TRUTH: WE ARE ALL BETA TESTERS

[Night Writer]

I gotta admit being a huge fan of BG1+ BG2 + IWD 1+2, NWN 1+2 (2 more so) and Solasta, I have been a bit disappointed by BG3, but not really for the reasons you might think.

I watched this games development with the eager glee of a kid waiting for Christmas morning. So much time and effort was being put in, and with such a hard hitting studio like Larian at the helm, for sure it would be done right. Right?

The game has been in development for 6 long years and in early access for 3 of those.
Through all that time I waited patiently and always had the thought process,"When its ready it's ready". Meaning I didn't want them to rush it. I wanted it to be released and be Awesome and enjoyable.

I thought if any team could do DnD and BG Lore Justice, it was Larian, but I was wrong I think, and in a lot of ways I am saddened by this. Because I know they are a passionate studio and their primary focus is and has always been RPG's.

So how is it that a release of such magnitude and importance, that some of us have been waiting 20+ years for has been a $h!t Show from day one of release?

We are constantly seeing hot fixes for 4 weeks and now a huge 1.2 GB Patch. Many of you think this is a good thing. They are fixing stuff. But the problem is you are not seeing the truth. The truth for many fans out there is that LARIAN is great and they are doing their best to release fixes as fast as possible.

But what so many "FANS" fail to realize is that we should not be getting a month straight of fixes and patches, for a game we just paid full price for. We should not be reporting bugs and testing a game for a company that we just paid. There is a paid position for that role in their company. It is call Q/A tester. (Quality Assurance)

In truth Devs know when they code something that it most likely will not work as expected, right when they code it, and they have debugging tools to catch these issues prior to release. However this doesn't stop them from pushing the code through anyway because to them it's something they can always go back and fix. That's how their minds work. They are also reliant on and supposed to have a Q/A team that they submit the finished App to, so that it can be tested before being approved for production in a go live release (to PAYING customers). They also have entire teams of play testers!!

So you have the Devs and all their knowledge, you have the Debugging Tools, and you have a Q/A Team, plus you got 3 years in Early Access where people literally paid to be Q/A Testers for you. Plus a 6 year Dev cycle.

SO how are we seeing this on their latest release notes>

Patch #1 Now Live! Version Number: 4.1.1.3669438
"Today we’re releasing our first major patch for Baldur’s Gate 3, addressing over 1000 bugs, balancing, flow issues and much, much more."
> https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=886485#Post886485


FROM THEIR OWN MOUTH> "Addressing over 1000 bugs, balancing, Flow issues?"
Not to mention all the BUGS they fixed in the first 4 Hot fixes they released.

I gotta say, Larian, this is an EPIC failure from a Q/A standpoint, and from a paying customer standpoint. I bought and paid full price for your product, and We have UI BUGS, CRASHES, Saves being rendered useless, Story Lines not working, tons of Cut Content, a front loaded game with a horrible act three and a hastily tossed together ending. The list could go on and on really, and the worst part each patch brings more issues?

Everyone can bash on Cyberpunk 2077, and CD Projekt Red for all their release issues, but everyone runs to the defense of Larian for some reason. Larian did the exact same thing that CD Projekt RED did. They released a buggy, broken mess that they knew was a mess way before it was finished. This game should have been left in the oven to cook for another Year and they know it. Act 3 should have been fleshed out more and written to be a more meaningful ending, the game in it's current state feels very... Meh, and in all honesty YES, I was expecting more from LARIAN.

Now they are rushing out fixes and updates that are causing crashes and instability, their forums are filled with people upset that their saves are ruined and their time is wasted.

This is the state of games development today> We are all nothing but BETA Testers for the first 6 months to a year of a games release, and that's the sad truth that I was hoping wouldn't be the case with one of my favorite Dev Teams.

[Kafik]

Things slow over on the Diablo 4 forums huh?

[TapeWyrm]

This post smells like troll 💩

[Night Writer]

I haven't played D4 yet honestly. But from what I am hearing it's a train wreck as well, which is another indicator of the state of Games Development today.

[Razorblade]

You're not "testing" anything. Larian is most likely aware of all but the most obscure hardware bugs; they just released the game anyway because that's how deadlines work, especially when you rush a game out a month early.

Don't get me wrong, you're correct that Larian wasn't all that interested in quality-control (insofar as they beat Starfield to market). However, you're giving yourself too much credit as a player for "doing an employee's work" when you're not doing ♥♥♥♥ all except playing a game.

Feel free to get mad about being "scammed" as a "paying customer." But the "I'm practically a QA tester" sctick is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stupid narrative.

QA testers do great work, only to have their work frequently ignored because of deadlines. It's a disservice to the entire profession to count yourself amongst them because you're playing, for personal enjoyment, a game you perceive as "unfinished."

[Night Writer]

Not a troll, just disappointed in what was supposed to be an experience I and many others have waited for, for over 20 years. Take that as you may. But it saddens me to see BG3 in the state its in. I honestly had hoped for so much more Content and polish than whats present.

[Rommel]

Originally posted by Kfuk:

Things slow over on the Diablo 4 forums huh?

That's because no one is playing anymore lol!

[Rommel]

Originally posted by Night Writer:

Not a troll, just disappointed in what was supposed to be an experience I and many others have waited for, for over 20 years. Take that as you may. But it saddens me to see BG3 in the state its in. I honestly had hoped for so much more Content and polish than whats present.

"Not a troll"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwSts2s4ba4&pp=ygUQeW91IHNlcmlvdXMgbWVtZQ%3D%3D

[MrPenguin]

Originally posted by Kfuk:

Things slow over on the Diablo 4 forums huh?

This made me laugh so much lol

[Subnero]

This might be a troll or not but he does have a point to an extent. It's not just about BG3 obviously but the state of modern gaming. 15-20+ years ago you used to be able to buy a game on disc and that's it. There are no patches or hotfixes or anything, the games would have bug but nowhere near to this extent. I know games have also gotten a lot more complex since then.
But god do i miss when you could just buy a high budget game, sit down and play it without needing to download a dozen patches to fix everything from clothes clipping to game crashing.

[45ay3asdasd]

Speak for yourself... I'm not a BETA I'm an ALPHA

[Hobocop]

Originally posted by Subnero:

This might be a troll or not but he does have a point to an extent. It's not just about BG3 obviously but the state of modern gaming. 15-20+ years ago you used to be able to buy a game on disc and that's it. There are no patches or hotfixes or anything, the games would have bug but nowhere near to this extent. I know games have also gotten a lot more complex since then.
But god do i miss when you could just buy a high budget game, sit down and play it without needing to download a dozen patches to fix everything from clothes clipping to game crashing.

Yeah, the idea that games never had or never needed patches out of the box circa-2000s is complete and total nonsense.

Bugs, some gamebreaking, being patched in games as complex as cRPGs is quite literally a tradition of the genre.

[Night Writer]

Originally posted by Rommel:

Originally posted by Night Writer:

Not a troll, just disappointed in what was supposed to be an experience I and many others have waited for, for over 20 years. Take that as you may. But it saddens me to see BG3 in the state its in. I honestly had hoped for so much more Content and polish than whats present.

"Not a troll"

Just because someone doesn't think the same way you do about something, doesn't make them a troll, it means they have a different opinion, and people are allowed to have those.

Once you move out of the basement, you'll be exposed to new and fantastic things, like the SUN, face to face social interactions, and other people having OPINIONS.

You will most likely run back into your dark underground dwelling out of sheer terror though, so no big deal.

[Rommel]

Originally posted by fauxes:

Speak for yourself... I'm not a BETA I'm an ALPHA

Dude you really $uck at beging for rewards lol!

[Jeronimosss]

Sad but true. My husband bought the game for us, but we're not playing. We both encountered bugs and put the game on the shelf, so that devs can comb it.
I don't care that much for technical bugs, but they are also changing things story-wise - lines, options, descriptions, etc. Normally I don't replay games, so if I play now, I will be left with this raw, unpolished experience.
I want to admit, though, that I loved Cyberpunk when I played it - a year or so after the release. I believe that if we let BG3 stew, it will be an amazing experience, but I am not happy that I can't enjoy the game right now.

[Night Writer]

Originally posted by Jeronimosss:

Sad but true. My husband bought the game for us, but we're not playing. We both encountered bugs and put the game on the shelf, so that devs can comb it.
I don't care that much for technical bugs, but they are also changing things story-wise - lines, options, descriptions, etc. Normally I don't replay games, so if I play now, I will be left with this raw, unpolished experience.
I want to admit, though, that I loved Cyberpunk when I played it - a year or so after the release. I believe that if we let BG3 stew, it will be an amazing experience, but I am not happy that I can't enjoy the game right now.

Yeah I am basically at that point as well. I feel like I got caught up in the "ITS A NEW BALDURS GATE" when I should have just waited to buy it on Sale for 75% off in 2 years. That seems to be the only safe bet these days. Well looks like I am going back to Solasta (with the Unfinished Business Mod)