@DellaLuna48 I hear you, and sure, every user thinks the bug that affects them is the most important bug. That’s human nature!
But the point I’m trying to make is: Bug fixes don’t make money. I’m not saying that to say it’s a good or bad thing, just that it’s a fact. I’m sure the Sims team loves their game and wants it to be the best it can be! On the other hand, if they don’t make money they can’t pay their developers.
As for EA, well, it’s normal business practice to emphasize profit centers over cost centers. Again, not saying that to say it’s a good thing or a bad thing. What makes money? New DLC. What doesn’t make money? Bug fixes. We can say that EA should prioritize supporting bug fixes, but they’re going to want to prioritize profit. (Again, not saying that’s good or bad, moral or immoral, etc., just that... they’re a business.)
So while I feel your frustration—believe me, I have bugs I want them to fix!—when i see a whole bunch of people saying “How can they not have fixed this already?” That’s how. They have X number of developers assigned to bug fixes and have to prioritize, based on how many people have the problem (*waves*) and what it will take to fix it.
The whole thing with patches to support new DLC causing more bugs is driven by the whole “How can they afford to pay their developers?” thing. Their code base must be crazy to work on with the patchwork of DLC.
Anyway. That’s how.
@stjmk I suspect they're two different teams, TBH. I suspect QA gets our bug reports and tries to consistently reproduce them, and then passes them on to the bugfix dev team.
Sure, there's a reputation hit; no one wants to be the company that makes buggy unplayable games. OTOH, well. They have to pay their devs somehow. It's a fine line.
(And I digress. Yep, still a bug. Y'all are going to fix whatever bugs you fix, but again, I downloaded a mod to prevent my Sims from having inappropriate romantic interest in their children, so just sayin'. Also this parenthetical is probably useless because you're probably looking at reply counts instead.)
@xochiquetzl_xkvn"I suspect they're two different teams, TBH. I suspect QA gets our bug reports and tries to consistently reproduce them, and then passes them on to the bugfix dev team."
You are much more sanguine than I am.
"Sure, there's a reputation hit; no one wants to be the company that makes buggy unplayable games. OTOH, well. They have to pay their devs somehow. It's a fine line."
Mini-Max for sure. I just don't think they're doing it right from what I've seen. I've seen a lot of "buggy unplayable game" comments.
Maybe EA should consider test-driven development.
"You are much more sanguine than I am."
At my place of employment, devs don't touch it until QA confirms it's a thing. Anything less is considered "wasting Development's time," and devs are paid more than QA.
