Should Obsidian let beta testers play bigger chunks of the game before the launch of the next PoE game?

[Kerozevok]

Beta-testers for BGEE : The game is perfect !!

 

BGEE at the release : over 1.200 bugs.

 

It's the same mentality on Obsidian, Bioware, Bugthesda, Ubisoft....

 

The guys are happy 'cos they're "beta-testers", but in fact they're useless.

[Wintermist]

Beta-testers for BGEE : The game is perfect !!

 

BGEE at the release : over 1.200 bugs.

 

It's the same mentality on Obsidian, Bioware, Bugthesda, Ubisoft....

 

The guys are happy 'cos they're "beta-testers", but in fact they're useless.

 

That's just utter nonsense. You will find some "testers" that are happy to be playing a game early (for whatever masochistic reason), but for the most part there are the people who gets it done. A lot of bugs are often remaining because there wasn't enough time to fix them, not because they wasn't found.

[Boeroer]

Look at the bug report subforum from the beta and you can see how "useless" those people were...

[JerekKruger]

I think the bigger problem is how much time Obsidian's QA people had to squash the bugs found by beta testers rather than the beta testers not finding enough bugs.

[Karkarov]

Nope.  The only issue I have with Obsidian's "beta's" they have done in Eternity 1 and 2 is that they release them too soon, and don't update them often enough.

They should only exist so people can test the systems, and give gameplay feedback.  This is hard though when they are normally released so early the combat at first is almost always overtuned to crazy levels.  Then as we get closer to release fewer and fewer updates happen, then next thing you know certain mechanical aspects of the game are wildly different than they were in the beta.  Why?  Because the beta is like 7 versions old.

If you really want to do beta do it right.  Get closer to release before you give players access, then try to keep it as close to the "real" current version as possible.

[Dummy]

Yes, I actually thought about it myself. I personally would open up the enitre game as a beta when the game state allows it.

This could give people who want it early access and Obsidian the option to fix some bugs that they didn't catch in their QA net.

[Camonge]

I believe all those paid betas would be far more useful with focused troubleshooting. 'Ok, this week all betatesters are going to face some archmagi fights, made for testing purposes only". So they can actually test important stuff without spoling the game. 

 

I do not doubt betatesters effort, but it bugs me how glitched engagement and empowered spells went gold like this.

[Kragtor]

I wish I could comment, but funnily enough, my installation of Deadfire is almost entirely bug-free. It wouldn't be fair of me to assume that others' assessments are lies, though, or that my own knowledge must be objective. That would be rather boorish of me.

 

I 'fondly' remember dozens of games, RPGs and otherwise, that fell on my lap with all sorts of gamebreaking bugs, some of them with a big reputation for bugs (oh, Troika), some not. I suppose with Deadfire I'm lucky.

Just because you dumped perception in character creation doesn't mean the bugs aren't there. You just are choosing not to notice.

 

There are dozens and dozens of bugs that are in the base coding of the game design that everyone has, you just don't notice it.

 

For instance, I think it's a bug/design error that Xoti's companion quest, which can be completed before doing any main story quest after the starter island, spoils the entire plot of the game.

 

There are also countless quest trigger bugs, where people talk about things you don't have a quest for. Or give you quest completion dialogue because you killed someone or found the thing, but you haven't even gotten the quest.

 

My playthrough got ruined because I had an option to talk to someone about something I had no idea about, so when I didn't choose that option it disappeared. When i finally got the quest for that, like 20 hours later, the option didn't re-appear.

 

Then there's the bugs with weapon animation speed/modifiers. Everyone is suffering from the bad math and not fully explained system, you just apparently don't care.

 

Bugs aren't just crashes. They are everywhere in this game.

[Kragtor]

I believe all those paid betas would be far more useful with focused troubleshooting. 'Ok, this week all betatesters are going to face some archmagi fights, made for testing purposes only". So they can actually test important stuff without spoling the game. 

 

I do not doubt betatesters effort, but it bugs me how glitched engagement and empowered spells went gold like this.

I've seen games do this before. Stress tests of specific mechanics, encounters. But Obsidian has a reputation for launching games with massive bugs. If they did this, they might lose out on their reputation and then we'd only have Bethesda.

[Boeroer]

I believe all those paid betas would be far more useful with focused troubleshooting. 'Ok, this week all betatesters are going to face some archmagi fights, made for testing purposes only". So they can actually test important stuff without spoling the game.

 

I do not doubt betatesters effort, but it bugs me how glitched engagement and empowered spells went gold like this.

Actually - I think that's a good idea.

I've seen games do this before. Stress tests of specific mechanics, encounters. But Obsidian has a reputation for launching games with massive bugs. If they did this, they might lose out on their reputation and then we'd only have Bethesda.

Tehehe. Edited May 20, 2018 by Boeroer

[Ashen Rohk]

The volume of content isn't the issue, it's making sure that beta testers can test all the mechanics available and see if they fall down or stand up when played away from OBS test environment.

 

 

The Dyrford area in PoE1 was a perfect size to test mechanics, as was the area we were given in the Deadfire beta. Everything could be tested that needed to be, by this logic they might as well chuck us the entire game in beta "just to make sure it all works".

 

I remember the IWD1 demo gave you a full third of the game, which was mental. But it was a demo, not a beta.

[Boeroer]

The problem is that with char lvl 6-9 you cannot test all the mechanics.

[IndiraLightfoot]

I personally would open up the enitre game as a beta when the game state allows it.

This could give people who want it early access and Obsidian the option to fix some bugs that they didn't catch in their QA net.

A brief Early Access window like 2-3 weeks before actual release would've caught all these bugs. It would be the easiest way, sure.

 

I believe all those paid betas would be far more useful with focused troubleshooting. 'Ok, this week all betatesters are going to face some archmagi fights, made for testing purposes only". So they can actually test important stuff without spoling the game. 

 

This is a great idea! For instance, they could have had one week with: "Now, try to import your save file, and try this history setting out."

 

 

I believe all those paid betas would be far more useful with focused troubleshooting.

I've seen games do this before. Stress tests of specific mechanics, encounters.

 

Let's hope they opt to do it this way next time.

Edited May 20, 2018 by IndiraLightfoot

[trashplayer]

I would say bigger, seeing this beta wasn't that indicative of the whole. May be a bit less than shareware-sized?

Besides, is this discussion of theoretical interest or practical concern? Not like we are going to get PoE3 in this rate with the sales. Sayer aren't going to lead another game in the far future either. 

[wih]

Besides, is this discussion of theoretical interest or practical concern? Not like we are going to get PoE3 in this rate with the sales. Sayer aren't going to lead another game in the far future either. 

 

Well, even if Deadfire sales aren't very satisfying, if there are enough of us who are willing to finance PoE 3, then we can still get it. 

Edited May 20, 2018 by wih

[wih]

double post

Edited May 20, 2018 by wih