Guild Wars 2

tbh ive long been sceptical of the wisdom in the lack of a proper test server and the disconnect that it brings between the player base and devs.

This latest patch highlights the issue once more, a proper test server would have enabled them to test ideas and get much needed feedback b4 going live and looking frankly amateur in terms of what the players want and enjoy.

the glaring mistake with the new dailies is making folk do activities they dont want to , plain and simple thats a stupid move. Nobody wants to be forced into grouping and trying to spam combos.
Very few folk enjoy underwater combat, so again why force people to do so?
some folk have zero interest in crafting, so again why force people to do so? (even given the task is simple)

Now before the forum appologists pipe in with " you arnt forced to do anything, you can simply skip the dailies" that point is completely moot since anyone with a modicum of sense is well aware that in the grand scheme you arnt forced to do anything , but if non participation is the preffered option of lots of people then as a dev you make a serious mistake .
What dev adds new content with the aim of putting folk off participating?

so once more the lack of a test server is glaring as more changes go live that seem utterly moronic.

guess i,m the only one who feels a test server would help then …..

Test servers are too expensive for an subscription free game. Also, you describe problems where you don’t like what you get. Imo, test servers should be for bugs like the disconnect issue, the none progressing achievements and especially scaling issues.

These seem to be very hard to detect for developers themselves. Imagine you write an essay. You can read it 10 times and still you friend will see errors that you just read over it.

I like the new dailies, even if they ‘force’ me to do stuff i don’t really like, as that stuff is something i haven’t done much before and i have another incentive to go there and try it (see: underwater combat, so far). Also it’s not like your account will be terminated if you miss some dailies if you really can’t bear them.

yep, youre all alone

beren.6048:

Test servers are too expensive for an subscription free game. Also, you describe problems where you don’t like what you get. Imo, test servers should be for bugs like the disconnect issue, the none progressing achievements and especially scaling issues.

These seem to be very hard to detect for developers themselves. Imagine you write an essay. You can read it 10 times and still you friend will see errors that you just read over it.

I agree with this 100%. Except that test servers are too expensive for a subscription free game. They are not. There really is no excuse for not having a public test server. I know Anet is worried about people spoiling the “living stories”, but I’ll put up with spoilers to get a patch that has everything working when it’s released.

No, you’re not alone, OP. It’s been suggested before. While I don’t agree with anything else you said, I do agree that the addition of a test or beta server that would allow players to pre-test new content and upcoming changes would be a great thing for the game. I used to participate in this from time to time in the last game I played, and there were numerous players who did so regularly and engaged in active interchanges with the developers on the forums and in game. Now that game, which is sadly gone now, was original subscription-only and even when it went to a tiered system, the beta server was restricted to paying customers only. Perhaps it’s just not something that can be done with a free-to-play game. But I, for one, think it would be significant benefit both to the players and developers a way could be found to make it work.

Even without test servers GW2 has less problem, fewer bugs and SIGNIFICANTLY less downtime than MMOs that have them.

Why there is famous MMO recently that after being in test server for months, when it went live a low level toon solo’d the big end raid boss hahaha.

All a public test server does is give an Trading Post advantage to players that have the time to use iit.

I do feel a PTR would be helpful. There is most definitely a disconnect between developers and community and a method of providing meaningful feedback before features are implemented would save us all a lot of heartache. That said, with their monthly events I don’t believe a PTR would fit time-wise in the development cycle. Heck, they don’t even have time to test patches prior to release what to speak of a broad PTR.

I also agree on the daily/monthly. They are not consonant with the stated play it your way philosophy. They represent too significant a reward to blow them off with the “you can skip them” refrain. The monthly should be attainable by people who don’t play WvW or crawl through dungeons. It seems pretty straightforward to me and I’m surprised at Anet and defenders who have difficulty with this.

Anet likes to keep their content a little more close to their chest before release than some other studios. It preserves the excitement, surprise, and delight of the content. As opposed to 95% of your release content being broadcast on youtube via the PTR.

It’s a different style of development, and it comes with the drawback of releasing content that is not thoroughly tested. I am ok with the tradeoff, but I really wish that Anet would literally double their current effort on fixing bugs and glitches…

I have a warrior that cannot progress right now because the Ships of the Line story mission is bugged. I’ve just given up on his story.

I have been eating bugs, and reporting the same ones over and over since beta.

I think this game would benefit with a player test server , that way my disconnecting issues could be finally be taken cared off and I wouldn’t be posting in the forum .