I think I'm the only one that agrees with Alhanelem and Theytalk. There hasn't been a game I haven't beta tested. I beta test for Microsoft and most online games that come out. You can take that with a grain of salt or whatever. Doesn't matter to me. They made some really understandable points, as did everyone else. WOE weapons are good enough to test the new weapon skills with. They are the unadulterated form and solely give out the weapon skill. That is more than enough to test for effects, bugs, etc. People complain and say that they should give out empy/relic/mythic weapons as well. Of course these things need to be tested as what Kitkat posted cleared proved lol But people tend to think that they should be on the test server which I personally feel would have more negative consequences then positive. Not that it isn't a bad idea.
Does anyone else but me think that if a gaming company comes out with these new ideas, they are probably thoroughly (normally with other game companies but apparently not SE lol) tested before the public would even know or be able test them on a public test server? Sounds like people that are stating they should be made to test out to the public make it sound like SE has done no testing on them whatsoever and just made the design for them and was like, here you go, done. If they wanted people to test relic/empy/mythic weapons they would of done so from the beginning. This was obviously not their goal and most likely wanted testers to actually test other things then something they "thought" they covered or was good enough not to test.
The fix they did that Kitkat posted sounds like it was a coding issue, not involving balance or any kind of bugs with the weapons themselves. That's just bad quality assurance testing on SE's part. How would you not test that from within the company and not find that? Lol Shoot, give everyone posting here in this forum what those testers make and they would of found that bug out I'm positive. Now from their mistake they are making those weapons obtainable. Not that it's a bad thing, but wasn't really needed.
People can use the argument, well I pay monthly I should be able to test what I want blah blah. That's the same argument as partying with a ninja with sam sub expecting him to tank. Can you do it, yeah, is it needed or viable, not really. People that complain they want to min/max and decide what is best to get, the test server really isn't for that. Has anyone every talked to a GM in FFXI asking about this, or anything in general you don't know the answer too? They always forward you to community forums. There's a reason for that. Chances are with a few days or a week of new gear, items, weapons, and content that people will have already discovered what's best, what works, and how to use it. They also have the option for people with gear to have it carried over for those are really interested about it. Should they waste resources to make everyone be able to obtain any type of gear through means, no. It costs money, time, and effort to do things like that. Granted, it seems simple to us but isn't always easy as it seems. Should the test server be used for this application gear min/maxing? Hell no. I'd rather have bugs be found within content that could potentially ruin my gaming experience then people worrying about gear and setups taking up valuable space on a test server.
It's really too late to be complaining about the weapons on the test server now as it looks like made them available. I feel they would do more bad than good and deter people from actually doing testing. That's not to say people that mess around with them will not go about testing other things, but hopefully people will keep the mindset about testing rather than messing around on the public test server.