His comments did not get off to the best start by stating in an interview with
NowGamer that ‘angry gamers’ are irrational and stifle innovation in the game industry. While it was not meant as a threat, that if gamers keep complaining there will be no more Braid, Flower, Echochrome 2, Demon Souls for you ever again but bland sequels, Mr Olin does seem to suggest those who complain about the games they are playing having bugs should put up or shut up. Frankly speaking, innovation is not an excuse for a game not to work nor is it a defense to shield developers from criticism.
However Mr Olin was somewhat more contrite in his second interview with
Videogamer.com where he stated that while shipping a bug free game was impossible, Treyach wanted to make “every effort to ensure that every fan is happy.”
During the interview Mr Olin said:
“The sheer number of people [playing] is staggering, and they hit buttons and they hit glitches and walls in such weird, strange ways that we could never predict or think of,”
Gamers’ Voice has to disagree that this is purely some odd texture glitch or unbalanced weapon damage, it is instead that parts of the game that simply does not function as intended for many gamers. The over reliance on patching to fix errors which should have been addressed in development, even months after a games launch is becoming increasingly common. Mr Olin makes reference to launching six or seven patches since launch in November as evidence of good post release support; Gamers’ Voice sees this as evidence that gamers have been playing something with game breaking bugs and faults for three months.
Gamers’ Voice Chairman, Paul Gibson said:
“Gamers’ Voice does not expect games to be bug free and we recognise it’s not possible, particularly in light of the size and technical complexity of modern games. What we do expect are games with all the functions of the game working as advertised and that gamers are not treated as beta testers for a game they have paid for.
We don’t have unreasonable expectations, but such game breaking bugs as those that everyone is aware of in Black Ops are unacceptable, particularly given how long the game has been out”
Gamers’ Voice hopes that Mr Olin continues to engage with Call of Duty players and invite him to contact us directly should he wish to talk or debate on the issue of bugs in games further.
Ends
Notes to Editor
- Gamers’ Voice is an independent pressure group representing video and computer gamers in the UK which seeks to act as a conduit to make our voice heard in the government and mainstream media
- In November 2009,Tom Watson MPfounded Gamers’ Voice on Facebook in order to bring together gamers from across the UK in response to negative articles on gamers in the UK media; Gamers’ Voice has over 16,000 members.
