EA wants your input re: open beta patch

[Talus]

http://forum.eagames.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=25198

I'm somewhat concerned by the number of post criticising the beta test opportunity we will be offering for the upcoming patch. The entire reason this test is being conducted is as a result of numerous posts in the last few months from community members suggesting that future patches are tested in this fashion.

The question, then, is a simple one - is the forthcoming beta a good thing or a bad thing?
_________________
Protagonist
Community Manager
EA Games

[$kelet0r]

Re: EA wants your input re: open beta patch

a bad thing - it's the culture of DICE accepting shoddy quality coding that needs to change not the beta testing
The beta tests before did their job - the problem lies in that DICE did not correct many of the bugs when they arose and shipped a patch regardless
No amount of open betas will change that - they will if anything make things worse

[Fumang]

Re: EA wants your input re: open beta patch

how the hell is this a bad thing? sorry but this is a GOOOD change for once

sorry there are too many configurations out there for a closed QA team to tackle, this way we can see any incompatible issues that can come up to

how can you say this is bad?????? really........

[imported_Sacramento]

Re: EA wants your input re: open beta patch

Im sorry but with the last patch people identified many NEW bugs just hours after it came out. So yes, this is a great idea. A whole community can identify problems faster and hopefully efficiently.

[$kelet0r]

Re: EA wants your input re: open beta patch

Are you that naive
OK say you find a bug - a clanger, a reboot your computer and rape your monitor bug
HOW ARE YOU GOING TO TELL DICE?

Have you ever experienced a closed beta? Often people are locked in a room - they test everything weapons one by one. You get a rifle and you fire it. You reload it. You fire it twice. If there is a bug the devs stop everyone and try to get everyone to replicate the bug. They identify the bug. They source the bug in the code. They flag it for correction.
How could this possibly happen with thousands of players all over the world - most playing for the laugh.

I'll say it again - the beta testers invariably find all the bugs that we find in the final build. You would be mad to say otherwise - it's their job, you on the other hand might by chance run into one during play.
THE PROBLEM IS DICE RELEASE ANYWAY.
How will a less effective, less efficient, longer uncentralised process not be worse?
This is a collective **** stroke by DICE - by getting everyone with an opinion excited about actually getting to test a game they love DICE are creating nothing but good publicity for a while until the patch actually ships.

[Trevortt]

Re: EA wants your input re: open beta patch

i vote for the Open Beta.

[mrkidkill]

Re: EA wants your input re: open beta patch

Open beta i vote too.

[Heous]

Re: EA wants your input re: open beta patch

Are you that naive
OK say you find a bug - a clanger, a reboot your computer and rape your monitor bug
HOW ARE YOU GOING TO TELL DICE?

Have you ever experienced a closed beta? Often people are locked in a room - they test everything weapons one by one. You get a rifle and you fire it. You reload it. You fire it twice. If there is a bug the devs stop everyone and try to get everyone to replicate the bug. They identify the bug. They source the bug in the code. They flag it for correction.
How could this possibly happen with thousands of players all over the world - most playing for the laugh.

I'll say it again - the beta testers invariably find all the bugs that we find in the final build. You would be mad to say otherwise - it's their job, you on the other hand might by chance run into one during play.
THE PROBLEM IS DICE RELEASE ANYWAY.
How will a less effective, less efficient, longer uncentralised process not be worse?
This is a collective **** stroke by DICE - by getting everyone with an opinion excited about actually getting to test a game they love DICE are creating nothing but good publicity for a while until the patch actually ships.

I find your lack of faith... disturbing.

But seriously, despite the efficiency of closed betas, they simply will not be able to replicate the sheer amount of scenarios present in an online match all on their own. An open beta will allow people to play the patch for a couple of weeks and leave any feedback on bugs, CTDs, glitches, and exploits. Then they'll be able to fix these issues and release a more stable patch. It IS a good thing.

[$kelet0r]

Re: EA wants your input re: open beta patch

I find your lack of faith... disturbing.

But seriously, despite the efficiency of closed betas, they simply will not be able to replicate the sheer amount of scenarios present in an online match all on their own. An open beta will allow people to play the patch for a couple of weeks and leave any feedback on bugs, CTDs, glitches, and exploits. Then they'll be able to fix these issues and release a more stable patch. It IS a good thing.

do you really think that patches for online games are not tested in online conditions? you may feel that you are making a difference, I would wager that the input of 99% of people will be worthless
And even in the unlikely scenario that DICE actually have a feedback function our wonderful betatesters would write 'j10 is overpowered' 'claymores are abused' and 'maps need more AA' as bug reports. Or even if we get an above average smart player/virgin tester who actually finds a bug he'll write 'grenade didn't detonate'. Wonderful. A bug report that doesn't explain the circumstances, the source/cause, the frequency, the system specs, RAM usage or even where it happened.
I wish I had your faith.
As I keep saying - it's not the testing that's FUBAR, it's DICE's attitude towards quality control

[mrkidkill]

Re: EA wants your input re: open beta patch

Dice is probably still doing their closed version of testing with their employees while at the same time giving it to us to pick out any loose ends. To me that sounds fantastic. If its what their doing.

[Heous]

Re: EA wants your input re: open beta patch

do you really think that patches for online games are not tested in online conditions? you may feel that you are making a difference, I would wager that the input of 99% of people will be worthless
And even in the unlikely scenario that DICE actually have a feedback function our wonderful betatesters would write 'j10 is overpowered' 'claymores are abused' and 'maps need more AA' as bug reports. Or even if we get an above average smart player/virgin tester who actually finds a bug he'll write 'grenade didn't detonate'. Wonderful. A bug report that doesn't explain the circumstances, the source/cause, the frequency, the system specs, RAM usage or even where it happened.
I wish I had your faith.
As I keep saying - it's not the testing that's FUBAR, it's DICE's attitude towards quality control

Of course the bug reports won't be that detailed - after all, we're not getting paid to do it. But it stands to reason that if DICE/EA got enough complaints about certain issues that they would investigate it on their own. And who says that they're using us as a replacement for their current beta testers? They'll still be there.

[p0is0n]

Re: EA wants your input re: open beta patch

Well i for one think it is a good thing. But the OPEN beta should be limited to people who are...........well....................no absolute complete smaktards...............does a test for this exist? neway while i vote for open beta i just hope that if it happens that people dont abuse the testing privilages and just make the relationship between Dice/EA and the community worse.

[imported_RpTheHotrod]

Re: EA wants your input re: open beta patch

Have closed beta testing for awhile, and then release it for open beta for awhile, and then release final patch.

[squizz]

Re: EA wants your input re: open beta patch

I'll vote for open beta testing..They are open to trying something new possibly trying to redeem themselves for being shady about details since release. The voters against it need to realize the damage has already been done, get over it. They havn't tried open beta yet and have tried closed beta look where we are. A new route may possibly fix bf2.

[mrkidkill]

Re: EA wants your input re: open beta patch

that sounds like a superb idea