A few weeks ago, League of Legends received a patch. This is typical: LoL updates at least twice a month with new Champions, balance changes, and miscellaneous service “upgrades.” Like most games of its size, rarely does a League patch hit server-side without the discovery of vast array of bugs by the gaming populace. This particular patch had a few more bugs than usual, causing a lot of headache for many North American players (I don’t think other regions were exposed to these issues, but I could be wrong). However, one of the bugs actually made the game more fun. A few players learned that they could use some specific code in custom games (which, I might add, is completely against the ToS) to make matches in which every player could select the same Champion. Since this goofy mode was previously impossible, players flocked to it for amusement’s sake. What they discovered was that League of Legends relied on the assumption that each team had only one of any given Champion. As such, multiple instances of that Champion caused extremely strange behavior that ranged from wonky visual effects to cataclysmic game crashes. Despite the problematic results, people loved this “bug” and begged Riot to keep it as a standard game mode.
Throughout the history of gaming there has been a plethora of errors, mistakes, glitches, bugs, and exploits that improved games rather than dooming them to failure. Some bugs may make games more fun to play (such as the League of Legends bug) but others spur in a change in the way the game is played, creating unexpected emergent gameply. For every title that a glitch ruins, there’s another that would not be as adored without it. Let’s take a look at some of the coding errors that improved games in ways that planned features could not.
League of Legends – Twisted Treeline 6v6 The “Same Champion Mode” bug was not League of Legends’ first game-altering glitch. Long before the 5 Karthus v. 5 Karthus madness arrived, a weakness in the Twisted Treeline’s code allowed LoL players to play in a way they never had before. This story is quite similar to the more recent one: an entrepreneurial spirit discovered that by altering some of the game’s files, custom 6v6 Twisted Treeline matches could be created instead of the normal 3v3s. Considering that the Treeline was intended for 3-player teams (and that even “standard” LoL games only handled 5v5), a six-player-per-team bloodbath was an entirely new way to play, particularly considering the small size of the TT map. Instead of seeking a game based in strategy, control, and cleverness, gamers took to the Treeline in droves to participate in the chaotic beatdown that was the result of twelve Champions at once on a tiny map. With the comparatively low popularity of the Twisted Treeline mode in League of Legends, it wouldn’t surprise me if the map was most popular when it could be glitched in this way (though I don’t have the data to back that up). Of course, Riot eventually patched this bug out of existence (since, like it’s younger cousin, it could be dangerous to the client) but players continue to plead for its return, citing just how fun the madness was.
DotA 2 – Holy Persuasion Roshan and Fountain Hooks Of course, LoL is not the only MOBA/ARTS with bugs. During the long DotA2 beta, the community at large discovered many bugs, some of which were game-breakingly hysterical, and others of which became strong strategies until they were finally removed. My favorite of these bugs is in the former category: Chen’s Holy Persuasion of Roshan. For those unfamiliar with DotA2, Roshan is an incredibly strong neutral monster that typically requires a whole team to defeat no matter how powerful the players’ Heroes are. Chen is a Hero with an ability called Holy Persuasion that lets him to control neutral monsters on the field. Normally, Chen would never be able to control Roshan since he is A) immune to magic and B) in a category of creature that exempts it from Heroic mental influence. Except during one patch when Chen was suddenly able to control the ferocious demon… thing. The results were hilarious, but (to Valve’s credit) the gamebreaking bug was removed in under an hour. A trick that survived for far longer was one referred to as a “fountain hook.” This technique, only available due to a programming mishap, centered around a teleportation ability and a Hero named Pudge. Pudge’s signature ability, Meat Hook, throws a bloody chained hook across the screen and, on contact with a Hero, pulls that Hero to back towards Pudge. For a long time, this skill was coded in such a way that a Hero snared by Meat Hook would be pulled to Pudge’s location on the map, the logical origin of where the Meat Hook was cast. However, if an ability such as Chen’s Test of Faith or Io’s Relocate sent Pudge back to his fountain, the hooked Hero would follow him all the way across the map to its inevitable death. This was not easy to pull off, but coordinated teams had no trouble performing the maneuver. Fan-favorite team Na’vi already favored Pudge and Chen, so they made sure they could flawlessly execute the fountain hook. They eventually used it during a now-controversial series in The International 3, earning them a victory by way of this well-executed but ultimately unintended combo. As such, many spectators decried their advancement in the tournament, but, whether you agree with the use of this bug or not, it was certainly exciting to watch. Soon after TI3, the combination was removed from the game… or, more accurately, made much more difficult to perform.
Starcraft: Brood War – Mineral Walk, Drop Defusal, Unit Press Through, and More Even with the current popularity of eSports, Starcraft: Brood War remains the most successful competitive gaming title of all time, boasting (at its peaks) live viewership numbers still unknown to beloved games such as LoL, DotA2, Starcraft 2, World of Tanks, Halo, Call of Duty, Super Smash Brothers: Melee, and many, many more. The game’s nearly unreachable skill ceiling was one element of its success, but another was the “charming” AI (hi dragoons) and programming flaws that made pro gamers’ impressive mechanics even more impressive. Over its competitive history, players uncovered every sliver of Brood War’s gameplay, including an assortment of bugs of which some became essential skills. Foremost among these (though certainly not the only one of significance) is the Mineral Walk, a glitch that allowed a worker directed to mine minerals to pass through any building on the map. Beyond its uses for scouting, advanced techniques were developed that allowed players to offensively or defensively utilize masses of the “intangible” miners. Though certain applications of the bug were banned, most were allowed in tournaments, making the Mineral Walk a necessary technique for any competitive environment. Similarly, workers (and occasionally other units) could “float” through mineral fields when players properly built structures in such a way that “pushed” units over the obstacles. Pulling off a Unit Pass-Through required some precision with positioning, so doing it consistently and correctly became another hallmark of experienced players. Finally the technique known as “Drop Defusal” derived from an unintended interaction in which a Vulture’s Spider Mines exploded even if their original target could no longer be targetted. Knowing this, players with impressive micro could drop and pick up units to clear out Spider Mines without consequence. Watching this technique being used was frequently exciting, especially if the dropper could “convince” mines to explode in near their allies instead. These glitches (and many more) were parts of Brood War’s history just as much as the units and players. Without them, the game could not have become the phenomenon it did.
Fighters/MOBAs – Animation Cancelling While animation canceling might not always be a bug in the strictest sense, the technique is centered in players using certain actions to change their avatar’s “intended” capabilities. Typically, when a player in a fighting game or MOBA performs an attack, they must wait for the animation to complete before their character can take another action. However, players in both genres figured out that damage calculation occurs almost instantly at a specific point during an “attack” action. As such, the remaining animation sequence is extraneous. They also discovered that certain actions allowed their characters to escape their animations before completion, allowing new actions to be taken quickly after the “important” event already occurred (i.e. damage calculation). In fighting games, animation canceling allows experienced players to make their combos stronger, longer, and less counterable by leaping seamlessly from action to action with a nearly frame-perfect accuracy. In games such as DotA2 or LoL, animation canceling usually takes the form of “stutter-stepping” or “orb walking,” techniques where a ranged character completes just enough of an auto-attack to deal damage then immediately moves again to stay in range (or away from) their target. This allows the ranged character to continually hit an escaping (or approaching) character without letting their prey escape or putting themselves in too much danger. In both cases the ability to expand a character’s intended potential with these “unintended” cancels increases the skill cap in the game and the variability of what can occur in a given matchup.
Pokemon – Missingno Playground gossip and backyard rumors permeated the worlds of youths enjoying the original Pokemon. Kids claimed that Mew could be found in the truck near the S.S. Anne or that Pikablu lived somewhere out in the wilds of Kanto, waiting to be discovered (like Bigfoot). However, not all of the tales kids spun about the influential games were lies. One was simply a strange bug: the glitch Pokemon, Missingno. Of course, Missingno is not truly a Pokemon, but rather a reproducible error which was born of the strange interaction between two unconnected events and the unfortunate necessities of memory management. The Pokemon-obsessed youth, however, had no way of knowing this: all we knew was that Missingno was real and he could do magical things to your game, such as clone Rare Candies or Master Balls. As a programmer, I now know this “ability” is simply one of those inexplicable accidents with broken or kludged code, which explains why catching or heavily interacting with Missingno posed the risk of erasing your save file or corrupting the game itself. Yet for all the weirdness and destruction it could cause, Missingno added an element of mystery to the franchise, one that drew Pokemon’s youthful player base even closer than the addictive RPG.
Speedrunning I’ve written about speedrunning, the art of breaking a game to complete it with extraordinary speed, before. It’s an incredibly fun hobby to watch for most gamers and it boasts one of the coolest communities of players of which I am aware. Besides the sheer amount of training that a successful speed run requires, it’s also essential to have a command of a game’s powerful bugs to truly beat it with speed and style. As such, speedrunning would not be what it is today if not for incredibly cool and frequently hilarious bugs. Among my favorites are the “Storage” and “Speedswim” tricks from Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, The Rabbit Grab 16-Star trick from Super Mario 64, and the Dokokashira Door Glitch/Hall of Fame warp from the original Japanese Pokemon Red/Green.. Additionally, speedrunning is a foremost example of emergent gameplay because speedrunning is a “game” that supercedes genre and platform, yet is not an intended facet of any medium. Speedrunners, much like gamers who enjoy the games listed above, owe much to the existence of the bugs that truly exposed their gaming passions.
In a strange way, in-game bugs can be as cool, fun, and weird as the games themselves. Beyond these gameplay-altering examples, there are also the kinds of bugs that are extremely creepy or just weirdly hilarious. Once again I find myself in awe of the medium of video games, for even the failings of those who create them are as artful and enjoyable as what they intended to create. You know… except when they’re not. This post and many more can be enjoyed over at the N3rd Dimension.
Probably one of the best examples of emergent gameplay from bugs would be skiing from the Tribes series. Basically a movement exploit that allowed you to slide over the ground at high speed became the whole franchises signature feature.
Less bugs but still emergent and unintended behavior, modern BW mutalisk control and the D2 hammerdin were completely user discovered and became fundamental and popular parts of the game.
the only thing i was expecting but didn't see was WAVEDASHING! u even mentioned ssbm earlier.
Where is the bug in wavedashing? Isn't it just jump -> dodge -> slide, all of which are game mechanics working as intended. Just that the proper combination of them turns out to be very powerful. There is nothing that says "you can't dodge after jumping" or "your character will not slide if your impulse comes from dodging".
Something about these bugs that adds the "living" attribute to the game. I remember a few games where I experienced a lot of fun with bugs.
First game that comes to my mind is Another world. Anyone remembers this game? When abusing glitches you could walk through walls, you could make a forcefield instantly/big shot to the other screen allowing you to get to places where you normally couldn't or wasn't supposed go. Lot of fun.
I also remember one glitch in Abe's oddysee. Anyone remember this one? When you got to scarabania you needed to call Elum(with bell I think?) but there was this mine that you needed to get rid of. One the other screen there was a lever, but you would get hit by a rock if you standed on a wrong side(and I thought it had no other use...). So I was trapped in this first screen, but somehow through intensive play I managed to force a slig to jump on the mine lol(there where these sentinel eyes so you couldn't mind control him). Good times.
EDIT: One more abe's oddysee: When running from a Scarab you could force him to jump into a chasm if you chanted at the right time after the jump.
Mineral walking doesn't let workers pass through buildings. It lets them pass through other units. Also, it's not actually a bug, as it was intentionally added. A programmer who worked on StarCraft said so himself; they added it to prevent workers from not being able to reach minerals when there were many working in a field.
Using this feature to stack workers on top of enemy units is probably something that Blizzard didn't think of, but it's still not a bug. Workers passing through units is an intended, deliberately coded, part of the game.
On October 25 2013 01:52 vOdToasT wrote: Mineral walking doesn't let workers pass through buildings. It lets them pass through other units. Also, it's not actually a bug, as it was intentionally added. A programmer who worked on StarCraft said so himself; they added it to prevent workers from not being able to reach minerals when there were many working in a field.
Using this feature to stack workers on top of enemy units is probably something that Blizzard didn't think of, but it's still not a bug. Workers passing through units is an intended, deliberately coded, part of the game.
On October 25 2013 01:52 vOdToasT wrote: Mineral walking doesn't let workers pass through buildings. It lets them pass through other units. Also, it's not actually a bug, as it was intentionally added. A programmer who worked on StarCraft said so himself; they added it to prevent workers from not being able to reach minerals when there were many working in a field.
Using this feature to stack workers on top of enemy units is probably something that Blizzard didn't think of, but it's still not a bug. Workers passing through units is an intended, deliberately coded, part of the game.
Ok, but workers still can't pass through buildings by mineral walking.
But maybe you were referring to units getting through buildings by being inside of each other, or a building, thereby causing the state in which units start walking around until they aren't inside anything else, which can be caused by stacking workers using mineral walking (also by landing a building on top of a unit).
So I suppose you can use mineral walking to get through buildings, if you combine it with other tools
On October 25 2013 01:52 vOdToasT wrote: Mineral walking doesn't let workers pass through buildings. It lets them pass through other units. Also, it's not actually a bug, as it was intentionally added. A programmer who worked on StarCraft said so himself; they added it to prevent workers from not being able to reach minerals when there were many working in a field.
Using this feature to stack workers on top of enemy units is probably something that Blizzard didn't think of, but it's still not a bug. Workers passing through units is an intended, deliberately coded, part of the game.
Ok, but workers still can't pass through buildings by mineral walking.
But maybe you were referring to units getting through buildings by being inside of each other, or a building, thereby causing the state in which units start walking around until they aren't inside anything else, which can be caused by stacking workers using mineral walking (also by landing a building on top of a unit).
So I suppose you can use mineral walking to get through buildings, if you combine it with other tools
That's kinda what I was going for. Sorry if it was unclear. I didn't play much BW, but I remember watching the mechanic when thinking about this post.
On October 25 2013 01:52 vOdToasT wrote: Mineral walking doesn't let workers pass through buildings. It lets them pass through other units. Also, it's not actually a bug, as it was intentionally added. A programmer who worked on StarCraft said so himself; they added it to prevent workers from not being able to reach minerals when there were many working in a field.
Using this feature to stack workers on top of enemy units is probably something that Blizzard didn't think of, but it's still not a bug. Workers passing through units is an intended, deliberately coded, part of the game.
Defining what is a bug is hard. This one, for example, is more like an unindended use of an intended mechanic. In a stricter definition, a bug must cause an uninteded result, and walking through units is intented. Liquipedia also shows a case where you can plant a nexus close to the mineral line, which is clearly not intended and an obvious bug.
Even something like fountain hooking in Dota could be not classified as a bug, the coding team probally intended the hook to bring the unit to wherever the Pudge was located at the end of the hooking process, which results in the fountain hook bug. It's not an use they predicted, but the ability probally worked exactly as they intended.
And then we can look further, and discuss whether it is a bug if it's not exactly what the design team envisioned, even if some things have to be adapted while programming the ability... Dota 2 has the oddity where the general public considers everything that doesn't work exactly like Dota 1 a bug unless specifically stated to be an intended change, which makes things even harder.
Overall It's not really necessary to separate things into "real" bugs and unintended uses of game mechanics, which is probally why Liquipedia doesn't do it. Specially since it can be hard to define what being a bug really means. But if someone says they are not really bugs, he isn't necessairly incorrect either.
On October 24 2013 16:08 Capped wrote: The D2 hammerdin? What about that is a bug? Skill hammer -> Use hammer.
The concentration aura was never supposed to boost Blessed Hammer's damage, it was only supposed to work on physical damage. The interaction with hammers was a complete bug that Blizzard nerfed but decided to leave in the game.
On October 25 2013 02:56 StarStruck wrote: I absolutely loved being able to play the same champ in ARAM. That shit was a complete Riot in custom games lol.
I hate to see (although I know this is not your fault since you may not know this) that Gunz The Duel is not in the list when you mention videogames bugs that change these for better or worse.
In the case of Gunz, the bug "K-Style", Korean Style, changed the WHOLE game, COMPLETELY, the game was meant to be played like CS, and it turned out to be what you can see in any video with K-Stylers. Amazing speed movements and weapon switches, the meta changed completely where katanas and shotguns were top used weapons.
On October 25 2013 04:51 DoSu wrote: I hate to see (although I know this is not your fault since you may not know this) that Gunz The Duel is not in the list when you mention videogames bugs that change these for better or worse.
In the case of Gunz, the bug "K-Style", Korean Style, changed the WHOLE game, COMPLETELY, the game was meant to be played like CS, and it turned out to be what you can see in any video with K-Stylers. Amazing speed movements and weapon switches, the meta changed completely where katanas and shotguns were top used weapons.
Oh man, show me a video. That sounds badass, but I've never heard of it.
This vid is a frag of the famous Gunz player "Gosu". Gunz the Duel is Korean made btw.
This game itself is a bug, and even the video if you have been playing for years you can see every movement is a bug, some more obvious than others, it takes years to reach the technical level, aim, speed and movement precision/accuracy shown in the video.
EPT
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