Lack of Quality Assurance in SWTOR

[TooGreat]

actually you would!

 

Its common knowledge this game bleeding subscriptions

 

if large chunks of the normally placide subscription base starts leaving

 

this game in real trouble and your bubbly personality, no matter how impressed with yourself you are, will not keep it above water!

 

So you might wanna check the attitude at the door when people point out issues they are unhappy with!

 

Bubbly personality? For being sensible, okay next please

[Metaphysixx]

OK so there was an issue.

I guess many of you never played WOW?

Remember a great patch that involved a plague?

Remember when they had to reset the entire game to prepatch and the disease patch became a case study for a major university?

 

They had flame mail and hate mail that makes this look absolutely childish.

 

Yes these folks need to look at QA and do play testing for a major patch. Given.

 

But every new MMORPG has issues. Rifts, WOW etc they all have these issues.

 

Give them time to work it out.

 

And no you dont deserve 30 day free time for this, so get over yourself. Refunding 1 days or 2 days time would be responsible for them, but remember EA is running things so don't get your hopes up.

[Asavar]

QqQQQqqQQqqQQq

[MsgtDonut]

Not brown nosing, why would I be, well unless I get a cookie then I will brown nose all day.

 

It is just reality, take a minute to think about what it takes to have a million people playing a game at the same time. Then every little issue that comes up gets immediate and instant gratification...its absurd

 

At least attempts are being made to correct issues.

 

I have to agree on this too, My earlier message was hounding the QA of this game. I should think back when WoW first came out. I'm sure it had Issue after issue after it's release.

Edited April 13, 2012 by MsgtDonut

[Ffejwolf]

Parthis - really? Your analogy is awful really. And by the way, I am not pleased with this either, and I am certainly not saying I think it is acceptable. But it happens in all businesses, and you can certainly see that those business pay the price to varying degrees for their mistakes.

 

But honestly, this crap happens all the time with a number of industries, including banking and many others. Please tell me that any of you think that the CS you get from your phone company is acceptable (and you pay them a lot more). The point isn't that it is acceptable really, only that we all certainly have options to vote with our wallets as the final answer. But generally speaking, assaulting the vendor in the middle of the problem will never yield an answer or any level of satisfaction. I will be very interested to see how they approach this after all is back up and things are stable for them internally. However, I sincerely doubt that you will get to be a part of their internal staffing decisions nor will get to hear "who" got fired, etc. That is not appropriate in any business, and certainly this is no different.

 

Also, although I disagree with your take on this, I certainly feel like everyone has their right to voice their opinions. it's too bad the "napkin/brownie" folks don't feel the same way

[Rahnia]

A very important quote from your EULA...

[...] EA and its licensors cannot and do not guarantee that the Software, the Game and any updates, upgrades or expansions Software will run permanently or uninterrupted on your computer. EA and its licensors are not liable for delays, system failures, system outages or difficulties, especially of a technical nature, that are due to legal restrictions or other circumstances beyond its control[...]

 

So it's really pointless to even try and make the game run permanently and uninterrupted on my computer as well as not causing delays, system failures, system outages or difficulties, especially of a technical nature.

 

do you think that is what they are shooting for? perhaps there is a little more to expect than you considered.

[Mighty_Donkan]

Most of the whiners are acting as if bioware did this on purpose, get real people

 

And about refunds, lets wait till the crisis passes and then lets see if the guys up there come up with something about a refund (if there is any)

 

**** happens guys, suck it up and wait, or ****

[BossJawa]

Bubbly personality? For being sensible, okay next please

 

you sir are a **** or a troll

[Tenacity]

How much do you want to bet that they "consolidate" this thread and close it to try and cut down the negativity their company is receiving from these forums lately? That seems to be what they do with every other thread that shows how the players actually feel about their product.

 

Bioware, putting a blindfold on isnt going to help you keep subscriptions.

 

 

Most of the whiners are acting as if bioware did this on purpose, get real people

 

No, we know this was 'unintentional'. The problem is that it could have been easily avoided if the patching & server maintenance personnel actually took a minute to do things properly.

 

Despite this being Bioware's first MMORPG, we're still dealing with a company that has been developing games for a good 15+ years. What we're seeing from them lately (with both this game as well as mass effect 3) is completely amateur.

Edited April 13, 2012 by Tenacity

[Feluraunt]

I think they are doing just fine, just hiccups... lots of hiccups...

 

Every MMO I have played has had them, No game has been complete. This one just seems to have lacked the little things necessary to make it a competent game compared to the other MMO's available.

 

Trust me, GW2 will have its flaws as well... So much anger from everyone...

[Rafkin]

First, the 1.2 patch goes live for "15 minutes" a day early, preventing probably thousands from playing until thursday, then on friday they screw up another patch preventing everyone from playing on friday.

 

As many have said before, the technical people working on this game are horrible.

[snipegunner]

Let's translate what Bioware has made in terms of revenue from the subscriber base .. then let's hear you try to justify the "they can do no wrong" or "mistakes happen" excuses which defends horrible service levels and quality control.

 

From February:

EA announced it sold 2 million units of Bioware’s MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, which currently has 1.7 million daily active subscribers, making it the “fastest growing subscription MMO in history,” according to the firm.

 

1,700,000 * 15 = $25,000,000 / month

 

From November 2011:

“The revenue split is around 35 per cent to LucasArts after EA earns back their investment."

 

I don't think they have earned the initial investment back (which some say is around $200mm) -- so, lets break down the staff:

 

30 Producers / Project Managers

75 Designers

80 Engineers

40 Platform

10 Localization

10 Audio (not including LucasArts)

140 Artists

280 QA (How can the size of this team miss a glaring patch issue like 1.2a?)

 

665 people total

 

So, given certain assumptions, with this staff and operational costs, I think that they are still making around $6-10mm a month profit. At the end of last year, a leading analyst was quoted as saying that Bioware would see profitability at around 500k active subs.

 

Given all of this, poor quality is just not acceptable.

Edited April 13, 2012 by snipegunner

[TooGreat]

Also, although I disagree with your take on this, I certainly feel like everyone has their right to voice their opinions. it's too bad the "napkin/brownie" folks don't feel the same way

 

I dont think anyone is happy that things are messed up.

 

I was really pissed this morning when I log in and our GBank was GONE....We spent a ton of credz and time setting it up and working things out in our guild. Not to mention the fact that we had tons of mats and gear already in there.

 

I am glad that about 25 minutes later the server went down to fix these issues (assumption of course).

 

I play alot and paying to do so is a decision I make. I dont take my money lightly and honestly I will say that at least they are fixing it. Not just leaving the servers up for a day or two or hell a week till next patch day.

[Staryyyzz]

It`s not a tragedy but certainly it doesen`t make me happy.

 

I had a free day here in Europe and couldn`t play for entire day.

 

You guys didn`t learn anything from previous mistakes. I decided not to renew when D3 comes out.

 

Think how many customers you loose due to incompetence and don`t push patch releases.

[Tenacity]

I was really pissed this morning when I log in and our GBank was GONE....We spent a ton of credz and time setting it up and working things out in our guild. Not to mention the fact that we had tons of mats and gear already in there.

 

This is pretty disconcerting too, I wasnt able to log on before the servers went back down for this fix.

 

Every single one of our guild members (more than 60 in total) donated 1 million credits to our guild bank along with three full tabs worth of valuable crafting materials and schematics.

 

If that stuff is gone when the servers come back up, there's gonna be hell to pay.

[Asheris]

So it's really pointless to even try and make the game run permanently and uninterrupted on my computer as well as not causing delays, system failures, system outages or difficulties, especially of a technical nature.

 

do you think that is what they are shooting for? perhaps there is a little more to expect than you considered.

 

No, I am just saying that more people should know what they pay for. 90% of that turmoil going on for the last 2 hours on this forums shows how many gamers think they pay to play an mmo 24/7.

 

Sure, I may not be happy that I lost entire Friday due to maintenance but I get the feeling I am in the minority that can say "I got other things to do, other games to play". I will play it today after midnight or tomorrow staring from early morning...I won't loose my head over a few hours worth 0,5$ or less (because people love the argument "I pay 15$ a month, I must play NOW OR ELSE!").

[TooGreat]

This is pretty disconcerting too, I wasnt able to log on before the servers went back down for this fix.

 

Every single one of our guild members (more than 60 in total) donated 1 million credits to our guild bank along with three full tabs worth of valuable crafting materials and schematics.

 

If that stuff is gone when the servers come back up, there's gonna be hell to pay.

 

 

Yeah, If that stuff is gone when it comes back up then it will be a whole different discussion. I am crossing my fingers on that issue. Like I have said before at least there is an attempt to fix stuff.

[Silversable]

I'm sorry but this whole "but managing an MMO is hard! They're doing well!" is nonsense. They stepped up to the challenge, they need to deliver it.

 

There is no excuse at all for breaking your own patch by releasing outdated code/resources to your user base. You wouldn't accept it from your bank, your government, your OS provider, your ISP... don't accept it from a games company "because it's hard".

 

Seriously the "Bioware can do no wrong" crowd are getting intolerable.

I would tend to agree. This is not a case of a SW bug in a convoluted feature - bugs happen, even with all the testing money can buy (and even with all the testing you don't need to buy, hello, PTR testers).

 

This is a case of configuration control blunder. It does not shed doubt on the development part of the production cycle, rather on the image building part - and since image building should be completed *before* testing is completed, it means that the image that was deployed today never saw regression testing - a critical mistake (there is no way a feature rollback could escape regression testing). It is a process failure, not a design error, and as such, is much more worrying because it underlines a lack of maturity in the corresponding process and a tendancy to rush content out - probably because the production teams are understaffed and work under too tight a schedule as a consequence.

 

In the end, the source cause is probably in the upper levels of project management. Which makes it almost impossible to root out.

[oldshatterhand]

Quality Assurance what? BW doesn't have such a thing. They just release patches and prey they will work.

[Keaper]

Yeah.

You guys are completley right.

This Is the final straw.

 

Becuse at no time ever before has a Big patch in an MMO brought any problems.

 

Oh wait.....

 

1.2 was a major content patch.

That Allways means the servers crash left and right for at least a week afterwards.

Are you guy completley new to MMO ??

WoW never ever managed to apply a content patch that itself dident need extra patches for weeks.

Same with every single other MMO there has ever been and ever will be.

 

They have even given us 30 Free days and a Free minipet as bacicly a Thanks for understanding guys.

 

Its bacicly, welcome to how MMO's work.

[gsrce]

First, the 1.2 patch goes live for "15 minutes" a day early, preventing probably thousands from playing until thursday, then on friday they screw up another patch preventing everyone from playing on friday.

 

As many have said before, the technical people working on this game are horrible.

 

All of their technology is outsourced to India. They don't do any of this stuff at their American offices, what do you expect?

[Jarlgon]

[...] EA and its licensors cannot and do not guarantee that the Software, the Game and any updates, upgrades or expansions Software will run permanently or uninterrupted on your computer. EA and its licensors are not liable for delays, system failures, system outages or difficulties, especially of a technical nature, that are due to legal restrictions or other circumstances beyond its control[...]

 

but this was well within their control, this issue about the accidental re-roll to pre 1.2

[Otega]

Yeah.

You guys are completley right.

This Is the final straw.

 

Becuse at no time ever before has a Big patch in an MMO brought any problems.

 

Oh wait.....

 

1.2 was a major content patch.

That Allways means the servers crash left and right for at least a week afterwards.

Are you guy completley new to MMO ??

WoW never ever managed to apply a content patch that itself dident need extra patches for weeks.

Same with every single other MMO there has ever been and ever will be.

 

They have even given us 30 Free days and a Free minipet as bacicly a Thanks for understanding guys.

 

Its bacicly, welcome to how MMO's work.

 

Except the op is 100% correct. You're simply making excuses.

 

Quit apologizing. This is 2012. There has been hundreds of titles released in the past 10 years that they could gleam knowledge from.

 

What was ok 5-10 years ago is not ok now. And no amount of anything should provide an excuse for a mistake this large, this early.

 

Stop making excuses for a professional gaming studio filled with professional programers, project mgrs, etc. These people are PROFESSIONALS. They do this for a living.

 

This is inexcusable. Bugs are bugs and they happen. This isn't a bug.

[Cretinus]

While I do agree that there might be a QA problem, one should keep in mind that BW is rather new to this sort of huge mmo project and that 1.2 was their first major patch on such a project. Sure, things went wrong. But this does not disqualify them from being a seriously professional company that is able to extract a good piece of learning from what happened.

[JeRune]

What a bunch of whiny idiots on these forums; was starting to wonder why I hadn't posted much since launch, but now I remember..

 

In short; mistakes happen, give these guys a break. A lot of you probably never played vanilla WoW or you wouldn't be crying over an 8 hour patch and an 8 hour follow-up patch.

 

Don't like the game, the service or the QA; only one thing to do, right?

 

As for doom and gloom about this game doing bad, bleeding subs, etc.. I dare you to back that up with actual numbers and graphs.. because basically you're just making stuff up.