The other thread about the most "useless" feedback ("your graphics could be improved") made me think of several hilarious comments I've received during Beta testing...

"Bug report: If I delete one of the game's central files, it crashes the game."

"This game sucks" coupled with "Time spent playing: 12+ hours" :rolleyes:

"This game would be a lot better if you removed the requirement for making words" (it was a word game similar to Bookworm).

"Thing I most disliked about this game: I had to use the word "tit" too many times." (That one had me rolling for hours..):D

Anybody got some to share?

Chaster

I'm not at the beta test stage yet, but... LOL at the above :)

My game is in Alpha and just finished conducting a Focus test. The guys give me some feedback in chat or in the private forum, but I'm having a hard time getting them to fill-out my survey. The survey is important because I can get the group's thoughts on specific areas of the game, instead of just a bunch of random comments.

Many of them are playing the game for a couple hours a time, so I guess that's a good thing... :) But I probably should start restricting their access until they fill-out the survey.

Originally posted by Chris_Evans
My game is in Alpha and just finished conducting a Focus test. The guys give me some feedback in chat or in the private forum, but I'm having a hard time getting them to fill-out my survey. The survey is important because I can get the group's thoughts on specific areas of the game, instead of just a bunch of random comments.

Many of them are playing the game for a couple hours a time, so I guess that's a good thing... :) But I probably should start restricting their access until they fill-out the survey.

I haven't had too much trouble getting people to fill out our feedback forms, but then again, if people give poor quality feedback (i.e. one sentence like "this game is okay") then I just quietly drop them from the beta test group...

If you're having trouble getting people to fill out your feedback form, perhaps you could look at the following:

1) Is the feedback form easy to fill out? Is it "to the point"? People don't like to fill out tons of fluff questions...

2) Did you send out friendly "reminders" to fill out the form? Also, did you send out extra copies (we sent our feedback forms via e-mail, and people often just delete e-mails - even if they know they'll need them later..)

3) Perhaps you need to provide the proverbial carrot... "The person who submits the best feedback gets a free copy of the finished game!"... or maybe something a little less, like "beta testers who provide detailed feedback get their name in the credits!"

Just some ideas...

Eric

When running CustomBar beta on BetaShare, one of the most useful and important things I ever did was add a condition at the end of the beta test, where in order for a tester to get into the credits and to receive the promised free copy of CustomBar for their efforts, they had to write a multi-paragraph overall honest impression of the product. The responses I got were amazing and have provided me a gold mine of ideas and feedback that will be useful to me for years. It also gave me an idea of how many people liked the product honestly, by seeing how many people cared enough to respond (minus the amount of people responding saying they didn't like the product, which was only one or two).

Groups of people tend to be like electricity: they will take the path of least resistance.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

I posted a few reminders, so I got more feedback forms back. However, I still need to send out one or two e-mail reminders.

Also, on the next stage of testing I'll have "appear in the credits" as an incentive.

"Whenever I move my mouse the game goes away."

We received this a few months after we shipped "Johhny Castaway" - a screen-saver.

LOL!!!

That's classic...