Game glitch definition

The video will make it very clear on what exactly is a glitch or not. However my intention is not to reopen discussion on various exploits and their bans or vice versa, I agree with what's currently banned and not banned in glitchless, for example.

I just wanna point out that some exploits we call glitches, that I agree is banned in glitchless because it breaks the game too much, is not a glitch in it's definition.

Good example for exploits would be Infinite Bomb Jump, for all Metroid without the 3 Bomb limitation. Games Streams Forums More Home Games Streams Forums. Log in Sign up.

Forgot password. Log in Forgot password Cancel. Sign up Cancel. Metroid series. Stuff like axis skew, camera lock, and ledge warp are definitely not intended mechanics though. But who knows maybe it is all unintended and the devs just liked how it effects the runs. Early bombs does have a unique animation for Kraid so that one is definitely not a glitch.

But I agree with your definitions though. W o l i W o l i France W o l i W o l i 10 Nov , Using any mechanic intended or not in a dysfunctional manner, dysfunctional in a code sense, i. Expanding on that, Water Bomb Jump is also a Glitch. C p t B r i a n C p t B r i a n Minnesota, USA C p t B r i a n C p t B r i a n 10 Nov , edited: 10 Nov , A good example for something that is likely unintended , yet is definitely not a glitch would be infinite bomb-jumping to pass the pressure plate door to obtain Flash Shift.

Note the idea of a brief surge of power in one of the glitch definitions, but also note how general the first definition is, and how it is essentially the same as a 'defect'. Those who have always known of a certain distinction between 'glitch' and 'bug' as being the "correct" one should note these dictionary definitions, and keep them in mind when speaking to someone outside of whatever sub-culture or profession makes that distinction.

The person you're speaking with may regard the terms as completely synonymous. These terms are used in gaming, as gaming involves software, and software involves bugs.

Some subtle distinctions specific to this context can be made, but - as you can see from the other answers here - there's no real consensus on what those distinctions should be.

So, it's the same general situation, where 'glitch' is more likely to mean the manifestation of a bug at run-time, and 'bug' is more likely to refer to the issue in the actual code.

Wikipedia's Glitch page has a section entitled Video game glitches. This section treats the terms as interchangeable:. A bug is an error found in the development environment before the product is shipped to the customer. We're talking about code issues here mostly. A glitch on the other hand is a way of saying defect on a video game environment. A defect is the difference between expected and actual result in the context of testing.

As such a defect is the deviation of the customer requirement. This defect can lead to failures. The relation between bug, defect and failure is a common topic on software testing studies, specially QA and also software development. Moreso, this is a common question in the area. Now the relation stated between glitch and defect can be worked through their definitions. In this case a software system, namely a video game.

A fault is defined as an abnormal condition or defect at the component, equipment, or sub-system level which may lead to a failure. Which is to to say that a fault is a general way of saying defect. So this means glitches, defects and faults are heavily related.

So this means a glitch is, most of the times, a product of a bug. Although a lot of people use bug to define problems within games, bugs should be used in a development environment as that's what the word defect is for, which, given what was stated earlier, we can associate with glitch.

The difference between bug and glitch is more of a semantic one. The most common way these are interpreted is that a glitch usually has to do with the presentation of a product, while a bug is usually seen more as interfering with gameplay.

For example, corrupted audio and textures are usually seen as glitches. The term bugs is usually used for problems like certain enemies not working properly, an item not doing the right thing, There's also a linguistical difference: the term glitch is often used for neutral or even positive incidents, while the term bug is usually used for something that is objectively negative.

For example, when speed runners use an unintended way to traverse an object, they usually call it a glitch. The term glitch also is used fairly often outside of software, mainly for electrical engineering and TV broadcasting.

Finally, some people also get the randomness of the event involved: Bugs are considered deterministic: most of them can be reliably triggered when the right circumstances are met. Glitches, on the other hand, are much harder to trigger reliably.

A bug is an undesired consequence caused by a fault in the programming, it can be repeated exactly by following all the same inputs which caused it the first time. A glitch is a more random undesired effect, usually hardware based, caused by eg. Remedied by better hardware maintenance, more robust power supply. Military hardware is to some extent bomb proof. Other answers are claiming that bugs and glitches are differentiated by the response of the program, but I've never heard this distinction used in a technical context.

The distinction I've always used is that a bug is caused by a program executing correctly, but in a way the programmer does not want, while a glitch is a program which executes incorrectly as in, differently to the actual instructions in the executable for some reason. The distinction here is that glitches are caused by the executing environment failing to properly execute the program - as an example, if a graphics card overheats and fails to correctly display graphics, that is a glitch.

If the program loads the wrong image to render under some unusual set of conditions in the code, that is a bug. Most glitches cannot be easily repeated, and more importantly tend to have different effects depending on the specific condition - because of this, in just about every use case of specific "glitches", the person is actually referring to a bug. For example, "glitched Pokemon" are caused by the program attempting to load a Pokemon from an index number that doesn't contain a Pokemon - this is the programmer's mistake.

In order to invoke this bug, at no point does the program execute incorrectly; rather, the programmers did not expect players to take the exact actions that must be taken to encounter the undefined Pokemon, and because of that the program exhibits correct but undesirable behavior when those actions are taken. Glitches are ocasions where unforeseen mechanics collide and create something which wasn't intended to be provokeable. Bugs on the other hand are issues with the coding itself, which was expected to behave differently.

One example would be Open World Games. While buildings and the ground may appear solid, most of the times it's just a single layer, in order to improve performance. Let's imagine that there's an intended underground level acessible by a trapdoor, which places the character in a small room which has the ground level above, and walls around, but 'empty' past the walls. A bug would've been the game being programmed accidentally being able to acess the trapdoor in other points of the map, placing the character in the 'empty' zone out of the room.

A glitch would've been using features which were not considered to be tried, such as trying to ride a bike through the hole, as in when exiting you'd be on the other side of the wall.

A bug would create an undesired game state due to an error in coding, while a glitch is able to exploit the current game state by abusing it's engine. Some types of bugs are:. A "glitch" is a bug that is neither a crash or a hang: The program continues to execute, albeit in a possibly invalid state. This can be recoverable e. It can also simply be an error in the display e.

It could be an error in some AI behavior, e. A bug is an error, flaw, failure or fault in a computer program or system that causes it to produce an incorrect or unexpected result, or to behave in unintended ways. Reports detailing bugs in a program are commonly known as bug reports, defect reports, fault reports, problem reports, trouble reports, change requests and so forth.

The term is particularly common in the computing and electronics industries, and in circuit bending, as well as among players of video games, although it is applied to all types of systems including human organizations and nature. This can be a crash or a showstopper or anything else that is unforeseen. Examples are unintended unlocks ingame items or program features , places one can reach where one is invulnerable, duplicating items and so on. In electronics hardware, a bug comes from an actual bug getting caught in a component and causing a short while a glitch is an undesired condition that corrects itself.

So I would say that if your game crashes, it's a bug, if it wacks out for a second then goes on as nothing happened, then it's a glitch, and varying degrees of the two. Essentially if the issue corrects itself it's a glitch, otherwise if it persists it's a bug.

There's obviously a very large grey area here. To keep it in more layman's terms, I going to try and treat it in more of a cause-effect relationship between the two. A glitch is more often than not an effect caused by an unforeseen bug. Timed correctly, a player was able to jump and slide creating a more boosted movement throughout the map. A bug is more often considered to be mentioned with regard to more serious consequences in-game. A much more recent example is Fallout 4's game save corruption.

This can be near-repeatable or a one-time instance over a very specific set of circumstances. Bugs as stated above exist in code errors or misunderstandings of what the machine is being told to do. A simple "bug" is not closing a file after it has been written to Some "corrupted" saves are just data that is mixed in a certain way such as writing the alphabet forwards to a file and not closing it then writing half the same data backwards to the file and attempting to read the file the same way as though it was a-z instead of z-nn-z.

Words nearby glitch glissando , glissonitis , Glisson's capsule , glisten , glister , glitch , glitter , glitterati , glitter ice , Glittertinden , glittery. Words related to glitch bug , defect , flaw , hitch , malfunction , mishap , problem , setback , snafu , snag , misfire.

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Cyberattacks disrupt trading on New Zealand stock exchange twice in 24 hours eamonbarrett August 26, Fortune. Save Word. Definition of glitch. Other Words from glitch Did you know? Did you know? Examples of glitch in a Sentence Glitches in the speaker's schedule caused some delays.

A technical glitch caused a temporary shutdown. Recent Examples on the Web Since the glitch was found last weekend, the cybersecurity community has been scrambling to protect applications, services, infrastructure and even Internet of Things devices from criminals—who are already taking advantage of the vulnerability.

Jordan, Chron , 8 Dec. First Known Use of glitch , in the meaning defined at sense 1a. Buying Guide Our team at The Usage has selected the best gaming headsets of Learn More About glitch.

Time Traveler for glitch The first known use of glitch was in See more words from the same year.