Suggestion for ZOS : You should rewards players for reporting bugs.

Blockz888 · March 2015

Hi

Just thought of something that could be valuable to ZOS. Players should be rewarded for reporting bugs and especially a bug that is legit.
Simply reporting shouldnt be rewarded but if a bug is fixed and you helped in the process I think it would be good for ZOS if players are rewarded.
Will encourages players to report bugs because I am sure when a player discovers a bug, it is just sighed at and then ignored. And this game will be less bugy if more players are reporting bugs, Im sure it would help! There are a lot more players that ZOS staff.

Turelus · March 2015

I understand the idea behind this but I also feel it's obscuring the point of bug reporting.

Bug reports should be filed when a bug is found so it is fixed and everyone's reward is a smoother gaming experience. To introduce rewards encourages players to go out looking for bug or finding false bugs to report so they can get their monthly reward.
This would also face the issue of farming rewards. Say I find that an item is missing its inventory icon, I report it then tell my friend I reported that and might get my reward for it. He then does the same because he can get a reward as well, then he tells his friend and so on.
Then at the end of the month, the bug gets fixed and ZOS has to look through the reports to see who is entitled to a reward. Do they reward the first person, the most useful person, every person? The most useful makes sense but what extra information could be given other then "X item is missing art assets."

Beyond this it's also my gripe with ESO beta and beta's in general. The point of a beta test is to test the game and find bugs, you're there to test and improve the game ready for release. However beta testing has now become an incentive to test the game early, get reward items for being there etc.
None of that encourages a player to test and play the beta for the improvement of the game but for their own benefits in rewards or early access to test.

CaptainObvious · March 2015

They would have to think of a thresholds of usefulness both on how critical the fix is and how easy the fix is to reproduce. Otherwise, you would have the other problem of too many, but useless reports with people waiting to be rewarded.

1. I would imagine most bug reports don't come with reasonable reproduction steps.

2. The utility of the fix depending on how critical it is.

I put in a bug report detailing that the crafting writ station in now what appears to be all 3 campaign V2 areas cannot be interacted with.

Definitely a bug, easy to reproduce, but not very critical since the solution is to just go to belkarth or somewhere else to get the writ. So not high on the bounty list.

It would take a good amount of effort to come up with a fair reward system. Still, would encourage people to report more possibly.

Blockz888 · March 2015

I think you could easily set up a reward system makes it impossible to exploit it.
And rewarding enough that you would make the effort to report. There no such thing as boxes when it comes programming.

I see a lot of bugs in the game that I simply don't report because ZOS happiness is not a priority. You could say smooth gameplay as result of sending that report is my reward but in the short term for average player that is not true. It was likely my unlucky day to find that bug so I wont bother and two actually I dont get anything for reporting so why do it?Im too busy trying have fun, nothing fun about reporting a bug? Everything I get from ZOS has been decided before that bug existed and does't change because of a bug. So there is no great motivation to report unless if im a nice guy or in a good mood.

Simply I think it would just accelerate fixes.

Egonieser · March 2015

Turelus wrote: »

I understand the idea behind this but I also feel it's obscuring the point of bug reporting.

Bug reports should be filed when a bug is found so it is fixed and everyone's reward is a smoother gaming experience. To introduce rewards encourages players to go out looking for bug or finding false bugs to report so they can get their monthly reward.

What's wrong with people going out of their way to find bugs? If it is legit and contributes to fixing the game so everyone has a better game, why not?
People who get paid to find bugs and report them in the office aren't really doing their jobs as we all can see, so why not let the community in?
Sure, the rewards should be menial and just "fluff" as a thank you gift, but i don't think this is a bad idea.

And if a person decides to pass the bug on to a friend so he can get the reward... Why not? The more people report it, the better (faster) the problem might be identified and fixed.
I personally have no problem if someone gets rewarded and i get a better quality game in return. I don't care why or how this was done - i care about the results. Anything that speeds the process is a bonus.

nimander99 · March 2015

We were rewarded for bug reporting... it was called the Loyalty Program, duh!

Grim13 · March 2015

^This

Also, Zeni cannot even be bothered to listen to the players reporting bugs on the bloody, PTS... Why would they go much further than that by rewarding the reporting of bugs!?

AshySamurai · March 2015

Rly? Why not to use search? It was discussed so many times. And so many different possible rewards. Here is an example.PTS Testing rewards

Moonshadow66 · March 2015

I reported so many bugs already and had uncountable email conversations with the Customer Support that it almost feels like we're pen-pals, but the only thing I would appreciate (call it reward or whatever) is the game to be fixed. I still can't actually play it since update 6, the loading screen issue has not been solved yet. So, I don't need a reward, I just want to play the game.

Kragorn · March 2015

Blockz888 wrote: »

Just thought of something that could be valuable to ZOS. Players should be rewarded for reporting bugs and especially a bug that is legit.

The reward is getting the bug fixed .. it never ceases to amaze me how society these days is full of people who think they need to be rewarded for doing 'the right thing', however that expresses itself in a given situation.

Blockz888 · March 2015

Kragorn wrote: »

Blockz888 wrote: »

Just thought of something that could be valuable to ZOS. Players should be rewarded for reporting bugs and especially a bug that is legit.

The reward is getting the bug fixed .. it never ceases to amaze me how society these days is full of people who think they need to be rewarded for doing 'the right thing', however that expresses itself in a given situation.

Exactly my point, society never does anything because it is right unfortunately.. that is were we are at right now.Until we change only then is changing the system worth it. Right now a reward system is more valuable because the majority is not right based but reward based.

If ZOS doesnt care about what the players think then they in for a loss on there behalf.. they really should be smart because technically we are their bosses. Without the players support the game will lose its chance to be decent. It may survive but will it thrive?

MW2K · March 2015

In Anarchy Online, there are many places in game named after players who assisted the dev team with various bugs and anomalies.

Just one idea for a reward.

Blockz888 · March 2015

PeterRJG wrote: »

In Anarchy Online, there are many places in game named after players who assisted the dev team with various bugs and anomalies.

Just one idea for a reward.

Thats a cool idea

baratron · March 2015

CaptainObvious wrote: »

1. I would imagine most bug reports don't come with reasonable reproduction steps.

2. The utility of the fix depending on how critical it is.

I always run out of space in the /bug system. Only 4 lines of text isn't enough considering you need to type in where you are, what happened, what you'd expect to happen... It would be nice if your character's location was automatically added to the report so you didn't need to try to explain where you are, especially if you're reporting a broken bit of scenery (such as those rocks in Tempest Island which trap characters to the point where you need to teleport to a Guild mate to get out).