They also have different processes. Each report would start as a support request that goes through some customer care department or even call center first, that will triage the issue with some knowledge base or decision tree. So before a meaningful report makes it way to a department that can actually deal with it, a dozen other people are involved first.
I played Plague Tale 2 this summer. It’s a wonderful game and very much worth experiencing, but it would crash every time I opened the skill tree and the crafting tree. I tried contacting the devs about it, offered every info I had (system info, steps to replicate the bug, things I already tried to solve the issue, etc).
At first, customer support gave some generic advice (check files, uninstall/reinstall, update drivers, etc). Then they directed me to the Discord server of Focus Entertainment. Like, what? Why the heck is everything a Discord server nowadays? Why do I need to join a Discord server to get customer support?
But anyway, I did. They told me that, in the Discord server, I’d be able to talk to some developers. Instead, there were only a bunch of people from the marketing team, and they didn’t even bother with answering me. When I tried contacting customer support again, they didn’t reply to my email.
I’m 100% positive that I was not the only one who had found said bug, because I found a bunch of people on Reddit and Steam discussions reporting the same problem. As far as I know, it still hasn’t been patched.
So, not only do you have to deal with dozens of people before you’re actually able to reach the department that can actually deal with your problem. Sometimes, you are not able to reach the department at all. But hey, you can chat with someone from the marketing team on Discord! (If they actually bother with answering you at all, that is)
It’s a double edged sword. If the actual devs are exposed too much, they get bombarded with shit from so many people who have no clue and/or just want to vent, that they would not be able to do their actual work or would even burn out from all the toxicity.
Unfortunately people with actual helpful input are so rare that it’s likely not worth the hassle.
Would be cool though if the people triaging reports would have the knowledge to sort the wheat from the chaff. But same problem there: it’s likely so rare to encounter these reports that it’s not worth training people for it.
re plague tale 2: I found that it crashed (more like hung, process was still running) whenever I opened one of those screens. It seemed like the crash occurred for me when I scrolled through options on those menus too quickly. ex: switching to a different skill while the small preview video clip from the first one was still loading. I ended up scrolling really slowly through those trees
Yes. Not just AAA. Online commenters seem to believe that bugs don’t get fixed because developers aren’t aware of them. That’s almost never the reason. Finding bugs is easy. Fixing them is the difficult part. And time spent fixing bugs is time not spent developing new features.
I mean Valve once said that QA is the most vital part of game development.
Their classic anecdote is about Portal’s Development. They brought in some players to play the game near its completion and the user response was “Nice Demo, can’t wait to play the full game.” And they decided they had shown the player how to implement basic gameplay mechanics well, but that they hadn’t given the player a satisfying enough situation to use all of the mechanics at once. This is why Portal ends with the most amazing bossfight Valve has ever made imo.
so he says it was worth the amount of QA he got rather than the sales. I think it makes sense. I hope its really cost effective so others can try it.
Unfortunately, AAA devs usually already have such a backlog of bug reports that they won’t consider this an advantage
They also have different processes. Each report would start as a support request that goes through some customer care department or even call center first, that will triage the issue with some knowledge base or decision tree. So before a meaningful report makes it way to a department that can actually deal with it, a dozen other people are involved first.
I played Plague Tale 2 this summer. It’s a wonderful game and very much worth experiencing, but it would crash every time I opened the skill tree and the crafting tree. I tried contacting the devs about it, offered every info I had (system info, steps to replicate the bug, things I already tried to solve the issue, etc).
At first, customer support gave some generic advice (check files, uninstall/reinstall, update drivers, etc). Then they directed me to the Discord server of Focus Entertainment. Like, what? Why the heck is everything a Discord server nowadays? Why do I need to join a Discord server to get customer support?
But anyway, I did. They told me that, in the Discord server, I’d be able to talk to some developers. Instead, there were only a bunch of people from the marketing team, and they didn’t even bother with answering me. When I tried contacting customer support again, they didn’t reply to my email.
I’m 100% positive that I was not the only one who had found said bug, because I found a bunch of people on Reddit and Steam discussions reporting the same problem. As far as I know, it still hasn’t been patched.
So, not only do you have to deal with dozens of people before you’re actually able to reach the department that can actually deal with your problem. Sometimes, you are not able to reach the department at all. But hey, you can chat with someone from the marketing team on Discord! (If they actually bother with answering you at all, that is)
It’s a double edged sword. If the actual devs are exposed too much, they get bombarded with shit from so many people who have no clue and/or just want to vent, that they would not be able to do their actual work or would even burn out from all the toxicity.
Unfortunately people with actual helpful input are so rare that it’s likely not worth the hassle.
Would be cool though if the people triaging reports would have the knowledge to sort the wheat from the chaff. But same problem there: it’s likely so rare to encounter these reports that it’s not worth training people for it.
re plague tale 2: I found that it crashed (more like hung, process was still running) whenever I opened one of those screens. It seemed like the crash occurred for me when I scrolled through options on those menus too quickly. ex: switching to a different skill while the small preview video clip from the first one was still loading. I ended up scrolling really slowly through those trees
It crashed on me whether I’d scroll slowly or fast. Oftentimes just hovering on one of the perks was enough to make the game stop working.
I’d have to reset the pc and replay the same section over a dozen times just to get one upgrade. It was infuriating.
Yes. Not just AAA. Online commenters seem to believe that bugs don’t get fixed because developers aren’t aware of them. That’s almost never the reason. Finding bugs is easy. Fixing them is the difficult part. And time spent fixing bugs is time not spent developing new features.
I mean Valve once said that QA is the most vital part of game development.
Their classic anecdote is about Portal’s Development. They brought in some players to play the game near its completion and the user response was “Nice Demo, can’t wait to play the full game.” And they decided they had shown the player how to implement basic gameplay mechanics well, but that they hadn’t given the player a satisfying enough situation to use all of the mechanics at once. This is why Portal ends with the most amazing bossfight Valve has ever made imo.