"Faulty Games" drabbles by sully

sullyiswriting avatar

A Talk on Faulty Games II

Faulty Games

People who have spent enough time playing any game inevitably find an issue, big or small, which brings either joy or devastation to your experience. I remember as a kid playing Final Fantasy VII, how at the final dungeon of the game, you had only one chance to capture Pandora's Box, an Enemy Skill (a type of magic you can learn through an opponent attacking you with the desired spell) from a Zombie Dragon. Through a bug, the creature could only attack you with this spell in one battle, and on Playstation version, would never use it again without reloading...

sullyiswriting avatar

A Talk on Faulty Games I

Faulty Games

As someone who is into video-games, especially roleplaying games, I have become knowledgeable in the ways they are made - namely, their bugs. It may be expected that a game focused on story, writing, important choices and individual characters is impossible to make consistently playable, coding-wise. For one, in the steampunk-fantasy game Arcanum, I found it impossible to enter a certain town without the game crashing. Half a day of experimenting later, I found a trainline from another town which had no problem entering the game-breaking town of Tarant. To save and reload there, another problem unsolved...

sullyiswriting avatar

A Talk on Faulty Games III

Faulty Games

Of course, not all bugs in a game need be frustrating. The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim is infamous for the number of glitches that add a sense of amazement to the game; giants slamming their clubs into you so hard, you are flung to the ozone layer... couriers with mail for you, running to the ends of the land through rain, snow, snow yeti... placing pots over the head of merchants so you may rob them with absolute discretion. There are bugs that prevent you from continuing the game normally, when they occur, but the vast majority simply gain your adoration.