When a niche game has bugs...

[Tisaac]

A massive warning "please dont post bugs in the rating form" at the end of a game could help a bit ?

There is one... But I suppose it's not "massive"...

Seeing how many players left bug/suggestion in the ratings this week for deep sea in alpha, it's probably not massive enough ^^
What about simply disabling the text part for alpha ? The stars and labels (bugs) are the main relevant parts for an alpha game.

[Een]

Seeing how many players left bug/suggestion in the ratings this week for deep sea in alpha, it's probably not massive enough ^^
What about simply disabling the text part for alpha ? The stars and labels (bugs) are the main relevant parts for an alpha game.

The idea was that players could tell the developer how much they love them for developing their favourite games, won't you miss that?
But yes, if it's misused, it can be removed. That doesn't mean that players will properly report bugs instead though unfortunately.

[RobertBr]

You can't know what the game is about (without google) without start to review a game.
...
(I believe myself I personnally joined it because someone advice me that game, but I never took the time to read the rules.)

I think that makes my point if you don't know the rules how can you possibly reliably identify bugs and if you are not willing to at least google a game, literally the simplest easiest internet task in existence, how are you going to make the effort to review it properly?

[Een]

I think that makes my point if you don't know the rules how can you possibly reliably identify bugs and if you are not willing to at least google a game, literally the simplest easiest internet task in existence, how are you going to make the effort to review it properly?

Not sure what your point is exactly. There is a community of reviewers because of course, not every reviewer will find every game interesting and will take enough interest in it to review it fully. That's expected and quite normal.

I fully agree that the system is not perfect (what is?), but it's certainly helpful.

[Tisaac]

I think that makes my point if you don't know the rules how can you possibly reliably identify bugs and if you are not willing to at least google a game, literally the simplest easiest internet task in existence, how are you going to make the effort to review it properly?

Not sure what your point is exactly. There is a community of reviewers because of course, not every reviewer will find every game interesting and will take enough interest in it to review it fully. That's expected and quite normal.

I fully agree that the system is not perfect (what is?), but it's certainly helpful.

Maybe he was suggesting something like automatically remove/cancel players from alpha group if they didnt played the game for X days ? Not sure it would be very useful though.

For the bug thing, maybe a specific banner could be added during the game with a direct link to a prefilled bug report with table number. I know there is already the chat thing but a big button "Report bug here" maybe on the right of the title bar could help and encourage players to report.

[Shobu]

For the bug thing, maybe a specific banner could be added during the game with a direct link to a prefilled bug report with table number.

excellent idea,i was about to propose that.
Such a banner will also remind players this is not an early access.

[Romain672]

I think that makes my point if you don't know the rules how can you possibly reliably identify bugs and if you are not willing to at least google a game, literally the simplest easiest internet task in existence, how are you going to make the effort to review it properly?

My point is that the number of people 'reviewing' the game is not really true. There is lots of players who just start reviewing and don't play at all.

[DavidsPizza]

Totally understand about alpha and beta games being unstable.

Maybe there should be a time where the games get removed from the active listings?

Right now BGA is trying to be a centre to play games, and a hub for developers to make games. Maybe the two should be separated so they're both able to be enriched in functionality for their target audiences.

Of course, making people go to a different place to basically be QA for a game in development will be a potential hurdle. But as pointed out in this thread, getting people playing these games to report issues can also be a big hurdle.

[ufm]

They ARE separated. Alpha game access is already strictly limited.
There are around 5000 players in BGA reviewers group, which constitute ~0.07% of total accounts.
Besides, plenty of underdeveloped games which cannot even qualify alpha production still remain on BGA developer platform.

However, most players from reviewers group are oblivious to the development process and game classifications on BGA.
They are not expected to get a fully functioning game on alpha level. I have to agree with Een's opinion on this.

Maybe he was suggesting something like automatically remove/cancel players from alpha group if they didnt played the game for X days ? Not sure it would be very useful though.

Why should they be removed/cancelled from alpha group?
For alpha games taking active participation for granted is nonsense. Alpha testers are neither a dedicated nor a paid group.
Also, frequent play does not automatically enhance the quality of reports.
I posted all of my riichimahjong reports from only three games, yet they included some good ideas and solved a few issues.
Plus... some passionate testers might take a rest from playing a particular game before a new major update.
Auto-removal makes things just bothersome for everyone.

I'm not clear there is an answer but its noticeable the system does not work particularly well. A recent release Tichu managed to get approved despite glaring bugs. I'm currently assisting on Talon, which is an alpha. The system says there are nearly 400 players in that group but there are only 16 games running and less than half a dozen users actually reporting bugs.

Most of the time it works well (beta players also can find bugs) but there are some odd cases.
The first official version of The Crew was obviously rushed. Thanks Tisaac.

[DavidsPizza]

They ARE separated. Alpha game access is already strictly limited.
There are around 5000 players in BGA reviewers group, which constitute ~0.07% of total accounts.
Besides, plenty of underdeveloped games which cannot even qualify alpha production still remain on BGA developer platform.

However, most players from reviewers group are oblivious to the development process and game classifications on BGA.
They are not expected to get a fully functioning game on alpha level. I have to agree with Een's opinion on this.

So the development system here approaches the rich functionality of GitHub, supports developer APIs, etc.? I really don't know.

You're right, the development process is opaque to everyone except developers and the owners of BGA.