So the claim that you need to level up to do things is completely absurd.
I believe that in response to this issue capcom representatives have stated they did not test on SDTVs.
And for the record, the problem is not just old small crappy SDTV. In fact the problem is more pronounced on large screen SDTVs since the larger gaps between the raster lines contribute to the text being unreadable.
Really? You actually believe this? Console developers, who develop on consoles, which for years have used TVs as their displays, don’t know to test on different types of TVs? Somehow I don’t believe all console developers and publishers are this amazingly stupid.
Yeah, we have a 30" Toshiba… I have near-perfect eyesight… and the text is barely legible. I have to strain to see it, even when I’m sitting five feet away. That’s just poor. How hard would it have been to just make the text normal-sized? It’s not like I’ve encountered any other game in which I have any problems at all reading the font.
I just keep reading these posts and saying to myself WTF?
I really hope you are never involved in any QA.
They are making software that runs on hardware, it is irresponsible to not attempt to test the different common hardware configurations. If a QA lead says “well, we make software, so we don’t have to test it on the hardware it will be run on” that QA lead should be getting a quick trip to the unemployment office.
If you make a product that is to be deployed to a certain environment, you damn well better test the product in that environment. What so hard to understand about this. Creating some imaginary divide between “we test the software not the hardware” is just idiotic.
Again, using the web site analogy. You use Firefox and you like Firefox even though it’s only some 20% of the market. Some 80% of the market uses IE6. Do you think it would be wise to only test your site with Firefox and never test it with IE6? That’s basically what you are advocating. Only something like 20% of people have HDTVs.
Another thing to note in this thread is that capcom initially said they would do something about the problem.
"Dear Everyone, I have heard your concerns and passed them to every source within Capcom possible. I feel your pain as I, myself, have a large SDTV and am having trouble reading the mission objectives, item names, etc.
I’d like you all to know we have heard your concerns and take them seriously. I have been seeing campaigns on other forums to send hundreds of emails to our support email. Unfortunately this doesn’t expedite or increase the importance of the concern in any way, but it does take time and resources from other fans’ equally deserving concerns. All concerns are always important to us and we do what we can.
We also would like you to know that we appreciate your feedback as the game was just released and it’s feedback from our fans and gamers that make our games great. We appreciate your continued support of Capcom products!"
I did address this though. Testing on a few common platforms, ie. HDTV + SDTV == good. Requiring testing on a wide range of TVs to make sure it’s great on every one == unrealistic. It seems there’s a large sentiment of “Make sure it works on my specific TV goddamnit” in this thread. I understand the source, as I was affected by it as well before I bought an HDTV. But I was able to get the game’s text to be acceptable on my 27" SDTV using s-video. Not optimal, but I could read it. So when people say “It’s not readable on any SDTV” they are wrong. On a friend’s 27" SDTV, the text is so perfectly readable that I was surprised by it. So obviously, this is less a case of a game not working on a whole category of TVs, and more a case of it not working on a subset of a category of TVs (which could be large, I admit).
So all I’m saying is that if the developer tested on a bunch SDTVs and deemed it acceptible, then expecting them to have tested on more SDTVs is unrealistic.
Ultimately though, this is something that MS themselves should test and enforce, as they are the platform manufacturer and they are the quality control gate for games that end up on their system. So all other things aside, blaming capcom is misplaced. The developer handles game and gameplay issues, the platform manufacturer handles technical requirements. Being readable on an SDTV is definitely a technical requirement.
You don’t have to test on more than one TV to know that the text in Dead Rising is too damned small.
Nobody is arguing that they need to test on every single TV out there. That is a straw man argument and I don’t know why you are wasting so much verbiage on it.
The problem is not isolated to just a few old, cheap or rare TVs. The problem is widespread. In fact it affects modern large screen SDTVs more than old cheap small TVs.
Capcom did not test with SDTVs. Then when the problem was widely reported they promised a fix. They then reneged on that promise. That is the scenario we are discussing. Not one where only a handful of people with totally obsolete hardware experienced the problem.
Again, WTF? You were making a little bit of sense there until this trip back to bizzaro world. MS did not say “you have to make the text small”. Capcom decided to have small text. The small text is not a console problem, it was a bad design decision made by the developer and not discovered by either the developer’s own QA or the publishers QA. The console manufacturer has nothing to do with this. The console works fine with SDTVs, the game in question does not.
Durrr? MS should have said “Hey bitches, TEXT TOO SMALL. Fix it or we won’t certify.” If you are familiar with the certification process for a console, you’d know that this kind of thing is pretty common as is. Hell, sega used to measure the colors of the UI elements on screen and make sure they weren’t so bright as to bleed on most TVs. This is a technical requirement. MS has requirements for how close to the edge of the screen UI elements can be (or at least, did on the xbox). Again, another technical requirement. Text being a certain readable size certainly fits the bill of the technical requirements that platform manufacturers often enforce.
Obviously they should test for it and obviously MS should have some sort of certification procedure to prevent it, but I for one am glad it’s no longer me wishing a game had progressive mode or widescreen. Nope, now it’s the whining of all the SDTV owners that the text is too small. Ahh sweet, sweet, progress.
I don’t think Capcom ever promised a fix, but they certainly suggested that one might be forthcoming at first.
Anyway, I agree that this is something Xbox 360 developers and Microsoft’s QA must test for. The more I think about it, the more I think Microsoft should shoulder the majority of the blame for ever letting this get past the QA process. Microsoft should either fail games that can’t be fully played on SDTV or come up with some HDTV Only logo that they slap on games that have problems with SDTV resolutions.
Some random Capcom PR flack said that they’d look into doing a fix. And she’s doubtless now getting a lecture on how you never, ever, ever even imply to a customer that there’s a faint shade of a possibility that someday there could be a one-in-a-million chance that you’ll do something.
Yes, perhaps should have done that as an acceptance requirement. This does not absolve the developer or the publisher for not doing proper QA. At worst MS should have double checked and complained as part of acceptance. None of this absolves the developer or publisher for not testing on SDTVs. You can blame MS for not catching the failure of the developer/publisher, you can’t blame them for the failure itself.
I am having a hard time understanding your seeming desire to absolve Capcom of all blame in this issue. They farked up by failing to test the most common deployments, and then they farked up further by promising a fix and reneging on it.
Saying “they can’t test every TV” isn’t a defense since nobody is saying they should. “MS should have caught the bug” is also not a defense since MS is not primarily responsible for QA on Capcom’s title.
True, I should reword to indicate they impled they would fix it. Either way, they reneged.
Anyway, I agree that this is something Xbox 360 developers and Microsoft’s QA must test for. The more I think about it, the more I think Microsoft should shoulder the majority of the blame for ever letting this get past the QA process. Microsoft should either fail games that can’t be fully played on SDTV or come up with some HDTV Only logo that they slap on games that have problems with SDTV resolutions.
I can see giving MS some blame for not stopping them, but hardly the majority.
Seriously, this isn’t a matter of not testing on every TV. The text is too small. It’s too small on HD sets, too.
Console developers have known for forever that you can’t make text sizes smaller than a certain level, or people can’t read it while sitting on their couch. I mean, come on–this is one of the main things that comes up when people bitch about bad console ports: The text, sized for television viewing, is too large on a monitor located inches from your nose.
I have no idea what the Dead Rising devs were smoking, but they just plain fucked up. Thankfully, I can read the text on my SD set (although it’s a strain), so the game isn’t ruined for me.
I wonder how much of this stems from the Japanese-native testers not paying attention to the text because they can’t read English anyways.
Eh, pretty much all Japanese people can at least kinda-sorta read English. The Roman character set appears everywhere in Japan–in advertisements, on billboards, on signs, in magazines. They get umpteen years of mandatory English instruction in school, which leaves most people with a surprisingly good English vocabulary. (And no ability to actually speak the language, since the classes are all about learning enough to pass the written tests.)
I wonder exactly how things went wrong with the Dead Rising text? It’s a really odd blunder for an experienced company like Capcom to make.
See, now we’re getting in to the crazy sauce. I only have a 32" Widescreen LCD but I can read the text with not the tiniest of problems.
I’m not absolving them. I’m making sure blame goes where blame is due. And a game that ships with usability issues is as much MS’s fault for not catching it as it is Capcom’s fault for designing it that way. Console manufacturers are responsible for making sure the titles that ship on their system are of a functional level of quality. It has always been this way. So much so that many developers don’t have proper QA of their own because they let the console manufacturer do all the work.