Testing the sims 3 ?

[Munsta]

(02-04-2008 12:43 PM)Supergeek to the rescue! link Wrote:Yeah, but that'd be cool if they picked 5 random posters and then they had to play it for a week and make a story (like on thesims2.com Exchange stories) about it then send the game back to EAxis and put the story on thesims3.com or something like that, or email the pics to EAxis.

-Supergeek

Just a question, why do you call it EAxis?

[heather]

Munsta, I just noticed you have joined the staff of this site. Congratulations on becoming Global Moderator. It is well deserved. 

EAxis is EA & Maxis joined.

[Cassie]

Oh yeah, sorry Munsta, I only just noticed. I never notice much.

Congtrats to you!

[matt]

I'm pretty sure Maxis would have a team of people dedicated to testing their games. I doubt they will never choose people outside of the company to test any of their software.

The testers are usually highly skilled, they need to be able to notice problems, write detailed test plans, put all their findings together in well structured documents, that kind of thing. They will probably also need to know a little bit about the technical aspects of how the game was made, so they can see why a problem may happen.

Plus all this has to be pretty top secret as they wouldn't information about the game being released to the public before it's allowed to be!
Some games, like 'America's Army' (is that what you are talking about Nikkiee?), make use of the community and release private and public betas, to get the community to test for them. This usually only happens with online games or free games (such as America's Army, which is a tool used by the Army to try and get people interested in joining up in real life!).

I'm talking to much! To sum up my ramblings, it's very unlikely that Maxis will choose game fans to test it, I'm sorry to say  :-\

[pauluch3]

I agree with you Matt. It's pretty top secret, so the testers are most likely some EA staff.

[matt]

Technically I think they'd be Maxis staff rather than EA. From what I know (and I could be wrong, it happened once in 1997) Maxis are the ones making the game, from start to finish. EA then get their grubby mits on it and publish it, advertise it, that kind of thing.

[eowynrox]

yea it was weird when i started getting the newer expansion packs the intros changed... like the thing that said maxis before the real sims intro came up dissapeared and EA games popped up with a plumbob and said, Soom soom!

[heather]

(02-04-2008 03:39 PM)Matt link Wrote:Technically I think they'd be Maxis staff rather than EA. From what I know (and I could be wrong, it happened once in 1997) Maxis are the ones making the game, from start to finish. EA then get their grubby mits on it and publish it, advertise it, that kind of thing.

Maxis doesn't really exist any more, most of the staff from there went with Will Wright when he started the Spore project.

They have the Sims division now, it ceased to be Maxis years ago. If i can find the interview, I will post a link.

[Nikkiee15]

(02-04-2008 02:12 PM)Matt link Wrote:Some games, like 'America's Army' (is that what you are talking about Nikkiee?), make use of the community and release private and public betas, to get the community to test for them.

Im not to sure but yah i think it was that cuz they were talking about some beta thing

[Sara]

(01-04-2008 04:16 PM)Nikkiee15 link Wrote:So Yesterday, My friends were talking about you can get paid for testing this army game and others too, so I asked if they think I could do that with The Sims 3, they said probly, so um my question is, how do i get a hold of The Sims 3 people to ask this question lol

There are indeed people whose jobs are to beta-test and review games before they come out, to help the gameplay improve.And they get paid for it. I'd love to do that... But then again, who wouldn't? ^^