Server Down Time

[pokerplaya]

Quote: Originally Posted by EA's blog regarding tuners, etc

WHY BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD FOOTBALL GAMES Some of you may wonder, and rightfully so, "how did they miss that bug?!!" The same thing goes on here at the studio, "HOW DID WE MISS THAT BUG!!" usually with some colorful expletives thrown in for good measure. But why does this happen? To start with, software development is a complex science and this is why nearly every game and software company on the planet is continually challenged and often frustrated in the pursuit of software perfection. Windows Service Packs, multiple iPhone O/S and application updates, etc. You get the picture... Now let's consider video games. Sports games are some of the most complex video games in existence today, and I'd argue that the logic and sophistication of football rivals them all. The real-world game of college football is complicated enough with its massive and constantly evolving rulebook, schedules, and even conference realignments*. Now try to imagine the complexity of a video game in full HD running at 60 frames-per-second while attempting to mimic not only visual photorealism in 5.1 stereo but believable simulated behavior of 22 individual players, refs, coaching staff, broadcasters, and fans. And now connect that same experience to hundreds of thousands of players through a broad array of servers and databases across the country all in real-time over a far-less-than-perfect Internet. This is also why features that seemed almost trivial in the last generation of consoles, seem to be advancing slower with this new generation. Hardware, connectivity, and the scale of "HD" just make everything much more complex to properly develop and execute. To give you some perspective, the NCAA Football 11 codebase contains more than 10 million lines of source code and script combined with over 350 gigabytes of graphics, sound, and data files. This all then gets compiled, compressed, and packaged into what you'll find on your game disk. Over the past year we logged tens-of-thousands of hours of QA on the game in addition to tens-of-thousands of hours more in scripted game testing through networks of automated game consoles here at the studio. And even for all that testing, anomalies, exploits, and bugs can still happen. Consider that within days of game launch, more than 1,000,000 games will be played - more games than can be possibly exercised by an army of testers in a single year. This isn't an excuse for not getting things right the first time, but I did want to provide some context. Sometimes the problems are edge-cases; sometimes it's an issue of massive online scale that can't be reproduced in a lab, or simply plain old human error. But when problems are discovered please know that we as developers, and true longtime fans of the game, also share your frustration. We take bugs very seriously. Our number one goal is to always deliver the highest quality and most enjoyable game of simulated college football possible. Which brings me to the last unannounced feature you'll find in NCAA Football 11... One way in which we've been working to improve the game experience for everyone this year.

Yes, it's obviously a conspiracy... zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[SwiftyK]

You don't need a conspiracy when you have millions of people buying your product every year--it's called a monopoly

[pokerplaya]

Quote: Originally Posted by SwiftyK

You don't need a conspiracy when you have millions of people buying your product every year--it's called a monopoly

So by your space-cadet thought, EA created a bugged game, so they could overload their call centers and reportedly take a 50% hit on profits, so they could create these LTP's and a patch that they recieve NO MORE MONEY for... strictly because they are a monopoly?

Like it says, it's millions of lines of source alone... bugs happen, as they say - WITH EVERY SOFTWARE PACKAGE MADE.

"My friends are game testers" <-- since when does this take programming knowledge??

[fmrodog]

Wow we are way off topic here.

[Amoo316]

Guys just agree to disagree and give it a rest already.

[SwiftyK]

Quote: Originally Posted by pokerplaya

So by your space-cadet thought, EA created a bugged game, so they could overload their call centers and reportedly take a 50% hit on profits, so they could create these LTP's and a patch that they recieve NO MORE MONEY for... strictly because they are a monopoly? Like it says, it's millions of lines of source alone... bugs happen, as they say - WITH EVERY SOFTWARE PACKAGE MADE. "My friends are game testers" <-- since when does this take programming knowledge??

Talk about off topic, this guy is off topic about being off topic, You know game testers, the type of people test the problem were talking about right here, did I ever say it took knowledge? Nah, you are basically feeded into your own garbage by whining at the whiners and b*tching at the b*tches, but your smart you should be able to figure that out right? this "conversation" is over

[pokerplaya]

Quote: Originally Posted by SwiftyK

Actually I do understand the complexity. Re-read what is said about the updates for it's political nature. Ian Cummings or whoever wrote that statement never actually states why the game is glitched, he just spews out a plethora of deterring stats and states, "it's so many things to get right somethings slip." In reality these things don't slip. My friends are game testers and they told me the specifically put in catchable bugs so they can release updates--in these updates they sneak in codes to cut off hackers and modded boxes. Not only is this comming from a reliable source, there is no other logical explanation for them to miss such minute things.

This is your quote... "my friends are testers, the guys who program put in bugs so they can release updates..."

Yes, EA broke dynasty so they could stop a few guys with modded Xboxes.

Seriously, you are a special kind of moron. Its people like you that fill these forums with false information and crap, and probably a reason EA developers don't post here.

EDIT: wanna backtrack again? You just keep falling back on your own quotes, and this "conversation" is all of 10 minutes old. Is it that they are trying to stop hackers so they release buggy games, or what else do your "reliable source game tester guys" tell you why the dynasty is broken?

SERIOUSLY....

[seasprite]

So......anyone see if the servers are indeed down this morning?