur as a normal part of play. There was some encouragement to do things and go places that you wouldn't think of doing as a normal part of play, but I believe a lot of the real "try to break absolutely everything" testing was done by people brought in from a temp agency. And they were still treated well.

I did some testing of single player on Portal 2. Go into an elevator room after a test chamber and walk up to the elevator from behind. Notice how the elevator doesn't leave without you in it? Yeah, you're welcome.

Framling

Stale wrote:

"Most talked about" is not "Worst offender"


Seriously, EA wasn't doing anything that any other publisher wasn't doing, they just made the mistake of hiring a dude with an insanely bitchy wife.

Yeah, something like this I would actually expect more from a smaller studio. Someplace as monolithic as EA I imagine is going to take something like this more seriously.

King Riptor

The Geek wrote:

It makes me kinda glad to know that I never saw anyone being treated that way. As I mentioned before, a fair amount of testing was done in house by just anyone and everyone regardless of project or department. But most of that was testing for stuff that would occur as a normal part of play. There was some encouragement to do things and go places that you wouldn't think of doing as a normal part of play, but I believe a lot of the real "try to break absolutely everything" testing was done by people brought in from a temp agency. And they were still treated well.

I did some testing of single player on Portal 2. Go into an elevator room after a test chamber and walk up to the elevator from behind. Notice how the elevator doesn't leave without you in it? Yeah, you're welcome.

Geek there is a serious game ending glitch you missed.

Once you defeat the final boss and get the ending there is no more single player to enjoy.
It seems like such an oversight.

Tox

The Geek wrote:

I did some testing of single player on Portal 2. Go into an elevator room after a test chamber and walk up to the elevator from behind. Notice how the elevator doesn't leave without you in it? Yeah, you're welcome.

I can see Geek's resume now. "Totally made sure the elevator in Portal 2 didn't go anywhere unless you were in it."

Jephery

Is it just me, or are the stories just so over the top horrible that they come off as hilarious?

Either way they're amazing.

Abracadaniel

I believe that's the point.

Mysst

telling a story without adding at least minor embellishment is just history

and is boring

Jephery

>_> I like plain history. I add the embellishments in my head. In the fourth grade I read my entire Texas history textbook, for fun.

You can imagine the Wikipedia binges I go on.

Rolo

I don't think they're being embellished, some of these places are really horrible work environments.