Elvis said:
Thanks. It helped me find the thread.
I usually provide the links - no idea why I didn't this time. :hmmm:
How long has Afghanistan been in the play-testing stages, I seem to remember this was first mentioned about 3-4 months ago. How long does it take for the play testing of the Campaigns? Finding out this will give you an indication of how long until we see Normandy.
Also I imagine the same guys are testing everything else too (NATO?). So is the testing concurrent or consecutive?
Elvis, how much time do you spend testing each Module/Game on average per day/week/month? Also, how many testers are there?
Bear in mind "testing" can be something super-useful under someone hyper-organized, with specific goals and objectives, with a strong leader riding herd over the project. I'm on a couple of ASL playtesting teams and Andy Hershey is a personality like that, just to name one, who can keep people going, and on focus, and assign specific tasks and make the most of his people, even though it is all done in virtual space over thousands of miles and across time zones and continents, with people he's never met.
Then there are playtest groups that kind of just mill around, with no real leadership, where people just play a few scenarios when they want to, and if a report gets submitted, maybe someone will read it. Maybe a playtester will even get called out in front of the entire group for making critical suggestions. Those kinds of development teams take longer to produce things worthwhile, and their releases often get pilloried when they make it to press because stuff that should have got caught or discussed in all the confusion, didn't. The best part of that is when key game features get lambasted and the publisher then blames the playtesters for not bringing it up during the confusion of the testing, and when several testers point out that they did exactly that, the publisher announces that they should have objected harder, so it's all their fault despite his veto powers. All hypothetically speaking, of course.