| Some teams like to hide upcoming changes from the player base. As discussed earlier in the section about managing the expectations of the players, this generally causes more problems than not. Remember that the players are stakeholders, too, just as much as any executive or member of the team. Their input is important, if only so they can say they had some. Aside from the consideration of not taking the player base by surprise with changes, live testing with as many people as you can get is a necessary component of the live phase development procedure. Remember the bugs that were found when thousands tested in the late stages of open Beta, on code that you were positive was stable? Why would anyone believe, then, that making changes to code interlocked with many other moving parts can be done successfully with just a few dozen testers? So, a live test server is needed. There are a few guidelines to follow: -
Players who regularly inhabit a test server can become proprietary about it, in the same manner they do with their characters and possessions on the production server. It is recommended that you wipe the character database clean often, just to get players in the habit of it. -
It can be difficult to attract and retain players on the test server; they only have so much time to play, and the testing doesn't develop into a permanent character. A system of rewards can go a long way to attract people onto the server. For example, you can offer a tester-only item of clothing for use in the live game after a certain number of hours of testing is completed; players enjoy this kind of recognition among their peers, as it implies close contact with the god-like developers. -
Something that many teams forget is that the player base exists at all levels of experience and character growth, and with all manner of item inventories. After wiping a database clean, all characters are back to zero in growth and inventory, so the main testing is done by low-growth characters with "newbie" items. Be sure the live test server has player-activated options for raising and lowering test characters to various stages of growth and easily adding items to the inventory, so balance and bug issues can be tested in all ranges. This will also help attract players to the test server, as players love to test out character classes and items they haven't touched before. -
Listen to what the testers say. One of the most common mistakes teams make is to ignore what the testers are telling them. The communication has to flow both ways for the test server to be of any real use to the team.  |
