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Chickenboy -> RE: Patch 01 ... Patch 02 (11/18/2009 4:00:58 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: jwilkerson
Update on patch 02 status:
We continue our weekly build process, but this week is a bit of a milestone because I think we are now "critical mass" in terms of the items we have in the build. Testing will probably run for about two more weeks and we will continue to squeeze in whatever we can with an acceptable risk/benefit profile.
At this point, I would say public release by 27 Oct will not happen. I'd say it feels like we are about 2 weeks behind that goal at this point.
So probable schedule at this point looks something like "public beta" by about 3 Nov and patch release by about 10 Nov.
As regards "public beta". Actually I'm still a bit skeptical about whether we should be doing this or not. I see pros and cons.
The cons for me are that I guess I am used to being responsible for testing and so I worry about asking the customer to help with that. So kind of a "philosophical" issue for me.
On the pro side, to really adequately test something like this, equivalent to how I would test this in my day job, would take up to maybe 150 people several months. Or shall we say 1000s of person-hours. And there is no way we have that kind of resource available on our team. Hence the idea that some of you helping will find things we miss.
But back to the cons, some of you may view the "public beta" as if it were the actual patch. I would not do this. I would not patch a serious ongoing game, unless I really believed that the game was broken. But many of you will, probably most. I just would warn about equating your expectations regarding the "bug free ness" of the public beta, as compared to the same standard applied against the official patch, once it is released. The official patch will include additional changes as well as many fixes. So, I would recommend testing the "beta patch" as a testing activity. Create a separate instance of the game and apply the beta patch to that game and test. Keep that sepearate from your serious games.
jwilkerson,
Thanks for the update. No worries re: the time frame. As you've indicated, I'm quite satisfied with the vast majority of game play under patch I. Neither of my PBEMs are 'broken', so I will wait for the 'real' patch and avoid the public beta for both of my serious games until it's ready. I appreciate the heads up on the nuanced differences between the beta and the actual patch too.
Thanks for your hard work and dedication.
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