Red Prince
Posts: 3686
Joined: 4/8/2011
From: Bangor, Maine, USA
Status: offline
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I've been spending a lot of time digging through old threads, trying to get a feel for the expectations for MWiF, getting to know my fellow beta-testers, and learning a ton from the grognards. I ran across this post from 10/18/2006:
quote:
ORIGINAL: Greyshaft
quote:
ORIGINAL: Zorachus99
Anyways, while I'm interested in getting into the beta-testers group, how about a moderated thread that discusses the state of the beta? Or is there a hidden forum for discussing issues and challenges that come up? I'd be interested in the discussions...
Yes there is a seperate discussion group for testers but it is incredibly boring... seriously!
TESTER1: "I've found a big problem when clicking on panzer units. My screen freezes."
TESTER2: "Same here!"
TESTER3: "No problem here. I can click all units with no problem."
TESTER4: "What O/S are you running?"
TESTER1: "WinXP Home. It's all in the tester config list."
TESTER3: "Anyone else get this problem?"
TESTERS 5-20: "No" "No" "Nup" "Nyet" "No" "Nein" etc. etc.
TESTER2: "I rebooted and it works for me now."
TESTER1: "I rebooted but the problem is still there."
TESTER7: "Try a different Panzer unit."
TESTER9: "How about clicking on a Russian armor unit? What happens?"
TESTER4: "Does it happen with infantry also?"
TESTER2: "Whup! The problems come back."
TESTER1: "I'll write it up and send it to Steve."
...
rinse and repeat with minor variations
I want to bring this up to date:
The game has come a looooooong way since this post. I won't speculate on a release date. I don't have an opinion on that. But the things discussed these days are oriented, for the most part, much more around game-play issues. There are still some of the "I clicked on a unit, and it crashed" type errors, but mostly those are in the past. As a fairly new beta-tester, I find the discussions fascinating. However, if you are not part of the beta-team, they are still pretty dull, I imagine.
For example: last week, Rob (Cad908) began a discussion about a bug in the US Entry options. The specific bug he found turned out to be only a semi-bug, but the discussion (which involved a half-dozen people) brought a few other bugs out into the open. This discussion lasted for four days, concerned a sequence that would normally take 15 seconds to complete every few impulses, and resulted in Steve locating and fixing two bugs. The most interesting thing about it was an off-topic discussion of hockey that wandered into the thread.
And this is probably one of the more interesting exchanges that has taken place. 
Edit:As it turns out, the residual discussion is not yet over. 5/19/2011
The point of bringing this up, is that while the testing now includes much more interesting aspects of the game, the process itself has not changed. Each time Steve has recruited new testers, this is included:
quote:
Software testing is quite different from simply ‘playing’ the game. The focus of testing is not in playing the game, but in working as a team to help produce a great product.
I think this has clearly succeeded. I find my fellow testers to be extremely helpful, both newbies and grognards alike. As the above example shows, a number of people usually review and respond to each post. Often, someone else has encountered something similar, and together you can usually isolate the problem. This brings up:
quote:
Software testing takes patience. Testers are expected to respond to reasonable requests from the developer (that's me) to provide information about any problems they find. Sometimes that means running through the same boring ten minute long sequence of events half a dozen times and documenting the results so that you can help me reproduce the problem on my own computer.
Sometimes this means asking someone to check whether you've screwed something up (thanks for checking, Rob!) in your game, and at other times it means creating a list of 25 or more dice rolls that will let Steve recreate the problem you've encountered, and posting it to the forum. It's all very interesting in that it helps us know we're making progress, but it's sure to be boring to read.
As for the amount of time testers put in, Steve says:
quote:
Spending more time testing is obviously better, but only if you can keep good records of what you have tested and send me complete reports on any problems you have found. Telling me "it doesn't work" is a useless bug report.
Well, I only have to say that I'm guilty. I've done this. But I'm learning to do it right!
To sum up, I am excited to be involved. MWiF has made huge strides since that original post. Even in the month and a half that I've been testing, there has been significant progress. When this is released, you'll be very happy with the results.
-Aaron
< Message edited by Red Prince -- 5/19/2011 2:01:56 PM >
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Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it!
-Lazarus Long, RAH
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