Guild Wars 2

Hey, I would be happy with a release of how you guys test new content, but I am wondering why there is no test server (like so many games) that lets the player-base test new content with a lot of people… I mean, it seems that if we had a test server, all of these changes / problems could have been avoided… for instance the inability to build siege or some of the over the top nerfs or the incredible amount of crashing going on today.

other games seem to do this effectively and they avoid a lot of problems before just releasing content to hundreds of thousands of players. Some people even enjoy going to the test servers… let us test your new builds for you… there are hundreds of thousands of us and by virtue of how many of us there are, I have no doubt we could stumble upon problems that you guys wouldn’t catch.

(In short, hundreds and hundreds of testers > anet team)

Good question.

WvW lag/crash issues make me wonder if the rumors about the servers being downgraded since launch is actually true…

There IS a test server. It’s whatever server you play on and the changes are tested there after being patched.

Bumping this as it makes too much sense.

Test servers so we arent guinea pigs please!

Agreed, need a test server, it will help them so much , they have no idea.

Huck.1405:

There IS a test server. It’s whatever server you play on and the changes are tested there after being patched.

Cool, I didn’t know we were unpaid test gremlings for Anet. Actually, I think I paid to be one.

/another one that has no idea what a test server is.

This is more related to a load test I guess. Test environment isn’t able to test the load right?>

At this point, I don’t think they know what testing is.

Ryan.8367:

they have no idea.

no kidding.

THis patch just added another bug to Mesmer GS skill, and they didnt even fix the iBersker damage they broke months ago. Test server can only help both ANet and the players calling out potential problems before something goes “live.”

Huck.1405:

There IS a test server. It’s whatever server you play on and the changes are tested there after being patched.

…and then we have to deal with a wonky game for hours to days before they realize there is a problem.

Test server? Really? You expect them to actually do something that makes sense?

A test server would hopefully help to avoid the embarrassing bugs released with virtually every patch. I would definitely port my a/c across for each patch but sadly it would only work if Anet actually listened to our feedback from the test server :S

SniffyCube.6107:

Huck.1405:

There IS a test server. It’s whatever server you play on and the changes are tested there after being patched.

…and then we have to deal with a wonky game for hours to days before they realize there is a problem.

Still, even with a test server you can’t guarantee that all the bugs will be fixed. Yes there are some that could had been easily avoided before introducing the updates, but the live servers are totally different from the test ones.

Just look at the other games, even with a public test server some issues still get into the live version. I think that they get more feedback by introducing the updates directly to the live servers instead of just testing with a handful of people, WvW is very dynamic and it’s better to test if you have “thousands” of players in different matchups…

This gets us to your comment, which leaves us a buggy gameplay that of course no one likes…

Edit: Wanted to add that still I do agree that there will be some benefits if we get a test server, just that we can’t expect that the server will be the miracle solution to having absolutely no bugs due to the type of gameplay in WvW.

There is a test server

You just dont have access. Its meant for in house testers and a select few from the beta pool.

Fuzzion.2504:

There is a test server

You just dont have access. Its meant for in house testers and a select few from the beta pool.

Right. And that’s not enough people to find all the bugs. Larger groups would have found the map-wide siege cap bug in a flash, for example. Or some people are affected by bugs where others aren’t, (such as the one person causing siege to disappear when building).

GW2 is pretty enormous, and there are a lot of different aspects to test. (World maps, WvW, sPvP, instances, new content.) Testers have to divide their time among all of these.

Anet relies on us for bug reports already and works with the forums to get more information. One of the devs noted that he sometimes brings printouts of forum posts to class balancing meetings. Most of us are happy to contribute to a game we enjoy, and it’s time for some public testing.

nikked you took the words right out of my mouth