The painful truth is ...

[MacDeath]

I am employed by a company which has millions of people using the servers we are responsible for (major player in the Telecom industry). Do we make mistakes? Yes, they occasionally happen regardless of how much testing we do.

When they happen, everyone is on board looking for the problem, what is causing it, and what it will take to fix it. This is expected information is less than 30 minutes.

If the problem is one that can not be fixed easily, takes a long time to fix, or can not be diagnosed within 30 minutes, the servers are rolled back to the previous state before the updates. In this case, our company takes a hit and the client will want just a RCA (root cause analysis) but the problem to be resolved by at the latest the EOD (end of day) the next day.

If a team constantly makes these mistakes, then the team come under heavy inspection which usually results in management and/or members of the team being terminated.

The difference between my job and the job Trion is doing? I am held to almost immediate responsibility if I make a mistake. I can not quietly fix it, and hope the customers do not notice. I can not keep my clients in the dark about issues, and ignore their complaints when they notice.

Now tell me, why should Trion be given a free pass for constantly turning out patches with exceed greatly the projected down time, and usually introduce more issues then it fixes (if it actually fixes anything)? If my company can do it, Trion should be able to also. If not, then they need to have repercussions for failing to perform their job at a reasonable level.

EDIT: Just for note, the average lost income for 30 minutes of interrupted service for our client is > $1 million.

Telecom has been around for over one hundred years, and the quality was poor for most of that time. It's only recently that telecom companies have taken up the quality crusade. I'm glad it happened. Every ask WHY it happened? I think it's about competition. After telecom was deregulated in the US, customers had choices for providers. THAT'S when quality of service became important.

Gaming, as an industry hasn't been around for very long compared to telecom. Some companies are getting better but the industry as a whole hasn't made major strides in quality. Wonder why? IMO, game industry executives don't see the return on value from investing in the infrastructure to assure quality. I think many of them believe that 'good enough is good enough'. Gamers have a proven track record of buying poor quality games as long as they are fun to play. So, game companies focus on maximizing the fun and hope the quality is good enough.

What would it take for the game industry to become more quality focused? Discuss...

[Gratty]

Telecom has been around for over one hundred years, and the quality was poor for most of that time. It's only recently that telecom companies have taken up the quality crusade. I'm glad it happened. Every ask WHY it happened? I think it's about competition. After telecom was deregulated in the US, customers had choices for providers. THAT'S when quality of service became important.

Gaming, as an industry hasn't been around for very long compared to telecom. Some companies are getting better but the industry as a whole hasn't made major strides in quality. Wonder why? IMO, game industry executives don't see the return on value from investing in the infrastructure to assure quality. I think many of them believe that 'good enough is good enough'. Gamers have a proven track record of buying poor quality games as long as they are fun to play. So, game companies focus on maximizing the fun and hope the quality is good enough.

What would it take for the game industry to become more quality focused? Discuss...

I feel that this is absolutely true. Unfortunate, but true.

[MacDeath]

i have been thinking alot about this. I think it would do a world of good if they would open a public test realm.

And allow us to test the patches and supply them with bug reports and feedback. If they cant catch the bugs and glitches then they should allow us to. Atleast it would allow them to fi it before released to live servers.

And if they worried about people staying on test servers all the time make it simple. Allow a couple weeks for testing each patch then close server off till the next one.

I agree that a Public Test Server can help improve the quality of the Live game. BUT... That will only work IF Trion is willing to invest time and money in improving the quality of the game. We don't know if Defiance currently meets or exceeds the quality criteria that Trion has set. We, the players, don't even know IF Trion has a quality criteria for Defiance. See my threads:
http://forums.defiance.com/showthrea...-Gamasutra.com
http://forums.defiance.com/showthrea...lic-Test-Shard!

[Darkane]

By the painful truth, you mean just another opinion?

[Wraieth]

By the painful truth, you mean just another opinion?

As i statedin my o.p it was truth as i see it. and if others dont see it that way more power to them.

[Dracian]

... That OP can't write a full title.

[Wraieth]

... That OP can't write a full title.

it was as full as i wanted.

[baelrusk]

Telecom has been around for over one hundred years, and the quality was poor for most of that time. It's only recently that telecom companies have taken up the quality crusade. I'm glad it happened. Every ask WHY it happened? I think it's about competition. After telecom was deregulated in the US, customers had choices for providers. THAT'S when quality of service became important.

Gaming, as an industry hasn't been around for very long compared to telecom. Some companies are getting better but the industry as a whole hasn't made major strides in quality. Wonder why? IMO, game industry executives don't see the return on value from investing in the infrastructure to assure quality. I think many of them believe that 'good enough is good enough'. Gamers have a proven track record of buying poor quality games as long as they are fun to play. So, game companies focus on maximizing the fun and hope the quality is good enough.

What would it take for the game industry to become more quality focused? Discuss...

I agree very much. A high percentage of gamers just "let it slide" too much. This provides no reason for companies to spend extra resources/funds. In short.......the company is shown no reason to improve.
It's also why we see many problems repeated by different companies over and over.

[Elric1]

my point is simple. It dosnt matter if its code work . electrical, plumbing or pumping freaking gas at the quicky mart. If you have a job do it right or get someone who can.

The gameing industry should be no different.

Yeah which means MMos would be none existence and we all still be playing 'safe' coded games like fighters and fps and overhead adventure games because they don't require as much effort. I wish people get a grasp on how little they actually know before posting and making people laugh at them. Cliff notes. Compared to the last group working on Defiance these people are masters at their craft.

[Rawrlok]

You sir hit the nail bang on the head the devs on the team are not doing there job.
My thoughts is they have give up with this game as it is not profitable for them due to poor sales across all platforms. Player numbers are falling everyday if you don't believe me go to mount tam have a look how many new players there is ?? Add to that players giving up

I am one of those players about to give up. I am sitting here right now thinking about going to trade this game in for $22 at GameStop. Between all the bugs, crashes, and zero support for the game. It has really made playing the game a pain. I played it like crazy during the "contest" and have not seen one thing mentioning it since it ended. CS tickets are extremely backed up and I never received a response from my weapon levels being all stuck at level 4 for like a week. Then a patch came out and it finally started giving me weapon experience again. I've had to do multiple quests over and over in the downtown San Francisco area just to get them to properly update and complete. I am trying to justify keeping the game because I like the story-line and the show as well. However I feel like Trion has dropped the ball and are scrambling to regain possession and its not going to happen.