Guild Wars 2

Im not trying to be mean, or overlly complain about bugs, that is not my purpose, but is becoming clear that there is a serious problem with whatever QA process you have. Each patch consistently introduces new bugs, which upon going live, are generally discovered withing hours to minutes. Some are of course understandable, and have to do with large scale issues, random events that are hard to simulate,
however others are crystal clear even with minutes of any real play;

delayed jump
skill fixes that dont, in fact fix the skill in question
fixes that introduce new bugs to the same content that someone testing should be able to identify imediately.

You have to change your QA/testing strategy, it is simply not effective. It is not an issue of time, because with the slower patches we see as many bugs if not more. It is something intrinsic to the testing process.

Some suggestions;

testing server
invite more testers to access the dev builds
streamline the bugfix and test reporting process

Do not go forward with changes that introduce new bugs, (fixes on mild exploits that create progress blocking issues (fotm cliffside fixes)

Not trying to be offensive here, but i have seen much smaller companies with less resources deal with bugs faster, and more effectively (bugs that disappear one patch, come back with another patch, *barl the rampager)

If QA simply cannot identify bugs fast enough, then you probably need to introduce bug fixes patches more frequently, QA for 3 weeks for a bugfix that is uncovered to be a problem in 2 minutes of being live is not effective, better to let it go live, and get the fix out as soon as its ready in that case

This is a serious issue, and its going to severely hamper game development if you dont get a handle on it. Honestly im not one of the guys that expects/desires a perfect game, i know that you will have bugs, i know that introducing new content, on a newish engine is tricky, But your ability to find, identify and solve these bugs in a timely fashion effectively is disproportionally low.
Overall the game should be getting more stable and less buggy with time, but this is not really proving to be the case (well i admit the trading post is much improved)

I thoroughly agree on this matter. However the current QA process is structured, it is not working. I am not your alpha tester, your QA, or your beta player. I am a customer that has reasonable expectations of the quality of a patch that is released. The recent patch illustrates that there are not enough resources being spent on the testing phase, or we are just straight up being relied upon to test even the most simple of bugs.

I believe that while new content is great, and the rate at which it is coming out is fantastic, there are too many problems with existing content to focus the majority of your development resources on making new things, especially if said new things are broken in even the simplest of ways.

I read that a dev had finished a story bug fix, but could not push this fix out until “The next major content patch”. That is puzzling, as you pushed the personal story as something integral to the game itself and then you cannot release a fix that is seemingly complete. Patches should be done when they need to be done, not monthly. Hundreds of class bugs exist yet we’re only really seeing tooltip description fixes, which is something that an intern could do. Fractal bugs are breaking entire runs, and fractals themselves have indeeed fractured the community on some of the lower population servers.

I believe the priorities for this game are all wrong, and it’s seemingly not just me that feels this way.

mavet.3047:

The QA system isn’t broken – IT JUST DOESN’T EXIST. BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY IF IT DID, PERHAPS WE WOULDN’T HAVE ALL OF THESE ISSUES. WELL, UNLESS THE “DEVS” DON’T GIVE A CRAP ABOUT US…

You’re just ignorant. Show me your degree in programming, because if you don’t have one you don’t have the right to state what YOU think as fact.

I understand and completely agree with the points in this thread, but I also realize coding a game is absolutely not the definition of easy and I’m not shocked at all that there are bugs. Even WoW, with over 6 years of MMO experience behind them, releases bugs with each new patch. Is it the same amount? No. But GW2 is also a very different game with how it works and runs.

Stop blaming QA for fixes that the developers don’t make.

This just shows you are ignorant of how the industry works.

If the problem actually is with QA missing obvious bugs, then the blame lies with the managers and execs who have underfunded their test team.

even the people who QAs the patchnotes are failing.

Im just wondering why this game launched without a PTR. Its the perfect way to get feedback from people.

Sadly I must agree… Somethings they do just mess the game alot and drive players mad, making somethings unplayable.

I Agree if it is to put buggy and things that going to bug systems without any problems… They must have an test server or make better tests. Because this patch broke the jumping puzzles because jumping is crazy already… Broke the Giant Fractals alot… It’s madness.

All MMO’s got their bugs, but when they start to go unplayable to players, your quality assurance… Well….

there needs to be someone who understands/plays/actually actively enjoys mesmers in the QA process.

Perhaps QA is comprised of warrior and thief players? GW2 sets itself apart from other rpgs by its revolutionary warrior and thief classes, not sure where else but GW2 a gamer could get a chance to play those classes. Its good to see GW2s focus is on them

Either they dont have a QA team for their patches.
Or their devs have their heads so far up their own arses it’s not funny.

The fact is, QA teams are usually VERY good at finding bugs. They work hilariously large amounts of hours per week, and they’ve gotten pretty kitten good at it.

The problem is they submit bugs, which leaves the matter squarely in the hands of the devs, who most likely ignored it.

I find it impossible to believe that any QA team wouldnt have discovered issues with the previous patch within less than an hour. I find it more likely that the bugs were submitted, and either ignored, or came back as working as intended.

I don’t think it’s even existent.

I see “we fixed x”, then login, see within 20 seconds it isn’t fixed.

Then I wonder what someone even did to make the determination it was fixed. Isn’t the first thing you do upon fixing something is check to see if what you changed did the job? I mean I can see the occasional goofup here but we’re looking at such a high percentage rate of fixes simply doing nothing, I don’t see how anyone is going back even a single time to test what they did.

The jumping one was pretty funny. I was put in the fractal with the harpies, whatever it’s called. Quickly my entire party found out it was literally impossible. =P About a 50% chance that attempting to jump from one platform to the next would just result in no jump, thus you walked off the edge.

Someone wrote a really good thread about what they should do for Q/A, they immediately closed the thread because it was so good.

Looks like they deleted it as well, gave an industrial look inside what Anet was doing wrong, and how much money they were losing as well.

Volomon.9147:

Someone wrote a really good thread about what they should do for Q/A, they immediately closed the thread because it was so good.

Looks like they deleted it as well, gave an industrial look inside what Anet was doing wrong, and how much money they were losing as well.

Ah the good ‘ole “ignore reality” tactic. As we all know, that’s worked out really well for Bioware/SWTOR.

Ohhh wait.

Just because bugs are in the game are not the fault of QA. The bugs probably were found, but either weren’t fixed in the release build, or the fixes didn’t have enough time to be verified, or some manager decided the bug wasn’t game breaking enough to delay the update.

It’s not always QA’s fault. Software development is a complex process. If you found a bug within a few minutes, you can bet almost always QA did too. However, QA can’t fix the bugs.

Zeppelin.6832:

It’s not always QA’s fault. Software development is a complex process. If you found a bug within a few minutes, you can bet almost always QA did too. However, QA can’t fix the bugs.

you don’t QA after RTM. You QA before RTM.

alcopaul.2156:

Zeppelin.6832:

It’s not always QA’s fault. Software development is a complex process. If you found a bug within a few minutes, you can bet almost always QA did too. However, QA can’t fix the bugs.

you don’t QA after RTM. You QA before RTM.

Did you read my post in its entirety? The bugs were probably mostly found, but not fixed before the release. This happens, especially in a scrum development process, like an mmo.

alcopaul.2156:

Zeppelin.6832:

It’s not always QA’s fault. Software development is a complex process. If you found a bug within a few minutes, you can bet almost always QA did too. However, QA can’t fix the bugs.

you don’t QA after RTM. You QA before RTM.

Yes but QA teams
find bugs
submit bugs
twiddle their thumbs waiting for the next build of the patch to come there way
find bugs
submit bugs

and so on.
There’s no guarantee that any bug found and submitted by the QA team would be fixed by the devs. That’s why im always a little cautious of the phrase “Our QA team is aware of the problem” they were probably aware of it long before the players, the devs just did jack-all about it.