There’s a middle ground. (Criticism)

by MacAddictXIV , Seattle WA, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, 07:07 (2114 days ago) @ Cody Miller

If you say something should be changed in software, that requires programming the change. I made my comment because as a software engineer when someone says it would be "easy" to redesign and program a core mechanic in complex and live system it makes me want to punch something.

Easy from a conceptual standpoint.

The grunt work of programming is not really what I'm talking about here. If my proposal is beyond the means of Bungie's programmers, then something is wrong. But then again, these are the guys who say we can't delete all the shaders in a stack at once.

Your lack of respect for something you don't know how to do is amazing.

This, oh so much this.

It’s true, I don’t know how to do it.

I believe this.

But I’ve seen it done by countless other companies.

I believe you have seen the result, not seen it done and understood the process. Two very different things. If you have, then sorry for doubting you.

I can’t build a car, but I can tell you if one is shoddily constructed.

I understand where you are going with this. But to say that Destiny is "shoddily constructed" is going a little too far in my opinion. Regardless of that, we are talking about how one fixes a core feature of a game. It's by no means beyond Bungie's programmers, that's not a problem. It's the effort and time and money it would take. And you make it sound like it's going to take a week of work at no cost or consequences.

To use my own metaphor, this is like doing back surgery. Yeah, the surgery could be a success, but there are so many systems that tie into your back that you could seriously @#$% something up. The very idea of it should make doctors think if there is another solution. Can they do it? hell yeah they can. But on the flip side would you feel safe if some doctor told you that they could easily replace one of your vertebrae? I would think long and hard about someone who was so flippant about something so difficult.

And I will always link back to this when I have this type of conversation. And every software engineer I know knows exactly what I'm talking about.

https://xkcd.com/1425/