So Many Patches

If there are more people on QA we stand a better chance to catch more bugs before launch. The only issue (opposition) I can possibly see is from those who have the time (and some do) to comb through and find an oddity/bug they can use to their advantage. I've brought this up with Chris before (he seemed to agree the idea had merit) but with all that's on his plate I imagine it's not the highest priority. I'm sure all of us want the best product delivered in the fastest way possible no?

 

No more, or less, bugs will be found whether QA is open to all or not. I'm not the voice of opposition, I just don't see how your earlier statement had any effect. The bugs are found on QA, or they are found on live. But they are found regardless. And a player who combs through QA to find an exploit, is going to comb through live to find an exploit.

Presumably it takes time to fix bugs as well, even if 100% of bugs were found on QA it takes the same amount of time to fix them.

I think it is ideal to find more bugs on QA, but I don't see how it might have any effect on launch date or launch quality - since the bugs are still found regardless of where one finds them, well before launch at the end of the year.

 

@Lord Andernut

so your opposition to opening QA to all backers would be what?

 

I never said I was opposing it, I was just commenting that everyone having access to the QA would neither make final launch sooner nor less buggy.

Edit - But a couple of potential opposition points;

-Since the inception of QA access it has been a "perk" of dev+ crowd, and subsequently the 550 bundle crowd that they test and contribute to an earlier state of the game than the rest of the population. People may have paid for this and felt they have lost "value"

-QA server breaks certain concepts to a smaller audience that then gets discussed behind a forum that is not open to everyone, content including perhaps screenshots, and bugs and states of the game they don't want viewable by outside communities, and they don't want streamed/discussed/shared.

-Similar to above if you allow everyone into QA or if you have the feedback forums for QA available to all this becomes more difficult. If someone breaks this rule then it is a significant loss for that player to lose their access, they have more on the line than a 45$ pledge.

 

i think there is an under estimation of how many bugs were picked up in qa, and how much actually gets done during that week. the guys who do currently test generate a lot of bugs, Id argue more than the team can fix in the time given, so, would it help to have more people in qa beyond those who pay for the option? Im not sure it would. People are welcome to pay up and come qa, and help out, but there is a finite team of coders who can only really work on so much bug at a time.. the reality is qa isnt qa really, as the game isnt live, everyone qas when they login and report bugs. qa is just getting that monthly patch and sometimes the hellishly awful bugs that can come with

 

@Lord Andernut aye... I hear ya.. and have thought of those points as well. Mind I don't wanna derail this thread.. was just thinking that perhaps if there were more testers we might have fewer gawd awful releases go live. I mean hey.. we have our good ones and our cringeworthy ones. I notice though that I rarely see many ppl on QA. I wonder what % of us who have access ever log in? I know quite a few friends who all have the ability never do.

@liz_the_wiz also makes a good point in that we have limited manpower available.