Yeah defend your beloved QA team, that's why they missed so much bugs.
505BugReporter said:
This is 100% not how QA works in the slightest. Before you complain about them missing bugs, you might want to take several step backs and look at the big picture, which is the vast majority of bugs they fixed.
Furthermore, since you seem confused, QA is more than just "if we don't eliminate every single bug, we won't release the game." That's not how QA goes in the slightest. People who have actually worked in QA can attest to this (as opposed to people who have never worked in QA and have little idea the internal goings-on involved with it.) In QA, you'll often see this term:
Deferred. What does this mean? In QA, it tends to mean they have identified the bug/ acknowledged a bug, but rather than halt further development / release, they're opting to address this bug in the next update available. Things are not so simple as "if there is a bug, that means they missed it, and they're horrible."
Secondly, this is a mobile version of Terraria. Would you like to list every single phone and mobile device capable of running the Terraria Mobile version? Chances are you will not be able to even
list them all, let alone the QA and development team having to work around the clock to test the mobile version on as many of these devices as possible, and squash bugs across every single device available to run it. It's not the same as having an X-box or PS3 version, where there's only so many kinds of hardware capable of running it. We're talking potentially hundreds of devices, with different specs, different hardware, layouts, etc.
It is insane to expect a major mobile release / update to be bug free across absolutely every platform available to run it, and little more than a pipe dream. This does not mean the QA team is bad, it means they have a lot of work ahead of them. While we're at it, when we talk about the scale of mobile games, Terraria is definitely up there. This isn't a one-trick "runner" game where the most complicated mechanic is tapping up to jump. This is a fully fledged procedurally generated sandbox. The fact that the development team even managed to get this game running on phones is impressive, and expecting there to be absolutely no bugs is hilarious in addition.
Furthermore, each new update is going to add new bugs, as well as new content. This is how software development is. This is how video games are. Bugs happen. The best thing you do is report each bug as you find them, not be senselessly aggressive about it, and you'll be helping the team get the bugs faster. Be thankful for all the bugs they fixed, and help them fix the bugs they missed by reporting it. Chances are, a
lot of bugs, and I do mean a
LOT, are being caused by a hardware / software interaction error. To explain that, it means that a lot of bugs could be happening because of a specific model of mobile device interacting with the actual game. I will reiterate this point. There is a
ton of different devices capable of running Mobile Terraria, and it is very hard to keep track of all the bugs pertaining to specific models, makes, and brands of phones. And then managing to get these devices properly and thoroughly tested. And then making sure bug fixes that are being rolled out fix the bug across all devices.
The idea of every single model of phone being 100% bug free, or even 90% bug free, is an astronomical feat that should not be taken lightly. If you're going to choose to equate "they have bugs" to "they're a bad QA team" you may want to relax a bit. Yeah, you've found bugs. So have most of us. The more we report these bugs, the better it'll be in the next update. Being hostile towards the QA team is no way to behave. It doesn't help anyone, it doesn't do anything. The weeks leading up to 1.2.4 were probably extremely busy and frantic, as they worked towards the deadline. There were two possibilies:
A) If they delayed the update to fix 100% of the known bugs, people would be upset, (and then more bugs would be discovered anyway, leading to point B automatically)
B) If they launched the update with bugs, people would be upset.
At least with situation B, the update is in consumers' hands, and they can report any bugs the QA team missed, and work to help the QA team get them fixed, documented, and tested. Often times, consumers report bugs the QA team can't produce, so it's not like they can fix a bug they're not having, either. Especially when people report bugs as "it crashes on my Samsung Galaxy Note 3." Doesn't really help much, but what does help is when there's tens of thousands of consumers playing the game and will report obscure, hard-to-reproduce bugs too.
Anyway, I could go on for days about the QA process. And how it's much more complicated than "fix all the bugs, don't release a game with bugs." Every bug is manhours invested into it, and there's only so many men, and so many hours. Even AAA companies with 100x the staff still release games that have so many bugs in it. It happens. All people need to do is be more understanding, less impatient, and there's definitely no need to be derogatory, insulting, or aggressive.
TLDR: Chill.