Friday, September 12, 2008

Madness? This Is BLIZZARD!!!!!

Okay, here be the deal. I'm building this bridge, see? Not quite done yet, but we're gonna finish it soon. What I want you to do is, drive across to the other side of the river, then come back and tell me what ya think. K? Go!

dum dee dum dumm ....

So what you think? You fell off the end and got soaked? Well, please remember this is only a beta bridge. We need you to try it out before it's finished. Okay, I understand yer upset, but please try to give me constructive feedback, as if it were a complete bridge. Sir? SIR? Ya gotta calm down. Picture how shiny the second half of the bridge is gonna be, once we gets to it. NOW give me yer feedback.


Okay, I gotta a problem with the way the beta testing is being done. I understand the need to have people run around Dalaran and find that invisible 1000 foot pit in front of the barber shop. I understand the need to make sure that the final boss in an instance don't respawn the second ya kill it and wipe yer party. What I don't understand is why class changes is being thrown into the beta realm willy-nilly.

Some classes, like shadow priests, is getting major overhaulizings what require a lotta nerfing in some areas, and a lotta of buffing in others. And I's okay with that. But wait until ya've figgered out what exactly these changes is gonna be, and then implement them all at once. Then yer testers can give ya feedback on what needs tweeking. But when ya put out changes a few at a time, particularlies ones what break a class' original purpose (can you say mana battery? I bet ya can) and say yer gonna replace it with sumthin' else later, soon as you figger out what the fuhg is gonna be, and how ta implement it, then yer testers ain't testing. They's just driving off the end of an unfinished bridge. And ya pisses folks off, fer no good reason.

8 comments:

laura said...

/agree

Luckily I am not a Beta Key holder. I think it would ruin the game for me. I am instead focusing on lvling as many toons to 70 as I can so that if my main choice is broken, I do have other options ready to go.

Anonymous said...

I agree Ratters. Some of the changes I keep reading about with the latest beta patch make me very worried. My only hope is the fact that it isn't set in stone yet but with them already having us download the 3.0 patch in the background I'm getting a bit uneasy.

Valyre said...

It could be worse. You could find out that your brand new race is just a shorter, reskinned version of a current one in the opposite faction. Oh... Wait...

Things aren't as bad as they seem. Your bridge analogy is good but only up to a point. Blizzard has to strike a balance between having people beta test the new stuff and still having enough mystery so the "omg this is new!" factor remains when it goes live.

While they might be asking you to drive across the bridge, you're assuming they are looking for feedback on the finished product. What if they really only are trying to find out if the reflectors in the middle make a whomp-whomp-whomp sound?

The first rule of testing is making sure your lab rat doesn't know what you're after. Otherwise the tests are skewed. Double-blind placebo ftw, I always say.

Anonymous said...

Great analogy. I got into the beta a couple of weeks ago, but I haven't really been able to give much in the way of feedback because Northrend goes down and up and down and up like a jack in the box on crack.

Beermaker said...

Ratshag... put down the axe, and step back from the edge of the bridge.

What they're *really* testing in the beta right now is how much it can make Orcs want to drink. Buy ya a Captain Rumsey's Lager?

Gauntlet said...

I'm entertained just taking in the sights.

I realize that right now my paladin is so different I don't know what I'm doing, so I suck playing him... and last time I played, Aspect of the Viper was so ridiculous that I had to try really hard to burn through the mana on my hunter.

At the very least, I am super-excited by playing through the Death Knight zone to watch them implement their new-fangled phasing tech.

And the beta convinced me to make my first orc character.

Gauntlet said...

O'course, I might have a different view of things since I work in the games industry.

Rorik said...

I think all the class changes mid beta are there because Blizzard wants to put out patch 3.0 pre Lich King as an attempt to distract players from checking out Warhammer. That goes along with their release of the Lich cinematic the day after the Warhammer cinematic and the announcement of PvE to PvP character transfers.