My testing experience goes all the way back to my very first MMO, EQOA. I like to be thoughtful and thorough with all testing. Finding bugs and providing feedback is actually a fulfilling experience. I have seen what happens when games aren't thoroughly tested and more than anything, I am driven by the desire to contribute toward making a better game in any way possible. When the first EQOA expansion came out, my entire guild was invited to beta test it. We had several players featured on the retail box when the expansion finally launched which is something I will never forget. I remember picking it up at Gamestop and telling the sales clerk that I knew several of the players and dev members on the box and he acted like I was stone cold nuts. I have reported a variety of game breaking exploits that range from trivializing content, item/currency duping, rapid leveling, etc. Whether it's in an actual testing environment or post-launch, I always shed a light on anything I find (or hear about) that could be damaging to the game, including tactics that some might consider "gray area" or "emergent gameplay" -- sometime there is a very fine line here and I think it's important to establish a set of guidelines that spells out what kind of behaviors or outcomes are deemed unacceptable.
Tested a few games over the years. I'm guessing at this point most avid MMO players have tested at least a couple games.
I tend to focus less on calculations (damage, mitigation, regeneration, stat/buff effectiveness, etc...) and more on actions. Falling through the world, getting stuck, places where mobs become broken (a caster can cast on them all day long while the mob stand there not doing anything), mob pathing problems/exploits, casting through walls/floors/ceilings, duplicating items or currency, merchant exploits, etc...
Basically, I look really hard for the things that really piss players off and turn them off to the game (falling through the world on live servers...) or things that some players could/would exploit during live that could significantly affect the game (XP exploits, duping, etc...).
Unless there is a specific focus/purpose assigned by the developers for certain sessions. But when I have free reign, definitely the stuff I mentioned. The math stuff and the calculations and what not... not so much my wheelhouse. :P
I keep answering these on Twitter and here...
I was a play tester for Microprose Software... that shows my age...
Since then I've been only involved in betas as 'the public', but I'm a lifelong role-player, gamer and software developer for a job, so I should be pretty good at testing!
When I'm playing normally (not in a testing phase) I am completely focused on improving my character's power. When my character is going to get wiped that makes my normal playstyle invalid so I tend to spend a lot of time trying to exploit game mechanics. It is the only time I can do it in good conscious...and I find it to be kind of fun.
I have found quite a lot of bugs testing in the past. From simple pathing exploits to ability/skill bugs to more major "fall through the world" and "crash the zone" type of bugs. It is kind of nice to feel like I'm not "wasting time" if I'm not focused on improving my character all of the time.
Within an hour or so of starting alpha testing in Vanguard I crashed the zone lol. Hopefully we are slightly more stable at this point than that was...but I find it fun to see what can be found.
I have beta ((and alpha) tested many games since EQ1 (which I did not beta). A few games should have been in alpha when they said "beta", but there ya have it. If the devs tell the beta team "today we are going to test this mechanic, in this zone, using levels etc. etc. then I will, naturally, do as requested. Otherwise, I try to get away from where the main body of testers are and try to find stuff. Exploits, buggy geography (falling through the world kinda thing or getting stuck). However, I will be honest and say that I also do a fair share of "just playing." Heck, by doing that I usually would find plenty of bugs to report.
Larr said:Step 1. Learn the intended game
Step 2. Break things
Step 3. Exploit everything I can
Step 4. Role play the game as the worst type of gamer
Step 5. Reroll, reroll, reroll.
Step 6. Launch and play normally, continue to submit tickets
This sounds eerily similar to my first attempt at college up to joining the Navy
Well I would say first if theres specifics needed testing thats what I do, then I become a hunter.. playing the game organically and seeing what I can find thats broken and seeing if I can find a work around... or glitch to make it work..
Back when EQ2 launched, I didnt really know there were public testers... EQ2 Launched before it should have as there was little to no end content and what was there was mostly broken. Kool thing was they tracked server and world firsts that you could look up online and see you own stuff as well as others. I had a small crew of 3 friends (Wiz, Tank and Rogue) that would grab a pick up healer and just travel everywhere trying to level fast and seek out quests and dungeons. We were the first to complete ALOT of end game quests and a bunch that were broken. Being that we would show up on the leaderboards with drops no one else had and from quests that were broken we had people from other servers creating characters on our servers to ask us how to do what we did... we even had DEVs approach us thinking we might be hacking but we would recreate the glitches we found in game that allowed us to continue quests that were broken.
It was pretty kool and we felt like bigshots... lol. I believe I was 7th or 8th Wiz worldwide to reach maxx level and probably woulda been 1st if we were more focussed on leveling only lol. So I like to seek out not only broken stuff but see if I can break broke stuff and make it work in an unanticipiated way lol.
Probably a lousy one. I would try something that is supposed to be normal in game and if the results did not occur as they should, I would think it was intentional and try other ways to achieve the same end.
If it still was impossible or did not generate the desired result, I would assume that I had missed something somewhere. I would read into it many things that might not be true (he said rock, so I will go to the continent 2 lakes over is all rocks! and see if I am inspired or discover something) and then go on and do something else, never saying a word as I would think I was in error, somehow and would try to figure it out later- lol.
Plus I wouldn't want to embarrass myself in front of the devs on the misguided assumption that they would remember everything about me and what I said and make judgments as to my true character so if they came back in a somehting else or a regular player, they would seek me out and provide hidden benefits to me for which I am not immediately aware because of the good-will and beneficence I showed earlier and naturally without prompting or aware that they were devs. Like , "The group broke up, but I think I wil look over there- Hey! that's a nifty dagger!" because the group member was a secret dev and they planted that dagger so I could find it assuming i would turn the corner right instead of left.
Hi Kilisin,
I have lots of experience with games and MMOs. Born 1980, raised on NES, SNES, and PC. Started BBS, went to Everquest then WoW, did all the MOBAs, etc.
I was a beta tester for World of Warcraft, which is why I left Everquest. I spent a lot of time going off the beaten track and exploring. I also looked for how a player could optimize their gameplay or potentially exploit leveling.
Lastly, sensory matters to me, so it's more about the senses that I care about. Having a heart beat track play when someone is low on hp with dampening of the vision, fear cast on a player would force first person and lose control, or the audio and visual effects that would allow others to know when to cast spells.
**moving hands like i am playing an accordion**
"Nobody can do it like me, nobody, nobody can do it like me... honestly".
"There's nobody who knows testing more than me".
"In the history of games no one has ever known games better than I do".
"No one will be bigger and better at the testing than I am".
"No body loves the lore more than I do".
"No body builds firewalls (with wizards) better than I do, its true".
If you read between the lines you might see that I am actually admitting I am a terrible tester
Jokes, i'll be reporting everything problematic that comes my way! Doing my usual thing of constantly trying to jump onto inatimate objects and getting stuck on the walls , tables & pots etc, falling through the floor and world.
Comming from a IT background and testing software I would normally play the game and see if sonething out of the ordinary. Did a bit of testing in Vanguard SOH and my main bug I found was where I keep falling through the world :)
Unless specified to look at something in particular, it would be a case of just playing and reporting anything of concern.
I will be in Alpha to help if needed.
Only ever tested a few beta's here and there. I dont specifically go out looking for bugs, thats tedious work that requires a paycheck and maybe some employee benefits lol.
I do try to report any bug I come across with as much detail as I can. Maybe mess around with it for a while to see what specific actions trigger it or if there is any way around it or if I can crash the server with it.
hi Kilisin, i've beta tested a few games. i try to play the game like it's a regular, finished version of the game and then report what i like and didn't like. Am i the best tester...no...will you like 100% of the feedback i give, i doubt it, but i will tell you what I think and you and the Devs will do to the game as you will and whatever small part i may have played, that is the tester i am. I'll just report anything that seems abnormal....wait, i'd be reporting myself then...well, with the game. you knew that. :)
Only done very limited game testing. I have tested other stuff though. I'm probably more a bug-hunter than testing things like UI or gameplay.
In game or virtual world environments, unless there's a particular suggestion or guidance I usually just explore until something catches my attention. At that point I will begin poking and experimenting to figure out the nature and behaviors. Once I have an idea of how it works I may begin playing with it and seeing what kind of limits there are. I like testing limits. Bonus points if I manage to break something as a result lol.
More seriously, I tend to be quite tenacious about analyzing and testing something before making a report. If side effects or further bugs appear I'll delve into those as well.
I have beta tested for GW1 and WoW. It was GW1 where I got to do the meat and potatoes testing of specific areas, skills, etc. In WoW it was the last beta and I basically just played the game and reported any bugs I came across. I'm not the greatest beta tester to be honest, I play the game and have fun instead of hunting for problems though I do give detailed reports when I stumble onto something. I've never been in an alpha test and that is probably for the best heh.
I wish I was a good and dedicated tester, but to be honest I already have a main job and playing is here to relieve any stress remaining while enjoying my time.
I end up playing pretty normally, but reporting anything I cross by that ends up beeing a bug. In the end, most people will experience the game at a normal scale, and thoses bugs will be the first they will encounter.
Spending hours trying to trigger some rare bug is not worth the shot for me.
I've tested a handfull of games, mostly open beta or towards the end of the closed beta, so things are mostly working by that point and it seems like they are more load testing servers than specific things in game. So in that context what I'm primarily looking at is the User Experience. What barriers (if any) are there that are impeding my experience of the game? Do I need a 30 minute course on how to navigate around for basic game functions, or does it present it to me in a logical fashion? Controlls/menu etc should be relatively effortless and intuitive to use. And obviously while I'm running around I'm keeping an eye out for technical bugs as well, but in the past by the time I've started playing there is already a fair amount of polish to the game.
I have primarily tested MMORPG however have tested a few 4x and one online RTS. The MMORPG's i have tested begin with Everquest, DAOC, Eve online, Earth and Beyond, Warhammer Online, Rift, The Secret World, Champions Online and Neverwinter.
What kind of tester am I...that depends on the stage of testing and the development team. Was in the early alpha for DAOC was able to solve/reproduce several bugs or so called bugs which were mentioned by testers. Mostly through observation i discovered what actually was occuring. For example caster testers were complaining that as soon as they stopped couldn't cast. What was happening from a run as you stopped there was a small shuffle of the feet of the avatar and these folks were trying to cast prior to the complete stop. It looked like you were stopped however until that foot shuffle actually ended you would not be able to cast. My specialty is probably in testing each and every class and giving objective feedback. I spend a lot of time on the beta boards and when folks start crying so and so class needs a buff or nerf i test those classes and give objective feedback. I found much of the time especially later in the open beta many of the testers had agendas for particular classes which were unjustified by the data compiled while playing that particular class.
I have tested several mmos Eso being most recent. I was a tester for Rust, Gw2 ,and Runescape
My Positives at testing.
I play the game like i would if i just started with no map i will be checking out alot of hidden areas and exploring.
I like trying to climb up everything mountains, houses, towers ect if something ingames hidden i am likely to find it.
In mmos i tend to fall into areas with no way out more then once ive had to contact developers to teleport me or kill me to respawn i have a knack for getting myself into places other people will never find i get stuck in objects and rocks.
My negatives at testing.
I have not done much underwater searching in mmos.
I very rarely notice the tiny things like flickering since i rarely play on max graphics.