How do I get BGA to respond to my bug reports?

[tchobello]

Of course, if many people stop paying premium because they're dissatisfied with the bugs at BGA, that could make BGA reconsider the model, but that's a different matter.

Well, I do really think many people are satisfied with BGA and the quality of game adaptations here.

The fact is that Covid crisis has brought a lot a new players here.
They're quite picky and very demanding about undo and confirmation features which is quite annoying for us, developers, as it's not related with the game itself but more of a lack of attention to avoid misclicks.
"OMG, I've clicked on the wrong button, this game is so broken !" attitude.

[h_illes]

You've asked a lot of times for a confirmation button. There is no bug here, only a suggestion.
Does this prevent the game from working ? No.
Is there any red code priority here ? No.

It's summer time, try to be patient.

You may notice I mentioned reportS in my original post, then I highlighted one. Granted, it may not be the best example, as it is a suggestion, but it does bother me the most from among all issues. Here is another one, which is an actual bug.
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=62122

Whether you find people asking for a confirmation button annoying or not, it does help. As it is, the game is nearly unplayable from phone (cluttered user interface) or using touchpad (high chance of misclicks). I know several people who stopped playing Century: Spice Road on BGA specifically because they can't play it from a laptop or phone.

as said before, the game is developed as a FREE project on developer's FREE time.
Sometimes people have less FREE time after game has been released.

I will admit, that part was not clear for me. In this case, getting directly in contact with the developer and offer compensation is a valid answer (although not the one I was hoping for). Also, you can argue that when working for free, anything goes, but I was hoping to appeal for a 'best possible' approach instead of a 'good enough' approach.

It's summer time, try to be patient.

All my reports were submitted before summer. And I think waiting for 4 months is patient.

I wasn't trying to imply that premium membership gives this kind entitlement, although apparently it came off like that. I was just trying to list reasons why it should be considered an important issue and looked at. I mean, if several of the top 20 players support a suggestion, that's gotta count for something, right?

[h_illes]

Of course, if many people stop paying premium because they're dissatisfied with the bugs at BGA, that could make BGA reconsider the model, but that's a different matter.

Well, I do really think many people are satisfied with BGA and the quality of game adaptations here.

The fact is that Covid crisis has brought a lot a new players here.
They're quite picky and very demanding about undo and confirmation features which is quite annoying for us, developers, as it's not related with the game itself but more of a lack of attention to avoid misclicks.
"OMG, I've clicked on the wrong button, this game is so broken !" attitude.

Competitive players try their best to avoid misclicks. Despite that, they still happen fairly regularly. They would happen considerably less often with a confirmation for all actions. The game already asks for confirmation on certain types of actions (e.g. upgrade, multiple trade, or buying a card), but not on others (single trade or pickup), which means that the game developer herself thought it necessary for some actions. The suggestion is simply confirmation for the remaining action types. (Arguably, it would also make the game implementation more consistent.)

[tchobello]

It's summer time, try to be patient.

All my reports were submitted before summer. And I think waiting for 4 months is patient.

Century development has started in June 2019.
So, you can imagine the hours spent and the time needed before game was released.
Developers DO know what patience is.

Century: Spice Road was pushed from beta into release with a bunch of open (that is, never-looked-at) bug reports. I would assume that release comes with some sort of responsibility towards the game quality. Apparently not, which I find disturbing.

That kind of remarks won't help in any matter. This is really really poor.

I can understand you want the implementation to be 100% functional as you've played 1500+ games and topping the leaderboard.
Congrats.

The fact is there are no major bugs.
There can be some issues on mobile devices as in any game because it's really difficult and very time consuming to get the interface working perfectly on any device.
That's the price to pay if you want the game to be released earlier.

The dev has done a great job and is quite busy for the time being.
Just try to accept that and don't forget the hundreds of hours coding ( for free ) for your hundreds of hours of gaming pleasure.

[voriki]

If an interface called 'bug report' is provided, then the answer should not be to join the developer team.

A bug report is there for many reasons, it's also an archive for various errors and that they got resolved or not. I've even seen devs encounter their own bugs, report their own bug report and then resolve it. Just so that there is a trace. Like in an IT ticketing system.

If there was no interface bug report, having an overview of bugs would be impossible.

[h_illes]

That kind of remarks won't help in any matter. This is really really poor.

Please understand that the trigger for this topic was the complete lack of communication for months. From what I experienced, there is a bug report system in place which does nothing. Even the 'developer is busy, be patient' type of message you just gave me would have been something. Anyway, better now than never. Thank you.

You made a lot of judgment based on your general experience rather than looking at the specific issue. You basically argue that the game implementation is fine and the players are morons, while I argue that maybe the interface should be improved. There is no strict, objective line to decide between the two, but once again, the bug report system should help decide. So we don't have to rely on a single person's opinion (be it you or me), but see how much of an issue it is for the players in general.

[voriki]

That kind of remarks won't help in any matter. This is really really poor.

Please understand that the trigger for this topic was the complete lack of communication for months. From what I experienced, there is a bug report system in place which does nothing. Even the 'developer is busy, be patient' type of message you just gave me would have been something. Anyway, better now than never. Thank you.

"Lack of communication" by whom? The bug reports on a game are for developers, not for BGA admins, so if you were expecting an answer from BGA, you were really hoping for the wrong thing.

Who would have to have provided the "developer is busy" message? The server can't decide whether a volunteer(!) developer is busy or not, nor is it anyone else to decide upon on this but the developers themselves.

[h_illes]

The bug reports on a game are for developers

This has been exactly my point all along. Also, older bug reports were replied to, so I was assuming that is the norm around here. Apparently I was wrong.

As for your 'by whom' question: other bug reports were answered by the original developer, so once again, that was my expectation.

[Tisaac]

The bug reports on a game are for developers

This has been exactly my point all along. Also, older bug reports were replied to, so I was assuming that is the norm around here. Apparently I was wrong.

As for your 'by whom' question: other bug reports were answered by the original developer, so once again, that was my expectation.

This could actually be an interesting suggestion for BGA : allow for devs to have settings for mainaining game with options like "(re)active maintaining / minimal mainaining (only critical bugs, no suggestions) / paused / busy".
And it would automatically change the setting if BGA see the developper havent replied to any bug report during X months.
And if the status is "busy / paused", then player would get noticed when posting a bug report and/or at the top of the bug report page for that game.

But honestly, seeing how understaffed the team is, and how much other part of the website require work, I would guess this has a very very low priority so probably won't happen anytime soon. (for instance, the fact that the bug report page is not usable on mobile would have a way bigger priority and still won't be addressed soon)

[voriki]

This could actually be an interesting suggestion for BGA : allow for devs to have settings for mainaining game with options like "(re)active maintaining / minimal mainaining (only critical bugs, no suggestions) / paused / busy".
And it would automatically change the setting if BGA see the developper havent replied to any bug report during X months.
And if the status is "busy / paused", then player would get noticed when posting a bug report and/or at the top of the bug report page for that game.

That would indeed be a great idea, and I'm glad some good ideas came out of this. As some developers have a right to take a break from developing, of may not want to proceed with a certain game. I know such a dev whom I appreciate a lot for the work he has done, and respect his wishes to not further expand the game, even while the playerbase continuously asks for it.
Such a status may even encourage others to take on other "abandoned" games to take over responsibilities, when they know they won't be in anyones way.