marigoldran

The Problem with Beta Testing

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The Problem with Beta Testing

from GalCiv3 Forums

Most of the people who participate in Beta testing are nice, kind, courteous people who understand the importance of complimenting others and supporting companies.  They're the sort of people who fill out surveys and what not because it's the right thing to do. Unfortunately, these types of people are on average not-particularly-great at strategy games, which requires a different and less pleasant set of skills.  

The wolves and the jerks only come out afterwards, when the game is released because they don't want to pay for a game until, you know, it's been tested by other people (let them be the guinea pigs).  

Unfortunately, it's the wolves who have the expertise in breaking game mechanics.  As a result during Beta Testing the developers are constantly being complimented about how they managed to get the game to work.  It's only AFTER beta testing that real testing of the quality of the game begins.  And THAT is when the jerks come out (unfortunately many of the jerks are also the ones who understand game mechanics the best).  

129,532 views 26 replies
Reply #26 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Goatmeal, reply 12

I don't agree that the test population is statistically any different than the main player population.   Mainly because I have no evidence to back it up.

 

The presence of remaining errors does not equate to poor testing automatically.   For all we know the errors were on a list and didn't get fixed in time for release.  Boss says ship, you ship.  Normal business.  The point about the game having very few errors where it simply doesn't work is salient here.  Overall the product was in a good state when released.

 

That being said, it isn't perfect.  Though the poster has angered people with previous posts we should also avoid getting bogged down with crucifying him.  I think the specific criticism of being able to see all the AIs assets is a good one.  Planets you have not explored should not appear and tech past what you can actively research should not appear.  Neither should money or fleets you cannot see.  This may not matter with super sensor ships but if they ever get toned down (one can hope) then it would make a difference.   Consider the value of this in PvP and that's where the general concept comes from.  I don't think it significantly affects your ability to make trade decisions if things you can't directly see are obscured from you.  Plus it leaves some potential benefits for espionage available.

I could not agree more. In fact there should be an espionage element to this game (sort of like GALCIV2) that we can use to find out this sort of information.  I think I saw that the Devs were going to put this into the game on a later DLC (I think not 100% sure on this.)