Monthly Archives: January 2014

There’s Testing and Then There’s Testing

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Over the years, I’ve been fortunate enough to be in most every beta I opted in for.  I started it back when beta was actually a beta and not a sales pitch.  Most betas today are so polished that they are really just soft launches and not test platforms.

Then you have stress tests.  I work in the IT field.  Oddly enough, yesterday I was writing up an FRTM and test plan.  Stress tests are for two purposes.  First is authentication (logon screen) and the second is core systems.  Think of it as front door and inside the house.  Stress tests on the front door today should not be public.  There are hundreds of testing options for testing capacity on authentication.  The actual fallout of having your public test this feature is extremely poor press and word of mouth.   NDAs are all fine and dandy but people talk anyhow and a 21 gig character creation tool sells nothing.

What you want from a true stress test is putting a bunch of people inside the house and trying the various appliances.  You want 1000 people trying to PvP.  You want 1000 people to craft at the same time.  You want 1000 people looting at the exact same time.  Your transactional services need to be pushed to capacity and black box testing can only get you so far.

If you want to spend 3 days stress testing and the only thing you’re testing is the logon screen, then you just wasted 3 days.

Launch Windows

The average public beta of a new MMO is 60 days.  This gives some balancing numbers and time to tweak systems.  Most NDA’s drop on public beta to create buzz and word of mouth.  SWTOR is a recent example of a game with such a window, character wipes and a fairly strong NDA.  It was a rather bad beta, compared to previous ones.  RIFT is the complete opposite.  Beta was polished and the core task for testers was balance.  Balance takes time and takes recursive tests and non-logical functions.  That’s why you put people in the game, to do stupid things.

Considering we have a few big MMOs launching this year, I am somewhat curious as to the status of beta windows and NDA drops.  The goal isn’t to put something out the door.  That ship has sailed.   Fingers crossed.

Assassin’s Creed 4

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Steam winter sale + pirates = here’s my wife’s money.

I played AC 1&2.  Then it got into a money grabfest of terrible proportions. AC3 looked stupid (apparently played that way until you completed the game) and I skipped it.  But my heart has always been with Pirates!  I played the heck out of that game and anything that allows you to loot and plunder while steering a giant ship in the seas has my vote!

AC4 does away with a  bunch of the crappy stalking missions (still a few mind you) and concentrates on open water warfare and parkour assassinations.  Rather than just a few towns, there are dozens of areas to find.  Islands, towns, forts, shipwrecks.  I unlocked one of the 9 areas on the map (by taking down a fort in a 10 minute battle) and it cleared my map to see all the various objects.  I swear there were twenty things that popped on my screen.  I saw a whale and decided to take a stab.  Poor pun.

Well worth my money.  I’m what appears to be less than 50% complete with 20 hours in.  And being a completionist isn’t some boring affair either.  Collecting even the tiny things, like shanties, is a fun romp through town.

Plus there’s the ship battles.  Plenty of videos of that.  There’s something to be said about taking down 5 ships, a fort, 2 captains, a flag, 3 officers and a war officer.  Tons of fun and highly recommended.

2014 Resolutions & Predictions

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New year, new rules.  Thems the rules.

While I think 2013 was a vast improvement on 2012, there are a few things I’d like to focus on.

  • More cross-links to other blogs.  There are some amazing ones out there and networking is a good thing.
  • Schedule blogs.  I find I write/post in a flash and might have 3 in a day.  I need to schedule them to cover other days.
  • Get 5 posts a week.  I think this is doable.  It will be hard what with work ramping up worse.
  • More indie games.  I play 3-4 AAA games a year.  I have not been disappointed in some time with that schedule.  I play about a dozen or so indies.  Some are great, some are the complete opposite.  Still, new ideas come from those games and they need more support.  Plus, I can get all hipster and say I played it before you.
  • More videos.  I did a lot of videos for Neverwinter.  In fact, if you google Neverwinter my blog is in the top 10 for some reason.  I need to do more.  I really enjoy it.

Predictions

Because why not?

So let’s get the two big ones out first.

The Elder Scrolls Online – Going to go F2P within 6 months.  It will play exactly like a multiplayer Skyrim, which is what people want, but they don’t want to pay $100 a year to do.  PvP looks the most promising but knowing Bethesda, there are going to be some massive bugs/balance issues.

Wildstar – Most likely to retain subscription model and likely to pull players from the themeparks around town.  The MMO aspects seem interesting, while the gameplay less so. Player/guild housing is going to be a big bonus.

FPS – CoD and BF are going to continue their dominance over the genre and launch as complete messes next year.  People will still line up like sheep to play.  It’s why you have an xbox/PS amirite?  Firefall finally gets its act together and launches.

MOBA – LoL will continue to lead the top.  Infinite Crisis will finally launch but only target a niche audience.  SMITE will take another chunk.  DOTA2 will be a solid #2.  We’ll see the first few mass audience e-sport games from this genre.

RPG – The continual demise of the genre will continue with our only hope the indie/kickstarter bunch and a few JRPGs.  It will continue to be integrated into every other genre.  The “purity” of the genre is lost but since every game and their mother has RPG elements today, I see that as a win for D&D folk everywhere.

Adventures – 2014 is the year of the adventure game.  2013 gave a clear message that story and personal involvement was a massive hook in today’s “instant gratification” mandate.  Adventure stories are some of my best memories of the 80s/90s and technology has evolved enough to make it super intuitive.

Mobility – Everyone and their mother has a smart phone or a tablet today.  In addition to the Steam box, I see a new distributor/game link happening on mobile devices, similar to the PS4/Vita & WiiU.  Games will have online portable versions.  Public transport will return to the days of Gameboys going “beeboop, beeeyoooop”.  It’ll be great.

MMOs – LOTRO gives up.  Neverwinter makes a pile of cash.  Rift goes down to 2 servers.  EvE loses subs to Star Citizen.  WoW drops to 5 million.  SWTOR does a 180 and launches content players actually want to play.  FF14 hemorhages massive player base when TESO/Wildstar launch, stays subscription.  EQL/EQN launch and fall flat. SotA somehow manages to pull through and deliver.  WoW-WoD launches, sells record amounts and then has a massive crash as everyone realizes they’ve done it before.