Gamers Rewarded Through Faulty Games

  If you have ever played a video game then you will have come across multiple glitches I'm sure, you know the ones, your walking around and suddenly you get stuck on something invisible? Or you can't advance any further over the map because of the 'invisible wall' or 'pipeline'? These are all typical when playing, but can some glitches be used to give the player rewards?

  A glitch is simply a programming error that is hard to troubleshoot because it is not apparent to all players and may not happen all the time. Players can use these errors in the computer code to access areas that may be difficult to get to or to get an unfriendly advantage on other players - these people are know as 'Glitchers'. Although most glitches are unintentionally in the games code the developers may put some in on purpose, these give the players some sort of reward, not to help them advance in the game, but just some sort of 'thanks for playing our game and exploring the boundaries, here is a little prize' sort of thing. These are know as Easter Eggs in the video game community.

  The first evidence of an in-game Easter Egg is in Atari's retro game "Adventure", it it the player's reward for experimenting with the game. To get this egg the player must:

1. Get the bridge 

2. Take it inside the black castle 

3. Find the central room that causes the screen to flicker. You must have an object with you to see the flicker, as it takes 3 game sprites to cause flicker (you, the "dot" and the 3rd object, in this case the bridge) 

4. Use the bridge to get into the secret chamber in the middle of that room 

5. Inside that the secret chamber there is a "dot" -- pick it up by pressing into the lower right corner of the chamber. 

6. Take the dot to the main hallway (below the golden castle) 

7. Once there the dot will cause one of the hallway barriers to disappear. Note that you need to have another object in the room (key, sword, duck, etc.) to make the barrier disappear. You also usually have to have the "dot" in front of you to go through. 

8. You can then enter a hidden chamber that lists a message from the programmers

  The history behind this first Easter Egg is that the creator, Warren Robinette, didn't like the fact that Atari did not allow its programmers to get credit for making the game. In his frustration he altered the code allowing people to discover who the talent really was. The message from the programmers mentioned in point 8 is simply his name:

The message: "Created by Warren Robinette"

  Ever since, game developers have been doing the same, rewarding players for simply exploring the boundaries of the game. Some examples are shown below:

In this Easter Egg notice how there is no glitch. This is the case in some games, instead of using a fault in the game the developers just place funny events into hard to reach areas, almost all the time they are funny. It is a surprise to the gamers because they are out of place and often link to other popular games, in this case: Portal developed by Valve.

  This next one is from Halo: Reach on the Xbox 360, check it out:

This sort of Easter Egg is one that provides the most reward sensation in my opinion. It is hard to get to firstly, the switch placed at the very edge of the map and then the spawning into an unknown tunnel. This egg really keeps the player guessing into what is happening.

  One from Assassins Creed 2:

This similar to the Fable 3 one above rewards the player for being curious.

   GTA4:

  I find Easter Eggs a really interesting point to look at because the developers harness glitches and turn them into something entertaining. They can also just put random things into its structure to make it more interesting too. In an interview from VideoJug they ask a game developer a series of questions, one being, "Why do developers put easter eggs in games?"

His answer:

"I think developers put Easter eggs into games just for fun. It's a nod and a wink to the fans; it's a nod and a wink to the players. An Easter egg is usually a little bit cheeky, but it's good fun and they're always meant in good humour."

  So, they are Easter Eggs in video games...