Tech, Philosophy, and Bugs

[allembrande jackson]

Why are glitches (in Elements, as well as other areas of the Technical Biota) almost always bad?

I thought of this when I considered all of the glitches I have encountered on Elements:

1) The spinner came up with two matching rollers, and then the third roller just never stopped; I left it for a few hours, and it was still spinning.  I quit and never received the reward.

2) Very similar to (1), except when the third spinner clicked, there was the celebration music, but the roller was blank, and the reward card, on the left, was blank.  I received no reward.

3) This current PvP glitch: you can do nothing but lose to an opponent who gracelessly beats on an unarmed deck.

4) Any play glitch, where a card does something wierd: I have yet to see this come to my benefit...

Why are glitches always bad?  Has anyone seen a positive glitch in any media?  I have never experienced 'free electrum' or 'positively glitched spins'; do they exist?

On a broad note, why do you think this is?  I have Darwinian thoughts about this, but ... what does everyone else think?

[Espithel]

Depends on your perspective on positive.

Is a glitch to get infinite electrum a positive glitch or a negative glitch?

[allembrande jackson]

If there was one of those, then everyone but me must be using it, so I guess it is negative?

[allembrande jackson]

Seriously, is there an infinite electrum strategy?  Is this how everyone manages to upgrade entire decks?  I spend a good amount of tiem grinding, but I have to eat, work, sleep and ****, so it seems daunting to amass the 45 000 necessary to upgrade even a small deck.

[Espithel]

An infinite electrum glitch doesn't exist. It was an example.

But, positive and negative are kinda subjective.

I mean, wouldn't we all, the players, LOVE an infinite electrum glitch? Positive to us.
If Zanz found people were abusing such a glitch though, he'd freak out. Negative to him.

[allembrande jackson]

But also negative to us, as part of the challenge would evaporate!  Also, upgraded cards would become common, and we would need Zanzarino to design "Ultra Upgrades" which cost 15 000ep, a rare weapon, a shard, and a human baby to acquire.

[allembrande jackson]

That is true.  Once I came to predict the behavior of the AI, the arena really opened up for me (excepting, of course, the braindead Aether rushes we all love so much)

[allembrande jackson]

Depends on your perspective on positive.

Is a glitch to get infinite electrum a positive glitch or a negative glitch?

Someone mentioned this the other day in a bug forum, saying PvP one allowed you to make unlimited electrum.  That is insane - what a boring waste of time!  Who would actually do this?  Electrum isn't even that useful, because (IMHO) the rare are what really make the game go around.

[bossitron]

a glitch where you got infinite electrum would be horrible. it would leave people with no incentive to actually play the game and legitimate players who didn't abuse this would always get destroyed by someone who does.

[allembrande jackson]

I agree - that it is pointless - but rares are, to me, the challenge

[Sera]

It's pretty simple, actually. Games are designed to work well. If there's a glitch, then it shouldn't follow design. And if it doesn't follow the design, it's highly likely that it will harm the game experience. Even if it's a glitch that only gives players a minor disadvantage, it still breaks game experience, because now people are supposed to abuse the glitch instead of actually enjoying the game to progress as fast as everyone else. I think this is common for almost every game.

[allembrande jackson]

And I think that is the answer I was looking for.  Thanks Puff

You are a magic Dragon

What about ('q' stands for colourless quanta)
_________________
| Magic Dragon: 10q |
|                             |
|  OO                       |
|  vv  \         /          |
|         \      /            |
|           \_/              |
|           ^^       5/4  |
|                             |
| 2q: Generate a       |
| 'Jackie Paper'         |
|________________|

_________________
| Jackie Paper:     4q |
|                             |
|           OO              |
|            /|\             |
|             ^             |
|            | |             |
|           ^^       0/3 |
|                             |
| 5q: Generate a       |
| 'Magic Dragon'       |
|________________|