swamp forum
I've been putting off posting anything, but I can't seem to fall back to sleep tonight so I might as well.
I don't remember how many days the testing server was up, but most of you guys know I had been setting aside many hours each day to work on those few pesky bugs that have been plaguing Swamp for a long time now. It has been a mixture of chatting with players as I made code changes, or watching incoming reports and adjusting things based on that.
Whatever the day was that I took the testing server down, I think I had spent about 8 hours working on code. The inventory loss bug has had me super confused, but it's really the biggest thing that needs fixing. I don't recall the exact quotes, but I'm still going to put quotes around examples. I'd get some report like "I just signed back in and I lost my Shield and Boots." So I'd reimburse the people, run tests on their inventory, and adjust anything in the code that could explain why those 2 specific items would be lost when signing in. I'd get another report "Just changed maps from 2 to 3, and my Ceramic armor is gone!". So I repeat the process and adjust code. Usually I would check to see if the same person would get the same item loss bug when they repeated the action, and again, make code changes based on the results. This had gone on for days, but I believe it was 8 hours on the last day.
Most of you know that I'd been handing out free gear during the tests, especially since most of the time I would use the "Send to all" commands to give everyone a copy of whatever someone asked for. Unrelated but also important, is that over the course of a few days, the inventory bugs seemed to be getting even more random and worse. Stuff that had seemed fixed was starting to act up again as I continued to tweak code based on incoming reports. It was very frustrating.
So at the end of that 8 hours I had just reimbursed a guy after receiving, what seemed like the, the millionth bug report. Just before going through the routine of examining his inventory, comparing it to all past reports to look for patterns, and adjusting the code, something in chat happened to catch my eye completely by accident. (Again I'm using quotes but don't remember the exact words to any of this). The guys whispers to someone "You're right, it worked!" I watched the whispered conversation continue and this person was excited that he had gotten Aprone to give him some items. Turns out he had never had those items to begin with, and the other person he was talking to had shared with him the plan that if you fill out a convincing sounding bug report for lost items, Aprone would send them to you! So the guy had been sharing that revelation with others, so they could give it a try too.
I opened up the chat history logs and started to skim through. Sure enough, these 2 people were not the only ones that had actually had whispered conversations about this plan, so there had been at least a handful of people filling out completely fake bug reports just to see if I would send them free stuff. I opened up the inventory history logs and did a quick check to look up the last, maybe 5 or 6, reports I'd been sent. It didn't take long to see that one guy had never had the items he said he'd lost. A little more looking and I found a second. At that point I was done, and I closed the logs. Not only did I have a handful of people from chat logs, but clearly others had been doing the same thing. No wonder I spent days and days on this bug, only to find myself going in circles. No wonder it seemed to actually be getting more random and worse! Mixed in with the legitimate reports, I've had a small army (I exaggerate) sending in intentionally misleading bug reports just to see if they could trick me into sending them free equipment, on a server where I've been openly handing out free gear as people request it. It wasn't about the gear, it was about seeing if they could trick me.
I guess you could say I was angry. I'm still angry actually. I said "Screw this", closed down the logs, closed down the testing server, exited Skype, and walked away from my computer. If people's donations hadn't been sent in to keep the main server running, I'd have shut that one down too. There are tons of amazing people here in this community, but there are also just SOO many that want to essentially bite the hand that feeds them. The testing client's code is so entangled with changes made due to fake reports, that I honestly have no earthly idea where to even begin fixing it. Even if I assume that the fake reports only ever happened during that last 8 hour day, I'd be lucky if I could undo that damage in 30 hours. I've cooled down enough to acknowledge that those people probably had no idea what kind of damage they were actually doing, but getting "bit" that day was one bite too many.
I don't really remember how many days it has been since I closed the server, but fortunately it has helped to remove myself from it to clear my head. I went from cursing, wanting to throw things, and wanting to leave the audio games scene, to now feeling like I don't want to do anything right now, but not wanting to leave. So that's a huge improvement! Anger passes quickly but the frustration and sense of pointlessness lingers. The problem isn't Swamp, as much as I've tried to tell myself that, the problem is people. I've wanted to get away from Swamp so I could have a fresh start with a new game and escape the endless psychological bombardment that comes with running it. In reality, all that will happen is that complaints and trouble makers will show up under a new game's name. What's the point? I know I don't usually feel this way, so don't take it as if this is my new permanent view that you must try to talk me out of. For now though, that's the thought that is keeping me from even wanting to think about audio games.
*heavy sigh* I hate how all of my posts turn out to be these "woe is me", "people suck" posts. It seems like the last few years has steered me down this road. When it's hard to write upbeat posts, I guess it shows a change in one's own thought process. I do feel different about making audio games than I used to, and not in a good way. If I think about it, I'm clearly violating my own advice that I remember passionately posting on these forums so long ago... to treat it as an art form and stick to what you enjoy doing. If it's work that you don't enjoy, you're wasting your time doing it. Yup, I'm wasting my time, that's for darn sure. *heavy sigh*
Rant over. I'll go back to "cooling down", and will be back when that happens.