Game On or Game Over: You’re not my real dad

Microsoft versus Sony, Battlefield versus Call of Duty and Forza versus Gran Turismo. These are some of the rivalries that can get people talking about console wars. “Game On or Game Over” is your place to get inside the minds of Nicholas and Andy as they seek to find the true meaning of gaming and tackle some of gaming’s most controversial subjects. Both are award winning authors – although the awards haven’t been mailed or created yet — but trust them. Would they lie to you?

Nicholas: It was announced last week that Bungie decided to patch and subsequently remove the ‘loot cave’ from Destiny. For those who are unaware and to summarise the situation, it was an exploit that allowed players to loot farm and potentially gain access to rare items that would otherwise require much more grinding and work if obtained ‘normally’. In learning of the exploit Bungie commented, “shooting at a black hole for hours on end isn’t our dream for how Destiny is played” and used this as justification for removing it from the game.

This decision by the developers sparked an opinion piece from Steve, where he spoke about Destiny being broken and how gamers were using the exploit to avoid excessive grinding and get around some of the (many) issues that players have been experiencing with the game. More importantly though, Steve also expressed his frustration at being told by a developer how he (or any gamer for that matter) ‘need’ to play their games, saying “Developers on the whole, know that it’s never a case of people playing your game wrong. To say that is to act like a child, threatening to take your toys away from friends because they’re not playing the way you like. It’s pathetic.”

To kick things off I’d like to get your opinions on Bungie’s decision to remove this ‘loot cave’ exploit from Destiny. Do you think it was the right decision to patch it out of the game? Furthermore, what are your opinions on a developer wanting gamers to play their games the way they intended? Is this something they should be able to force or even have a say about?

Andy: Part of my answer may surprise you on this one, so let me get that out of the way first. Do I think Bungie was right to patch the ‘loot cave’? Yes I do. After all, it was an exploit and had totally unintended repercussions. I completely understand it. What Bungie bungled terribly was how they went about it, and what they said to gamers. In their blog post they took no ownership over the cave, or the reason why players felt they needed to do it. Instead, they basically laid the blame at the feet of the gamers by saying it’s not how they intended the game to be played. I honestly can’t think of any other time where a developer has blamed the gamer for something unintended in a game, it seems like Bungie is completely out of touch with the reason they are able to make games.

There is a fundamental issue that Bungie completely disregarded as well. Aside from the fact that less than 24 hours after the ‘loot cave’ was patched gamers had already found another one. By patching the ‘loot cave’ Bungie only addressed a symptom to one of the biggest problems with the game and didn’t address the actual problem. Of course, they outlined a list of things that they were working on fixing like weapon damage, difficulty level of Strike missions, etc., but all those issues, at least according to Bungie, were less important that making sure gamers didn’t use an exploit to have a chance at (not get—but to have a chance at) better gear. The crux of the issue isn’t that gamers found, and abused, an exploit in the game. The issue is that gamers felt that they needed to spend hours shooting into a black hole hoping and praying that they would get a minor stat increase for one of their items. The loot system in Destiny is beyond broken, getting a Legendary engram and taking it to the Cryptarch only to get an uncommon item back is akin to taking a piss on an electric fence. The loot system offers very little joy and when it does provide that moment of happiness… there is a great chance the game will simply take it away.

There was a great deal of Twitter/Facebook chatter after this patch and one of the comments I made was the patch was all stick and no carrot. Two days prior to the patch Bungie released The Queen’s Wrath bounties/missions which offered Legendary gear as rewards for some missions. That gear was no better than what I already had so I broke it down into components, one of which was Ascendant Schards used to upgrade my other gear. When Bungie patched the ‘loot cave’ they also removed the ability to get shards from that awarded gear thereby making those Queen’s missions worthless for many people. They essentially removed content for a game that has already been criticized as being extremely light on content and offering no other rewards or anything for gamers. It was all just take away, take away, take away and blame the gamer. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe I’m not seeing this situation clearly, but it sure seems like Bungie is out of touch with its player base and is punishing them for something that Bungie should have spotted during development. I don’t believe you have played Destiny yet, so from someone on the outside looking in, what do you think about the situation and how Bungie has handled things?

Nicholas: You’re correct, and to be honest, after the less than impressive reviews and opinions I’ve heard about Destiny since its launch, it’s unlikely that I’ll ever buy this game either. Regarding the handling of the ‘loot cave’, I can understand both sides of the fence. I can see the argument that Bungie didn’t want gamers to use an exploit that would see them experience their pride and joy in a way different to how they had planned – but at the same time I can also see the stupidity in forcing gamers to grind unnecessarily just to progress further in the game. I can totally understand the view of gamers that Steve expressed in his article, and how ridiculous Bungie came across for suggesting that gamers were playing Destiny wrong – just that sentence in itself seems stupid.

I recognise 100% that as someone who doesn’t play MMOs that my opinions on the following might be invalid, but the entire concept of having to grind for loot is boring to me. Just reading what’s involved in this game to progress is one of the main reasons why I’m so put-off playing it. It’s the reason games like Diablo 3 or Borderlands 2 don’t appeal to me – it’s just a weird gameplay mechanic. Everyone has spoken about Bungie’s 10-year plan for this game, and I can’t understand how that’s going to work out. Who (apart from Wow or DOTA 2 players) can actually sit and play the same game for so long? How can anyone actually find enjoyment in repeating the same repetitive tasks just in the hope of getting something better to use in the game? I find grinding annoying at the best of times, but for MMOs it just seems ridiculous.

I’d like to move away from Bungie and the loot cave though and actually address the underlying topic itself though – this concept of developers wanting you to play their games their way. A development studio with 50+ people might spend years creating a game and the final product may be everything they wished it would be. They had a plan on what they were going to produce, they had plans on what gameplay elements it would include and everything from the weapons to the environments was specifically crafted to allow gamers to play their final product in the manner they saw worked best. In the example above, is it wrong that a developer had a vision in mind of how they wanted their game to be played, and gamers found a way to experience the game in another? Could Ubisoft have rights to be, I guess the only word suitable is ‘upset’, if they original idea was for the next Assassin’s Creed game to be completely stealth, yet gamers found a way to just run through it guns-blazing? Is it really up to the developer to suggest and enforce the way their games should be played?

Andy: I think a developer’s job is to create a world, characters and story, then create game mechanics that allow all those things to come together into one unifying package. If gamers find other ways to play the game that doesn’t necessarily mesh with what was intended, that’s not the gamer’s fault. That’s an indication of subpar game design and poor QA testing. Gamers by their nature will almost always seek out ways to circumvent game mechanics, thereby making the game easier for themselves. It’s been happening for as long as I can remember. Heck, I remember one of the old Super Mario games where you could get on top of the level and blaze across the top of the screen. I don’t recall Nintendo admonishing gamers for playing the game wrong.

If gamers find a way to exploit something in a game, and the developer wants to patch it – that’s fine. I’d much rather a developer say something along the lines of “Hey, thanks for spotting something like this that slipped through our QA process. We try our best to catch everything, but this one obviously slipped by us. We’re continuing to tweak things and listening to your feedback to make sure everyone has the best gameplay experience they can.” That, in my opinion, is a much better way to go about patching something that many people were doing. Saying it that way allows them to admit they missed something, but at the same time still being committed to giving gamers the best gameplay experience they can. It doesn’t come across as blaming the gamer at all.

I think that is really what was behind a lot of the chatter when they did their press release. There was a level of arrogance and talking down to the players that permeated that entire write-up. Developers have often said that they have their finger on the pulse of their gamers and gaming community. Yet, it’s situations like this that make people question if that’s really the case. The perception of gamers towards a developer/publisher is a very fragile one. A developer is only as good, or bad, as their last game. I’ve talked to several people about not only how Bungie handled this patch, but the overall game as well. Almost every one of them feels let down and disappointed. One, who’s a huge Halo fan, said he’s not going to buy another Bungie game on release again because of how betrayed he felt. Removing the name Bungie from the equation and just looking at the situation for what it was. Do you think this is a good cautionary tale for other developers/publishers to think about every aspect of something, including how it’s worded, before doing things that have the potential to negatively impact gamers?

Nicholas: Oh absolutely, and it’s not just something that should be considered in the gaming community either, but in every aspect of life when you’re interacting with others. Everyone knows that speaking with others via text and not speech is difficult because it’s hard to convey underlying tones and intent, so it’s paramount that before any sort of press release or text-based communication is made, that it is checked to ensure that the likelihood of the audience misunderstanding or inferring something negative from it is minimized. Looking at this example it seems Bungie really didn’t pick their words quite nearly as intelligently as some gamers may have hoped.

All this talk about exploits reminds me of a similar situation that took place years ago with Turn10 and Forza Motorsport 2. Now granted there wasn’t as much backlash from the community (that I can remember), but it was a case of where gamers found a way to earn money relatively quickly (but not without some effort) by equipping and selling a particular brand of tire for their car. The reason I bring this up is because at the time, once Turn10 had found out about the glitch and subsequently patched it, a friend told me that the developers were potentially going to ban players who they found had exploited it. This begs me to ask you – do you ever think that a developer has the right to ban gamers for exploiting glitches they find in their games? If no, do you ever believe there could be reasonable justification – perhaps when there are online auction houses involved or anything else where exchanges between other gamers take place for in-game credits?

Andy: I do actually. In order for a ban to be justified though I think a couple things have to happen. One being that it affects other players. The other thing that could justify a ban is if it costs the developer/publisher money. Personally, I can’t think of any other reason a ban would be justified – in this context. When actively using an exploit dramatically affects other players enjoyment of the game and ruins their experience then the community for that game doesn’t need that player and would be better off without them. Now the other thing I mentioned is more tricky to pull off with proper wording and execution. The perfect example of wording + execution if how EA dealt with the release of FIFA 15 and their Ultimate Team. I am not a FIFA player, but I do play NHL so understand the Ultimate Team concept and how badly it can be affected by people who exploit things so I applaud EAs tough stance on those who do it. Sure, it’s partly because EA is essentially losing cash flow by having coin resellers, but there is a tremendous effect on the game and how normal gamers experience it.

Now, neither of us are suggesting Bungie wanted to ban players for the ‘loot cave’, quite the opposite actually in a post the Bungie CM answered that very question with an emphatic “no never.” This whole situation just goes to show that developers shouldn’t take their customers for granted in the sense that they know how they think and will react. Like I said at the start, and I think most Destiny players would agree, it’s that we expected the ‘loot cave’ to be patched out at some point. What we didn’t expect was to flat out be told we were playing the game wrong, that just seems so wrong. Imagine if Infinity Ward came out and told gamers that when playing Call of Duty multiplayer you have to keep moving because kneeling in a corner and staying still is playing the game wrong. Maybe I’m old fashioned, or maybe I’m looking at this too simplicity but if I am playing a game “wrong” than that’s on the developer of the game.

If you strip everything away from every game, you are left with one simple thing. That being; if a game is fun gamers will play it and play it a lot. Sure you have to offer up some carrots (unlocks/levels/etc.) for them to continuously play – but if it’s fun the gamers will be there. Maybe, the bigger issue here is that some developers are focusing on the wrong thing and the wrong reasons to try and keep gamers playing. Maybe, just maybe, instead of developers focusing on how to make players grind out levels, weapons, armor, etc. Why not focus on the game being fun no matter what you are doing? Sure, shooting at a cave for hours wasn’t how Bungie intended us to play, but the bigger issue is why gamers felt they needed to shoot at a cave for hours instead of doing missions, strikes, etc. Do you think it’s something so simple, that everyone just seems to be overlooking it?

Nicholas: It links to that idea of progression and reward. You never want to give gamers all the functionality, abilities and powers at the beginning of the game because you don’t feel like you’ve ‘earned’ it, but at the same time you don’t want to get gamers to repeat the same tasks over and over again just so they feel the rewards in-game are indicative of the time they’ve put towards it. I don’t think it’s necessarily simple and I don’t think it’s being overlooked, but rather it’s a delicate balance that some developers don’t appear to get right. This might explain why so many games allow you to start off with everything and then it’s yanked away shortly after – you get a taste of what the game has in-store and then it’s on you to work towards getting back there.

Your stance on banning gamers for exploiting some glitches was unexpected but I think you raise some valid points. If I may, I’d like to extend this a little further to the topic of cheats. I remember as a little kid visiting internet sites and reading some gaming magazines for in-game cheat codes that allowed you to unlock certain aspects of the game early or skip some sections altogether. While I didn’t use them often (I felt it took away from the feeling of accomplishment), I certainly didn’t use them during the last generation when many games allowed cheats but disabled Achievements when enabled.

To end this week’s article, I wanted to get your opinion on the use of cheat codes in games – is this something you ever use just for some fun, or do you too find it immediately kills any sense of satisfaction? Do you think it’s fair that using most cheats disables Achievements, or since the developers are going to the effort of including them, that Achievements should still be unlockable when used?

Andy: Ah, hitting me at my heart man. I, much like Steve, am an Achievement junkie. I’ve been known to play games, even bad ones, just for Achievements – although I am slowly moving away from that now. Cheats are an interesting beast and I’m not really sure the word ‘cheat’ is really what they are when a developer actively programs something into a game either to be unlocked after beating the game or through other means. I know some of the older games had ‘cheat codes’ in them so reviewers could breeze through levels to experience more of the game – which seems counterproductive given that it’s hard to experience a game when you’re invincible. With something like that I can understand why Achievements are disabled when they are active. Just thinking about cheat codes reminds me of the famous Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right Contra code. Man those were the days, and I used that code a lot! I’m not sure I ever beat that game now that I think about it. I think when a developer knowingly puts something like that into the game, then they get to determine the boundaries they are used in.

I have used several cheat codes during my gaming career. Some were to get past what I was found were ridiculously difficult areas and some were just to create mass havoc and have fun doing it. I’ll be the first to admit using a cheat code to just absolutely tear up a level and cause as much chaos as possible is an absolute blast. Granted, I don’t think I’d want to play every game like that, or even play most games like that for very long. But, every once and awhile it’s fun to do. It’s a good change of pace and something different. And, for lack of a better reason… why not? Why not try it and have fun for a little bit, as long as it doesn’t affect others it’s not a big deal.

I think that ties into my last point. It seems video games in recent years have moved from being about fun to being ultra-serious. Now, there will no doubt be a discussion of developers make games that gamers want or the flip-side of gamers play the games developers make. It’s the chicken and the egg argument really. Yet there’s something more important at stake and that’s ‘fun’. Everyone that plays a game wants to have fun doing it. We don’t get into playing games because we have so much extra free time that we don’t know what to do with it. We don’t get into gaming because we have hopes and aspirations of making millions of dollars. We play games because we want to have fun. Sure there are multiple genres and thousands of titles out there, and some of us prefer different games over others, but at the end of the day I’d argue we all want the same thing from a game. When the people behind the game actively plan out how to string us along, and plan out how we play the game and get mad when we “don’t play it the right way”. Then there is something that starts to become troubling.

We don’t need a fancy carrot to always be dangled in front of our faces to keep playing. We don’t need constant noises and indicators that we leveled up or accomplished something awesome. Sometimes a game is at its best when it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Sometimes a game is at its best when the gamer is given complete freedom to do whatever they want, however they want it. Heck, sometimes a game is most fun when all we have to do is walk down a corridor and shoot whatever is coming at us. But let us, the gamers, made the determination of how we want to play. Sure developers can guide us towards the way they think it should be, but telling gamers we are flat-out wrong in what we’re doing doesn’t leave the best taste in our mouths. It could be that gamers are looking for ways to make the game fun for themselves. If it takes sitting in front of a cave for hours to be able to make the game fun, then things  need to be revaluated on all fronts. As I’ve said before, play what makes you happy – there are too many options out there to ruminate on one game when there’s always something else to play.

Tune in next time for the next instalment of Game On or Game Over. If you have any ideas for our next article, feel free to contact Andy or Nicholas on Twitter.