The EVE University Bug Hunting and Quality Assurance Class, held on the evening of 13th February 2011, was a resounding success. Generating just over 200 attendees, the event was hailed both a success for the event itself, the first University hosted event with guest speakers from CCP, as well as the first ‘trial by fire’ success of the new Mumble server.
Ed'rashtekaresket
The event organizer and host, Ed’rashtekaresket, was pleased with the result. “It was a runaway success, beyond my expectations!”, he said, quite pleased. “It really was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I hope everyone that was unable to make it will still take the time to download and listen to the recording.”
Ed’rashtekaresket was additionally honored by EVE University CEO Kelduum Revaan and founder Morning Maniac for his work and dedication towards the University. Ed’rashtekaresket, however was very modest in this regard. “I’m just floored, I had no idea people thought this highly of what I was doing. I have to give credit to Neville Smit, Dierdra Vaal, Kelduum Revaan and probably at least a few other Unistas who have helped me along the way. And of course to CCP for being willing to give us all this time, energy and information!”
Asked if he would be looking forward to organizing similar events again in the future, Ed’rashtekaresket said, “I don’t know if I can do something like that again. I’m currently just going to enjoy not being up till 6 am to coordinate! There might be more interest for this kind of event, and if there’s enough, maybe we’ll have CCP QA back.”
EVE University CEO Kelduum Revaan was available for a few questions. “The class was a resounding success,” he said. “And it was both an honor and a privilege for EVE University to host this.”
Kelduum Revaan - CEO EVE University
There had been concerns about the stability of the Mumble server as of late, however Kelduum dispelled these fears. “The server had a few teething issues, and we set a new record for both users on the server, but with a little adjustment, it turned out well.”
The event was one of the first EVE University classes open to the general public and garnered a lot of interest. When asked about the inevitable boost in admission applications this level of publicity would bring, Kelduum was confident. “I expect to see a spike in the number of applications, but the new application process should be able to deal with it comfortably.”
When asked about what effect this event will have on future events of a similar nature, Kelduum had this to say: “If the opportunity presents itself, certainly. And of course we are open to guest lectures from others in the Capsuleer community as well. Hopefully this will be the first in a long series of guest lectures and talks.”
The contents of the class itself will soon be available for download and it is expected to be quite popular. Once again, EVE University would like to express its gratitude towards CCP Oneiromancer, CCP Konflikt, and CCP Habakuk for their attendance, presentations, and the wonderful contributions they make to the EVE Universe to make it a more enjoyable place for us all.
CCP Oneiromancer
CCP Konflikt
CCP Habakuk
Thanks to all involved in the organization of this event! It is an honnor for E-UNI to receive such distinguished guests and although I wasn’t able to attend ther event live, I will go over the recorded material as soon as it is available. Being a former QA guy for other types of games (not in that job anymore though), I will enjoy gaining a new perpective on EVE and it’s quality assurance processes.
Again thanks to Ed’ Kelduun and all involved uni-side and of course a great deal of appreciation towards CCP Oneiromancer, CCP Konflikt and CCP Habakuk who have taken some of their time to address the UNI personnaly.
THanks all around and I hope to see more collaboration between the UNI and CCP.
Motton
I was there for part of it but then RL came into play. I did enjoy it and was amazed on the turnout. I will have to download the recording so that I can hear the rest of it.
I found there were a LOT of similarities with my real life job (2nd level desktop support for a major bank) and how QA works in EVE Online. The key for players to remember and the most important point when submitting bug reports is to try to submit them thinking that the person who gets the report has NO idea how to use the feature that is causing the error. They always will know how the feature is supposed to work, but giving them a step-by-step guide on how to recreate the error/issue is critical.
Also, I may have come across a little harsh with my questions about the perception of the lack of testing of new features because of the number of new issues introduced after releases/updates, but I see this all the time in my real job and it is the biggest complaint from both our clients and ourselves towards our developers. However, I now understand that some bugs may have to go through even if found because of timeframe constraints although from what I have seen and what I heard yesterday, the bugs will always be fixed at some point.
I want to thank EVE University and the QA CCP team for providing us with this very rare opportunity to interact with the testers of this great game.
I don’t think there are many software development companies that provide this level of access and interaction.
I was very impressed by the amount of information exchanged and the willingness to accept all kind of unscripted questions.
Great job and Thank you all!
I know I am the writer of this article, but I thought I would express my personal views here as well.
Firstly, tremendous effort by those involved with organizing this; Ed you did a wonderful job, and those assisting you deserve a round of applause also.
Secondly: thank you CCP QA and Bughunters for coming down and talking to us briefly – it must be recognized that they did this completely voluntarily (as far as I know Ed does not employ blackmail *wink*) and it was a real pleasure to hear from them.
Finally a big thank you to all in attendance for making this such a great event – may it be the first of many to come!
Thank you so much to Ed for organizing this, and to the CCP folks for being willing to give us some of their time. I was thinking just before the class that I can not think of any other game where the developers/testers are so willing to interact with, listen to, and explain what is going on in the background.
Thank you all for the wonderful information imparted and the sense of involvement that this fosters
Huge thanks to Oneiromancer, Konflikt, Habakuk for your presentations. And a high & tight salute to you, Ed, for making this event a reality and a smashing success.
It really was a great event. Very good job of being both in-depth and in-reach of the masses. And I think it was an excellent turn out. Bug hunting is a tedious and generally thankless job. I like how CCP has creatively channeled this into a community effort. Indeed, no one stands to gain more from productive bug hunting operations than the EVE Community. And quite frankly, E-UNI is an ideal community to tap into to that end.
Admitedly, I was slightly irked at having my backend question rebuffed. As an IT administrator, I don’t think it’s fair to say that infrastructural / platform awareness is entirely inconsequential to the tradecraft of bug hunting; though, granted, not entirely necessary at the most basic level. It’s certainly not “off topic”. And if there’s any communal assumptions that this info is in any way confidential, let me dispell that notion: it’s not. It’s all readily available in detail via Dev Blogs and other sources.
Thank you to all involved for the hard work that has so obviously been done behind the scenes to make this a success. I only caught the last part of the Q&A as RL was pressing but I look forward to downloading the lecture and hope that this may come to be only the first of many such visits to Mumble and EVE University by CCP. Fly safe o7
Thanks to everyone involved in setting this up! RL prevented me from attending, but I’m looking forward to the recording.
For anyone who hasn’t been on E-Uni’s forums or just didn’t notice: The recording is now up and is available at http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/File:2001-02-13-BUGS_AND_QA_CLASS.mp3
Transcription still coming when I can listen to the entire thing again 🙂