Serious Question about Testing

IgrisBeru
IgrisBeru Posts: 5 Just Dropped In
in MPQ General Discussion
Do you guys really push test through? I mean in the nicest way possible. Have like a beta environment to allow some player actually test characters/changes before you push them through?

I understand you don't want leaks of new characters and what not, but I mean the last 5*s have been lackluster and the UI is a complete joke. 
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Comments

  • Phumade
    Phumade Posts: 2,496 Chairperson of the Boards
    Rest assured we asked the same questions during Boss Rush 1.  
    As I recall they went on video to promise more testing and a systematic QA review.

    4 days since last major crisis.
  • sinnerjfl
    sinnerjfl Posts: 1,275 Chairperson of the Boards
    Do you really think someone sat down and played the new gameboard for an hour?

    Highly doubtful because the dimming causing problems is very hard to miss for most people, even those
    whose such thing usually don't bother them.

    We are the testers of this game, wether we like it or not.
  • Daredevil217
    Daredevil217 Posts: 3,966 Chairperson of the Boards
    TheRiddler said:
    killahKlown said:
    I dont even bother clicking on the normal level questions 

    I do. I consider myself to be a "street level" poster. Somebody has to do it.
    The OP’s is an Avengers-level question.

    DEVELOPERS!!!!...

    ...Assemble. 
  • Akoni
    Akoni Posts: 790 Critical Contributor
    I have never seen a serious thread take a 180 so fast. I'm dying laughing over here.
  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 10,275 Chairperson of the Boards
    The greatest trick the Developers ever pulled was convincing the forum they didn't exist.
  • Srheer0
    Srheer0 Posts: 510 Critical Contributor
    I'd be very happy to do free testing for D3. Maybe they could invest in some kindof private server, give testers every champed character and have a feedback window instead of alliance chat.

    Still confused why you can view the total value of special tiles in the Android version and not in the Steam version.
  • abmoraz
    abmoraz Posts: 712 Critical Contributor
    Daredevil217 said:
    TheRiddler said:
    killahKlown said:
    I dont even bother clicking on the normal level questions 

    I do. I consider myself to be a "street level" poster. Somebody has to do it.
    The OP’s is an Avengers-level question.

    DEVELOPERS!!!!...

    ...Assemble. 

    Given the current mood of the forums and the historical alliteration of that phrase, shouldn't it be "Developers Disassemble!"?

  • Daredevil217
    Daredevil217 Posts: 3,966 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited March 2021
    abmoraz said:
    Daredevil217 said:
    TheRiddler said:
    killahKlown said:
    I dont even bother clicking on the normal level questions 

    I do. I consider myself to be a "street level" poster. Somebody has to do it.
    The OP’s is an Avengers-level question.

    DEVELOPERS!!!!...

    ...Assemble. 

    Given the current mood of the forums and the historical alliteration of that phrase, shouldn't it be "Developers Disassemble!"?

    Yeah, to be fair, it’s the playerbase that’s assembling. This might be a record for new signups on the forum. I still have over 140 unread posts in the feedback thread. And a lot of posts I’ve seen are “I signed up for an account, just to say this...”. 

    This level of unification is even greater than shardpocalype which is pretty impressive. 
  • Colognoisseur
    Colognoisseur Posts: 806 Critical Contributor
    If it isn’t clear by now let me repeat it one more time.

    We the players are the beta testers.

    Demiurge does the bare minimum and then pushes it out for us to stress test. 
    Same as it ever was. 
    The sadder comment is those of us who spend money on the game are the biggest fools, we pay for this treatment. 
    Thank you sir, May I have another?
  • Phumade
    Phumade Posts: 2,496 Chairperson of the Boards
    Colognoisseur said:
    If it isn’t clear by now let me repeat it one more time.

    We the players are the beta testers.

    Demiurge does the bare minimum and then pushes it out for us to stress test. 
    Same as it ever was. 
    The sadder comment is those of us who spend money on the game are the biggest fools, we pay for this treatment. 
    Thank you sir, May I have another?
    Personally, you and I got promoted to content generators.  I.e. it’s now about us using the depth of our rosters to create new and interesting opponents for climbers.

    it Would be be cool to starting streaming sypherpk style with YouTube commentaries
  • The rockett
    The rockett Posts: 2,016 Chairperson of the Boards
    So I know in the Game Board thread there was a ton of back and forth between my guy @The_Boogie and some others.  This is the spot to talk about this.  Here is the deal and what we know.  

    Fact:   We know that the forum Mods get a 5* cover every month for running this site.  
    If this is the case, why cannot we have some players as a “players council”.  This has been asked for years and years to the point that we were very close at getting this.  Then for whatever reason it was pulled. Things like this new board could have been given to a handful of players that wound sign a non disclosure agreement, which I personally already have for my job, to test it.  The ground work and “payment” is already set in place with the forum mod.   It is just sad that this Dev team doesn’t reach out to some players here that have been around for a long time and have a deep understanding of the game to let us help them.  All we want is this game to be successful and keep going. 
  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 10,275 Chairperson of the Boards
    Whilst I understand and can appreciate where you are coming from, I think the reality would have to be very different. This "players council" would have to be non competitive because the strategic advantage gained by being able to test all sorts of combinations of characters in a non pressured basis would be huge. Your competitors would likely argue that your account needed sandboxing. It couldn't be unlearned. And whilst an NDA might stop such a player from leaking specific details, it wouldn't stop them simply saying "Go big on this next one" way in advance of that knowledge being public. Likewise, Line chats could easily be used to spread details among players despite any NDA - half of the stuff about this game goes on behind closed doors.

    And how do you choose this Council? Let the big alliances dominate it? I mean it wouldn't bother me but it might be considered a bit too closed circle to some.

    The only way would have to be ex players who no longer compete and work for Demi/D3 Go directly.
  • pheregas
    pheregas Posts: 1,721 Chairperson of the Boards
    Such a council would have to include representatives of all the tiers of play.  2/3*, 3*, 3/4*, 4*, 4/5*, and 5*.  There would be variables that one tier player would uncover that higher/lower tier players may never see.  There are only so many hours in the day to test character interactions though.

    From a UI perspective, you'd need a much smaller amount of beta testers.  So I guess the real question is whether or not this is simply a "how the player interactions with the product" or "how the product functions within itself" type of testing.  Both are probably required, but for different reasons.
  • supergarv
    supergarv Posts: 410 Mover and Shaker
    abmoraz said:

    "Developers Disassemble!"?

    Hat tip! This is a quality pun, that I greatly appreciate.
  • Rhipf
    Rhipf Posts: 295 Mover and Shaker
    DAZ0273 said:Likewise, Line chats could easily be used to spread details among players despite any NDA - half of the stuff about this game goes on behind closed doors.

    Admittedly I am not a lawyer but I don't think using Line would absolve you of your restrictions under an NDA. Sure you could go on Line and disclose specifics of an upcoming update but you could do this via multiple avenues. You would still be liable for breaking the NDA.
  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    MPQ is played by players of many nationalities, which means they are all over the world. I don't think the dev are going to spend time to find out how to take legal actions against these players who are not in the US. If your answer is to restrict players to those living in the US, then would it be fair?
  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 10,275 Chairperson of the Boards
    Rhipf said:
    DAZ0273 said:Likewise, Line chats could easily be used to spread details among players despite any NDA - half of the stuff about this game goes on behind closed doors.

    Admittedly I am not a lawyer but I don't think using Line would absolve you of your restrictions under an NDA. Sure you could go on Line and disclose specifics of an upcoming update but you could do this via multiple avenues. You would still be liable for breaking the NDA.
    I agree it would not absolve you but it would be quite easy to cover up.

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