Treyarch: Black Ops Can't Be Perfect

[tuanmai]

This week Treyarch's community manager, Josh Olin, spoke out about the bug-filled Call of Duty: Black Ops along with the company's role and attitude in fixing those bugs.


Treyarch: Black Ops Can't Be Perfect : Read more

 

[f4nt4sm4]

Well bugs are in every program and game but you need to cut the time of those fixes, 1 month would be great but we know the important fixes take much more time than that. That's why I hate game studios that do a beta pre-sale, it´s like you are paying them to fix the bugs that are supossed to be fixed beforehand. Ok my rant ends here =)

 

[bhaberle]

So what did developers do back before the current generation of consoles were out? Older consoles didn't have patching capability...

I am going to go ahead and point out that older games also were not this complicated, so the chances of bugs were a lot less. Still though, because of the ability to patch, less QA is done prior to the release.

 

[NuclearShadow]

No one expects a game to be flawless. However when a game is shipped with blatant bugs that a large part (or in some cases even all) gamers experience this is not acceptable. When major bugs are released with out a doubt the devs are aware of this is not acceptable.

However publishers are the main problem. Forcing releases before a finished product, Stopping early reviews of games unless a good review is promised (yes this really happens), Ordering devs to make "bonus" (bull) content for pre-orders. As well as other factors. But just examining those three we can see Devs being rushed so we can do doubt expect not only a lesser quality game but more bugs averagely, Stopping the gaming media from warning the consumers of the problems of the game, and lastly giving reason to pre-order the game taking a leap of faith after-all who wants to miss out on the content that should already be there?

 

[Ragnar-Kon]

While I can't speak for the Xbox 360/PS3 side of Black Ops, the PC Black Ops was definitely filled with more bugs than the average just-released game. I haven't encountered that many bugs since Rainbow Six: Lockdown. Of course, these bugs didn't really bother me because Black Ops, so far, is my least favorite game in the Call of Duty series, so simply went on to play something else (in this case Bad Company 2 Vietnam).

I do understand that bugs take time to find and fix, but the PC version of the game seemed SO buggy that it felt like the game was rushed-to-release in order to be in time for the holidays. Seems to me that it would have been better if they would have just done more testing on the game before release.

 

[limpman]

black ops is lag like my azz i still can't play online.so i have to play old mw2.....they never gonna fix.i wasted my money.

 

[LuckyDucky7]

"why gamers should be a bit more patient when waiting for bugs to be fixed."

No. I have every right to be impatient with you. You sold me something that should work and it doesn't. Therefore I have the right to demand it be fixed immediately.

The issue is this:

You release a game, that means it's ready to go- no MAJOR issues (like lots of crashes, and respawns next to enemies, and killstreaks that work, and others).

You are aware of minor issues that popped up in beta testing (you did have time to do that, right?). You work on fixing those and release version 1.1 the day the game comes out (since a game is rarely sold as soon as it gets to the RTM stage). As less issues crop up, continue to support and patch as needed.

When you don't follow these steps, I am angry because I spend 60 dollars on a lemon program- one that doesn't get fixed until actually gets enough man hours to fix it (depends on how large the developer is). Then I look down upon you as a reliable publisher.

Infinity Ward, like so many developers around the globe (Valve comes to mind), have this formula nailed down. Treyarch doesn't.

Of course, this could be because Activision 'must' have a new CoD release every year or else- so not enough time to actually develop it, and Activision under-estimates the amount of time it takes. If the developer says they can do it by X days, they must have 1.8*X time- because 90% of the code takes 90% of the time, and the other 10% of the code also takes 90% of the time.

Get your act together. Now.

 

[theshonen8899]

Wait, his justification for Black Ops not being perfect is that it's patches take a long time to update? Here's an idea, RELEASE THE GAME IN PERFECT CONDITION, like, oh I dunno, MODERN WARFARE.

For anyone who reads this, I need to make this as clear as possible. Activision and Treyarch gets away with this kind of shit BECAUSE WE LET THEM. They know they shit in a DVD case and sell it under the Call of Duty name and it will still sell more than all their employees can shit. STOP BUYING INCOMPLETE GAMES!

 

[slothy89]

As has been said, yes we accept that games can't be perfect, if ever. But when it comes to releasing a product to the consumer, it should at least work. Black Ops, more so on PC and PS3, was near unplayable on release. And still to this day on PC at least, the game still has major issues that should have been fixed before release. WaW was the last cod that seemed well made at release. MW2 and BO have been an embarrassment really.. It's become all about releasing on a certain date, rather than waiting until the product is finished. Probably why AMD's bulldozer CPU isnt out yet, beacause they aren't happy with it's quality yet.
Heads up, I'm no AMD fanboy. Much prefer intel even if they broke their SATA 2 controller lol

 

[Trialsking]

I would feel bad, but I stopped playing CoD after CoD 4, which was pretty good. But now it is watered down console crap. Glad to see I missed a hot mess!

 

[Trialsking]

[citation][nom]theshonen8899[/nom] Activision and Treyarch gets away with this kind of shit BECAUSE WE LET THEM. They know they shit in a DVD case and sell it under the Call of Duty name and it will still sell more than all their employees can shit. STOP BUYING INCOMPLETE GAMES![/citation]

Well said my friend, Exactly why I stopped.

 

[the last resort]

[citation][nom]theshonen8899[/nom]Wait, his justification for Black Ops not being perfect is that it's patches take a long time to update? Here's an idea, RELEASE THE GAME IN PERFECT CONDITION, like, oh I dunno, MODERN WARFARE.For anyone who reads this, I need to make this as clear as possible. Activision and Treyarch gets away with this kind of shit BECAUSE WE LET THEM. They know they shit in a DVD case and sell it under the Call of Duty name and it will still sell more than all their employees can shit. STOP BUYING INCOMPLETE GAMES![/citation]

that seriously made me lawl. at first, i thought it as because i thought you said MW2. then i reread what you wrote, and am still laughing. I dont think ive played a single COD game that was"perfect". All of them have some pretty major flaw IMO.

 

[emile420]

people keep talking about bugs, that's normal all games have bugs that's inevitable.The big problem for me is, when you stand in line for a game at 12 at night to bring it home and you can't even play it because of epic lags and major spikes.that's a really disappointing and unacceptable.And even now the spikes are still not completely fixed they're better but people still skip and experience poor frame rates (me included)..It's very sad

at the end of the day this could all be solved by releasing a beta.

/rant

Crysis 2 anyone?
or
Homefront?

 

[tallguy1618]

[citation][nom]the last resort[/nom]that seriously made me lawl. at first, i thought it as because i thought you said MW2. then i reread what you wrote, and am still laughing. I dont think ive played a single COD game that was"perfect". All of them have some pretty major flaw IMO.[/citation]
COD2 was perfect

 

[Guest]

No 3arc, your wrong, it SHOULD be perfect because you've had 6 predecessors to work out the kinks already. However, CoD developers such as yourself always figure out a way to screw something up.

Second Chance anyone?

 

[truehighroller]

Huh that's odd. I wondr why I don't really have any issues with Bad Company 2?

 

[PerpetualOmega]

Pathetic, no doubt they worked on a percentage basis.

They knew CODBO was going to be big and they gambled on how many were going to play CODBO online vs offline, they gambled that some of those who played online would not buy the next release because of unfinished work in this release. but i bet 85% of CODBO online gamers will still buy the next version leaving thus them with a small loss of custom. they would prefer this to the alternative: an extra 2-3 months of Devs working hard (Expensive!) to fix the game not to mention loss of sales as ppl got bored of waiting.

If i could build a usless bit of kit tomorrow with gauranteed mulitmillion sales and know it would not work within a month i'd still sell it.
Once the monies in the bank why would they give a ****.

 

[Saitzev]

[citation][nom]LuckyDucky7[/nomInfinity Ward, like so many developers around the globe (Valve comes to mind), have this formula nailed down. Treyarch doesn't.[/citation]

Hmm you must have forgotten MW2. That game was plagued with bug more game breaking than those in Black Ops and continued on for 2-4 months after release, and are still prevalent.

You may want to look back at things before you claim something like.

CoD4 is the only example to go by. Yes there were bugs but not near as the Game breaking ones as MW2.

Oh and on the topic of bug's, not that I have as I'm not dumb enough to get banned. How does prestige glitching break the game for anyone?

 

[razor512]

why not fix the cheaters, too many cheaters to make multiplayer worth while.

 

[Bigmac80]

MAYBE YOU SHOULD OF USED BETA FOR PC TREYARCH! I Will never EVER buy another Call Of Duty game again. It's been 4 months now and the game is still crap. Rezzing next to someone who just killed you is the dumbest crap i've ever seen in a FPS game. COD4 is the best Call of Duty game out and it wasn't made by Treyarch lol. BC2 is now the best fps game and BF3 might even be better but if BF3 fails atleast i still have BC2 which looks and plays 100 times better then Call of Duty Blackops. Blackops graphics are freakin pathetic also, i felt like i was back to playing Nintendo 64. I literaly throw up everytime i see the name Call Of Duty Blackops. Especially knowing that i paid $60 plus tax for a crappy Nintendo 64 graphics fps game.