Game blocking bug, leave table open for development autopsy?

[larrythelabrat]

Question about how best to help developers track down bugs:

If there's a game breaking bug in a turn-based game, is it useful to leave the game open so that developers/troubleshooters can look at the specific table to see what's going on? Or do they not have a way to get in to a table and see what happening?

I've got two turn-based pandemic games (solo variant) where the game has locked up due to a bug with Forecast. I've reported the bug in the forums under bugs:
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=47289

There was a previous report of this bug that says it was fixed, but despite the developers hard work they haven't nailed it down yet:
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=42381

The developer reports all say that they haven't been able to reproduce the bug yet. Is it useful for them to have open games where the bug is happening? Or should I close them down because they won't make a difference? (They're annoying for me to have open when I cycle through my turn-based games, but if it's helpful for the developer, I'll leave them going.)

[larrythelabrat]

Not having heard a reply, I'm closing the games.

If it is useful to have them open let me know and I'll save the next one that breaks (it's happened at least half a dozen times for me, so I'm sure it'll happen again).

[Een]

Thanks for your question on how to best help developers when meeting a bug that's hard to reproduce.

In general it may be useful to keep the game open for the developer to take a look, but of course only if they are available to do so.
If the developer doesn't answer in a few days though, probably they won't be able to look soon, or they are not active any more.

Also, when you declare a bug report with the table number, a snapshot of the game is taken, which should allow the developer to restore the state of the game for inspection if needed.