How glitches impact the gaming experience

Whether we like it or not, video game glitches are a quintessential part of the gaming experience. While they can be disruptive—with some forcing you to restart and reboot your game—they can also add excitement to the experience and make gaming a tad more fun.

Below, we look at some of the most iconic gaming glitches and how they can affect gamers.

  1. Glitches can sometimes be helpful

In 2005, the famous World of Warcraft had an in-game glitch that became so iconic even epidemiologists took an interest during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Corrupted Blood incident involved players who made it to the raid of a particular boss level. After the raid, players became infected with a deadly virus, and transmission occurred whenever characters were near one another. Developers initially wanted to keep the incident in a dedicated area, but an oversight meant that players could travel quickly between players.

The incident was such a big deal that epidemiologists were intrigued and wanted to study it because it revealed how people would react during a situation like the COVID-19 pandemic.

  1. It makes gamers think outside the box

Whenever a gaming glitch occurs, gamers are forced to think outside the box and think creatively about what needs to be done to get out of a specific situation. In certain games, like Super Mario Bros., where an entirely new level was introduced because of a glitch, gamers didn’t know what to expect and had to think fast.

This is precisely what avid gamers enjoy most about gaming. The satisfaction that comes with mastering a certain level or doing well in something no one else has been able to do.

  1. Glitches help improve the gaming experience

It might seem counterintuitive, but glitches could actually help improve the gaming experience and open the eyes of developers to issues they never thought about before. Some gaming glitches, like Hitman’s homing briefcase bug, have even become permanent game features. This is because developers and marketers for various games often take feedback from gamers and will use social listening tools to understand what players think about the glitches.

While it’s easy to get upset or irritated about a gaming glitch and blame developers for putting out an imperfect game, it’s worth understanding that developers are rarely responsible for deciding a game's launch date. Instead, marketers often decide on a date to tie in with the holiday season and to give new games a chance to perform well in a saturated market. Plus, delaying a game could cost gaming companies more money than necessary.

That said, since it’s impossible to avoid gaming glitches, it’s best just to embrace them and see the positive sides of these glitches.

 


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Last Updated: Jan 20, 2023

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