It all depends on the phase of testing you are in and your role within that testing. Most of the time I have only been part of closed Beta tests where the primary feedback is on the play experience and balance. In that case its better to just play and write up a few sentences of feedback at the end of your play session to describe your impressions.
From a general design and development standpoint a strong, accessible and versatile reporting tool is critical for getting and sorting bug feedback. Nothing more annoying than getting 300 reports of grammar errors in quests when you are actually testing collision detection within a few specific areas.
Make sure your reporting tool can be visible by all testers and works by using a classification tree to split up the issues and then display the reported issues in that classification to add additional instances to and only as a last option add a new issue. In this way your bug reporting tool will sort out a lot of the noise and allow you to focus on your primary target while keeping a back log of future bugs to smash as they become the most relevant issues. Having some form of automated log/image collection feature with your report tool will also take a lot of the guess work out of it.
My experience has been in Beta's, specifically Betas of Everquest, Everquest 2, and Vanguard. My most memorable where the stress test of Kelethin and the Undead event of Qeynos Hills in Everquest.
A lot of it depends on the NDA that is in place and any rules regarding note-taking. My normal testing mode is to take notes during gameplay and then summarizing when generalities are sufficient and noting specifics as needed by the Devs.
Kilsin said:Community Debate - As we draw closer to our PreAlpha 5 testing phase, what experience do you have testing games similar to Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen and how seriously to you take testing? #MMORPG #CommunityMatters
EQ1 Beta; EQ2 Alpha/Beta; Vanguard Alpha/Beta; Anarchy Online Alpha/Beta; City of Heroes Alpha/Beta; Dark Ages of Camelot Beta; Crowfall Alpha..just to name a few. In each case there was directed testing of specific mechanics, encounters, spells, abilities and items as well as more freeform gameplay user experience.
No development team, no matter how big or how well funded, can ever think of everything. They cannot catch every errors, every mistake, every unintended interaction or consequence. It is only through extensive testing by a dedicated group can any game company even hope to release a halfway decent game. But beyond such exhaustive testing, the developers must be willing to accept when their ideas are utter crap and make changes gleaned from the tester's feedback. Without both, the likelyhood of the eventual game either sucking at release (Anarchy Online) or quickly dying (Vanguard).
I do not like playing shitty game, so I take testing very seriously. I didn't give VR money to play a game early, I can do that stuff far cheaper on Steam. No, I gave them money so I could help them release the best game possible.
Been in a few alphas and betas over the years (and have been a software developer for 'serious' software for 28 years or so) but have never felt so invested and wanted to help so much (yes, even more than when being paid hehe).
I will take it very seriously, though I know I'll also enjoy it.
I wish it was my job!
I've tested many different MMOs over the years. Some of them were beta stress-test phases where it was basically just about piling onto the server with everyone else to see what breaks. Others were early, early testing working closely with dev teams to help validate their initial designs and concepts. From all that experience there are really two things I can say:
1) I am terrible at finding bugs. If I run into a bug, odds are that everyone else is seeing it too. If someone else has a technical issue because of their hardware or software, my PC will just keep on humming along and running the game with no issues. If there's something broken in-game, somehow I will manage to do things in the exact right way to make it work, unless of course it's literally just broken for everyone.
2) I am really good at (or at least vocal about) providing holistic feedback on content and systems. Perhaps because I'm not seeing so many of the surface issues, during testing I tend to look at how things feel - whether we're talking about challenge, immersion, scalability, or economic importance/impact - or even factors like mob density, area design, and so on.
I don't know if that makes me a good tester or a bad one. It is what it is. My goal is the same as everyone else's though. I want Pantheon to be the best MMORPG it can be when it launches (and even after that).
I've participated in just about every beta for every major MMO, and some minor ones, since Asheron's Call 2, and my experience and the amount of effort I put in really depends on how interested in a game I am. There have been a few games that I knew right off the bat wouldn't keep my interest no matter how much was fixed or changed, so I treated them more like demos (New World being the most recent example), and others I have put an inordinate amount of effort into making bug reports and feature suggestions because I was very interested in them and I wanted them to become better games (WoW, SWG, GW2, to name a few).
Pantheon is my last hope for the MMORPG genre, or gaming in general. Part of the reason I waited so long to pledge was because I wanted to be sure it was tenable before I risked my own money, but I wouldn't have pledged if I didn't believe in the vision and work of VR. When Alpha proper goes live, you can bet I'll be putting as much effort as I can into testing and making reports, because if Pantheon fails I'll likely sell my PC and give up gaming all together.
My first testing experience was with Everquest on the test server during the LDON/GOD era. I really only logged in there on occasion, hoping to recapture some love of the game as it really started to decline (IMO).
Next was Alpha and Beta for Star Wars Galaxies. I took it very seriously. This was my first real exposure to structured testing, and I feel a failed to understand my role well. I really treated as an early access and did little more to contribute than file bug reports on things that I felt were standing in my way.
Then I tested Everquest II from alpha to release. Did that exclusively (when service was available) and came at it from a new angle. I provided copious bug reports, performance evals, and critiques of various systems. I concentrated pretty heavily on visuals and crafting sytems in the critiques.
Next was World of Warcraft. Only participated in late beta here, and even then I was still fairly involved in Everquest II. I tried to bug report consistently and made some minor write-ups on general gameplay topics, but it was apparent that the direction was pretty well established and my comments would be taken with little weight. Where Blizzard seemed to agree with some things the statements usually came back that they would be incorporated as able and post release.
Tried testing on City of Heroes, but honestly had a really hard time liking the game format. Didn't invest in the process and barely played it past release.
Participated in Alpha and Beta on Tabula Rasa. I had a friend that was senior among the art staff there, and I took testing very seriously. Again, copious bug reports, system critiques, etc. Though I kept most visuals conversations as one-on-one with my friend.
Then it was time for Vanguard. This game I was heavily invested in (non-financially). I was on the original team that built the Silky Venom fansite (a term coined from a Brad McQuaid quote that wasnt particularly kind to naysayers :) ), and helped build it up to be the most trafficed unnofficial source for Vanguard news and discussion. I participated from some of the earliest Alpha's thru to release, and provided hundreds of pages of reports and logs. My frustration with what was obviously external influences on the design and timeline made release of the title bittersweet.
Since then I havent really had a lot of MMO testing experience, largely due to disallusionment with the direction of the genre. (My pledge here being somewhat a last-gasp hope.) I have provided a fair amount of feedback on titles that I've played via early access on Steam, but nothing structured or that I've dedicated to. Factorio, Empyrion, Mist Survival, The Forest, Osiris: New Dawn, being among them. And its no coincidence that some of them have been built on Unity.
The Forest began my exploration of titles built on Unity as a direct result of exposure to Pantheon in hopes of seeing how it performs and what its capable of. I've also downloaded and installed Unity and prodded at the platform a bit myself with limited gusto. I have a history of 2D and 3D art and animation, as well as a competent skillset in scripting, so I thought what the hell. Suffice to say I've learned what I don't know far outweighs what I do in this realm. But it has given me a new appreciation for the complexity and struggles that arise from the unlikeliest places on even a small scale development attempt. And a bit of a behind the curtain view allowing me to guess at where troubles I've seen in professional game code might lay.
I have been apart of a few beta tests that were either for the purpose of stress testing the servers or to provide general gameplay feedback/ reviews. I never took testing in those games very seriously because most of the bugs were already worked out and the goal of testing was just for a general-purpose or review.
I have never been involved in a game that is this early in its developmental cycle and that enthuses me. I plan to take testing very seriously and will provide the specific feedback that is asked for. However, my goal once pantheon moves into a more open pre-alpha is to hopefully find potential exploits and try to break your game. I believe that it is extremely important to find these potential (in-game) exploits and address them very early on before a game is released to the public, and then the public has access to these exploits and they are either used intentionally or unintentionally in some cases. It's also my goal to find and identify tooltips which may be potentially mislabeled, not functioning as described, or having an interaction that is completely off the wall. Balancing is something that I am also interested in providing feedback for, but think that this is something that comes into focus more during the alpha stages. So unless specific feedback is asked about this during pre-alpha its not something that I'm going to be innately focused on unless there is an interaction that is just extremely broken.
All in all, I want this game to be a success and I want to do my part to provide quality feedback so it can be just that and thrive.
Exp testing WOW, Vanguard, EQ2, Anarchy Online, Dark Ages of Camelot, Star Wars Galaxy, Final Fantasty IV, Elder Scrolls Online, Camelot Unchained, Crowfall and most recently, New World to name a few. How serious I took testing is a matter of opinion I guess, and in my opinion I took it very serious. I enjoyed some more than others and much of that had to do with the user accepetance testing guidelines or lack thereof provided by the development team. I enjoyed private (pre-alpha/alpha) testing more than open to public (beta) testing.
That said, I have not testing a game that I've wanted to suceed as much as I do with Pantheon. It's fair to say I've waited about 20 yrs for such a game. Outside of work, Pantheon has my full attention.
I don't think I've been in any decent/serious prelaunch game session that was more than a commercial one to be honest. I don't remember all games, but specifically wow Beta was close to bugless (to my experience at least), and ESO was simply so full of bugs that I thought filling reports would influence the final product and it didn't. All the bugs I identified during the beta were still present at release and stuck me the very same way they did despite filling them up, and that continued a month after release. At that point I believe they simply had zero control over their client/ui since you could get stuck in any merchant/crafting post menu with a reasonnable chance for it to happen.
First testing experience was EQ beta in the fall of 1998. Like many here I have alpha/beta tested numerous games since (not quite as many as Vandraad, but close). I have also chosen to play routinely on many test servers, whenever available (I enjoy the tester crowd, their community spirit and problem solving mentality). I take alpha testing very seriously, as long as the reporting tools are serious. Beta load stress testing I take more casually, I will show up & do what is asked, but I am less motivated at that point to discover new bugs as the crowd of testers expands enormously.
Nota Bene: As a bard I take nothing seriously once in a released game. You have been warned!
I have tested for many games... Everquest, everquest2, vanguard, city of heroes, city of villains, Anarchy Online... vanguard... I take it pretty serious and on many occasions have told the games about problems they have or are going to have and why it will be a problem…
I remember on the forums of vanguard bringing up that the caves should have torches you need to light so you could see…. I also gave many reasons why the game wasn’t ready and we all know what happened there…
I want Pantheon to succeed…. I do not want it to be another race to the end blah blah look at me im max level in 3 months and blah world first onto the next game… I want it to be an experience for people that I had when first going into Everquest and Ultima online…
I recently went back to Everquest to play on Aradune server… well you know.. cause of Brad…. Much love and respect for that man…. And I see people selling loot rites and the bots and literally just destroying the game… I think it is sad to see bots camping a spot for a week sell loot rites on stuff they do not need and other people can’t go in and experience camping the spot and getting something amazing for their class….
Mmo’s are supposed to be about people getting together and getting stuff for a guildy or a friend or meeting someone and helping them out and asking them to join your guild because you have a bunch of great people that are willing to help... and just having a great time… How it turned into selling LR and bots... I do not know…
I want better for Pantheon… and I will do what I can to help
Anyone with access to the champions hangout forums can go check out my two threads I have posted over there relating to this topic as well!
I tested Lego Universe, DCUO, Rift and other games I honestly can't remember on both PC and console. Testing is very important and I like to try and run around and find the spots where you will fall through the world or glitch out. I can't wait to get in and start testing Pantheon, I am excited to test out the new features like the climbing system, and see how things like weather and terrain affect gameplay.
I mainly remember beta testing Vanguard, and some "early access" testing in Archeage. In both those, it was possible to play mostly normal, so I did that and just reported bugs if I encountered them. I didn't specifically try to cause bugs, to break things though. Vanguard also had some focus testing events in which I took place.
I have only beta testing in a few games. I don't think I have ever done an alpha test. I beta'd in Vanguard: SoH, GuildWars (original, not 2), and late-stage testing for ArcheAge. I wasn't very good with those testings for several reasons:
1) I didn't know what the heck I was doing :P
2) I came in late to testing and was mostly there for things like trying to crash the server or zones due to volumes, etc.
3) I tested because I *could*. I wasn't really interested in any of the games listed above. I did end up playing ArcheAge quite a bit and enjoyed it, but I wasn't enthused during beta.
4) Last point here. I want to get into the earliest testing here, for Pantheon because I love the idea of the game. The way the players interact not just with each other, but with the world around us as well. I have been following the concepts and general information for about 2 years now.
High interest in the game = high interest in testing :)
~ Mayeia
I only test if the game is already at a point where it is a little bit fun. I like trying to figure as much about the game as possible so I can theorycraft better when it comes out.
I do, however, report bugs/feedback. I even try to recreate a bug to make a better report. I'm just not anywhere near as intense about it as some of these honored posters above me.
i take it seriously.
The battle mechanics
The enviroment "immersive or not"
Colors, music, sound, and shadows
Difficulty
Questing
Character animation via running, jumping, attacking, casting, climbing, swimming, emotes, etc fluid and natural motion or not
Then there is bugs reporting :)