Don Bowen
Posts: 8183
Joined: 7/13/2000 From: Georgetown, Texas, USA Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Nemo121 Rainer, I think you misunderstand my point. I'm not looking for scapegoats. I've alpha and beta-tested myself and know that it is a frank impossibility to expect every bug to be found. On the other hand it seems to me that to expect the following is not unreasonable: 1. Disband air unit on Turn A. 2. Allocate pilots to various units but have a few left over and finish turn. 3. Check Named Pilot Pool on Turn A+1. 4. Notice that the pilots you left in the pool have no disappeared. 5. Report same to programmers as possible bug. Within 24 hours of the patch being released numerous players had noticed and posted about this bug. Now, while there's no-one trying to find scapegoats in order to beat up on testers and programmers there IS value in asking why such an obvious bug was missed. Why is this? Simple, when you know why it was missed you might be able to put something in place to catch a similar one next time. If you avoid asking these sorts of questions then systemic failures remain and the same results occur again and again. E.g. If it was missed because this fix got to testers too late for them to test the fix then the solution is to give more time to final testing. If it was missed because it was no-one's responsibility to check its functionality from turn to turn then that, also, can be fixed. Perhaps it was missed because none of the testers involved has a naturally analytical mind ( that's not to say they are dumb or anything like that. There are certain general ways in which minds work and naturally analytical minds are just one small category which tend to be very useful in analysing rule-based systems... aka computer games.). I'm sure they bring many other things to the table but, perhaps, this particular skillset is missing from the testing team. The solution there is to bring on someone with that skillset. etc etc ad nauseum. Asking questions as to why mistakes happen is NOT looking for scapegoats as you seem to think. It is precisely the sort of analysis which SHOULD be going on in order to create the appropriate system within which testing can be carried out in as effective and efficient a manner as possible. Note the implication that the system is flawed and not the individuals. I stand by my assertion that pre-release testing of a patch which fails to notice such an obvious bug is highly likely to have suffered from a systemic flaw which, if unresolved at this stage, will continue to rear its ugly head in future failures in the pre-release testing of future patches. I think it is entirely valid questioning which, if reflected on by the people behind this and future patches, could result in improvements which might prevent such simple bugs making it into future releases. If you think that pointing that out is "unhelpful" and akin to looking for scapegoats then so be it. I doubt there will be much I can say to change your mind. So, are you applying for a position??
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