I think the open invite to test was Disney's way to save themselves some work. They needed more testers, they plan to release a lot of new content over the next year, the old test group was declining, or not as active as Disney wanted them to be. Releasing the test invite allowed Disney to NOT have to send personal invites, not screen accounts and find the "Right" people, not have to search and select.

My opinion, and it is just an opinion, is that:
1) A lot of these new people on test will eventually lose their fascination, and just decay away.
2) Not do the job, and Disney will remove them.
3) or, will provide some fresh faces, new ideas, and be extremely beneficial.

To those people who have been on test since the beginning; look around, even just two weeks ago, how many of the originals were active on test, how much testing was actually being done, and how many were gone, even to the point that they had let their regular accounts go inactive? I was on the test server a couple times just before they opened the invite, and I spent a few hours there and didn't see a single other pirate. Test isn't a private clubhouse, or a reward for the game Founders, it's a place for Disney to get feedback on things they plan to release to the public, before it happens.

Disney will weed out the ones that don't give any valid input, and those who stay will prove to be valuable to the game and it's development.
Remember the whole idea behind test is to have people verify the content, test the functionality, and report back their findings. All those who think being on test is just Tortuga on Abassa, they will be gone in short order.

I myself plan to get at least one test pirate to level 40 as fast as I can. Since I am one of the biggest mouths to complain about lack of content for high level pirates, nothing for level 40's pirates to do, I want to be in position to test ANYTHING that they have coming out for raised Notoriety, Weapons levels, etc.

Oh, snap. Good point. I hadn't thought of it like that.

Though it is good to see an orginal tester still committed to the game, unfortunately many of the orginal testers have vansihed.

If the goal was to have a 1:20 ratio of testers ro actual players (as an example as I have no idea on the actual ratio) then this number has fallen apart twice since release (hence the call for testers back in 2008 and now).

Also with numbers leaving AND new content being added - there would be no way for you to actually "test" everything... testing an ever expanding world for every known glitch (and some which you don't know that others do) - it would actually make more sense to try and attemt to add testers to cover as many bases as possible to find as much wrong as possible.

Your other point of waiting 2-4 weeks - is not one of players fault - but of Disneys. They are the ones who continue to push updates out before fixes even just hours before I know some of the best testers in the game have sent in huge reports... players can want all they want - D still pulls the switch whenever they choose. If more testers are involved finding moe problems quicker - at least D will have to address them with their first round of fixes before releases...

The overall quote is one of a) you are upset about how disney carried this out or b) you wanted test to yourself... and now all the new testers are in your way

I hope it was a) - because b) is never a responsible choice

Thank you, Basil.

I have to say, with some of the responses, I'm a little afraid of the test server right now. If the "old" testers are so against having the new ones there, its not going to be a very friendly place.

A very large group of my friends and I were lucky enough to get on, and have been playing on test this week. This is a group players with multiple high level pirates on open, including 5 guildmasters and several other officers. We're having fun (it is still a game) but more importantly, we are finding (and reporting) many issues. Since there are so many of us, and we are used to working together, we can test/recreate things easily, and level fast so that when new things come out, we will hopefully be able to test those as well.

I understand that many of the original testers feel cheated, perhaps because they had to wait for an invitation and we got in so easily, but as Basil said, with new things on the horizon, we'll need a lot of testers, and it sounds like not many are left. Yes, a lot of people have gotten in who will abuse it, but a lot of very diligent pirates got in as well. And yes, Disney will have weed through the ones who are not doing their job. But that does change the fact that they also got a lot of very good testers in this as well.

I can only speak for myself...I did not join the test server to see updates early. I joined to try and help improve the game. To hopefully help D identify problems that can be corrected before they hit the open servers.

I was one that got test server access last Friday and I haven't been back on open since.

I'm sure I will get to the point where I'll just want to play on open for a break, but right now I'm fresh-faced and starry-eyed enough (as regards game testing anyway) that I want to test and submit bug reports. Nothing else.

As I joked with a friend the other night "Testing; it's not just an adventure...it's a job!"

Nicely done Maximvs! I couldn't agree more with what you posted.
 

(Greatertater begins the slow clap)

I remember when a sped glitch was found one time, made one guy appear in one place an d then another. Not to mention the Hit with a cutlass from a mile away, and moving fly trap glitches. Truly, they need more testers, but the thing is they need people they know actually care about reporting to be on there.

from my knowledge, Fly traps were supposed to move, but they stopped it now

Hmm, do you mean like out of a certain place, or just spitting acid and stuff?

The previous major update allowed Flytraps to actually move - but this current release once again has them "rooted" as it were - and are back to be stationary

If I recall the fly traps chasing you (moving) came along with the patch they were doing at the time. Maybe the one that everything could go through walls and such. I always thought that was just a mistake, and got set back to normal.

I really don't see any point in having issues with new testers myself. If anything, having the entire open servers open to test would be great. If they worked it right it could be a large improvement. After a few weeks of everyone on test, Disney went through and picked out some people doing some good testing and reporting. Kept these people as live converted over again to normal, would pick out a class of testers that could make more a difference.

Frankly, old or new testers, and this view if they aren't testing much they are booted, I just can't say I am seeing any of that.

Using something like this above example would bring in a new crowd to kill some of this stuff maybe. Another area I think could use some help in test is have some of the staff come in on test now and then and talk to some people, get some first hand views over some of these bugs etc. Perhaps some do as regular characters, but overall I rarely hear a entirely lot of guild chat etc. on bugs, and glitches. Maybe another area staff can come in and set a few guidelines and ideas to testing. I can't say test server has any real guidelines, and such to test, as well as even a idea of certain areas to test that just got a change. I believe this area could use a little more communication, rather than 4 patches with same notes of improvements from start, and reports being sent in hopefully being viewed. At least for me I would rather know this last patch just did something with sailing, rather than running over like 40 other things to finally find this out.

New people also adds another feature, they are starting from the begining and seeing all the quests and such. I know at least for myself, I sure don't go through all the quests constantly, and especially every patch.

I would like to get some kind of response from Disney when I do report a bug, or issue. But when I report I hear nothing back from them. Makes me wonder if they are listening to what I am reporting or just going into a big inbox, where they just skim.

Ah, well well, I would guess that they were meant to be rooted seeing as they are plants. I wouldn't mind them moving at all, as long as I knew if they were supposed to move and wouldn't mess things up. It also feels that when they don't reply, you can never know if they even get them when you are in the game, that's why I tend to send them in a report from their website.

For the past 2 days, on Test, there as been a group of 3 or 4 players hanging out on KH, hassling other players. Their language has been terrible, and they prevent others from playing or testing.

This is a perfect example of the type of person who should not be on test.

Now for the real important part. At least one of these troublemaker players has been on test for a long time, not sure if they are original, or the group from 2008. They are hassling both new players on test, and old timers.

We are on the Test Server to test and report issues. This type of behavior is unacceptable and is clearly an "issue" thus should be reported. When I'm on Test, I look for anything that might impede game play and report it. What Basil has mentioned is clearly a distraction and they have no business being involved in Testing (or Open for that matter).