Why?

[Slinns]

Hello Colossal Order and Paradox!
Until recently I was a dev-tester SimCity.
We had a team of about 20 active testers.
A few months before the release we received nearly a release build of the game to look for critical errors and bugs.
After the release we have come with the team Maxis is testing a variety of updates and additional materials. We had a closed forum(viewed developers), where we could talk about bugs and propose to add anything to the game.
Why do you refuse such a dev-test program?
Giving access to the latest build of the game more active people (of course under NDA), you have greatly facilitated the work of the development team, and also released a better product.
Thanks.

 

[AKicebear]

Giving access to the latest build of the game more active people (of course under NDA), you have greatly facilitated the work of the development team, and also released a better product.

Clearly this system doesn't always produce great results!

Who is to say they don't have 20 testers under NDAs working on the game?

 

[KyleJ]

I don't think they've outright refused any sort of beta-test program, although personally I don't see the need for one... They obviously have their own testers that are under contracts or employment, as well as the fine developers themselves. As AKicebear said, this system of taking people from the internet and setting them as a "beta-tester" with their own private forum section doesn't exactly have a proven track record...

Not only is it easier for game developers to communicate with testers who are under contracts and actual employment, they're less likely to spill the beans on anything secretive, more likely to know what to look for and relay information that may help the developer to pin-point where the issue is coming form.

Not only that, but the whole SimCity "Beta-Tester" initiative does feel like a big slap in the face to those who played SimCity daily and knew what they were doing but didn't necessarily post on a forum everyday, or make youtube videos with tons of views - neither of which are really skills anywhere in the same universe needed to be a build tester.

My opinion is they stick with employed testers.

 

[Zarine]

About beta they said something equivalent to "there will be no beta registration process and if there is one, we'll pick the people".
Thus, because there is likely a NDA, no one is able to say if there are some external betas or not.

Considering the number of people getting into beta and just have fun and not testing which is quite bad for the team.

 

[wakko2k]

I fairly sure they have a QA team

 

[kosh22]

Hello Colossal Order and Paradox!
Until recently I was a dev-tester SimCity.

You know what I am going to ask don't you? Are you still tied to a NDA or can you answer the question -what went wrong?

Clearly having a dev team does not always work.

 

[Leermeister]

Yeah i Beta tested sim city, game blue screened so i quit that job.
I find it a bit hilarious Sim city actually did a few beta tests before launch to test their servers apparently.

well here in 2015 i suppose that crack dev-test team at maxis finally got the job done, as the game is almost functional.

Im glad i found city skyline as Sim city 5 is a really small shallow game, even when it is working correctly.

 

[uebs]

You think the op is trolling?

In anycase...

Please CO do not let ANY sc2013 beta testers anywhere near C:SL

 

[Slinns]

You know what I am going to ask don't you? Are you still tied to a NDA or can you answer the question -what went wrong?

Clearly having a dev team does not always work.

Hi! I think at the moment NDA is no longer valid.
We have helped developers to bring the game until the final version.
Perhaps there will be a small quarterly updates, but some additions and DLC will no longer be. That is why we are waiting for Cities: Skylines.

You think the op is trolling?

In anycase...

Please CO do not let ANY sc2013 beta testers anywhere near C:SL

Ohh, it sounds unpleasant!

 

[Niclistin]

Let me say this. I was one, who came to DevTest late in the game and this comment you made is simply silly. Without going into a huge amount of detail, I personally filed so many bugs. errors, steps to replicate etc. it made me sick. Only one of those bugs was ever addressed and it was just before the COT release.

Trust me, we reported everything you could imagine. We weren't the one responsible for fixing them. They either couldn't be, wouldn't be or EA clamped down and said the project is dead.

When we say, hey, police cars are disspaearing on this map and supply everything we can on the issue - and they do nothing, that's not the testers fault.

You think the op is trolling?

In anycase...

Please CO do not let ANY sc2013 beta testers anywhere near C:SL

 

[jq371]

simcity is not the model id want to base my new game on if i were a developer......

 

[uebs]

Let me say this. I was one, who came to DevTest late in the game and this comment you made is simply silly. Without going into a huge amount of detail, I personally filed so many bugs. errors, steps to replicate etc. it made me sick. Only one of those bugs was ever addressed and it was just before the COT release.

Trust me, we reported everything you could imagine. We weren't the one responsible for fixing them. They either couldn't be, wouldn't be or EA clamped down and said the project is dead.

When we say, hey, police cars are disspaearing on this map and supply everything we can on the issue - and they do nothing, that's not the testers fault.

Funny thing is, I don't doubt what you say...sounds like typical EA at it's best. Must get this crap out by X date to meet share holder meeting blah blah blah...

Unlike RockStar Studios who keeps delaying it till it's ready...

http://gamerant.com/simcity-beta-bug-reporting-ban/

Ranks right up there with their "CUSTOMER FIRST" posters through out their workplace...

 

[uebs]

simcity is not the model id want to base my new game on if i were a developer......

Neither is the "Assassins Creed Unity" model...

SC2013 is the model to follow if you're a company wanting to kill a brand though...

I don't know how Maxis is going to recover from it, maybe bring back Will Wright start up a team and start from scratch...whatever, CSL looks to be the new king, unless there are some real(AI) problems not (small farms or small airport problems) with the game that we simply don't see from all the dev videos...

 

[Greygor69]

Let me say this. I was one, who came to DevTest late in the game and this comment you made is simply silly. Without going into a huge amount of detail, I personally filed so many bugs. errors, steps to replicate etc. it made me sick. Only one of those bugs was ever addressed and it was just before the COT release.

Trust me, we reported everything you could imagine. We weren't the one responsible for fixing them. They either couldn't be, wouldn't be or EA clamped down and said the project is dead.

When we say, hey, police cars are disspaearing on this map and supply everything we can on the issue - and they do nothing, that's not the testers fault.

I was a late tester as well, the way it was set up was you were given a chance to play the tutorial and then you had 1 hour to play the game.

I'm assuming with the 1 hour restriction by this point they were load testing the servers rather than really wanting in depth testing of the game.

 

[Zarine]

I was a late tester as well, the way it was set up was you were given a chance to play the tutorial and then you had 1 hour to play the game.

I'm assuming with the 1 hour restriction by this point they were load testing the servers rather than really wanting in depth testing of the game.

Everyone who pre-ordered the game was in those tests.
And when you reach that point it's mostly for 2 things :
- Test the servers
- Find weird big crashing error

Because you will get tons of bugs report, half of them being false one (That's what I get in the airline software industry when airline start testing/using)

 

[TotalyMoo]

Discussion about other games and companies is OK, but please keep it respectful and non-flaming

 

[kosh22]

Discussion about other games and companies is OK, but please keep it respectful and non-flaming

You've not been on the EA simcity forum lately?

We will all be nice when you release another video!!!!! It will distract us.

 

[TotalyMoo]

You've not been on the EA simcity forum lately?

We will all be nice when you release another video!!!!! It will distract us.

Hehe, never visited there. Are they hating on us?

 

[Greygor69]

Everyone who pre-ordered the game was in those tests.
And when you reach that point it's mostly for 2 things :
- Test the servers
- Find weird big crashing error

Because you will get tons of bugs report, half of them being false one (That's what I get in the airline software industry when airline start testing/using)

Huh, strange, I didn't pre-order it, I only bought it when off-line mode happened.

 

[kosh22]

Hehe, never visited there. Are they hating on us?

No, just hating EA with vengeance.