Why is Bethesda allowed to make games?

reply to post by cj6


Bethesda is one of the greatest game makers ever. But unfortunately they have fallen down the same pit as many game companies by slacking off on QA (Quality Assurance). I have been in the QA field for years both in video games and software. And I can say without hesitation that in recent years the overall quality of testing has drastically decreased, this is due to layoffs, outsourcing and all around laziness.

A lot of my friends play on PC and have complained that companies are using the players as testers. Releasing seemingly broken games and then releasing a series of patches to fix the problems when they are reported by the players, this IMHO should be illegal. Of course there will be bugs that testers wont find that players will report, but most bugs that I complain about are blatantly obvious.

reply to post by Openeye


Thats what i mean the bugs that ruin the game are unacceptable. Every game is gonna have bugs but they dont hinder the gameplay in the way that Bethesdas games do.

reply to post by Praetorius


i totally agree with praetorius ive played morrowind and oblivion for years and skyrim ive just got.. ive played fallout 3 and vegas .. by far they are the best games ive played just for the fact that you can do wut you want in them... as for the glitches,,,,, i have ran into some here and there but maybe its time you switched to the 360.. if you have a complaint email bethesda

reply to post by Praetorius


I still play morrowind and oblivion alll the time.
Professional mudcrab hunter at your service

Oddly enough bugs within Nintendo are almost unheard of. Kinda shows you who's really boss.

reply to post by LongbottomLeaf
Well met, friends. Gotta admit I hate cliff-racers. I didn't really bother the mudcrabs too much, though, other than piling all my phat loots up on the mudcrab merchant's island when I got tired of all the trading back and forth.

reply to post by cj6


I have thought about starting a petition or something of the sort to express the outrage over the quality of many games being released.

If companies would treat there employees with the respect they deserve they would probably get better efficiency. Most QA testers are contractors and are payed very very little despite an unexpectedly demanding job. Most people think game testing is fun work...not really. Your not playing the game your working on it.

Originally posted by LongbottomLeaf
Oddly enough bugs within Nintendo are almost unheard of. Kinda shows you who's really boss.

Nintendo has one of the best QA staffs ever, because they treat their employees well (good pay, benefits, opportunity for advancement) they are quite different than most other gaming companies. Thats why they have been around for so long and have been so successful. Even though some of their more recent stuff has been a little lame

Even the best in post production will never get rid of all the bugs. It's all about the deadline man, and there is more than you can imagine that goes into making a video game.

reply to post by Praetorius


GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH CLIFF RACERS
I hate Cliff-Racers! But I LOVE the crab merchant and Skooma

Well they could of pulled a Blizzard and take years to come out with a game because they test it to death.....

Originally posted by cj6

Originally posted by Adyta
I don't know what glitches and bugs you're talking about. I've been playing Skyrim for a while now and have yet to experience a single flaw.

Are u playing the ps3 version? Havent u noticed your save file steadily increasing? Or the lag and choppiness?

Easy fix. Delete all of your autosaves and turn off the autosaves. I haven't had a frame rate issue, crash, or any other bug since then. In fact, it's running far smoother now that I've done that than any of my Xboxer friends.

reply to post by cj6


Bethesda has NEVER claimed that any of their games were "complete" upon launch. They were just good enough to play at that point. Notice how ANY great game has a huge patch on the first day of release?

You can't finish or polish a game like that without having thousands upon thousands of people logging error reports after release.

Bethesda has made some of the greatest games of all time, replay value in the Elder Scrolls series is insane, and hardly ever apparent in the gaming world, especially RPG's.

It's not about the quality of the product at launch, it's about it's quality down the line, once the dev team has finished it's polish.

Originally posted by cj6
Are u playing the ps3 version? Havent u noticed your save file steadily increasing? Or the lag and choppiness?

Yes I am on PS3, and now that you mention it, I have noticed some choppiness to it. Nothing that makes it unplayable, but it can be annoying.

reply to post by tothetenthpower

It's not about the quality of the product at launch, it's about it's quality down the line, once the dev team has finished it's polish.

This is completely untrue and goes against everything QA stands for. Of course there are going to be some bugs after launch which will require a patch to fix. However this does not excuse very obvious and serious problems, like the Skyrim PS3 data leak issue. The company is obligated to have a completed product when it hits the shelves not a beta version.

reply to post by cj6


There are a lot of bugs in skyrim, however some of them are pretty useful...Like the duping of armors, or that one glitch with that skeleton that keeps giving the same book over and over again...it is a easy way to make some gold in that game.

But I own skyrim on the ps3 and so far there has not been any glitch that has ruined the game for me, and very few choppiness moments. And also a game this size will almost always have glitches, pretty much all games do...I have not played a game yet that did not have glitches in it. And especially PC port games are full of glitches on the PC versions, and on the console versions...Only its just easier to fix them on the PC then on the consoles.

There are serious problems with skyrim on all the consoles, but especially the PS3. It just comes down to the fact that they are extremely lazy when it comes to programming.

I'm not a big gamer, my wife just bought me a Xbox 360 for my birthday/Christmas present. I got Skyrim for the 360 and have not had a problem.

My kids, however, are huge gamers...

My son just bought Skyrim for his laptop to play while he is home on leave. He has a new Sager gaming laptop and everything is up-to-date. The game is doing exactly what you guys are describing, in addition to shutting down like if you were to hit alt-f4. He looked it up last night and there is an issue with the PC version. So, you guys saying that it is fully developed for the PC have apparently not played Skyrim on a PC.

Dustin came over while I was typing this and told me that it also will start rendering the characters where they look like a "clay blob" instead of being detailed.

Originally posted by cuervo

Originally posted by cj6

Originally posted by Adyta
I don't know what glitches and bugs you're talking about. I've been playing Skyrim for a while now and have yet to experience a single flaw.

Are u playing the ps3 version? Havent u noticed your save file steadily increasing? Or the lag and choppiness?

Easy fix. Delete all of your autosaves and turn off the autosaves. I haven't had a frame rate issue, crash, or any other bug since then. In fact, it's running far smoother now that I've done that than any of my Xboxer friends.

This looks like it may be the answer. I had him do this while I was posting my previous message, so it's been 1 1/2 hours or so and he says it is still running perfectly.

He says Thanks!

reply to post by DragonTattooz


Actually its not. Ive deleted all autosaves and turned autosave off. I tried reinstalling the game data. Ive downloaded the patch. IVE DONE EVERYTHING THAT PEOPLE HAVE SUGGESTED. It does not fix the lag or stop the save file from increasing. Bottom line: its unfixable!

reply to post by Openeye

I have thought about starting a petition or something of the sort to express the outrage over the quality of many games being released.

Wow... such a sense of personal entitlement!
Just don't buy the damn product if you don't like it.. that's how the free market works!