Bug Fixing Team + Update Delays

[pkemr4]

"Sega has created a special team dedicated in discovering bugs for the development team. Once they discover a bug, the development team will fix the issue and check over it repeatedly until it resolves. By taking this approach, some future updates have been pushed back as a result. As is the case of the December update which now spans two months instead of one and the Item Customization System being moved to January."

http://bumped.org/psublog/pso2-jp-maintenance-and-patch-10232013/

[jooozek]

oh, more dripfeed

[Gigafreak]

Wait, so they didn't have a QA team before?

This explains a lot.

[Kietsu]

"From now on, we will find and fix bugs."

Wow. Absolutely revolutionary.

[Neith]

You know you've been playing Phantasy Star for too long when this kind of thing doesnt surprise you any more. God only knows what they were doing before if a bugfix team is a new development.

[Golto]

I wonder if they will fix the bug of too low exp from the last 2 Hans SH cos?

[moeri]

I am actually disappointed that they added a QA team. These types of teams are actually starting to go extinct in most cutting edge software companies. Mainly since computers can usually do their job... if people would take the time to write automated tests. Btw, I mean dedicated QA teams, before people jump on me.

I can feel the technical debt from here.

Actually, this is a fairly good sign that the 10 years of pso2 support will be a bad 10 years. In another year or so... I would think new features could easily fall to a crawl.

Then again, the fact that they are projecting out months in advance smells as well...

[Crysteon]

And even with a QA team working on stuff, I'm pretty sure they will keep derping so hard.

SEEEEEEGAAAAAA!

[Gardios]

Let's see the shitty silver lining here, guys.

I thought their QA team was just bad, not that it was inexistent. It'll only get better now!

[moeri]

I thought there QA team was just bad, not that it was inexistent. It'll only get better now!

I think that this is a sign that it will get worse...

QA is super important, but they are going to do it wrong...

[The Walrus]

Never change Sega

[Crysteon]

Dont worry, at least we wont be the ones who will get the HDD Bursts this time......I think.

Nah...never mind that. My hopes were to high on that statement.

[jooozek]

why do i get the feeling that in a year they will announce a public testing server and slavedriver players into finding bugs and shit

[Arkanoid]

So let me get this straight, some of you honestly believe that PSO2 literally has had no quality assurance whatsoever, or that the game is even buggy in general outside of the shitty launcher?

Lol...

[Zyrusticae]

why do i get the feeling that in a year they will announce a public testing server and slavedriver players into finding bugs and shit
Frankly, that would be a better use of resources than a paid QA team ever will be. Hundreds or thousands of players going through the motions will always find more bugs than several dozen testers ever will, and you don't even have to pay them.

But oh well! Hopefully this means every update in the future is going to be clean (haha, as if...).

[Macman]

Wait, so they didn't have a QA team before?

This explains a lot.
My thoughts 0.1 seconds into reading the first sentence of that paragraph.

[Enforcer MKV]

I made a sarcastic joke about forming a team of testers to make the game better because they didn't have one yet a while back...

....uh....er....called it? [Honestly, I'm half surprised they didn't have testers, I'm half not.]

[Emp]

Delay as long as needed. I hate those random maintenances that occur cause of Segas bugs.

[Sp-24]

Next thing you know, they'll hire an actual gameplay director, who will discover that their skill trees, PA balancing, latent abilities, etc. Are a load of crap that should be fixed.

...It's hard to make jokes about PSO2 dev team consisting solely of people making AC Scratch stuff when it just might be true.

[TaigaUC]

I bet the people defending SEGA this entire time were under the assumption that they had proper bug testers.
And yes, PSO2 has had plenty of fairly minor bugs outside of the launcher. Just because the launcher bug was the most severe doesn't mean they should be slacking on bug testing in general.

This whole thing reminds me of how Nexon didn't bother getting a security advisor for Vindictus until it got hacked to shit.

[Enforcer MKV]

Next thing you know, they'll hire an actual gameplay director, who will discover that their skill trees, PA balancing, latent abilities, etc. Are a load of crap that should be fixed.

...It's hard to make jokes about PSO2 dev team consisting solely of people making AC Scratch stuff when it just might be true.

Please? Sega, do this please. Like...right now. Oh, oh! Keji-san. Get Keji-san to do it! xD

[Zenobia]

I bet the people defending SEGA this entire time were under the assumption that they had proper bug testers.
And yes, PSO2 has had plenty of fairly minor bugs outside of the launcher. Just because the launcher bug was the most severe doesn't mean they should be slacking on bug testing in general.

This whole thing reminds me of how Nexon didn't bother getting a security advisor for Vindictus until it got hacked to shit.

I luled my ass off on this one.

[TaigaUC]

Yeah, I mean... maybe it's just me, but I try to take proper precautions BEFORE shit hits the fan, not after.

[HeyItsTHK]

Yeah, I mean... maybe it's just me, but I try to take proper precautions BEFORE shit hits the fan, not after.

That doesn't happen in ANY game AT ALL. Dev teams don't put in the same time players do, if anything they just find stuff like going through walls and floors and things that freeze.

At the same time a million players actually playing the game will find more than 50 people trying to find something wrong, so there's that.

[TaigaUC]

Online games, you mean.
Offline games tend to be tested beforehand, although admittedly not so much nowadays.
They're always in crunch time so they rush to get the discs shipped whilst they finish fixing bugs for a phat day one patch.

In the case of PSO2, it was known for at least a week or two before the HDD deletion bug that the launcher was deleting its own patch data.
It didn't seem like SEGA even looked into that issue.
It also took them around ten hours to officially announce the HDD wiping bug, which is more than enough time for people to have already overwritten the sectors on their drive.
Considering how often SEGA realizes something is broken 5 minutes after maintenance, I get the impression that they barely even glance at the content of their updates before pawning them off on us.

I know updating servers isn't easy, and some bugs will always sneak through, but I don't think I've played any game that let so many bugs slip through as consistently as PSO2.
I just think it's sad it took wiping 20,000 people's drives to change how they've been going about doing things.
Severe lack of foresight. Reminds me of certain other real life disasters.

[Sp-24]

That doesn't happen in ANY Sega game for PC AT ALL. Dev teams don't put in the same time players do, if anything they just find stuff like going through walls and floors and things that freeze.

At the same time a million players actually playing the game will find more than 50 people trying to find something wrong, so there's that.
Important detail. Sega can't make games for PC, nor does it even try to. Remember Sonic 4? Or Jet Set Radio port? The company even seems to go out of its way to buy more developers that make buggy messes of games for PC, as if they want the word "SEGA" to be a sign of lack of quality for those who pre-order a new Total War game.

Quality control is still an important part of game development, even though free "beta" tests of online games are growing more and more popular. Sega, however, had to find the answer to finally ditch the "What's the worst that could happen?" approach.

[Coatl]

I wonder if they will fix the bug of too low exp from the last 2 Hans SH cos?

But it makes every bit of sense for rockbear to give x3 the amount of experience than bosses such as bal rodos, quartz dragon, and vardher!!1

[TaigaUC]

Super Hard EXP has been vastly underwhelming for me.