"Do the devs play this game?"

[ashitaka]

I work for EA in one of the various QA departments (let me finish this post before you try and lynch me for working for EA) and during my time here I discovered that in general devs never see the actual games they're making.

If you work for EA, you should then know that Ultima Online devs are actually playing the game. Ah wait, I heard about bad relationships between EA US and EA Europe. At least you know Ultima Online. I hope. You know the first MMORPG... it's not dead, still a lot of accounts, new expansions... hard to be sold in Europe because of ignorance.
Ok I stop irony there, and I'd say I think SoR devs actually play (not too much) their game and have major returns from GMs and Guides team, that are ingame and are listening to players.
If there's a problem of communication, only players are not listening.

[lazarus]

The one comment I'd make about the test server is that not everyone has access to it, so the views of the people using may be skewed slightly.

It may well be that Nevrax saw the comments from the test server folks and thought (hoped) not everyone would react as negatively. I'm not defending it, just trying to see things from all angles...

Perhaps everyone should be given access to the ATS?

Another thing to bear in mind is that there are very few games in my experience who actually have a test server, so you have to give Nevrax some credit for that.

[keriann]

give ME access to ATS and this crap wouldn't happen anymore, I am HARD to ignore.

[amitst]

The funniest thing....I havent heard anyone make an ill-voiced complaint. Even the complainers are writing long-winded paragraphs about why they hate this game now. I think it is very concise, and everyone understands why they are mad.

[helbreat]

not sure I could possibly agree more.

If it needs testing, hire testers. Same as every other software development company.

i got plenty of free time employ me to test lol

[keriann]

and no I start to seriously think that the devs do not play ryzom. they are playing world of warcraft trying to forget their incoming doom.

[blaze109]

[QUOTE=lazarus]

I work for EA in one of the various QA departments (let me finish this post before you try and lynch me for working for EA) and during my time here I discovered that in general devs never see the actual games they're making. They see pages and pages of code, but not the actual results of that code.

//[QUOTE=lazarus]

I'll add my 2 cents here.

I worked for a software company (non gaming one) and discovered that developers and programmers (2 somewhat different professions) rarely ever do use the software they work on. It's the QC folks that come closest to using the software and generally they are tasked with testing only certain functions or areas of the product.

So I agree that most of the devs aren't likely to play the game. I'd be willing to bet that the senior management staff would rarely play the game as well. Someone came up with the Ryzom concept and then set other people to working on it.

[spaero]

YES! The DEV's play this game.

THEY are the freakin Gingos that swarm from behind the trees when you look at a zone the wrong way.

THEY are the Najab, The Kinchers, The Mobs that flatten you as you rake in your mats trying to create some armor to protect you....

yes, THEY are the only ones enjoying this game.

[lazarus]

YES! The DEV's play this game.

THEY are the freakin Gingos that swarm from behind the trees when you look at a zone the wrong way.

THEY are the Najab, The Kinchers, The Mobs that flatten you as you rake in your mats trying to create some armor to protect you....

yes, THEY are the only ones enjoying this game.

OK, you've let the cat out of the bag.

Here's a screenshot taken with a secret camera of the devs laughing it up at the results of patch 1...

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/lazarus/im ... vteam1.jpg

(And don't ask how I got that close without getting severely whomped)