Collecting gameplay information?

[Osvir]

THIS POST CONSIST OF SOME GREAT IDEAS THAT WOULD HELP OBSIDIAN & ETERNITY GREATLY DURING EARLY ACCESS! AT LEAST THAT'S WHAT I BELIEVE! AND ALTHOUGH THIS IS A LENGHTY POST, THE EXECUTION OF THIS IDEA IS REALLY SIMPLE & EFFECTIVE IN THEORY/CONCEPT! CODING THIS MIGHT NOT BE DIFFICULT AT ALL FOR A PROFESSIONAL STUDIO OR EMPLOYEE!

During the Early Access or during the Beta there'll probably be a Beta forum of some sort only available to actual Early Access participants (important that it is exclusive!) there'll be plenty of ways to collect information.

Otherwise, having some in-game /bug or /feedback console command which brings up a secondary screen wherein you can write & take a screenshot of your bug/feedback inquiry and send it to some Obsidian bug or feedback database could be something to consider during Early Access.

I've participated in some couple of Betas now and one thing I can say is that I tend to prefer this in-game bug reporting rather than tabbing out and writing the report on some forum. I tend to ignore some bugs in the latter and almost always reports in the former. Furthermore, on a Forum it's usually "Take a screenshot, upload it, upload save file, upload this and that and don't forget to explain the bug/issue/feedback". It takes energy from the Player (who just wants to play) and lots of good feedback or bugs could get missed out on.

I think that, generally, the majority of people think like me regarding this an in-game reporting tool generates more accurate reports than some forum. When you're "in the zone" you're in the zone and I think many people ignores reporting a bug because they think it requires too much effort to write on a forum. In an in-game bug-reporting tool the developers can also design it in a simple manner that it makes bug reporting easier to do (checkboxes of what the bug is affecting, categories etc.etc.) and the developer get the information they want or think is most important.

Furthermore, if Obsidian considers an in-game bug/feedback reporting tool, apart from taking a "screenshot" it could also "save location" or whatnot. It could generate a save~

HERE BEGINS MECHANICAL BITS OF THE BUG REPORTING IDEA: 

Now, how easy could a tool like this be to create? Well... if Obsidian allows for an in-game Journal that we can write in I can think of a very easy thing to do with that:
1) Make a specific Early Access Bug Tab in the Journal where we can document Bugs. Also allow a "screenshot" & "save" to be attached to the moment the Bug is reported. 
2) Make a specific Early Access Feedback Tab in the Journal where we can document Feedback. Also allow a "screenshot" & "save" to be attached to the moment the Feedback is reported. 
3) Allow us to "Save to file..." the entire Journal (or just the Bug/Feedback sections). Maybe saves the entire Bug+Feedback section into a compressed .RAR file that can easily be uploaded to "Uploaded.net" or maybe even to an exclusive Early Access Forum. Or maybe even directly be able to upload the Journal from in-game to some sort of Database.
4) After the report is saved (or sent) it clears the page in the Journal (So that you don't re-send the same bugs over and over again). So either you could play the game for a couple of hours and report many bugs and send it to Obsidian (then after sent: Clears the pages sent in the Player's/your Journal) or you could play for a little while and just report 2-3 bugs.

Furthermore, if you have 2-3 bugs (or maybe 15-20 bugs) in your journal, when you choose to quit, the game could check if there are any un-sent reports in the journal and then ask you if you wish to send them or just send them directly without a prompt.

This way Obsidian would get:
- A documented bug report
- A screenshot
- A savefile of the current location where the bug is taking place

How I envision it to work the best:

1) Encounter Bug in-game. Let's say you get stuck but you can still open inventory and do everything except move.
2) Open Journal, go to Bug section.
3) Pick Category of Bug: Let's say "Character".
4) Pick a Sub-Category of Bug: Let's say "Movement".
5) Write the Bug report "What were you doing?" etc.etc.
6) Either "Send" directly or "Save" to your HDD (Harddrive). A Savefile is generated as well as a Screenshot.

The tester wouldn't be able to write a title for the bug (like we can on a forum thread), but instead the "Category" would define the title. This is so that Obsidian can organize the data they get. Let's say I send in the two first Bug Reports to Obsidian, then they could get generated as "Character: Movement #1" and "Character: Movement #2". If someone else sends in a Bug Report regarding the same thing, it'd be generated as "Character: Movement #3" and so on. If 15 people would report the same bug at once the program/code could just generate titles "Character: Movement #1" to "#15" in a flash.

This, I believe, could help Obsidians workflow a lot. Instead of going through 100's of Bug Reports on a Forum, they could get it nicely organized straight to their desk.

[Bryy]

The savefile is a really nice idea.

[kirottu]

The problem with collecting gameplay information is developers only see what choice was made not why it was made.

Edited February 11, 2014 by kirottu