Why not use the community rather than breaking things?

I certainly appreciate your post and what you and the dev team do. But as a long time Test player it has been very disheartening to not be utilized to work directly with the devs/coders on stuff like this. We have a fairly active player base and while the usual negative outlook of a bunch of free loading casuals persists that is only partially true.

There is a sizeable collection of players that will test anything we can on Test. We do our best to test things as thoroughly as possible and provide as much feedback as we can with as much detail as we can.

For example we recently tested all of the 23rd anniversary missions including all solo and group tasks and reported all bugs and all tuning issues both here and in the official EQ Discord. We also did the same thing for the Tempest Festival quests. We've done that for the last several years.

Unfortunately we do not have a large enough raid force to fully test current and recent raid content fully. We tried our hand at the 23rd anniversary raid but only had a full raid a few times and that was with people boxing several characters and only a few of us playing just one.

If the team would reach out to us and communicate with us we could certainly be more efficient and more helpful to the team and everyone who plays on Live/TLP by finding and fixing issues in a more timely manner.

There has to be a better method than the way things are currently done and it is frustrating and disheartening when we get told we aren't important or that we are just freeloaders etc. Hopefully things can change for the better which in turn should make the game better for everyone.

Please read my comment. I think the folks on Test (myself included) can be utilized much more efficiently and more often than we are.

We reported it more than once in the Test Patch Bugs thread and Bugs forum.

I agree with Hobitses that the test community should be utilized to help test and debug things before they get pushed to live. Most of the long term test players are more than willing to help out, and understand that occasionally "things" happen that may make test unstable in the process of testing and fixing things. It is a small but very loud section that may complain when things do happen, but honestly, the same loud group will likely complain about everything.
I have been a member of the test community for close to 18 years, and actively raid with the test server raid friends alliance and am a member of one of, if not the largest guilds on test. I wont pretend i speak for anyone but myself, but i for one would like to be more active in assisting in improving a game that i have loved and played for years.

They decided to do away with utilizing the Test Server community when they removed our free expansions perk.

The test server only tests because they can play for free and get expansions for free?

So if I want those annoying stumps in my yard removed I just need to find someone who loves stump grinding and has all the equipment? By that logic they'd do it for free. I enjoy designing PCBs, but I'll be expecting payment to make it worth my while.

I'll say the post you quoted is a bit extreme, but there needs to be a carrot for test to do anything. Free gold subscription and an absolutely broken economy where chase items are free are the only 2 perks left. Based on the test population, it's not enough anymore.

If they wanted any decent results out of test, they'd make it worth the while. Instead it seems like they're fine with mediocre bug hunting activity on test that finds ~50% of the bugs they didn't already know about.

I'll also say I think they made a big mistake making the test server as stable as it is. Allowing people to form communities where you need to limit perks (to prevent everyone from just playing on test) vs having a server that gets wiped each test cycle w/ instant max level, geared toons ready to tackle new content seems like a big mistake and a waste of resources

My only ideas of why this server stays open like this is the limited testing that is done, plus the hope that you're invested enough in your test character that you'll still spend $$ for expansions, cosmetics, etc. Might be enough to turn a profit.

Wouldn't it be great though if the test server was open for a week or two prior to patch, and anyone who was the first to submit a bug report for a new bug got some reward and everyone who copied over and logged in got put into a raffle for something?

I disagree. I spent almost $1000 on expansions last year for my accounts and still need to get ToL on 5-6 more accounts when finances permit. I spent another $400+ on kronos over the last 6 to 9 months as well and my main server is Test. People found a reason to leave and left. No offense intended. I just think that people think everybody on Test are a bunch of slacking freeloaders and that is not correct.

Just like any server there are a lot of F2P accounts but there are also a lot of people that buy expansions, sub to the game, pay for perks and buy from the Marketplace.

I totally disagree with most of your comment. Rewarding Test players for testing and reporting bugs would be nice but even that isn't necessary per se. Just working with us instead of acting like we don't exist would be a great first step.

I sometimes wonder if they would find more bugs on Test, if they turned every single player on that server into a GM...

It isn't going to happen, but a Project GM could be fun for a short bit. I log in. Activate my GM godlike powers and change everyone's name to something I like. Restart zones just as a raid starts, etc. Fun stuff. I trust some players a LOT. I don't trust some players at all. And most I look at with a careful eye.

What amazes me is how something like overseer that is designed from scratch can have that many issues so long after it was introduced. I realize that is has to interact with some old stuff like quest reward and the UI but you can't blame all on past poor design.

Yes

We're you active and guided on test when The Darkened Sea released? That was the first non-free expansion and the server population dried up like the Sahara practically overnight. It's never been the same since. Sure there are still active players and it's a fun server but the test pool was greatly diminished.

Don't forget the xp boost that none of the other servers have. Even when they had free expansions I don't think I would say that a lot of testing was happening or at least the bugs getting reported.

The team for EQ needs to stop depending on nostalgia and begin improving aspects of the game to churn in new players. Keeping the game group dependent with no groups is a bad design. It is saddening because the lore and gameplay to a point can be fun.

Lots of players have been testing and reporting bugs on Test as far back as when the server launched. Just like any server there are F2P players that don't contribute anything but to lump everyone into the same old tired catch all of "free loaders" is just flawed logic with nothing to back it up but your misinformed opinion.

Just this past anniversary period alone we tested all the new anniversary content aside from the raid (best we managed was the phase at 30%) and all the new Tempest Festival content. Also all the other new seasonal content that was released this year as add ons to the older stuff like Stomples Day, Brew Day & Bristlebane Day stuff was tested on Test.

Does that mean every single player that plays there tested it? No, of course not. But a decent amount of the population did and they made reports on it either through the Test bug threads or making threads in the bug forum to bring attention to it so the devs could fix or adjust whatever issues arose.

We can't make the devs fix everything, we can't make them read every thread or make them communicate with us better. We did what we could and whatever they fixed prior to Live patches was because of the people on Test testing and reporting the issues in one form or another.

Yes and you're comparing the way it was 8 years ago to how it's been the last year or two. Raiding is still hit or miss but we've been working together on events, progression and group content all the time especially this year.

I think some of the big changes should be on test longer.

EQ is a very old lady who is very fragile, you mess under her skirts your likely to break something not connected to what you just changed. Something no one is going to think about checking.

I still remember years ago they fixed the gates/doors in Kedge and broke the bridges in SolA/B.

The longer changes are on test the more likely broken things will be picked up.