Test Cluster invites - a very good decision- any inputs from the testers?

[0_The_F00l]

EDIT:

So the First test is over,

Any juicy tidbits?

 

Original:

Just saw the request for participation by lottery. 

 

 

(and of course I am in) 

I gotta say I am more hopeful with this one single act than I have been for other talks or streams in the recent months with regards to the game direction. 

I have been very critical and downright harsh (though I believe I was still fair) in many of my comments and posts due to the state the game was heading in. 

But now with an actual chance to be part of the machine, I feel we can direct our energies where they can do more good than arguing with each other over what should have happened. 

No matter who is picked I am certain all our goals are the same, to ensure the game remains fun and enjoyable. Though what entails fun is always going to be subjective 🙂

What are you thoughts on this ? 

Edited April 26, 2020 by 0_The_F00l
test one done

[(NSW)Greybones]

Can you link to the video or post where this is referenced?

[NekroArts]

2 minutes ago, (NSW)Greybones said:

Can you link to the video or post where this is referenced?

 

[NovusNova]

Hopefully will help smooth updates over with additional eyes on hard to find bugs that might only happen with specific PC setups or network connections.

Though I would caution people who get added to the test cluster to not expect total rewrites of stuff that they don't like when they test it. Usually when it gets to QA (aka testers) the items that are being tested, unless otherwise specified, are mostly feature complete with a focus on bugs, game breaking issues and balancing rather than testing and then getting DE to back to the drawing board and completely change the whole item in question.

 

11 minutes ago, (NSW)Greybones said:

Can you link to the video or post where this is referenced?

Thread: https://forums.warframe.com/topic/1187004-public-test-cluster-opt-in-key-lottery/

[Miser_able]

here's hoping this goes over better than the design council...

I do wonder though who the "pre-selected members of the community" mentioned in the post are. something tells me if its partners that's gonna piss off A LOT of people.

[0_The_F00l]

4 minutes ago, Miser_able said:

here's hoping this goes over better than the design council...

I do wonder though who the "pre-selected members of the community" mentioned in the post are. something tells me if its partners that's gonna piss off A LOT of people.

The council feels like it's gonna go the way of the gotl, 

I assume there are already some testers, they would be an obvious addition considering they already have the experience. 

9 minutes ago, NovusNova said:

.Though I would caution people who get added to the test cluster to not expect total rewrites of stuff that they don't like when they test it. Usually when it gets to QA (aka testers) the items that are being tested, unless otherwise specified, are mostly feature complete with a focus on bugs, game breaking issues and balancing rather than testing and then getting DE to back to the drawing board and completely change the whole item in question.

Yes that is a given, changes if any will be minor, then again people do expect things to be more than they actually are this is not for them. 

But I am more hopeful that some of the "common sense" things with regards to gameplay don't need to be "fixed" after an update is live due to this. 

Most experienced players would have seen limbo dominating the event if they knew about the game mechanics from a mile away. 

19 minutes ago, (NSW)Greybones said:

Can you link to the video or post where this is referenced?

I will add it to the main post. 

[(NSW)Greybones]

Thanks 👍

Hrmm. Within 5 hours, there are over 2k posts. 🤔 A whole bunch of brand-new accounts created just to say “Count me in”

My thoughts on this?

I think that many want Warframe to be bent to their desires, and this Public Test Cluster is their foot in the door. A chosen player will most likely have high expectations to influence Warframe in a direction they want to see it go, and they’ll feel like they deserve to be listened to when they start suggesting additional changes.

They’re also dead wrong. Whatever dreams they have of using the PTC to alter the course of Warframe beyond the scope that DE sets, those will need to be set aside.

 

To be honest, I have concerns. This is an incarnation of what players have been asking for in various shapes and forms, yet I’ve seen the miles that players stretch from an inch.

Can’t deny that additional testing is good though. Glad to see it’s a thing now, and I might well be pleasantly proven wrong about the chosen players.

[vanaukas]

I think this a good step to recover the lost trust from the community towards the devs. To have a healthy game, community and devs needs to be connected and in good terms (with true critic instead tantrums, with more communication from the dev side). We are all humans and we all make mistakes, the importnt thing is learn from them and I genuinelly hope they take a right path to give a solution to all the drama surrounding the game.

[0_The_F00l]

12 minutes ago, (NSW)Greybones said:

Hrmm. Within 5 hours, there are over 2k posts. 🤔 A whole bunch of brand-new accounts created just to say “Count me in”

I am hoping there is a filter, it's always good to have some new player tests to get a feel on how new players would fare in any launch. A nice 25% new 25% vet and 50% in the middle (based on in mission play time I think) should give a decent spread for good analytics. 

16 minutes ago, (NSW)Greybones said:

I think that many want Warframe to be bent to their desires, and this Public Test Cluster is their foot in the door. A chosen player will most likely have high expectations to influence Warframe in a direction they want to see it go, and they’ll feel like they deserve to be listened to when they start suggesting additional changes.

Players wanting the game to be as they want? What makes you think that 😛

/s

I don't think testers have that kind of influence though they may have volunteered thinking that way, probably need to better set their expectations. 

21 minutes ago, (NSW)Greybones said:

To be honest, I have concerns. This is an incarnation of what players have been asking for in various shapes and forms, yet I’ve seen the miles that players stretch from an inch.

That will always be the case, hopefully with a properly managed set it can be better controlled. 

26 minutes ago, (NSW)Greybones said:

.

Can’t deny that additional testing is good though. Glad to see it’s a thing now, and I might well be pleasantly proven wrong about the chosen players.

Absolutely. 

[(NSW)Greybones]

40 minutes ago, 0_The_F00l said:

I am hoping there is a filter, it's always good to have some new player tests to get a feel on how new players would fare in any launch. A nice 25% new 25% vet and 50% in the middle (based on in mission play time I think) should give a decent spread for good analytics. 

I see eye-to-eye with you on many of the things you said except this quoted bit.

When I observed that a bunch of new Forum accounts had been created solely for the purpose of posting “Count me in”, I hadn’t actually considered it could be interpreted as a “Hope there’s a distribution solution”, though I can see how it was (and think it’s good food for thought for me personally)

It was mainly a curious observation; Where’d they come from? How’d they hear about this? What were their thoughts surrounding the PTC as they went through the process of setting up their Forum account? Will they ever use these accounts for anything else on the Forums? Will we now see an influx of new posters as some decide “Welp. Finally got on the forums, let’s see what’s up”? (etc.).

Not that I’m asking for answers for any of these, just some of the curiosity that went into the observation 😛 Hope that cleared up any potential misunderstanding 👍

Edited April 22, 2020 by (NSW)Greybones

[trst]

Assuming they do get usable feedback and bug testing out of it (which I doubt will happen for a long time unless DE culls useless members out of it) it can only be a good thing.

Though I hope it'll put things more into perspective for other players that DE does actually take and use feedback. But regardless of how it goes we'll have the chronic whiners turning blame onto the testers for not bug testing well enough or are ruining the game.

[ShirakawaNaoya]

It is good that DE finally made such decision after so many years. Hopefully it can further improve the quality prior the content went live. And during selection process it is best to cap them globally. Too much tester that origin from same cluster/region kinda moot the goal.

[rastaban75]

14 minutes ago, (NSW)Greybones said:

I see eye-to-eye with you on many of the things you said except this quoted bit.

When I observed that a bunch of new Forum accounts had been created solely for the purpose of posting “Count me in”, I hadn’t actually considered it could be interpreted as a “Hope there’s a distribution solution”, though I can see how it was (and think it’s good food for thought for me personally)

It was mainly a curious observation; Where’s they come from? How’d they hear about this? What were their thoughts surrounding the PTC as they went through the process of setting up their Forum account? Will they ever use these accounts for anything else on the Forums? Will we now see an influx of new posters as some decide “Welp. Finally got on the forums, let’s see what’s up”? (etc.).

Not that I’m asking for answers for any of these, just some of the curiosity that went into the observation 😛 Hope that cleared up any potential misunderstanding 👍

My guess is that the vast majority of the WF playerbase is silent when it comes to social media presence. Plenty of those people just browse (or lurk in) places like the forums, or reddit, or the wiki or even watch video from youtubers to gather information about the game but rarely participate in them actively for whatever reason. I can tell you that sometimes visiting the forums and reading the same old arguments that go round and round and round brings more aversion for the game to me than the actual problems in the game. There is always an aspect in social media presence that is problematic and that comes down to people being people i.e. it cannot be avoided.

Beta testing though? This is something that many people would love to take part in as there is no such social media interaction involved (or of it is, it's limited). If CD Project Red says tomorrow "beta testing opens for 5000 people" for the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 game thousands upon thousands of players would dive in to get that opportunity, even if they have never posted on the official forums.

I have to stress though, this is just my guess on the whole situation.

[CeePee]

Weird choice opening and closing the thread while EU sleeps but guess they only wanted players close to their timezone and working hours.

[.Txmpest]

I do not understand why such a small number of people want to take a beta test,  devs do not want to load the beta server too much ?

[DrivaMain]

I have concerns for players leaking upcoming content. Hopefully it works out. This a good step to try earn back the community's trust.

[0_The_F00l]

6 minutes ago, CeePee said:

Weird choice opening and closing the thread while EU sleeps but guess they only wanted players close to their timezone and working hours.

Guess so, it does feel a little off to have such a short window.

I have a habit of checking some of the latest staff replies, I would have complete missed it if I didn't wake up a little early today. 

[(NSW)MasterJ93]

48 minutes ago, CeePee said:

Weird choice opening and closing the thread while EU sleeps but guess they only wanted players close to their timezone and working hours.

I'm assuming that this is just a test to see how this system would work out (as this is their first time doing a public test cluster instead of an internal one). If they go all in and the test cluster can't handle it for whatever reason, it's just going to do more harm than good. So they should start off small, then figure out if there are any change with the test cluster in order for it to work better, fix the issues, and then grow from there.

That said, I'm coming from an app development perspective, so maybe I'm wrong and going all in on all regions is the way to go in game development, but it's just a guess.

Edited April 22, 2020 by (NSW)MasterJ93

[Nemesis]

Closing the thread for EU is one thing, but the thread closed 12 hrs too early... Why did that happen? And the excuse of "we got enough people" doesn't apply because it's random. Otherwise they would have stated "the first 500 will get keys".

Edited April 22, 2020 by Nemesis

[MPonder]

And what will people gain for doing it.

[Venandi1]

pretty suprised they closed it early im EU play daily basis and would be a good candidate annoying to wake up and not being able to participate in the lottery

[(NSW)Greybones]

6 minutes ago, MPonder said:

And what will people gain for doing it.

What do you reckon they’ll get? 🤔 

[Pinegulf]

7 minutes ago, MPonder said:

And what will people gain for doing it.

Better game?

[0_The_F00l]

22 minutes ago, MPonder said:

And what will people gain for doing it.

On an individual level? Nothing I suppose.This is  Probably not for those that ask this question. 

 

From a game perspective less bugs and better QA. 

[schilds]

You gain the self satisfaction of being an officially recognised guinea pig, rather than an unrecognised "it's still in beta, u guys are testers for the real console release" guinea pig :-P.

On that note ... maybe in the long term this will enable simultaneous pc and console releases, followed by cross play? 😉