I agree. Especially for large projects/events like SoE that are big additions to the website they require some form of testing and there are lovely groups at the disposal waiting for testing of really well, anything. It would be wonderful to help however possible to make the launching of projects/events successful.
I agree as well.
Particularly for things that aren't time sensitive like personas, or things that are going to have a large impact like this Settlers of Elyria event and like how we tested DSS.
If it's something like another lost vault/searing plague event, I'm fine either way tbh, but unless it's time sensitive then again, I don't see why not.
Couldn't agree more, I really feel that The devs could /should be a lot more open about about the current state and open up testing to catch issues early on.
Agree. Been said a dozen times, but maybe as these things seem to keep happening, it will get some more traction.
Exactly, but many other times the studio has been given good advice by the community and it has been ignored.
If this is not ignored (as I suspect it will) then the "testers" should be critical thinkers that are not afraid to point something out when it is wrong and not the current echo chamber that is around the studio now.
They’ve already got NDA groups built in. It only makes sense to utilize the resources they have.
The fact we need to even make these posts saddens me greatly. I recruited several people during the plague event who saw what has happened since and basically have told me not to even bring the game up in conversation to them because of how 'shady' it sounds.
I mean, current policies are literally scaring people away. Something needs to change.
hmm perhaps the issue isn't that the dev's disagree with an NDA testing pipeline, but the time it takes to develop multiple iterations per content release and they still don't have the dev staff to keep up with multiple versions?
All while not loosing community confidence by extending the work cycles thus prolonging the game further ?
Thought: I wonder what the overall costs to outsource a testing environment would be? that way anything involving player testing and real world money could have temp contractors to gather information and work with the dev team on prioritization and speed up development by adding more throughput that can be handled at once.
That might also let the devs know if the cost outweighs the need for a permanent team fixture or if content updates can be "agile",
Agree 100%. Users are so much better at breaking systems than the devs that make them.
Posted By Noslim at 11:37 AM - Sat Dec 28 2019
Exactly, but many other times the studio has been given good advice by the community and it has been ignored.
If this is not ignored (as I suspect it will) then the "testers" should be critical thinkers that are not afraid to point something out when it is wrong and not the current echo chamber that is around the studio now.
My personal feeling would be: The entire point of testing something is to see if you can hack, glitch, or break it.
I think the echo chamber exists in a setting where we are not meant to tamper with or break anything - so people are generally positive. I presume if we were truly playtesting... the gloves would come off.
Also - I generally agree with this thread. I thought that was the entire point of the NDA focus group? To get our hands on stuff first, and tinker around to make sure it can handle reality beyond our group.
While I'm not currently under NDA, I'm sure there are a solid core of us who would sign one to help move this forward, either to join the current NDA crowd, or be a modified second-tier to help add burden to stress-testing after it works with a small crowd. Those of us who are already committed to this world, and this game, want more people to want to join us, let us help make sure they see it as a positive place.
The road less traveled means I've more to make from it.
This is still a good thing and still needs to happen.
Join the (NA-W) County of Kalevasuo, explore the harvestable, craftable world, research alchemical concoctions, develop tools of warfare and test them on the battlefield!
