I will post a defense of Blizzard in one way here.

When I played EQ I played for years on its Test server, which operated basically like a normal server, except with a lot more downtime and occasionally some pretty funny bugs when they tried things. So I know the kind of people who play on test servers.

90% of them are people who just want to try things out in an environment that doesn't punish them for it. Raiders testing maximum hit from a mob or encounter mechanics, people trying out new equipment or even new classes, that sort of thing. These people are useless to the test devs, they don't actually contribute anything to the QC process.

90% of those who are left think that they are there to give their opinions on balance or core mechanics. These people at least play the game regularly and so could be counted on to catch random (usually minor, sometimes major) bugs that crop up unintentionally from some other change; often these bugs have little or nothing to do with what was actually changed and the connection is only apparent to the actual coder/programmer. These people make a lot of noise but ultimately don't do much either because the devs don't give a rat's arse about opinions on core mechanics, those numbers are hardwired far earlier in the process and aren't generally up for discussion.

The rest are those who actually understand their role - to play what the devs need played and feedback on what was happening - but generally not to offer suggestions on how to change it. The test devs want data, they do NOT want suggestions.

When we were testing the new Veeshan's Peak for them a dev would come along during the raids (in the raid group) and see what was working, what was obviously out of line, and whether or not all the scripts were doing what they were supposed to be doing. He didn't give a rat's arse about anything else from us (of course we'd still try to give opinions anyways).

So, it's not always the company's fault in things like this. Testers tend to be a pretty worthless bunch (the casual testers who only go when they feel like a break from their main are invariably so, which is why test servers that give high level-gear characters out of the box are completely useless)
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Problem is, Blizzard would not listen even if they had competent testers on the PTR.

And before someone starts a post saying, oh yes, I am sure if a problem was reported Blizzard would ignore it.

Yes.

They would.

GC has his head shoved so far up his own ass, he can only hear the echoes of his vision voice.

 

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