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Beta testers role

MouserqMouserq Member Posts: 68
in The Pub at MMORPG.COM
Well, I'm seeing a few threads about certain betas and it's that time of year again. I've been in a few betas, but the last one was DDO. Terrible game and an even worse beta forum. I mean this was such a hostile place. People would post valid concerns about how the game pretty much sucked and then fanbois would very aggresively flame them. One thread stood out though because it was a fairly long and very well written list of problems the author thought the game had and he went ino nice detail. Well, he got a few pages of flames and one guy wrote a pretty nice reply that I thought summed up what the 'real' role of beta testers is (even though I didn't think this way until he said it). Anyways, I'd be interested on what people thought the role of a beta tester is. Here's the post below.

Comments

  • MouserqMouserq Member Posts: 68

    Originally Posted by Voodoo_Papa

    Quote----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    ""i /agree with the guy above me

    theres a difference between a true beta testers mindset, and somebody who gains entrance into a beta for the sole purpose of playing an evaluation copy of a game

    dont evaluate the game, beta test it.""
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    I don't think you "get" what public beta testers are for. You seriously think we're here as the number one priority to find bugs? Think about this for a second. Say there's 1000 people in beta right now. Say even 300 of those are actually reporting bugs. how many of those 300 do you think are reporting the same bug over and over again? Even that aside, how many of them do you think actually report the bug with sufficient detail to actually figure out what they are talking about? I mean it's a proven fact that most people cannot articulate themselves in writing. Now all that aside how many people do you think report things that aren't bugs. Report stuff they don't like, etc etc etc. The signal to noise ratio on bug reports from public beta testers is VERY VERY high. Which is why they have an internal QA department that does the "real" testing. Yes public testers do occasionally find major bugs, but it's usually only certain kinds of people that find these and report them well enough for the devs to research it and fix it.

    Even though it never really ever gets openly said by the devs, our main purpose here is playtesting and to serve as a warm body to keep the server under stress to show how it works under load. To simulate launch conditions. This whole time they are taking metrics on how fast we're leveling, how much gold we're making etc and tuning based on that data. Public testers by their very nature are nothing more than playtesters.

    Now there's ALWAYS guys in beta that run around with their mantra's of:

    "Don't play the game TEST the game"
    "you're not here to play the game"
    "it's beta"
    "it's beta final will be different"

    etc etc etc. Guess what, it's a game, we are here to play it as you can't do anything else with a game and 99.9% of you wouldn't be willing to do actual methodical testing like the internal guys have to do with all the documentation and everything else. Yeah it's beta, but getting feedback from teh testers as to whether or not the game is fun, what works and what doesn't is probably teh number one concern as most everything else we do is just too "noisy" to be all that productive. I have done ALOT of beta testing, i've tested about every MMORPG since UO with the exception of DAOC. I've seen EVERYTHING and every beta forum has the same stuff with a few exceptions. some boards are just plain negative and that reflects the quality of the game.

    Examples of this would be wish, Dragon empires, Horizons, AC2. These boards were VERY hostile and negative and the end games reflect that. I see alot of that here as well, alot of people are unhappy with the game as it stands and it's getting voiced and i think the devs would do very well to look at that list about as i think it's very valuable feedback as to things that don't work in teh game. The original poster took alot of time typing that out only to have the "it's beta" mantra thrown in his face instead of any kind of valid feedback. Was the title a little blunt? yeah, but considering the fact that AC2 did flop and they were TOLD in beta it was a crap game, i know, i was there and voicing that sentiment myself, they should probably listen to the general concensus of their testers this time to avoid a repeat. With AC2 my though that it woudl fail was immediate, it was just not a very good game. Here that thought isn't immediate but I do see a rather high potential for failure if alot of things aren't fixed. Everything on the above list would be a valid concern as well if you ask me.

    Quote:

    Right, because there won't be any positive changes made to the game between the start of beta (all of five days ago) and final release in summer 2006. It's perfectly reasonable to write off the game right now.

    I remember when beta communities had a stronger signal/noise ratio. Guess those days are past.



    This is a pretty common thought as well. Of course there will be changes but once a game goes down a certain track to the point it is now, the amount it can actually change is kinda limited as if you do a major change it breaks tons of other things. I have NEVER in the MANY MMORPGs i've tested seen a MAJOR change from early beta onward to the point where it completely changed how the game was played, EVER.

    I have no clue what beta forums you've read in the past, i've never really seen a clean forum once you get around 1000 people or more. the noise ratio goes through the roof, gets worse close to release cuz then you get all the:

    "do we get to keep our characters?"
    "will there be a wipe at the end of beta?"
    "Do testers get any kind of reward?"
    etc.

    Gotta love beta forums.
    Reply With Quote




  • nero666nero666 Member Posts: 205

    its simple if u play beta..ur role must be teh beta tester

    or..gbtw

  • paulscottpaulscott Member Posts: 5,613
    no no no.   people think the role of the beta tester is to play the game free.  and for some find the best ways to powerlevel, and bugs that they can abuse when it goes gold.

    I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.

  • CleffyIICleffyII Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 3,440

    I don't think you truly understand what an open beta test is for.  Do you think that they are gonna overhaul an entire game because of problems with an Open Beta test?  The game has been in development for years now, they have a deadline to meet and its almost finished.  I would say they listen pretty little to open beta testers about critical gameplay issues because of the stage its in.  They usually take care of all that design stuff and critical gameplay bugs in alpha and closed beta testing.

    The real purpose of the Open beta is to address server issues with a mass amount of players; advertise the game; and build an initial community.  Its also used to estimate the amount of players your gonna have come retail.  Typically, the retail number is 60% of the Open Beta numbers;  the only exception is WoW.

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