Why does Blizzard even have the PTR or Betas?

[VexxedFox]

It’s quite apparent that they do not listen to feedback or information from the players that take their time out to test the content. This has been true for years, one that comes into focus is Feral Druids at the start of WoD.

People shouted over and over that they were far too strong, could heal to max while still doing a shit ton of damage in PvP and were just godlike. When the testers constantly reported it to Blizzard the feedback that was received was: “Our internal numbers show differently, we can do some tuning.” The game still launched with the current state of Druids just being wrecking machines and it took MONTHS for any adjustments to be made. This was something that was known in Beta and shown over and over.

This was true in Legion as well, Blizzard was warned over and over about the Legendary system in Alpha and how some of the items were BIS and gamebreaking for classes that would separate the haves from the have-nots dramatically. Again, Blizzard didn’t listen and launched the game with the current state of legendaries. Yes, there have been tweaks along the way to help balance some of the legendaries but some still make dramatic play style differences that can make a large DPS differences in certain classes (and this shit is RNG on top of RNG to get the legendary. I have 3 and 2 of them are “utility” ones that are useless).

This doesn’t include the quests lines that were broken in Beta, reported, and still not fixed at launch and blatantly ignored.

So why does Blizzard even give us a PTR or Beta? Is it to make us feel better about ourselves that we are “helping” or to keep us playing with the carrot on the stick in front of us?

I’m just confused why offer it if you’re not going to actually take the feedback.

[Deleted]

Just to annoy you personally.

[dicertification]

Legion is a giant beta. Almost more class changes during the xpac than at the 7.0 patch.

[Kokolums]

I cant think of a single developer ever that used beta feedback very well.

[Kynario]

Betas and the PTR are for detecting bugs and (potentially game-breaking) exploits. Player feedback related to likes/dislikes is rarely taken into account.

[rda]

A nice Ion-style answer: "we do take feedback, there is just too much of it and so it might seem to you, our dear customer, that we do not take it. But be assured that we take it, we care a lot, bla bla bla".

A real answer: they do PTR/betas for two reasons now.

Reason 1: because the development process has to be structured in some way and in particular it has to have milestones, which play a key role in planning, for example.

Reason 2: particularly betas they publish mostly to tell everyone that they are making progress. The few guys that actually check and report bugs to no avail / see how little progress there actually is sometimes are irrelevant in the big picture. It's the much more numerous guys who don't use PTR, get hyper from pretty pictures, and conclude from a stream of builds that things are fine.

[VexxedFox]

Betas and the PTR are for detecting bugs and (potentially game-breaking) exploits. Player feedback related to likes/dislikes is rarely taken into account.

There was an entire quest chain broken in the Beta and the launched with the quest chain broken on live. That’s the definition of detecting and reporting a bug that was not fixed and that was not feedback. The entire point of the beta and they ignored it.

[Lochton]

Even though some might not believe it, the PTR is offered for testing through a current expansion while the beta is for future expansions. Believe it or not, data from those are used by the company to some extend. As well as used for detection of bugs by repeat use, or the likes.

And not every shred of feedback is used, we know, it is common in the gaming business. As well, not every shred of feedback is useful.

[Saucerian]

Because "beta" means early access and hype building. Has for quite a while actually, and not just for Blizzard.

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

Dude get over yourself. You are a moron if you think the beta doesn't have a purpose and almost equally so with the PTR.
Go look at early MoP, or Legion beta videos. Most of the shit wasn't even in and half of it wasn't working. Just because you ran into one thing that remained bugged doesn't make you win this argument.

The ACTUAL problem here is now that they are pushing content out so fast they are making it months ahead of it being tested, so the feedback we give CAN'T be taken. Its a serious flaw with the way things are being done but of course regular content that needs hotfixes is better than less content overall. Considering most of these things are hotfixed the day they are derived as well, there is no reason to complain.

But if you are seriously trying to say they can release an entire expansion without a beta test of it you should leave these forums.

[VexxedFox]

Dude get over yourself. You are a moron if you think the beta doesn't have a purpose and almost equally so with the PTR.
Go look at early MoP, or Legion beta videos. Most of the shit wasn't even in and half of it wasn't working. Just because you ran into one thing that remained bugged doesn't make you win this argument.

The ACTUAL problem here is now that they are pushing content out so fast they are making it months ahead of it being tested, so the feedback we give CAN'T be taken. Its a serious flaw with the way things are being done but of course regular content that needs hotfixes is better than less content overall. Considering most of these things are hotfixed the day they are derived as well, there is no reason to complain.

But if you are seriously trying to say they can release an entire expansion without a beta test of it you should leave these forums.

So your response wasn’t to address the issues I presented but instead to make an excuse for them and berate me.

I envy them people that will get the phone call that you killed yourself.

[Heladys]

As you've been told but no doubt ignored, it's primarily about catching game-breaking bugs and squashing as many of them as possible. Game design issues are on a longer fix timeline for what should be obvious reasons, so even when they are actually looking for feedback, it's a slower delivery on turnaround.

[VexxedFox]

Dude get over yourself. You are a moron if you think the beta doesn't have a purpose and almost equally so with the PTR.
Go look at early MoP, or Legion beta videos. Most of the shit wasn't even in and half of it wasn't working. Just because you ran into one thing that remained bugged doesn't make you win this argument.

The ACTUAL problem here is now that they are pushing content out so fast they are making it months ahead of it being tested, so the feedback we give CAN'T be taken. Its a serious flaw with the way things are being done but of course regular content that needs hotfixes is better than less content overall. Considering most of these things are hotfixed the day they are derived as well, there is no reason to complain.

But if you are seriously trying to say they can release an entire expansion without a beta test of it you should leave these forums.

So your responses is to berate me, insult me, and completely ignore the three small examples (of the many that there are) and then make an excuse for them.

Then top it all off by saying that I’m insinuating that there shouldn’t be a Beta at all (which isn’t even close to anything I said).

I envy the people in this world that will receive the phone call you finally offed yourself if this is how you react to people you disagree with.

[kalaratic]

they realized they could be lazy about class changes since it's such a low priority for them, so they just used the beta feedback threads to guide them for patch 7.x.5 changes. so technically they are using our feedback, but they implement it a year after it was given.

that way their bosses think they are excellent designers (when in reality they are worthless chimps) since they make positive class changes and look like they are "improving" gameplay throughout the expansion. it's a pretty scummy way to do your job, but i guess you gotta do what you gotta do to stay working at blizzard

[VexxedFox]

Dude get over yourself. You are a moron if you think the beta doesn't have a purpose and almost equally so with the PTR.
Go look at early MoP, or Legion beta videos. Most of the shit wasn't even in and half of it wasn't working. Just because you ran into one thing that remained bugged doesn't make you win this argument.

The ACTUAL problem here is now that they are pushing content out so fast they are making it months ahead of it being tested, so the feedback we give CAN'T be taken. Its a serious flaw with the way things are being done but of course regular content that needs hotfixes is better than less content overall. Considering most of these things are hotfixed the day they are derived as well, there is no reason to complain.

But if you are seriously trying to say they can release an entire expansion without a beta test of it you should leave these forums.

So you insult me, berate me, and yell at me whilst calling me names. You don’t address anything I pointed out with Blizzard ignoring the feedback but instead making an excuse for them saying “they take the feedback they just don’t have time!” You say “well it got fixed later” which isn’t acceptable when they had MONTHS to fix prior to it being a much larger issue for millions of people.

You then continue on to insinuate that I’m saying that there shouldn’t be a Beta, which isn’t close to what I said at all.

I envy the people in this world that will never know you existed or have to communicate with you if this is your first reaction to someone you disagree with.

[Kalcheus]

There was an entire quest chain broken in the Beta and the launched with the quest chain broken on live. That’s the definition of detecting and reporting a bug that was not fixed and that was not feedback. The entire point of the beta and they ignored it.

Do you know for sure that it was ignored? Or perhaps it was deemed a lower priority than other issues? Do you have access to their internal bug database?

[VexxedFox]

Do you know for sure that it was ignored? Or perhaps it was deemed a lower priority than other issues? Do you have access to their internal bug database?

It was hotfixed immediately after there was a major uproar on the forums that people couldn’t complete the quest blocking them from any progress in the expansion. This was reported over and over and over during the Beta (the forums that they scrub after it ends coincidentally too).

If it was major enough for them to hotfix after it went live then it should have been major enough to fix before launch. Stop making excuses.

[Kalcheus]

It was hotfixed immediately after there was a major uproar on the forums that people couldn’t complete the quest blocking them from any progress in the expansion. This was reported over and over and over during the Beta (the forums that they scrub after it ends coincidentally too).

If it was major enough for them to hotfix after it went live then it should have been major enough to fix before launch. Stop making excuses.

I'm not making excuses, I'm honestly questioning whether you have any idea how Q&A works. I'm guessing based on your tone and commentary, the answer is not at all.

[VexxedFox]

I'm not making excuses, I'm honestly questioning whether you have any idea how Q&A works. I'm guessing based on your tone and commentary, the answer is not at all.

I’m wondering if you know how they real world works.

If I’m working on a project and there is a critical error on it, my team tells me there is an error on it (multiple times and in multiple ways), and I still launch with that error, I lose my job.

Why should we hold them differently? This glitch was gamebreaking and made it so you couldn’t continue and should have had highest priority as it was a customer facing negative impact item.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

I’m wondering if you know how they real world works.

If I’m working on a project and there is a critical error on it, my team tells me there is an error on it (multiple times and in multiple ways), and I still launch with that error, I lose my job.

Why should we hold them differently? This glitch was gamebreaking and made it so you couldn’t continue and should have had highest priority as it was a customer facing negative impact item.

Ok what do you do if you have 1000's of errors and 10000's of people giving feed back some comply useless? If you really think that they don't fix any of the bugs people point out your nuts.