- 15 May 2013 18:12
#34992
MrMasochism wrote:Tom_X wrote:SPG wrote:Not going to lie, but i dont like how this beta was handeled either, yes giving it to a server owner to test it is helpful, but for it to be so easily acquired seems pointless for a beta to me that we might as well hav an open beta because that is what this one felt like
My exact thoughts... there should be a minimum requirement to join Vik's or Yokon's servers similar to the ones to Beta Test, as I've seen people I don't think even has an account here ask for the beta to join the server, and get it. If it keeps on going like this, there's no actual point in being a Beta Tester, as it's almost the same as a normal server player.
Maybe you should keep an eye on what's been going on then. I've been handing this out to the servers for the very obvious reason that there are things that they can test that you guys can't/won't. Vik's been struggling with crash bugs so I've been working hard trying to identify the cause then giving him a beta to distribute as to get those crashes to happen requires a reasonably high load on the server. Once those bugs are fixed it won't be handed out to the servers but there is no other way to get those issues sorted.
So, I worked as a QA Tester for a video game company for a year and a half. The team we had consisted of me and three other people, one of which was our lead. He couldn't help us most times because he was in meetings all the time, so it was really just me and two other people. We tested an
entire game for like six solid months, because we couldn't get the approval for any more people.
It got to the point where we couldn't handle the day-to-day workload we were given, because it was just too much. We'd come in, be given a bunch of tasks to do, then have to stretch that day's tasks into the next day. Sometimes, those tasks were urgent, so we ended up staying until like midnight, sometimes later, to get all this crap done.
One of the things that happened that helped us IMMENSELY was when we went into our Closed Beta phase. It was basically free QA to the people we handed out codes to. Instead of us reporting bugs, checking them, sending them to the appropriate people, and verifying the fix when they got fixed, THEY would report bugs, leaving the rest of the steps to us, but cutting out a BIG part of our work, which helped us so much. Plus, some of the stuff we couldn't see with our small team. We had to have more people playing.
This is exactly what MrM is doing. He's employing the Closed Beta strategy. Give a build of the game to popular servers or active community members, and let THEM test things. Like he said, some crashes and bugs won't occur until large numbers of players are playing. This is the perfect opportunity for him to find these things.
I get that you guys have personal lives, which is cool, and you don't get paid to do this, so I don't understand why beta builds of the mod have to be some "cool kids club" where all the cool kids have to gather round and majority vote on whether or not to accept new members. The only thing this is doing is helping the mod. It's not like a leak of this mod is going to end the world, because the base game is already out, and beta builds are, by definition, buggy in at least some sense and sometimes unplayable. Again,
all MrM does by having more eyes on the beta builds is help the mod become more stable.And for the record, as far as I know, free hosting, unless you do it from your own computer, is complete shit. Plus, servers have enough issues with a constantly-updating database, and if you aren't paying someone to host your server, there's most likely less they'd be willing to put up with.
And don't worry, I understand the points you're all making about "why do we even have beta testers then". I don't have a good answer for that, because I'm not MrM. My best guess is the size issue. There's a good amount of you, as far as I know, but it's hard synchronizing everyone's schedules to spend three hours testing a version of the game for a few crash bugs. My best guess is that he wants you beta testers to log functionality or graphical bugs, and if he needs help with the big stuff, he employs the Closed Beta strategy I talked about above.