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Public Test Server

PlatinaKokiPlatinaKoki
Mabinogi Rep: 7,760
Posts: 950
Member
edited July 25, 2019 in Feedback and Suggestions
As the title says.

Seeing as this game continually seems to have errors that leaves me to believe that the content isn't even tested for compatability with our version, why not let the players test, on a public test server?
DanievictriaByff
  1. PTS?19 votes
    1. Yes
       79% (15 votes)
    2. No
       21% (4 votes)

Comments

  • UrufuUrufu
    Mabinogi Rep: 880
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    I don't know, that seems like it might be "reasonable" or something.
  • HelsaHelsa
    Mabinogi Rep: 23,570
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    I can't see how implementing this hurts anyone. It would come down to whether Nexon thinks it would be worth spending the money.
  • LeineiLeinei
    Mabinogi Rep: 16,460
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    Kind of like a closed beta?
  • DragoolfireDragoolfire
    Mabinogi Rep: 3,590
    Posts: 486
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    This is a good idea. they might get to it in a decade or 2... when all the veteran players have long gray beards and hair... with arthritis... and cant remember their names... yup, it might happen.
  • PlatinaKokiPlatinaKoki
    Mabinogi Rep: 7,760
    Posts: 950
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    Leinei wrote: »
    Kind of like a closed beta?

    In what way?
  • DanievictriaDanievictria
    Mabinogi Rep: 3,695
    Posts: 313
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    If they don't have the budget for in-house testers, then letting players test new events and features on a test server for free would be the next best thing. Give people a special Tester/Guinea Pig character card for that server only to participate...maybe give people little perks for a character on one of the other servers in the vein of the Hero Support system for participating in the testing. The gift would be given after the test period and could be things like a small amount of Pon, or a wardrobe key, or a hammer of durrability, or a 2x training potion, or a dye ampule...little things like that. Participate in enough tests, and you could earn a second title "The Guinea Pig" that gives your character a pulsating, green, radioactive glow aura and +25 Luck. That could be fun!
    Sherri
  • ByffByff
    Mabinogi Rep: 300
    Posts: 11
    Member
    It'd be a good idea but it'd probably also end up like Overwatch's "test server" where it's constantly dead and then flooded with spam during updates. I can't really think of any other mmorpgs with test servers just because most people don't want to play two versions of the exact same game unless their "main" account is getting some kind of buff or prize for it.
  • PlatinaKokiPlatinaKoki
    Mabinogi Rep: 7,760
    Posts: 950
    Member
    If they don't have the budget for in-house testers, then letting players test new events and features on a test server for free would be the next best thing. Give people a special Tester/Guinea Pig character card for that server only to participate...maybe give people little perks for a character on one of the other servers in the vein of the Hero Support system for participating in the testing. The gift would be given after the test period and could be things like a small amount of Pon, or a wardrobe key, or a hammer of durrability, or a 2x training potion, or a dye ampule...little things like that. Participate in enough tests, and you could earn a second title "The Guinea Pig" that gives your character a pulsating, green, radioactive glow aura and +25 Luck. That could be fun!
    Byff wrote: »
    It'd be a good idea but it'd probably also end up like Overwatch's "test server" where it's constantly dead and then flooded with spam during updates. I can't really think of any other mmorpgs with test servers just because most people don't want to play two versions of the exact same game unless their "main" account is getting some kind of buff or prize for it.

    The reason why it's a test server is just that; to test stuff, along with possibly early access to new stuff (hands-on, instead of just looking at KR videos, since only a few here have managed to trick the system to get into KR servers.)

    Yes, there would be incentives to participating in the Public Test Server (although, I would think that a game that's at as functional of a level that it can possibly get would be a good enough incentive, but, well, greed, I guess.).
    Byff
  • DanievictriaDanievictria
    Mabinogi Rep: 3,695
    Posts: 313
    Member
    edited July 26, 2019
    If they don't have the budget for in-house testers, then letting players test new events and features on a test server for free would be the next best thing. Give people a special Tester/Guinea Pig character card for that server only to participate...maybe give people little perks for a character on one of the other servers in the vein of the Hero Support system for participating in the testing. The gift would be given after the test period and could be things like a small amount of Pon, or a wardrobe key, or a hammer of durrability, or a 2x training potion, or a dye ampule...little things like that. Participate in enough tests, and you could earn a second title "The Guinea Pig" that gives your character a pulsating, green, radioactive glow aura and +25 Luck. That could be fun!
    Byff wrote: »
    It'd be a good idea but it'd probably also end up like Overwatch's "test server" where it's constantly dead and then flooded with spam during updates. I can't really think of any other mmorpgs with test servers just because most people don't want to play two versions of the exact same game unless their "main" account is getting some kind of buff or prize for it.

    The reason why it's a test server is just that; to test stuff, along with possibly early access to new stuff (hands-on, instead of just looking at KR videos, since only a few here have managed to trick the system to get into KR servers.)

    Yes, there would be incentives to participating in the Public Test Server (although, I would think that a game that's at as functional of a level that it can possibly get would be a good enough incentive, but, well, greed, I guess.).

    Not so much "greed" as the fact that it's easier to recruit a decent population of testers if you offer an incentive. The more testers you have, the broader the pool of players with different system configurations and play styles you have going through the content being tested, which can help pick out bugs and glitches that may be overlooked if you have a smaller sample size of testers to work with. For instance, when The Sims 4 launched nearly 5 years ago, there was a graphical bug that appeared which made the babies glitch out into distorted monstrosities. That glitch only occurred for people using certain Intel processors, and flew under the radar because the QA testers were not playing the game on computers equipped with said processors. More play styles represented means that it would be easier to find bugs and balancing issues which can ruin, say, a dungeon crawl or a PvP match or a commerce run or party formation.

    Unfortunately, not everyone will jump on the tester bandwagon for free, though. After all, participating in a test means sacrificing some of one's (usually quite limited) gaming time to check and see if something new is broken, then tell the staff what (if anything) you found. A lot of people will go, "That sounds a lot like work...unpaid work," and not participate...unless, you offer them some small token to sweeten the deal. Otherwise, most players would ignore the test server and just keep playing as normal, and you'll have a very tiny pool of testers...which, as my Sims 4 example illustrates, can lead to problems still flying under the radar because of the limited pool of players doing the testing.
  • LutetiumLutetium
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    Member
    Being realistic about this, NA doesn't need a test server because the updates aren't made in NA and NA doesn't need bug testers or feedback for patches that they don't make. The Korean player base already does this on the Korean test server in Korea where Mabinogi is developed by Koreans employed by Nexon and bugs are reported to these Korean developers in Korean.
    I suppose if you're particularly dedicated to helping test updates you can learn Korean move to Korea, become a Korean citizen, obtain a KSSN and Korean phone number and make an account with the Korean Nexon and play on the KR test server. But by time it hits NA, an NA test would just be "early access" to an update where your progress isn't saved, possibly with an unfinished translation so it's very much a pointless endeavor.
  • GretaGreta
    Mabinogi Rep: 51,805
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    edited July 27, 2019
    Then why some updates become broken in NA for the 354768 time while KR has it same, but everything seems to be ok? :thinkingemoji:
    Danievictria
  • SebastianSebastian
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    edited July 28, 2019
    We already are a test server.

    /s
  • UrufuUrufu
    Mabinogi Rep: 880
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    Sebastian wrote: »
    We already are a test server.

    /s

    For Gatcha Sale Statistics?

    They sure as hell are not fixing the majority of long-standing issues after all.
  • MaiaMaia
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    Posts: 903
    Member
    They did a test server once, I forget what it was for tbh. It's not like something that they just snap their fingers and it's done. It costs money to keep a test server up and it costs man power to maintain (import data/wipe/etc). It's probably a lot cheaper for them to just let kr do most of the major testing, do super-small closed testing in NA (which they do), release it, and then patch any bugs later. I don't see this happening except for super rare occasions (a little surprised they didn't for the merge tbh)