Some sites like to give awards to vaporware, or games that are utterly doomed to failure.*

Not TheBrasse.com
We just don't get around that much.

But we have been in RoK beta, and lo, it was good. As we now sit around our hot little screens, new game box in hand, and wait for the huge mega mutha download of RoK goodness, we need something to do to while away the 5 to 211 hour reported download time.**


THE BRASSE 1st Annual Best Bug of Beta Award

I decided to think back over all the bugs I saw reported in my time in the Beta, and pick my favorite. The NDA dropped too late for me to cover all the hilarity inherent in Beta, so I really had to narrow it down - it is almost time to poke fun at the LIVE version!

So... ~fade to dreamy beta scene~ A few people kept complaining about being dropped from groups. As we had never experienced that problem (and we were in every day for many weeks), I decided that maybe, just maybe, this was one "bug" that was not SoE's.

It made me wonder how many false bugs the QA folks have to deal with.


/bug DUDE. THe mushrom thingz don't exist. i chekd evrywer in the swamp of nohope, and beleive me there ar none.

(it took us AGES to find the little buggers, and it was a triumphant moment, I can tell you - but we did come close to /bug on the topic)


/bug UR MAPS DONT WORK
or
/bug UR UI WINDOWS R ALL BORKED
or
/bug HOW COME I CANT SEE MY AA SCREEN THING?

(U forgot to disable ur user interface modifications, sir. Don't expect SoE to read your mind and figure out which ones are installed and then modify all of their xml to suit you.)


/bug I can't take screenshots. that is seriously messed up.

(Please see the red text message in your chat window that reads, "Screenshots are disabled on Beta servers." SoE is just trying to help folks adhere to the NDA. We all know how hard it is for you. Those screens were going to be for personal use only, right? Riiiiight.)



So here on release day, I raise my mug on high to the unheralded heroes of Beta - the EQII QUALITY ASSURANCE TEAM!

Oh, and if any major bugs got through to Live, you just know it is because you didn't raid buff that one guy.
Yeah. Be smarter next time!

For those three EQII players who have not decided to compete with the Dwarf for download bandwidth already - go buy Rise of Kunark. It is a great expansion by any measure, and keeps this now THREE YEAR OLD game very fresh.

;-)#
Brasse


* Wow, it was hard to cite just two well-known sites that gave top awards to these games.

**please, for the love all all things holy (and beer), someone invent a reliable download time remaining meter. I mean really... 211 hours? I have become convinced that the meter is just something for us to look at, and uses a variation on the random number generator. How about you let us play the Gigglegibber Lotto instead, with our in-game money? Pleeeeease?