Are You Against Test Servers?

[Omali]

Good evening, Tip.It'ers,

 

Those of you who know me are likely acquainted in one way or another with the link in my signature. I run MMO Fallout, a website that takes a hard look at the businesses that run MMOs, focusing primarily upon the public relations, internal events, and customer satisfaction. The aim is not to tell people which MMO to play, but to give information on the companies behind them, and the trends of the games themselves, and to provide the avenue through which the player can give the title a try for themselves (which MMO Fallout always recommends making free use of the many trials available, regardless of our opinion of the company).

 

I'm working on a new editorial series titled Taking The Plunge, which generally involves me getting opinions on various topics for the community, and for my first piece I wanted to talk about Runescape, with one particular topic in mind:

 

Runescape stands as one of the few remaining MMOs that does not provide a test server for players, and as a result it seems that all of the stress-testing and live-bugs are discovered once the updates launch. This of course ends up being much to the chagrin of players, who find themselves dying mysteriously, being logged out due to µ, murdered in the Thzaar fight pits waiting room, and more. Many MMO developers see test shards as priceless tools to use, as it allows them to not only stress test updates in a secluded environment, but to allow players to offer feedback on balancing, and to fix more obscure bugs, before the update goes live.

 

Now, Jagex has said some years back that they don't have any plans on ever adding in a test server, but what caught my eye back then was the sheer number of people who considered the introduction of a test server to be a bad thing. Do you think Jagex should never put in a test server, or they should but with restrictions? Whether you agree or disagree with a test server, I'd specifically like to hear some thoughts as to why you feel that way, rather than a simple yes or no. I should also point out that I won't be injecting my own opinion into this, I'd like to hear what you think.

 

Remember the following constants, however (virtually all MMOs follow these constants):

1. Your character in the live servers can be copied over to the test server, but only once per ___.

2. What you do in the test server will have no bearing on the status of your live character (experience, levels, etc)

3. A reminder to players that the server is for testing purposes, and that they should be purposely trying to break and exploit it.

[Danny_TeamDan]

I think they like to keep it a surprise for everyone. So allowing people to test the new skill out before it actually came out would kind of ruin that aspect of a surprise.

 

I can see the benefits of having it tested before, but I think Jagex are more interested in surprises.

 

How much testing do they do w/out players? (do you know by any chance?)

[Tim]

I'd say a Special selection of players should be picked for hidden "Test Worlds" for like what you've said. Obviously they would have to follow more strict rules, like not to spoil anything or they will be revoked as a tester etc. Just a thought.

[Obtaurian]

I'm all for test servers. Working, bug-free updates are more important than surprises, IMO. Whether it be handpicked players or an open beta, Jagex needs to implement test servers in one way or another.

[Danny_TeamDan]

Yeah but I'm sure they wouldn't let everyone test it out, what if the skill involved something more than dungeoneering, like it gives the people who got to test it to invest correctly/smartly into items or sell items if they need to etc which is why they like to keep it a surprise and let everyone have the update at the same time.

[Skeptical]

I think they like to keep it a surprise for everyone. So allowing people to test the new skill out before it actually came out would kind of ruin that aspect of a surprise.

 

I can see the benefits of having it tested before, but I think Jagex are more interested in surprises.

 

Agreed.

[Carl]

I think it would impact on the community too much as a whole if Jagex were to start running test servers for selected players. It would eliminate the surprise of the update overall, too. I could only expect non-disclosure agreements to also be a requirement, considering that's what they do if anyone visits Jagex etc etc.

 

Back in August, they took in 12 local kids (I think it was 12, anyway) aged 13-18, they had to be accompanied by their parents and sign agreements and the like that what they seen inside Jagex..well.. stays inside Jagex. That was simply to test a tutorial.

[greenmelf]

I think this Dungeoneering Update was a prime example of why Jagex needs to do more testing, probably with test servers. The amount and scale of bugs and issues is pretty ridiculous, and then resorting to needing unannounced hot fixes to change things that should already have been changed/decided was imbalanced, I'm look at you Dungeoneering RC exp changes and 90+ f2p exp nerf. I don't quite see how they let soo many things slip by, it's not like they had any announced deadline they had to meet.

Test servers could have help fixed much of this.

[Bladewing]

They could do test servers. Some would say that would ruin the "surprise".

 

Well, maybe they should have VIP testing? A random selection of like 0.1% of players or something like that.

 

I think it would be a great idea and help streamline updates.