> some media picked up on it and presented it as a "fairly bugged release".
This is so unfortunate. I've never used any software, game or otherwise that has been as bug free as Factorio. I guess it must have been "journalists" who didn't want to put in any time playing the game.
Congrats to them on reaching 0 bugs and 0 open issues - I can only dream of achieving that one day!
While pointing out that factorio has bugs is factually true, its effectively just clickbait in terms of the duration of how long they impact players if at all. I'd judge that newsfeed into oblivion. But these articles are few. The main game sites only have glowing reviews.
Factorio's bugs are swatted at high speed with gusto and grace. How do I know this? I use the experimental version for gameplay. Any bugs soon vanish into the changelog history.
> I guess it must have been "journalists" who didn't want to put in any time playing the game.
I'm not really sure what you mean. I'm not even sure what the main article meant, because I could only find four mainstream reviews covering the 1.0 release. The first one by RockPaperShotgun[0] is essentially glowing and mentions how they've closed so many bugs. The second one by Game Enthusiast which seems pretty happy about it, the only reference to the word "bug" in the review is:
Let’s just say, Factorio has always been a diamond in
the rough. Or more like just a lump of promising coal.
And after 8.5 years, 18,855 bug reports, 5,603 mods,
and probably thousands of man hours, we can finally
conclude that Factorio has become a spectacular
diamond. Albeit, a diamond for gamers with a highly
specific acquired taste.
- GameEnthusiast review[1]
The only other reviews I could find were both by PCgamer, and only one mentioned the number of bugs left, but was overall positive. Here is the reference to bugs, which is almost entirely factual, and seems mostly-positive about it aside from a single line:
The rush to get it out a month early does mean that the
1.0 build is still a bit on the buggy side. According to
Wube, there are around 150 reported bugs and 80 internal
tasks that still need to be tackled, but they're
apparently smaller issues rather than critical ones. You
can see the known issues and current bug reports on the
official forum. They'll hopefully be dealt with in the 1.1
update, which will focus on fixes and "filling the most
obvious gaps" rather than adding new stuff.
Factorio was pretty much feature-complete already—though
Wube was also planning a campaign and some UI improvements
that have been cut [...]
- PCgamer review [2]
The fourth review is particularly glowing. When talking about bugs they say:
Factorio has been in early access for four years, so
most of its creases have been ironed out. There are some
minor flaws. Visually it isn't the most exciting game,
with an odd penchant for beige and brown. The top-down
perspective can also obscure potential spanners in your
works, like a missing piece of conveyor belt or an
inserter facing the wrong way.
- PCgamer review[3]
they give a 91/100, and have this particularly glowing passage at the start:
Let's skip the preamble, shall we? Factorio is
brilliant. If you're remotely interested in games about
management, construction, and above all production
chains, then hop aboard the nearest conveyor belt and
grab yourself a copy of Factorio this instant. Then
pick up another copy for the most important person in
your life, because they won't be seeing you for a
while, and at least this way they'll understand why.
- PCgamer review[3]
I'm honestly not sure why one line in a mostly-positive-but-factual review that is mostly not subjective, results in in the need to disparage the entire journalistic profession? Could you explain why? I'm extremely curious, thanks.
One that instantly comes to my mind is Matt Levine from Bloomberg, who writes on finance. People on HN seem to be holding him in high regard as well, whenever his name comes up.
I wouldn't say it is due to the industry of his choice commonly having quality journalists that have legitimate knowledge of the industry, though. Finance journalism is very densely packed with typical trash journos, just like other industries.
I have an armchair theory that higher barriers to entry in the industry (in terms of the pre-existing knowledge that target readers have) increases the likelihood of a quality journalist like Matt Levine appearing. Gaming journalism requires almost no prerequisite knowledge from readers aside from playing games, so the average quality of "game journalism" is abysmal, and people who read those articles are usually just all kinds of people. Same thing with "pop science", because everyone wants to jump on the next clickbait about some miracle drug or other futuristic sounding stuff. With finance journalism, most average people on the street have zero interest in reading those articles, so the audience self-selects mostly towards those who already have the pre-requisite knowledge and understanding of the subject matter, so the demand in terms of quality of the journalism from the target audience is higher on average. Which would increase the probability of someone like Matt Levine popping up, since those people are much more valued and sought after.
That's just my personal guess though, so I don't encourage anyone here to take the entire previous paragraph as a fact.
I am a scientist and I am pretty happy by most journalists I have interacted with and most science articles for non-scientists I have seen. Like all media, just stick to reputable outlets.
This is so unfortunate. I've never used any software, game or otherwise that has been as bug free as Factorio. I guess it must have been "journalists" who didn't want to put in any time playing the game.
Congrats to them on reaching 0 bugs and 0 open issues - I can only dream of achieving that one day!
For people wondering why they see Factorio updates on HN when no other game makes it, I wrote about what makes this game appeal so much to HN users - https://blog.nindalf.com/posts/factorio-and-software-enginee...