Working with live bugs
Live bugs happen even to the best of QA teams. The nature of work in live ops is so fast-paced that speed and critical thinking are much more important than thorough reviews and iron-clad testing practices. We also work with many different game components and various stakeholders. It is normal that, occasionally, something unpredictable will happen, and we will encounter a bug in a live game.
Bugs in live games are most often reported by players themselves. Unfortunately, not enough game studios take live game testing seriously, although it might save up lots of time and money if we find the bug in the live game first. Besides players, live bugs are also found by game teams and QA, other people in the company, and people who are related to the game studio in some way – vendors, consultants, investors, partners, and so on.
Firstly, let’s address live bugs that come from player support, as we will encounter those the most.
There are many...