Should SE Implement a Public Test Server? (Talk on Released Content)

[KitingGenbu]

At least they eventually done it lol

6 years to go? or maybe 5

But seriously, people saying no because it will delay the patch process dont really get that subpar content released on time only costs the company more money plus insures subs will decline till the next patch. If you have people testing your content and actually giving feedback, it helps insure that the content will have a bit longer longevity at least till the next patch, thus increasing retention and making the company more money in the long run. Dead content isn't content, people.

[Stormfur]

I guess this is a common thing with other MMOs? Letting some or all players test things before release?

[Remus]

I guess this is a common thing with other MMOs? Letting some or all players test things before release?

Yes, in order to find bugs or give feedback on the content.

[Zumi]

They did this in FFXI have test server but only 1-3 people would even be on it at a time so they stopped doing it. You really couldn't try out alliance content because so few people would be on it. Probably something similar would happen if they did it for ff14. In the end it turned into a log on just to see this NM that is never up so you can joke about actually killing it.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

They did this in FFXI have test server but only 1-3 people would even be on it at a time so they stopped doing it. You really couldn't try out alliance content because so few people would be on it. Probably something similar would happen if they did it for ff14. In the end it turned into a log on just to see this NM that is never up so you can joke about actually killing it.

Or the fact you'd also have people playing on test servers just to play with the new toys and not give any feedback.

[Rufalus]

They will change things based on feedback and player data when they get time. Diadem and other upcoming exploratory zones are being changed to more objectives-based content in a 3.x series patch, possibly 3.4, and separate matchmaking for gathering classes added. Verminion and other MGS activities will get cross-world lobbies and updated rewards to increase participation. Deep dungeon only just released but will be adjusted and updated like anything else. It's an MMO so things will constantly be re-evaluated and improved over its lifespan with or without a test world.

edit: gotta give S-E props for the latest patch reducing the damage of Raw Destruction in pvp and letting you buy primal mounts for 99 tokens, two things that were requested by many people on the English forums.

[LunaFaye]

So with all this said I would love to hear the communities opinion on some of the content they have released and would you like to have some form of Test Server for new pieces of content the dev team haven't done before so it makes it easier to prove a bit more insightful feedback on how they could improve it before official release?

A test server would take the excitement out of new content patches, as well as it would let people prepare for different parts of the content. Unless they change the content right after it was on the test server to prevent that kind of issue, this would not be a great outcome.

Another aspect would be the limitation of people that can join the test server, SE is not gonna put up a whole server, in different regions, that 2+ mil people can join at any time. It's difficult to determinate what kind of players can test the upcoming content and who doesn't. There would be always people that feel left out because they weren't able to join the test run, as well as people that would complain about changes being made at the end/start of each test run.

Also the game is not in beta stage anymore, that's the whole point of test servers when it comes of including the public. We did have closed and open beta's around 4 or 5 years ago. Sure we all know that the community changes, however the gaming mentality does not. SE decided a long time ago, who they like to cater too, some might like it and others won't, but at the end of the day that's SE's decision. I am not going to decide for them what content is plain out tedious and what content would be great if specific changes are made. They decided on this kind of business model, now they need to figure out how to make it work.

Was I disappointed about the patch? Yes but this was the only patch I wasn't happy with and that's my own problem. Lots of people enjoy the content that has been added a day ago, and that's the majority of people playing the game, or at least the majority of people voicing their opinion via forums. Only source SE can gather information from and there's nothing wrong with that. A test server would have not changed that.

So back to topic, with all this mentioned above and a couple of other things that need to be taken in consideration, at the end it would be the wrong move on SE's end. It would look very desperate and unprofessional, just to please a couple of unhappy customers.

Should SE care about their customers? Yes definitely, however you need to take into consideration how much of those complains are the truth. Some people just complain for the sake of complaining, others blow it out of proportion and then you have just a few, that might not like something but can't give non bias criticism or make any suggestions of how things could be changed. You can also not forget the silent player base, that does play a huge factor when it comes to the statistical part that dev's are looking at.

There's so many things you need to take into consideration, just opening a server is not that easy as it might seem like and absolutely not necessary.

[Anienai]

No. Bc no matter what content they release all we'll get are people complaining about everything.

Pretty much this.

[Hasrat]

My impression of test servers is their purpose is largely for hype. As already mentioned, for a game like this, considering the scale of the development cycle, testing would be of limited use. Either you get a short test period because you want it out on live as quickly as possible before everyone loses interest, content doesn't really have time to adjust or change, there's little if any feedback taken into consideration. Or, you get a long test period to do as much refining as possible so that when it finally hits live, everyone's already had their fill of it and nobody cares.

[SgtPepperUK]

Or the fact you'd also have people playing on test servers just to play with the new toys and not give any feedback.

In other MMOs I've tried where there's been a test server it has been pretty much this to the point that test players have kept hush-hush about a discovered exploit so they can use it once the content goes live.

Test servers have the potential to be useful in theory but, in practice, I don't feel those games, at least the ones I've tried that had test servers, were any better for it.