To the people testing the Alpha build for free

[Twelveplay]

Why do you do it?
Activision or blizzard or whatever has been doing this for 3-4 expansions now, making people test their game for free when QA is a highly paid job around the world ( well maybe not that much but it's still paid ) . Why are you people doing it for free instead of just letting them hire an actual QA team and stop releasing bullshit untested games ?
Is it that fun to play a bugged game just to see a new spell or class or whatever?
Also doesnt it ruin the new experience for you when it actually launches?

[TS26]

im guessing they do it because...its fun?

personally I dont like doing it in fear of it ruining the launch experience...but to each their own

[Defend]

Cause it's fun and I can give feedback on changes the community and I would like to see.

Next topic.

[Nzx]

Why do you do it?
Activision or blizzard or whatever has been doing this for 3-4 expansions now, making people test their game for free when QA is a highly paid job around the world ( well maybe not that much but it's still paid ) . Why are you people doing it for free instead of just letting them hire an actual QA team and stop releasing bullshit untested games ?
Is it that fun to play a bugged game just to see a new spell or class or whatever?
Also doesnt it ruin the new experience for you when it actually launches?

PTR has existed since literal Vanilla FYI

The Alpha most people play is nothing like paid, professional QA testing. No one is giving you a test script, no one is telling you to follow a methodology, and it's not expected that you will stand in front of the same mob for 4 hours killing it with different abilities and under different conditions.

Also I don't know why I even bothered replying to this absolute brainlet take but here we are. Thanks for costing me brain cells I guess.

[Twelveplay]

Cause it's fun and I can give feedback on changes the community and I would like to see.

Next topic.

Ye but what i'm saying is people are getting paid to do this, and you do it for free. I dunno if u have a job or are under 18 or in colllege or whatever , but i'm just trying to tell people that are testing an alpha build for free that there's actually QA jobs that offer a decent paying salary to do this. The fact that you and other people do it for free ( and probably worse than actual QA people ) is kinda silly. Enjoy your fun i guess

[schwarzkopf]

Ye but what i'm saying is people are getting paid to do this, and you do it for free.

The issue is the name, technically - the external testing is beta testing (even though they call it alpha) - and beta testing is always done by end users keen to test out new features in software.

[Kathranis]

Ye but what i'm saying is people are getting paid to do this, and you do it for free. I dunno if u have a job or are under 18 or in colllege or whatever , but i'm just trying to tell people that are testing an alpha build for free that there's actually QA jobs that offer a decent paying salary to do this. The fact that you and other people do it for free ( and probably worse than actual QA people ) is kinda silly. Enjoy your fun i guess

Playing an alpha or beta for your own enjoyment and clocking 8+ hours a day doing QA on a game chosen for you is not the same experience. A lot of the people in the alpha don't even do bug reports, they just flag errors with the quick report tool.

[Twelveplay]

PTR has existed since literal Vanilla FYI

The Alpha most people play is nothing like paid, professional QA testing. No one is giving you a test script, no one is telling you to follow a methodology, and it's not expected that you will stand in front of the same mob for 4 hours killing it with different abilities and under different conditions.

Also I don't know why I even bothered replying to this absolute brainlet take but here we are. Thanks for costing me brain cells I guess.

I mean if u think it's brainless then whatever , keep doing your thing. You think you guys testing a game that is incomplete and finding different stuff and reporting bugs isnt similar to QA? It's not paid so yeah they shouldn't give u a script. But they give u a build. They tell u we changed this that etc -> test it

[Lolites]

Activision or blizzard or whatever has been doing this for 3-4 expansions now

did you just wake up? bcs players testing is a thing since vanila... and its not like with any product its different having customers test product is like the very basics in product development...
also, if you think they dont have internal testing before you are childlishly naive, public testing is a thing bcs they need WAY MORE people at this stage of testing that they could possibly employ

[Nerph-]

I mean if u think it's brainless then whatever , keep doing your thing. You think you guys testing a game that is incomplete and finding different stuff and reporting bugs isnt similar to QA? It's not paid so yeah they shouldn't give u a script. But they give u a build. They tell u we changed this that etc -> test it

Why do you even care?

[Twelveplay]

did you just wake up? bcs players testing is a thing since vanila... and its not like with any product its different having customers test product is like the very basics in product development...
also, if you think they dont have internal testing before you are childlishly naive, public testing is a thing bcs they need WAY MORE people at this stage of testing that they could possibly employ

I never said there isn't a QA team at Blizzard. What i'm saying is ( if u read ) the past 2-3 expansions Alpha testing has been a thing.
From Vanilla untill , let's say Legion , there was always Beta testing , correct. BETA as in a for that's almost ready to launch and that just needed a few patches here and there , few visual bug fixes etc and a general population feedback.
This stage that people are testing is like the 6th build of Dragonflight and it should have like 30 more at least to go ( i just made up this number im not sure how they work but u get the point ).

Again, if ur happy doing shit for free , do your thing. I'm not flaming u , i'm just generally curious.

Also if your answers are something like cursing at me or calling me brainless or whatever, please go see some sunlight and do some exercise. It's good for you

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Why do you even care?

General curiosity as to why people chose to do something for free where they can actually get paid for it.
Also if more people stopped doing it they would be forced to hire more people to do QA and the end result would be much better imo,

[s_bushido]

I find it hard to believe that someone who cares enough to post crap like this would actually believe that QA testing is nothing more than "playing the game like you would normally," as you've implied here.

[Twelveplay]

What a weird thread.

Why do you play basketball for free when there are people that get paid a lot of money to play it? Do you hate money or something?

You do realise that it's not the same thing right?
The skill and effort and talent required to play a professional sport compared to people with no degree and no experience whatesoever learning to press some buttons and send feedback if they work or not is not really the same thing.
I haven't seen a decent comment here today.
Are people on MMO champion ever able to actually discuss something without insulting everything ?

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I find it hard to believe that someone who cares enough to post crap like this would actually believe that QA testing is nothing more than "playing the game like you would normally," as you've implied here.

Ok sir, QA is not actually playing the game. As you say

[Lolites]

From Vanilla untill , let's say Legion , there was always Beta testing , correct.

there was also alpha testing since vanila done by players, it was just smaller and less "on the eyes", but it was a thing... you can even find some videos of it on yt (or other sites) if you actualy care...

[Relapses]

You do realise that it's not the same thing right?
The skill and effort and talent required to play a professional sport compared to people with no degree and no experience whatesoever learning to press some buttons and send feedback if they work or not is not really the same thing.
I haven't seen a decent comment here today.
Are people on MMO champion ever able to actually discuss something without insulting everything ?

You're the one judging people for having the audacity to play a fucking video game without getting paid. Here's an idea: The next time you get an alpha invite send Blizzard an e-mail with your hourly rate and see how fast they ignore you.

[s_bushido]

Ok sir, QA is not actually playing the game. As you say

Correct. It's not playing the game. It's trying to break the game, and giving detailed reports on what you found and how to recreate it so that the devs can address it.

Alpha and beta access like people get in WoW is just a glorified demo. There for hype and advertisement more than anything. Does this really need to be explained?

[Twelveplay]

Anybody with half-decent common sense could figure out this question you are asking on their own in a matter of moments, yet here you are.

Why do people donate blood when you can get paid to do it? Why do people have sex for free when they can get paid to do it? Why do people moderate chats when others get paid to do it?

Haha ok sir . Enjoy your life comparing QA to all this stuff

[VinceVega]

Why do you do it?
Activision or blizzard or whatever has been doing this for 3-4 expansions now, making people test their game for free when QA is a highly paid job around the world ( well maybe not that much but it's still paid ) . Why are you people doing it for free instead of just letting them hire an actual QA team and stop releasing bullshit untested games ?
Is it that fun to play a bugged game just to see a new spell or class or whatever?
Also doesnt it ruin the new experience for you when it actually launches?

This is not something Blizzard specific.
Ever heard of early access? Nowadays you even PAY to play a unfinished product.

Also Blizz alpha is basically a normal beta.

Also also: fun

[munkeyinorbit]

Haha ok sir . Enjoy your life comparing QA to all this stuff

Did you miss out in the alpha and decide to do this rant thread? You got your answer in the first reply. No one needs to be paid to do alpha. No one is getting used by blizzard. It's all a choice and everyone does it because they think it will be fun.

[MoanaLisa]

Ye but what i'm saying is people are getting paid to do this, and you do it for free. I dunno if u have a job or are under 18 or in colllege or whatever , but i'm just trying to tell people that are testing an alpha build for free that there's actually QA jobs that offer a decent paying salary to do this. The fact that you and other people do it for free ( and probably worse than actual QA people ) is kinda silly. Enjoy your fun i guess

They want people who can and will break the game through their inexperience with it. There's more than one kind of QA and it's possible to take several approaches simultaneously. One of the worst single approaches is to hire and use only a regular QA team who will be less likely to do things to break the game. The QA team has already been heavily involved with testing to get it to the alpha state. As for why people do it? Curiosity, being first to find things, some people truly wish to help to make the game better. It's their time, their interest.