quote:

"The pernicious little beasties can be hiding anywhere... even in the middle of a battlefield!" -Reens

What is a bug, and what is a Gremlin?

I used to believe that a Gremlin was just another name for a bug. However, while in the process of tracking down problems that arise within MechQuest, I have learned some very interesting things!

"What is a bug?" you ask?

A bug is something that makes things go wrong. Now generally used to refer to computer code, the word has been used for many years in reference to little problems with a creation. For example, I found the following quotation from a letter written by Thomas Edison in 1878:
''It has been just so in all of my inventions. The first step is an intuition, and comes with a burst, then difficulties arise— this thing gives out and [it is] then that "Bugs"— as such little faults and difficulties are called— show themselves and months of intense watching, study and labor are requisite before commercial success or failure is certainly reached.''

It is commonly believed that bugs are a result of human error; however, this may be just a myth, casting unfair blame on those who create. I cannot speak regarding all types of bugs, but in games, specifically MechQuest, the bugs do get in there somehow... and it is those pesky Gremlins who are responsible!

"Oookay... what's a Gremlin?"

A Gremlin is a little beastie with a mischievous nature. Gremlins love bugs! They actually have collections of bugs to insert into MechQuest. Gremlins sneak around, grinning evilly, looking for places to set their pet bugs loose.

What we know about Gremlins so far:
They love bugs, train them to create havoc, and let them loose into the game code
They can display kleptomania
They keep secret stashes

The Gremlins managed to converge on the University, setting free a whole army of bugs to delay the release of the first class. The whole place was infested! We couldn't even get in the door! A giant spider was blocking the way, and even if we managed to defeat it, sticky webbing covered the doorway.

The Gremlins can also go directly into the game, as can be seen from the October 30th "This Just In!" announcement on the MQ Gremlins Forum:
"The Gremlins have been busy... in ur stuffs! Stealin' ur stuffs!"
It was hair-raising! We would spend our hard-earned credits on hugely expensive new items... go to equip them, and they'd be gone. Vanished. Not there. Fortunately, re-logging in restored everything to its proper inventory slot.

They also came in and stole all the definitions! Yes, recently we were quite suddenly unable to sell the first weapons on our equipment lists- everything came up as "undefined." Naturally, this is when we most wanted to sell something in order to make room for newly-released swords.

They keep secret stashes in your caches! That's right... when you've seen a post stating that something has been fixed, and yet it is still happening for you? The Gremlins have stashed that older version in your cache!

Another thing from which they derive great satisfaction: inserting a bug at the last moment before a release goes live. Who knew that our characters had body odor? Everything was running smoothly during testing... I suppose we worked our characters too hard, re-doing everything to make absotively-posilutely certain that all was good... and they got all sweaty! The Gremlins spread this interesting condition to every single character in the whole game, making us all so offensive to our enemies that they refused to face us! (Yes, we were meeting backwards enemies, in case you missed it.)

As I meander through the MQ Gremlins forum on the trail of these pesky beasties, we'll be sure to learn more about the nature of all things Gremlin.