Do you think under MS the WoW PTR survives?

[Miffinat0r]

We all know that Activision Blizzard had the PTR because they didn't want to pay for QA testers.

Blizzard always had a PTR server because it's a way to save money for QA.

Now if the deal goes through Blizz will have influx of more resources, my hope is MS would do away with the PTR and keep everything tight lipped until a global release, like every other game.

[Kralljin]

No (or yes, in like, they'll still be doing a PTR).

The fact MS bought Activision Blizzard might undermine that a bit, but as Bill Gates said on the Simpsons:
I didn't get rich by writing a lot of checks.

Where does this belief come from that because MS will own Blizzard in the future, they'll suddenly swim in money?
Disregarding that the possibility of mismanagement of resources within Blizzard is also entirely on the table - and i doubt that's solely on Bobby as well.

[Kiivar86]

Didn't 343i do a bunch of public testing for the Halo Master Chief Collection games on Steam?

I don't see why it would change in Blizzard.

[MoanaLisa]

I imagine that public testing on the PTR will continue. Not sure we need separate threads for anything that someone can think of that might change.

We have no idea whatsoever if, when or what sort of resources will flood into Blizzard. Too much of something is often worse than not enough.

[rhorle]

Now if the deal goes through Blizz will have influx of more resources, my hope is MS would do away with the PTR and keep everything tight lipped until a global release, like every other game.

So you want a buggy mess? Pretty much all MMO's have a test realm. Just don't read the news/fan sites and it is pretty easy to avoid most of the information that comes out during a PTR cycle.

[Vakir]

Ah, yes. Megaconglomerates. Known well for their...spending of money. Lol.

[Cosmic Janitor]

There's no reason to believe that Blizzard will change anything not monetization related to the game because of microsoft. Especially in this case the PTR is just going to save them money, even though I think they should really just man up and finally test their shit properly themselves. The premise here is complete nonsense.

[Sucralose]

I imagine it will but it would be nice if wow had its own actual testing team rather then crowd scouring the job

[Echo of Soul]

Hope not. Maybe they'll restrict addons too so that stuff like weak auras, DBM and damage meters get lost

[Miffinat0r]

So you want a buggy mess? Pretty much all MMO's have a test realm. Just don't read the news/fan sites and it is pretty easy to avoid most of the information that comes out during a PTR cycle.

Raids right now come out buggy still. Not sure why a PTR prevents this considering players aren't trained QA professionals.

[rhorle]

Raids right now come out buggy still. Not sure why a PTR prevents this considering players aren't trained QA professionals.

Bugs will always happen even with trained professionals. A test realm does offer more then just looking for bugs and is useful and not something that will go away any time soon.

[Wries]

I don't think the premise is entirely true here. The game is played by a multitude of people with different playstyles and goals on an ocean of different configurations and is flooded with addons from a bunch of external developers. The internal testing team would have to be huge and the consequences would be that *actual players* don't get the opportunity to voice their feedback on a bad change before it goes live.

You can be bitter and point out bad changes go live anyway but I bet there would be many more.

[Miffinat0r]

I don't think the premise is entirely true here. The game is played by a multitude of people with different playstyles and goals on an ocean of different configurations and is flooded with addons from a bunch of external developers. The internal testing team would have to be huge and the consequences would be that *actual players* don't get the opportunity to voice their feedback on a bad change before it goes live.

You can be bitter and point out bad changes go live anyway but I bet there would be many more.

I feel like this is just boiled down to the devil you know.

I just don't understand all this fear about change around the game, literally every argument I've seen has some claim it'll ruin the game. PTR doesn't offer the best way to QA check anything. It's untrained players playing the game, and then reporting feedback on their style of play, but bugs still get released at a higher rate than FF14 has on theirs.

Professionals>Untrained Fans.

[GreenJesus]

Bugs will always happen even with trained professionals. A test realm does offer more then just looking for bugs and is useful and not something that will go away any time soon.

Having 1 million people give feedback will just lead to being overwhelmed and unable to act on it or parse through the shit. There's QA groups that have labs with varying computers and setups and they are able to test much more professionally. 90% of the PTR users just want to get an edge or spoil themselves on the story and hog up resources.

FF14 doesn't have a PTR and there are rarely if any bugs on release. Meanwhile, WoW has a PTR and yet the raid designers are changing fights while the world first race is going mid-fight. One fight was completely changed where the leader's strat no longer worked and they basically had to start progression on it all over again.

[rhorle]

Having 1 million people give feedback will just lead to being overwhelmed and unable to act on it or parse through the shit. There's QA groups that have labs with varying computers and setups and they are able to test much more professionally. 90% of the PTR users just want to get an edge or spoil themselves on the story and hog up resources.

So why are test realms a staple for MMO's? Even New World added one to test things out before bringing them live. You are also assuming that you can't have both professionals and a PTR and I'm not sure why.

[GreenJesus]

So why are test realms a staple for MMO's? Even New World added one to test things out before bringing them live. You are also assuming that you can't have both professionals and a PTR and I'm not sure why.

And look how well that worked.... lol. New World proves my point exactly. They just want to market their game and develop a community for it before it launches.

[rhorle]

And look how well that worked.... lol. New World proves my point exactly.

That they improved a little after adding a test realm proves your point that test realms are worthless? Lol.

[Gaidax]

Clearly Microsoft gonna rush in and micromanage every last bloody thing there is. (/s for the sarcasm challenged)

You people really need to go and drink some water. No, Microsoft won't be rushing in guns blazing at every last thing WoW developers do to help themselves developing the game.

[Miffinat0r]

Clearly Microsoft gonna rush in and micromanage every last bloody thing there is. (/s for the sarcasm challenged)

You people really need to go and drink some water. No, Microsoft won't be rushing in guns blazing at every last thing WoW developers do to help themselves developing the game.

This doesn't make sense in the context of the thread though. Micromanage would imply MS is controlling every little thing. Instead look at it like Blizz's budget and resources are going to enlarge, and as a result can go back to developing the game with a more controlled internal process with better testing resources. That's not micromanaging, it's expanding the company.

[Onikaroshi]

We all know that Activision Blizzard had the PTR because they didn't want to pay for QA testers.

Blizzard always had a PTR server because it's a way to save money for QA.

Now if the deal goes through Blizz will have influx of more resources, my hope is MS would do away with the PTR and keep everything tight lipped until a global release, like every other game.

Blizzard has over 200 people in QA, that's not the reason for PTR.