Trouble With Patch 3.0.8
I’m sure a lot of you haven’t been too impressed with the release of 3.0.8 this week. The amount of problems we’ve all seen and the number of bugs that slipped through the cracks is pretty astounding for a company the size of Blizzard that has always put an emphasis on quality releases.
I’m a software developer (not on the scale of these guys, of course) so I can relate to issues with bugs and release problems. My big concern here is that 3.0.8 brings to light a serious problem with Blizzard’s testing mechanisms.
What is the PTR testing exactly?
Blizzard has an entire sub-system setup for players to test future patch releases. Someone is obviously dropping the ball here considering the state of things after this patch. Right now all of the servers are down for four hours as the latest crisis with Arenas is settled. The Wintergrasp debacle, which was settled yesterday, is another example of a critical error that made it through this joke of a PTR process.
As a recently nerfed Hunter, who plays a class that was declared overpowered even after months of PTRs and Beta servers for Wrath and the 3.0 patch I think it’s time Blizzard seriously addresses their public testing methods.
It seems painfully clear to me, and I’m sure to many others, that the Beta tests and PTRs are just an excuse for most players to get a head start on their peers by learning tricks to the game first before anyone else. There can’t be a lot of testing going on during the periods when the PTRs are live.
No Wonder Wrath Seems Easy
Maybe Wrath is so easy for a lot of people because they spent all of their time during the Beta learning how to beat everything in the game instead of helping Blizzard test and balance things out. Things usually are easy for people when they’ve done them repeatedly, over and over, for months and months.
I’d agree with anyone who said that they pay each month to play and not to test. But you pay each month to play on the live realms using the currently released content. The Beta and PTRs are future content that you, technically, have not and are not paying for at that moment.
The Solution?
I’m not sure. Maybe there should be some kind of incentive program for PTR and Beta players so that they actually contribute more bug reports. I’m not proposing that no one is submitting bugs to Blizzard but I’d put money down on the fact that a majority of “testers” aren’t testing anything at all and are just involved in the usual WoW rat race to be first at everything.
Related posts:
