After looking Over Todays Numerous Posts....

[Capt. Lucky]

I think we need an incentive to use test center. Maybe points for every hour you play there that can be turned in for stuff on a production shard. Sure it would be abused by some I'm sure, but maybe they might actually try some stuff while they're stuck there. Just a thought.

 

[OREOGL]

I think we need an incentive to use test center. Maybe points for every hour you play there that can be turned in for stuff on a production shard. Sure it would be abused by some I'm sure, but maybe they might actually try some stuff while they're stuck there. Just a thought.

You know I was thinking along the same lines, though not really reward based since i didn't put that much thought into it, but after the slew of bugs after the world publish, how do we increase the frequency of testing and reporting on test center?

Clearly they rely on us to do it for them and frankly they should just fire the QA guy, and hire another programmer.

 

[Capt. Lucky]

So many bugs that don't seem related to what they were actually working on. Can't imagine why that is. Wasn't this suppose to be a bug FIX patch? lol It's gotta be a nightmare to bug test. Plus a lot of bugs people find they are probably keeping it quiet till it goes live I'm thinking they are about at the point of having created more bugs than they fixed

 

[TimberWolf]

new player titles
Capt Lucky... lil bugger ( for those that report 10 bugs)
Capt Lucky real Bugger ( for those who report 50 bugs)
Capt Lucky Knight of Buggery

 

[OREOGL]

So many bugs that don't seem related to what they were actually working on. Can't imagine why that is. Wasn't this suppose to be a bug FIX patch? lol It's gotta be a nightmare to bug test. Plus a lot of bugs people find they are probably keeping it quiet till it goes live I'm thinking they are about at the point of having created more bugs than they fixed

This is always a problem, people exploit an issue until someone catches it because it takes them months to fix it when they do find out.


I'd be surprised if more than a couple dozen people tested this.

The other issue is people only test things they're interested in. I myself didn't bother testing the new quest because I have no interest and the rewards hold no importance to me.

So it'd be nice to figure out an even mix when testing.

We shouldn't be fighting storage issues right after a bug fix publish.

 

[DJAd]

Make test center a free to play shard. New players still get 14 day trial but once that has finished its pay up or stay on test center.

Have a PROPER feedback forum. Like they had for the time of legends focus group. This way people can post about bugs and problems and the devs can moderate and reply. Keep it just to testing only (to start with).

 

[Lorddog]

everyone get behind the bug and push

 

[Capt. Lucky]

Makes test center a free to play shard. New players still get 14 day trial but once that has finished its pay up or stay on test center.

Have a PROPER feedback forum. Like they had for the time of legends focus group. This way people can post about bugs and problems and the devs can moderate and reply. Keep it just to testing only (to start with).

That idea is interesting. They could learn the game at their own pace and not limited to 14 days. As long as they fully realize it's a test center that could be wiped at any time. There have been free trials I've tried before and the trial was over before I even really played it much.

 

[Capt. Lucky]

everyone get behind the bug and push

That's an interesting picture. Do you know where it's from?

 

[Larisa]

Incentive? You mean like catching bugs before the publish goes live? That should be incentive enough...they put it on Test first...then 2 other shards....plenty of time to test and find things that need to be fixed/adjusted yes?

They give us the time, it's up to us to get on there and test it.

 

[Capt. Lucky]

new player titles
Capt Lucky... lil bugger ( for those that report 10 bugs)
Capt Lucky real Bugger ( for those who report 50 bugs)
Capt Lucky Knight of Buggery

Not sure I'm on board with this lol But you might be moving in the right direction. I still use the newb title Explorer of Darkness cause I think it sounds cool. How about for each person that reports a new unreported bug gets a little golden bug statue? But then the art perspective would be wrong

 

[Capt. Lucky]

Incentive? You mean like catching bugs before the publish goes live? That should be incentive enough...they put it on Test first...then 2 other shards....plenty of time to test and find things that need to be fixed/adjusted yes?

They give us the time, it's up to us to get on there and test it.

Cause that's working so well

 

[Larisa]

And who's fault is that? That's on us...they give us the resources....so if you're not gonna use them, don't complain when bugs slip through...my 2 cents anyway

 

[OREOGL]

Incentive? You mean like catching bugs before the publish goes live? That should be incentive enough...they put it on Test first...then 2 other shards....plenty of time to test and find things that need to be fixed/adjusted yes?

They give us the time, it's up to us to get on there and test it.

You would think so, but how many people actually went and tested this?

Did you test the bugs on test center?

Did you test the quests on test center?

I tested the bugs, but didn't do the quests.

It's hard enough I think to get people to test it let alone the full publish, so I'm not sure saying fixing a bug is reward enough quite covers it.

And this doesn't even cover the bugs that occur after its published world wide.

 

[JC the Builder]

Maybe it hurts to have Test Center available all the time. At one point people would look forward when it opened. Now it is online all the time.

Also, shouldn't this stuff have been caught on Origin? That is the whole point of publishing 1-2 shards before the rest.

 

[Tyrath]

My suggestion is leave pubs on Origin longer given Origins extreme low population maybe toss in some incentive to get more people doing their day to day things there. My second suggestion is to extend deadlines on publishing when there are known bugs crawling around. More games get released with serious bugs because "We ran out of time" and then the first 1-3 months is one hot fix and patch after another.

 

[OREOGL]

My suggestion is leave pubs on Origin longer given Origins extreme low population maybe toss in some incentive to get more people doing their day to day things there. My second suggestion is to extend deadlines on publishing when there are known bugs crawling around. More games get released with serious bugs because "We ran out of time" and then the first 1-3 months is one hot fix and patch after another.

I always wondered if it'd be better to have Atlantic or Great Lakes pre test publishes first.

 

[Capt. Lucky]

And who's fault is that? That's on us...they give us the resources....so if you're not gonna use them, don't complain when bugs slip through...my 2 cents anyway

Don't complain about it? Really? It's not my job to test their code. Send me a check and I'll think about it. NO ONE would assume the paying players have any obligation to do anything. They get my 40 bucks+ every month, I'VE DONE MY PART. To be honest I doubt any incentive would get me on test center. But it would entice some, maybe enough.

 

[Tyrath]

It would be but could you imagine the screaming if things got a 1 day revert. And Origin was originally put online just for that purpose. They should have left it a shard isolated from other shards and never turned transfers on. I remember a lot of us making that very argument back when they announced it would be opened to Xfrs.

 

[Tyrath]

Don't complain about it? Really? It's not my job to test their code. Send me a check and I'll think about it. NO ONE would assume the paying players have any obligation to do anything. They get my 40 bucks+ every month, I'VE DONE MY PART. To be honest I doubt any incentive would get me on test center. But it would entice some, maybe enough.

EXACTLY! We are the customers and it is our part to hand over our money for a product. They are the business it is their job to deliver a quality product.

 

[OREOGL]

Well they could start offering the new sovereign, or whatever they're called, for the new in game store for every legitimate bug reported.

You'd of course have to be the first one to report it.

 

[Tyrath]

LOL this is a wild comparison but it is accurate. I raise pigs and not all pigs are the same, some are very lean, some are very fat. Some are very long and some are short, some are wide and some are narrow. I have a respectable size customer base of around 600 people that have a wide range of taste. about 300 of those people communicate to me what type of pig they want for their whole hog and I select the best breed or cross breed from my herds to custom raise a pig to their specs and expectations. The other 300 people are package shoppers that will select from whatever I have in the freezers and are not real particular. For them I raise a pretty standard cross breed that is not too fat and not too lean and somewhere between short and long and wide and narrow. Over the course of the year I meet another 1200-1500 casual buyers from exposure at farmers markets, of which I can reasonably expect 10% to become regular customers. While the product is very different the same principles and mechanics of the business are the same. You cater to the core customers that you know are going to buy 1-3 pigs from you every year. You provide a top notch packaged product to the regular package shoppers. You attract new regular customers by exposing yourself and product in venues where people will be likely to try your product and work hard to capture a percentage of the market. The last thing I want are angry and unhappy customers, you NEVER want to see your core customers angry let alone leaving. Yet time and again EA/Broadsword fails at these most basic business principles and it is most evident in the half grown pigs they parade out

 

[Goodmann]

Incentive? You mean like catching bugs before the publish goes live? That should be incentive enough...they put it on Test first...then 2 other shards....plenty of time to test and find things that need to be fixed/adjusted yes?

They give us the time, it's up to us to get on there and test it.

It's not up to us..... We do not work for EA. There does need to be a reason for people to bother with testing otherwise this is what you get

 

[Uvtha]

And who's fault is that? That's on us...they give us the resources....so if you're not gonna use them, don't complain when bugs slip through...my 2 cents anyway

That's not on us, dude. QA is not the responsibility of the players. Obviously it's great if players help, but it's not our job, nor is it our "fault" when a publish is buggy.

 

[Angel of Sonoma]

I think we need an incentive to use test center. Maybe points for every hour you play there that can be turned in for stuff on a production shard. Sure it would be abused by some I'm sure, but maybe they might actually try some stuff while they're stuck there. Just a thought.

You know I was thinking along the same lines, though not really reward based since i didn't put that much thought into it, but after the slew of bugs after the world publish, how do we increase the frequency of testing and reporting on test center?

Clearly they rely on us to do it for them and frankly they should just fire the QA guy, and hire another programmer.

my thoughts exactly. there is no way 1 qa tester can catch everything. an incentive program to report bugs encountered on test center prior to a publish sounds like a step in the right direction. those who disagree with the idea don't have to participate.

 

[Zeke]

A few of my quildmates and I did do the quests on TC1 and reported feedback directly to Kyronix who had stopped by while we were testing. We were able to take the quest items and lock them down and did not have any issues with the quest rewards. We were able to remove the Tiger Cub statuette and lock it down. So those bugs came about after the original tests were made. The publish had been on Origin for a week prior to going live and I don't recall seeing any reports of the lock down bug, but they made another patch just before going live so perhaps it was in that code. We only tested the quests as we didn't create copies of everything in our houses to bring over when we made the copy to test. Who would think to bring a 16th Anniversary Horse, or a Prox Swampy still in statue form? I did copy over all 4 of the Vet Crafting Tools and checked to see if they fixed the issue with the Sewing Machine requiring wood intead of leather.

 

[OREOGL]

A few of my quildmates and I did do the quests on TC1 and reported feedback directly to Kyronix who had stopped by while we were testing. We were able to take the quest items and lock them down and did not have any issues with the quest rewards. We were able to remove the Tiger Cub statuette and lock it down. So those bugs came about after the original tests were made. The publish had been on Origin for a week prior to going live and I don't recall seeing any reports of the lock down bug, but they made another patch just before going live so perhaps it was in that code. We only tested the quests as we didn't create copies of everything in our houses to bring over when we made the copy to test. Who would think to bring a 16th Anniversary Horse, or a Prox Swampy still in statue form? I did copy over all 4 of the Vet Crafting Tools and checked to see if they fixed the issue with the Sewing Machine requiring wood intead of leather.

Thanks for testing it out.

 

[Fridgster]

And who's fault is that? That's on us...they give us the resources....so if you're not gonna use them, don't complain when bugs slip through...my 2 cents anyway

Um most times I agree with you... but I have yet to receive a check for testing their products. I don't mind but when fault is placed I'd at least prefer to be originally compensated.

 

[Dol'Gorath]

The whole point of origin is exactly for people on production to catch bugs before it happens. If Origin's population is too small for this task, or its players are not doing their duty to report bugs then maybe the task of live test server should be moved to a shard with a bigger population.

 

[Lorddog]

That's an interesting picture. Do you know where it's from?

Performers dance and carry a replica of dung beetle during opening ceremony of 2010 World Cup at Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg (south Africa)

 

[Uriah Heep]

1. Why should we pay to test?

2. Any idea how many many many times people do test, report, and they still send it out as it was??

3. 1+2 = no testing for me

 

[OREOGL]

1. Why should we pay to test?

2. Any idea how many many many times people do test, report, and they still send it out as it was??

3. 1+2 = no testing for me

I try to test what I can.

Based on that, it is possible if I hadn't tested something like their enchanted apple timer "fix", people would just roll around with no debuffs, which would have killed a lot of pvp templates.

There is a line between getting feedback from players and relying on them solely for changes. To me, the latter masks incompetence.

 

[AnneNomilly]

I know from experience that all the testing in the world in a closed test environment doesn't begin to cover the things users do once a program gets out in the wild. We release a major version of our software about yearly. We have a couple of QA people who have multiple automated test systems on various operating systems and machine configurations. Our Support group tests it in advance of release to make sure we don't find anything and are aware of new functionality. We generally feel really solid on our releases. Sure enough, as soon as we let it out the door, a customer finds a show stopping, billing level issue that brings the world to a halt.

I'm not saying that reported bugs haven't gone unfixed and get released anyway. But I am saying that with any software that is beyond version 1, two things tend to happen. #1 You fix one thing that impacts and breaks four more. #2 The minute you let a customer touch it you are going to stand back and go "huh, they pushed what button how? why on earth would they do that?"

And just to let you know, I've worked in my current company for 16 years and done software support for 23 years. It's happened with every single software release I've ever been part of. There's a reason Microsoft puts out updates. LOL No matter how much testing is done, internally, on TC and on Origin, until this gets onto a bigger shard or more people pound away, bugs are gonna get released. Just the nature of software. The really important thing is how quickly the showstoppers get fixed. Not that they got released.

 

[Capt. Lucky]

Performers dance and carry a replica of dung beetle during opening ceremony of 2010 World Cup at Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg (south Africa)

Thanks, that was gonna "bug me" lol

 

[OREOGL]

I know from experience that all the testing in the world in a closed test environment doesn't begin to cover the things users do once a program gets out in the wild. We release a major version of our software about yearly. We have a couple of QA people who have multiple automated test systems on various operating systems and machine configurations. Our Support group tests it in advance of release to make sure we don't find anything and are aware of new functionality. We generally feel really solid on our releases. Sure enough, as soon as we let it out the door, a customer finds a show stopping, billing level issue that brings the world to a halt.

I'm not saying that reported bugs haven't gone unfixed and get released anyway. But I am saying that with any software that is beyond version 1, two things tend to happen. #1 You fix one thing that impacts and breaks four more. #2 The minute you let a customer touch it you are going to stand back and go "huh, they pushed what button how? why on earth would they do that?"

And just to let you know, I've worked in my current company for 16 years and done software support for 23 years. It's happened with every single software release I've ever been part of. There's a reason Microsoft puts out updates. LOL No matter how much testing is done, internally, on TC and on Origin, until this gets onto a bigger shard or more people pound away, bugs are gonna get released. Just the nature of software. The really important thing is how quickly the showstoppers get fixed. Not that they got released.

Some interesting insight, thanks for sharing.

 

[Tabin]

I know from experience that all the testing in the world in a closed test environment doesn't begin to cover the things users do once a program gets out in the wild. We release a major version of our software about yearly. We have a couple of QA people who have multiple automated test systems on various operating systems and machine configurations. Our Support group tests it in advance of release to make sure we don't find anything and are aware of new functionality. We generally feel really solid on our releases. Sure enough, as soon as we let it out the door, a customer finds a show stopping, billing level issue that brings the world to a halt.

I'm not saying that reported bugs haven't gone unfixed and get released anyway. But I am saying that with any software that is beyond version 1, two things tend to happen. #1 You fix one thing that impacts and breaks four more. #2 The minute you let a customer touch it you are going to stand back and go "huh, they pushed what button how? why on earth would they do that?"

And just to let you know, I've worked in my current company for 16 years and done software support for 23 years. It's happened with every single software release I've ever been part of. There's a reason Microsoft puts out updates. LOL No matter how much testing is done, internally, on TC and on Origin, until this gets onto a bigger shard or more people pound away, bugs are gonna get released. Just the nature of software. The really important thing is how quickly the showstoppers get fixed. Not that they got released.

This person knows whats up.

 

[Larisa]

The whole point of origin is exactly for people on production to catch bugs before it happens. If Origin's population is too small for this task, or its players are not doing their duty to report bugs then maybe the task of live test server should be moved to a shard with a bigger population.

You do know that people from other shards are MORE then welcome to come to Origin and test things there too. I was able to take the initial Valley of One Quest, did the rescue the tiger cub part, which was fun and I had no issues, but time constrains and real life leave me little time to do much else.

I always have an open invitation if anyone who wants to test a new publish/patch that is on Origin, shoot me a message and I will gladly help in game with whatever I can...gold/runebooks etc. My alliance has a wonderful vendor house with reasonably priced resources as well if I am unavailable.

I know that many people who do not call Origin their home have fully developed characters there, as seen at every EM event we have So log in for more then just your pixel crack and help test stuff!

 

[Tina Small]

I've offered in UHall at least a couple of times over the years to provide basic LRC suits and spell books to people who want to start characters on Origin. Never got many people to take me up on the offers. I'm steadily working towards closing all my accounts, though, and have little time to play these days, so I can't make that offer again. However, I know there are good people on Origin who are pretty responsive when someone asks for help in general chat. Don't forget that Izumo also receives new publishes early like Origin does, if you want to get a jump on new stuff and if their shard maintenance schedule and "prime time" line up better with your times to be able to play UO.

 

[OREOGL]

The amount of people it would take to migrate over to restart a character on Origin for a free LRC suit and just to test some bugs makes less sense than just moving the test server.