Again with the copies??

[Kadurm]

<DIV>Okies, we had that part of 6 pages of test server bashing, we take it day in and day out. But even on the AP feedback forums they are again asking about character copies.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><A href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=tfd_beta&message.id=114" target=_blank>http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=tfd_beta&message.id=114</A></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Now Blackguard specifically replied in a detailed post that NO there will not be any character copies other than some selected guilds for specific raid testing. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Yet someone later on even quotes Blackguard then preceeds to say that it would be a good idea to let copies come over???</DIV> <DIV>Can you say get a clue??</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Geeze as if free lvls, free rare armor, free adept 3s and everything else they get with beta buffers they are STILL asking that same old question.</DIV> <DIV>I just dont understand some ppl.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I was actually gonna reply to that asking if it wouldnt be a better idea to take say the Permafrost server, which is FULL of ppl, raid guilds and fabled toons out the wazoo. Take that server and make it the new test server and be done with it. But I dont think they would like that either.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Lose lose situation.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[Kethaera]

<div><blockquote><hr>Kadurm wrote:<div> </div> <div>I was actually gonna reply to that asking if it wouldnt be a better idea to take say the Permafrost server, which is FULL of ppl, raid guilds and fabled toons out the wazoo. Take that server and make it the new test server and be done with it. But I dont think they would like that either.</div><hr size="2" width="100%"></blockquote>Hehehe, probably not. But that's the thing, is somebody somewhere is not gonna be happy no matter what you do. In fact, I'm convinced there are personality types that make it a point to not be happy about something all the time. However, as hurtful as their words are, and as many times as I've cried over these forums later (I'm pregnant and emotional, sue me), I realize it really doesn't change anything. They act like we're the ones keeping them from copying their characters over, or whatever it is they want, but we have no power. They can call us however many names they want and it does them no good. SOE makes those decisions, for good or ill. And if SOE decides to open Test up to anyone and everyone for character copies, there's nothing we can do to stop it. (Although I imagine not a few of us would certainly let them know our opinion on the matter.)As has been pointed out recently, Testers are between a rock and a hard place right now. Obviously SOE doesn't feel like we've population enough to test the beta, which is why they opened up betabuffing for the time. Now we hear from them that they're receiving reports that WE'RE abusins the buffers, despite evidence to the contrary. So now we appear ineffective and vindictive, and we can't even defend ourselves it seems. But despite how negative everything seems right now, I have hopes that it will all be over soon. How will we appear in the end? In part, that is up to us. We have to be so careful right now. I'm going out of my way to be helpful and nice to the new people, and I'm trying to encourage non-buffed testers to get involved in testing however possible, to prove that we're effective and useful. If we can hunker down, "turn the other cheek," and do what we do best -- test -- I think we'll pull out all right in the end. And hopefully, hopefully, SOE sees that buffing is a mistake, and doesn't allow this kind of thing again...but that's out of our hands, isn't it?</div>

[HaCkHaCkER]

<P>this will be my standard response to all of these posts</P> <P>________________________________________________</P> <P>this is the reason char copies are not allowed.<BR>if you are interested in testing out a specific thing about your class you can always roll a toon on test.  take advantage of the permanent bonus xp.  and hell if you are serious about testing, stay a while(more than a few hours or days) and get to know and understand the community.  you can always /join test but just like live servers that is not the only place chat takes place.  we have guild chat cross guild chat raid chat and so forth. <BR><BR>also not everyone in /join test is a full time regular test player.  so <FONT color=#ff00ff><U><I><B>NOT</B></I></U></FONT> every thing that is said in /join test comes from the normal players there.<BR><BR>now this is a quote from another thread posted by MG<BR></P> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Zhonata wrote:<BR> <DIV>Not allowing chacter coping seem to seriously cripple your ability to have more feedback....</DIV> <DIV>While you are keeping potential trolls out you are also keeping potential and vital asets out. In my opinion the mass negative feedback that is gotten after things hit live is a direct reaction to not enought people testing. <HR> </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR> </P> <DIV>I disagree. We have no lack of feedback from our Test players. They do a fantastic job reporting bugs in game, posting issues on the boards, and communicating with QA while playing. If there is a perceived lack of feedback from them, it's at least partially because the public boards here that are supposed to be dedicated to testing feedback get so clogged with non-tester questions, opinions, and bickering that the genuine posts are soon buried. Even the "requests from the devs" threads get swarmed with so much noise that they tend to quickly lose their value. That's why we have a private tester-only board here, and why the Test server population manages their own external message board.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>It is true that the population on Test can't give feedback on every epic encounter, every Master I spell, and every item drop in the game. While mass copying characters over would give us some of that data, the signal-to-noise ratio would get exponentially worse. And because those copied characters wouldn't be seen by the owners as "real" in the same sense they are on the live servers, some people would see Test as a place to run amok with far less concern over the consequences. You say we could weed out the bad apples as if that is a cost-free solution, but reports of bad behavior would still need to be throroughly investigated and researched. The extensive amount of time required to do that is in short supply, and would ultimately cut into the time that the Test GMs have to actual help the testing process.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Test server isn't a playground. It's a real server community where the people who play there dedicate their time not just to advance their characters, but to help us build a better game. The answer to get more people on the server is not to offer unlimited copies, but rather to make the server appeal to more of those who have an interest in lending a hand.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I also want to make clear that when bugs do make it through the Test to Live process, it is seldom because the issue wasn't reported. There have certainly been times where we missed a critical bug report that was sent in, and situations in which we thought we fixed something when we actually didn't. But those cases are our fault, not the testers. They are a community of people who put a lot of heart into what they do, and should receive nothing but appreciation for that effort.</DIV> <P>===========================<BR>Steve Danuser, a.k.a. Moorgard<BR>Game Designer, EverQuest II </P>

[Bhagpuss]

<blockquote><hr>Kadurm wrote: <div>I was actually gonna reply to that asking if it wouldnt be a better idea to take say the Permafrost server, which is FULL of ppl, raid guilds and fabled toons out the wazoo. Take that server and make it the new test server and be done with it. But I dont think they would like that either.</div> <div> </div> <div>Lose lose situation.</div> <div> </div><hr></blockquote>As I recall this actually happened quite early on - a couple of zone revamps were trialed on a Live server before being rolled out to the rest. I remember thinking it was a pretty good idea at the time - it didn't cause a great deal of complaint, as I recall - rather the reverse, in fact.  Must have been some problem with the concept though, because it doesn't seem to have been continued. I would think that things like the Nek Forest/Commonlands revamps could be trialed in this way, although obviously combat changes would be more controversial. I would also think that it would be possible to run an Adventure Pack beta on a Live server, with a bit of care. I wouldn't have thought it would be beyond the bounds of possibility to have all gear, abilities, levels etc reset on zoning out of the AdPack zones so that players could go in and test on their regular characters without affecting the rest of the server. The main complaint would end up being "why does their server get this cool beta when mine doesn't?".<div></div>