What do you do when your playtesters say there are too many Skags? Triple the number of Skags!

[ríomhaire]

Interesting short article on the Verge about Gearbox and customer feedback in Boarderlands.

early testers reported that the sprint speed was too slow. Rather than increase that speed, Gearbox designers simply scattered more debris on the ground, and increased the player's field of view. Players passed by objects with increased frequency, giving the illusion of speed without requiring any huge adjustments to the play mechanics.

http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/3/14/2861998/gearbox-borderlands-testing

 

[Paulaner]

Brilliant. The guys should write a manual about feedback evaluation.

 

[Vegeta897]

Some clever ideas there, but the message the article has is like focus testing 101...

 

[Shem]

Wonderful article. Those guys are geniuses when it comes to the interpretation of player feedback.

 

[Adabiviak]

I'm trying to picture the tester playing Skag Gulley with a third of the current Skag population who thinks "there are too many Skags here". I think I'll name him Nancy.

 

[Yorick]

I'm trying to picture the tester playing Skag Gulley with a third of the current Skag population who thinks "there are too many Skags here". I think I'll name him Nancy.

I don't think it was a case of "There are too many Skags, this is difficult" but rather that it was a travel area, not a combat area, and being stopped by a lone skag every 15 feet might have felt obnoxious. Now it's "Holy shit time to kill some Skags"

 

[Viperidae]

So all their ignoring playtesters resulted in a greater game experience... right? Guys? Hello?

 

[Tagaziel]

Did you even read the article? It's about how Gearbox interprets playtester input to improve the game. It's quite logical: rather than taking comments as fact, they try to grasp the underlying problems, eg. pacing, perception of speed etc.

 

[Ren.182]

Very interesting read. They definitely know what they're doing.

Can't wait for Borderlands 2.

 

[Stylo]

Very interesting read. They definitely know what they're doing.

Can't wait for Borderlands 2.

I concur with this.

Saying that, the Moxxy DLC was ridiculous and stupid, so I'm not sure what happened there. To get the achievements for the longer challenges you literally have to sit there for like... half a damn day for each arena. I still can't bring myself to do it, I just don't have time to play for that long in one sitting.

I frigging love loot and shoot games, though, so Borderlands is right up my alley. Pretty high expectations of B2!

 

[Paulaner]

It's about how Gearbox interprets playtester input to improve the game. It's quite logical: rather than taking comments as fact, they try to grasp the underlying problems, eg. pacing, perception of speed etc.

Exactly. The worst thing you can do, when you have to handle users feedback, is giving people what they are asking for without trying to interpret their real needs. I have to do this every day at work.

 

[Vegeta897]

Like I said, that's like basic playtesting strategy. Anyone who doesn't do this is stupid. The article is only interesting for the clever examples they gave, not for the fact that they performed a usability test correctly.