For the good of video games, Anthem needs to fail hard

jonesy · Mar 5, 2019

Ovinomancer said:
Need more than a trouble ticket and a reddit thread.

I've read through the first 70 pages on the EA thread. Posts #104, #165, #263, #324, #466, #614, #638 and #696 claim broken consoles. Also possibly #347, #544, and #598. Hard syntax. There's also posts on every other page about hard drive data loss.

Imaculata · Mar 5, 2019

Ovinomancer said:
Right, bunch of examples of non-brick crashes, a virus (are we saying Anthem has a virus?) and the result is that you're primed to believe that a game can brick (bricking means turned into a paperweight) a modern system?

First of all, I said they were almost bricked. It took several reboots to get them working again. If that can happen, a permanent brick doesn't seem that impossible. Also keep in mind that most consumers would not know that you can reboot a PS3 or PS4 in safemode, or how to do it. After some crashes, rebooting your Playstation in safemode is required to get it working again. If you don't know this, it might as well be bricked.

Besides, modern systems are more prone to bricking than old systems, so I don't get what you're getting at.

I've developed games for PS3 and Xbox360 professionally. I think I have a pretty good idea if those devices can be bricked by software. They are pretty sensitive. The company I worked at got pretty close to the limits of the PS3 dev kits several times. They do not like running out of memory, I can tell you that. Sometimes they would refuse to boot back up again, unless restarted in safe mode and having the file integrity restored.

Mustrum_Ridcully · Mar 6, 2019

Almost bricking sounds a bit like almost pregnant...
Bricking is when the device simply doesn't function anymore and can serve no other purpose as a brick could, basically. If you can still restart it manually (even if it requires something exotic like restarting in safe mode), it's not bricking, not even "almost". Unless you say that only a Sony certified technician could do it, because it involves special devices or something like that.

I could see using the term "almost bricking" if it involved causing a physical defect that could potentially brick it - like physically damaging the hard drive or memory, but it happens that the OS can work around the defect this time.

Imaculata · Mar 7, 2019

Mustrum_Ridcully said:
Almost bricking sounds a bit like almost pregnant...
Bricking is when the device simply doesn't function anymore and can serve no other purpose as a brick could, basically. If you can still restart it manually (even if it requires something exotic like restarting in safe mode), it's not bricking, not even "almost". Unless you say that only a Sony certified technician could do it, because it involves special devices or something like that.

I could see using the term "almost bricking" if it involved causing a physical defect that could potentially brick it - like physically damaging the hard drive or memory, but it happens that the OS can work around the defect this time.

If the file integrity needs to be restored to get it working again, then you are relying entirely on this process working perfectly 100% of the time. I wouldn't bet on that. If the crash is bad enough to damage file integrity on the system, and it takes SEVERAL safe mode reboots to get it working again, then you'd better cross your fingers and hope that it still works afterwards.

I wasn't sure if my PS3 would reboot at all after crashing on the New York library stage in Ghostbusters the Videogame. All those books with physics put a serious strain on my console, and it is one of the early generation ones; the fat PS3. The screen went to black in an instant, the sound locked up, and even after several restarts in safe mode, it refused to boot. Fortunately I was persistent, and it eventually started working again. But if that can happen, a permanent bricked state does not seem unlikely to me.

Deset Gled · Mar 7, 2019

Mustrum_Ridcully said:
Bricking is when the device simply doesn't function anymore and can serve no other purpose as a brick could, ...

... to the owner.

If un-borking the box requires a step that the owner is either unable or unwilling to do, it is functionally bricked even if it is not bricked to your standards. If the recovery phase requires downloading a fix to a USB drive, there are going to be people without a computer who can't do it. The the fix includes a warning message that says "This process may cause data loss to other games", there are going to be people who (rightfully so) refuse to run it. Is that "almost bricked"? Is that a Shrodinger's Brick?

Zardnaar · Mar 8, 2019

My ps4 got the glitch where it doesn't recognise the controllers which basically wrecks it. 360 got red ring.

Sega Genesis 25 years old still going fine. Go figure.

Ovinomancer · Mar 8, 2019

Zardnaar said:
My ps4 got the glitch where it doesn't recognise the controllers which basically wrecks it. 360 got red ring.

Sega Genesis 25 years old still going fine. Go figure.

Dear God, Anthem is on a rampage!

Derren · Mar 9, 2019

A loot shooter in which the strongest gun is the 1st level starter equipment because the way level scaling works.

I think it is safe to say that Anthem won't be a hit.

Imaculata · Mar 11, 2019

Derren said:
A loot shooter in which the strongest gun is the 1st level starter equipment because the way level scaling works.
I think it is safe to say that Anthem won't be a hit.

I've been following the news around Anthem for the last few weeks now, because I'm fascinated by trainwrecks I guess. Seems Bioware accidentally made the loot system rewarding, but they were quick to patch it out again... and then they did the same thing again.

Players have been giving the developers a lot of (angry) feedback over this, telling Bioware that a looter-shooter needs good loot, because that's the point of the game. But I think those players are mistaken regarding where Bioware's priorities lie. I don't think a rewarding loot system is their main focus. I think their first goal is to make sure the players can't gather ingame currency too easily, so they are encouraged to spend real money on ingame purchases. Of course, I don't agree that this should be their first priority, because nothing kills a game (that is about gathering loot) faster than poor rewards... but welcome to live services!

jonesy · Mar 11, 2019

Bioware is saying that they've found no evidence of actual permanent bricking. There has been quite a lot of hard drive data losses, which is still really bad and unacceptable (especially when the game is affecting save data other than its own). But, no actual consoles permanently broken, which is something, I suppose. :hmm:

For the good of video games, Anthem needs to fail hard

jonesy

A Wicked Kendragon

Imaculata

Hero

Mustrum_Ridcully

Hero

Imaculata

Hero

Deset Gled

.

Zardnaar

Legend

Ovinomancer

No flips for you!

Derren

Hero

Imaculata

Hero

jonesy

A Wicked Kendragon

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