Game Testers are arguably one of the most important people in the gaming industry.
Why? Because Testers ensure that our time playing is as glitchy and lag free as possible.
While I (and most people) realize that not all glitches can be sniffed out, I feel as if testing has sort of taken a back seat to pushy release dates.
Take everyone's love/hate game, Modern Warfare 2. For a game that's release was so anticipated, you'd think Infinity Ward would want to super test the game to make sure that there were no unfair weapons, major glitches or things of that sort.
However, Modern Warfare had MANY glitches that were close to game breaking.
The model shotguns were extremely unfair, the damage and reach on the guns was far more than any other shotgun. Also, the rangers had a very high damage and range.
The infinite care package glitch was another glitch that killed teams. If one person got an emergancy airdrop, the game was pretty much over, because the infinite airdrops allowed the other team to call in a multitude of airstrikes, predator missiles, stealth bombers, harriers, choppers and chopper gunners. Very unfair.
Of course, you can ask most MW2 gamers what they disliked about the game and it would be the fact that it had do many glitches. I only named two, unfair weapons and the infinite carepackage glitch, but there have been many others. (Free XP rooms anyone? Glitched Ranks?)
Ok, I know what you're thinking "Wahh testers can't find everything /cry". Well duh, that's why games have something called a beta.
Halo 3's beta was perfect, it allowed players to find the glitches the testers might have let slip.
Having a beta is almost a necessity for a game that is going to have millions of people playing it and be a smash hit. (After all, you don't want to soil your company's name with an unplayable hunk of glitchy filth.)
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This is only how I feel. I don't demand all glitches go, but it seems as though major companies are spending less time on the testing in order to release their games sooner.
Why? Because Testers ensure that our time playing is as glitchy and lag free as possible.
While I (and most people) realize that not all glitches can be sniffed out, I feel as if testing has sort of taken a back seat to pushy release dates.
Take everyone's love/hate game, Modern Warfare 2. For a game that's release was so anticipated, you'd think Infinity Ward would want to super test the game to make sure that there were no unfair weapons, major glitches or things of that sort.
However, Modern Warfare had MANY glitches that were close to game breaking.
The model shotguns were extremely unfair, the damage and reach on the guns was far more than any other shotgun. Also, the rangers had a very high damage and range.
The infinite care package glitch was another glitch that killed teams. If one person got an emergancy airdrop, the game was pretty much over, because the infinite airdrops allowed the other team to call in a multitude of airstrikes, predator missiles, stealth bombers, harriers, choppers and chopper gunners. Very unfair.
Of course, you can ask most MW2 gamers what they disliked about the game and it would be the fact that it had do many glitches. I only named two, unfair weapons and the infinite carepackage glitch, but there have been many others. (Free XP rooms anyone? Glitched Ranks?)
Ok, I know what you're thinking "Wahh testers can't find everything /cry". Well duh, that's why games have something called a beta.
Halo 3's beta was perfect, it allowed players to find the glitches the testers might have let slip.
Having a beta is almost a necessity for a game that is going to have millions of people playing it and be a smash hit. (After all, you don't want to soil your company's name with an unplayable hunk of glitchy filth.)
--
This is only how I feel. I don't demand all glitches go, but it seems as though major companies are spending less time on the testing in order to release their games sooner.