Should the PTS Reward Good Testers?

Panda_iMunch

Whenever we get a new huge test build for this game, many players get excited and rush onto there to see what the game will be like next month. That's all and good, but is there a whole lot of testing going on?

Most chatter on the forums is either people examining the note and seeing what the test build may do to balance. Huge drops the like ZoS loves to do is great for generating hype, but man does balance suffer at times, and it is because there isn't enough thought out testing. Rarely do people sit there and get a 12-man raid ready to test how much dps has fallen or what builds are going to be in season for competitive. I mean, who is going to want to sit there and number crunch the many sets that exist in ESO?

While every ESO YouTuber and their family will make a couple dozen or trillion videos about housing and their speculation, it hasn't seemed to generate the data and ideas to solve the issues with stamina builds. proc sets, number inflation, out of control regen, the half hazard champion point system etc. There isn't too many people around like Crazymadsci or Defatank who would send in pages upon pages of notes and suggestions for free, or at least for very long.

So I pose the question, should Zenimax offer rewards or incentives to get players to fully test out new systems, balance changes, and whatnot? This would be for people who submit helpful notes, ideas, etc. and not those who simply complain. Obviously, it needs to be constructive.

If anything, the whole thing would be to increase the number of good and helpful reports that are needed to properly test what a patch would look like on the live server before it gets there. There's been quite a few cases of bad patches and more community involvement would only help. While everyone here is of course good natured and wants this game to be good as possible, I don't believe there is enough people actually sitting down and doing the funnest thing in the world: testing.

RoyJade

I agree, ZOS should give a reward, even a tiny one. Some crow, a reedited pet, something like that.
But I won't be able to determine the criteria for these rewards.

Panda_iMunch

RoyJade wrote: »

I agree, ZOS should give a reward, even a tiny one. Some crow, a reedited pet, something like that.
But I won't be able to determine the criteria for these rewards.

I was thinking something around the lines of what Riot does in that they can give credit to people who make posts, comments, or bug reports that go on to influence or bring light to an issue which then either rewards small amounts of crowns or crates if they wanna be real cheap.

DragonBound

Yes they should, I mean isn't it someone else s job to do these things in the first place? I get you need testers but I do not think that is really fair. Most of all it would encourage more testers and more proof when things are out of wack.

Ankael07

At this point fixing the reported bugs would be a reward in itself.

Alpheu5

No. Any system with a form of reward is bound to be exploited as soon as it's available.

Laggus

Why does everyone want stuff. The only real want is for feedback to be acknowledged and changes made when we, the playing community, tells you there are better ways to do things or change things sometimes. Proc sets are a prime example. People gave their honest opinions and warnings over and over again and were ignored utterly and completely at the time.

I think ZoS has a hard time when so much feedback is given they simply can't take it all in, but when so many say the same thing and it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck..it is a duck. Devs need to take notice and pay attention.

BlazingDynamo

Playing the PTS should be the reward. I wish console had a PTS

Panda_iMunch

Laggus wrote: »

Why does everyone want stuff. The only real want is for feedback to be acknowledged and changes made when we, the playing community, tells you there are better ways to do things or change things sometimes. Proc sets are a prime example. People gave their honest opinions and warnings over and over again and were ignored utterly and completely at the time.

I think ZoS has a hard time when so much feedback is given they simply can't take it all in, but when so many say the same thing and it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck..it is a duck. Devs need to take notice and pay attention.

Well this issue is primarily that attitude paired with the lack of experience to back it up. Remember when there was a huge post say it's the end of pvp as we know it do to the dominance of heavy armor and how ZoS gave data to show that pvp is still very split among all three armor types?

When people start talking about huge things that change the game and then only see like 5 groups in dungeons actually testing things like Ice Staff tanking out? I can see why ZoS would be real skeptical of the community, heck even the community folds on itself all the time.

Pangnirtung

Reward? Playing the game is the reward.

Birdovic

Fixing what people report as bugged, underperforming, overperforming or where change was unnecessary, is the best reward.

Calluna

I don't think so besides actually listening to the feedback because the people that test are often from progression guilds or people wanting to have an insight into the new meta's or gold making schemes. I beta tested ESO and other games and if you are really "beta testing" you don't need a reward. You do it for the love of the IP, the game or the company developing it.

stevepdodson_ESO888

they are supposed to pay their own staff to test this stuff

would you seriously want to release software that controls an aircraft's auto-pilot to go out before being thoroughly and properly tested by the company responsible for it???

no you would not...so why the "heck" should we all just be satisfied with bugs released to live...it is not our job to test this stuff and we end up paying for shoddy work

ooh...i got on my angry high-horse then...let off some steam..sorry about that

in short my answer is no....

lolo_01b16_ESO

The "reward" I wish for would be fixing all known bugs on pts before moving it to live.

RoyJade

For those who think they shouldn't have any "reward" in term of item or other things : at least, a mention for those who spot some bugs, problems or other, as they sometimes does (who haven't see a "good catch, we'll investigate, thanks" sometimes?) should be good. Only a few tester know that ZOS listened to them, feeling ignored is not good.

Nifty2g

reward is playing the content early and helping fix it for launch lol

Panda_iMunch

RoyJade wrote: »

For those who think they shouldn't have any "reward" in term of item or other things : at least, a mention for those who spot some bugs, problems or other, as they sometimes does (who haven't see a "good catch, we'll investigate, thanks" sometimes?) should be good. Only a few tester know that ZOS listened to them, feeling ignored is not good.

I could see some sort of badge or "ZoS employee liked this" would be good to spice up interaction, heaven knows they quiet down too much in between the centennial patches.

Mojmir

The reward would be not having feedback ignored

Rohamad_Ali

If the reward was ZOS fixing the reported problems before live that would be incentive enough for me .

Panda_iMunch

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

If the reward was ZOS fixing the reported problems before live that would be incentive enough for me .

In order to get a some of those bugs worked out, they kinda need a lot of information about them, and that means more butts on the pts. Considering there is few willing to sit down and test something that may not even make the final cut, you will need some reason to get people there and playing. How they go about that is up to them, but charity rarely does anything and the same could be said for the pts considering the frequency patches are released to the dismay of the community.

Rohamad_Ali

Panda_iMunch wrote: »

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

If the reward was ZOS fixing the reported problems before live that would be incentive enough for me .

In order to get a some of those bugs worked out, they kinda need a lot of information about them, and that means more butts on the pts. Considering there is few willing to sit down and test something that may not even make the final cut, you will need some reason to get people there and playing. How they go about that is up to them, but charity rarely does anything and the same could be said for the pts considering the frequency patches are released to the dismay of the community.

Remember some of the bugs we cannot even post on the forums because they can be exploited if they go live . People are still reporting , even if you don't see them all on forums they are sent directly Ingame for safety . The people that do this , do so out of love for the game . I don't think they are looking for rewards . If ZOS gave rewards , cool beans , no one would say no to that either .

SickDuck

Maybe reward them by listening to them more?

GlassHalfFull

The game already does reward good testers. ZOS reads thier forum posts, watches streamers, reads redit, etc and does make changes on good tester feedback. Thus, the game quality and player enjoyment increase is the reward.

The_Protagonist

Alpheu5 wrote: »

No. Any system with a form of reward is bound to be exploited as soon as it's available.

Agreed. I can say by experience (in my field of work) that introducing rewards will invite abusers into PTS.

On the other hand, ZOS can silently hire good testers among it's players and make a contract with them, and so on.

WhiteMage

The point of public testing is to get as many people out there looking for bugs so they can squish them before they get to Live. It stands to reason that the more testers there are the better the game will be, so they really should have a system where if you are the first one to report a big, you get a cookie. That would get people to test the obscure things looking for those elusive bugs that made it past the QA guys, and if it's a good cookie, you'll get more people who want one too to come in and test.

DragonBound

Nifty2g wrote: »

reward is playing the content early and helping fix it for launch lol

No not when its actually someone else s job that they get paid to do, also doing tests is not as fun as you may think, game testing has never been fun for hardly anyone I know.

stevepdodson_ESO888

WhiteMage wrote: »

The point of public testing is to get as many people out there looking for bugs so they can squish them before they get to Live. It stands to reason that the more testers there are the better the game will be, so they really should have a system where if you are the first one to report a big, you get a cookie. That would get people to test the obscure things looking for those elusive bugs that made it past the QA guys, and if it's a good cookie, you'll get more people who want one too to come in and test.

the point of public testing is to "pass the buck" on to the consumer...testing should be done in-house and problems solved there before release

the sooner gamers get out of this way of thinking, that public testing is an acceptable practice for a company, the sooner they can start to expect working, bug free products to be released to them

wake up and smell the roses people...public testing is a con

30 years in the IT industry, so please don't try to tell me I don't know what I am talking about