I agree with you though I do have a concern or two. There are issues and mechanics that all platforms share and I for one like to have this reflected in the numbers if a problem arises in these areas. The only reason I would see otherwise having a multiple cross platform/(playstyle) forum would be if they are planning somehow or at sometime have cross platform servers (theory and a unlikely one at that) .
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For the record, some of us are professional game testers. We simply donât work for free. During the Early Access portions of the game, it was appropriate to test the game with vigor, and by donating real time. Once the game released to full commercial access, testlive users migrated to Critical Issues.
There have been a half dozen times when patches have broken the game once released to a server. TestLive participants have caught a number of those issues. As for QoL or other bug testing, itâs strictly offered as a heads-up to Funcom about pain points in their patch.
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Testlive serves two purposes. First one is what Barnes said. It does catch critical issues in a live environment. Those bugs that would simply crash everybody. Second one is for mod authors using the testlive devkit to get their mods ready for the next major update.
And just a FYI, they do have paid testers. They canât catch everything. A half a dozen people canât catch stuff a few hundred can in testlive. Which unfortunately they canât catch everything that the few thousand do on patch day.
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Yup, and even the ones that are caught prior to release, need to be assigned and scheduled - or at least just scheduled (depending on their structure and routine). That happens on a priority over time basis with future acknowledgments. Of course everyone likely understands priority over time, but future acknowledgement is for example, like say they have a change or feature scheduled for 2.9 which will eliminate the bug containing code in 2.7 and/or 2.8 - so this depending on severity, wonât get fixed - because theyâre doing away with (or rewriting) that code section in the next 3 or 4 months anyway. At least this is how itâs been where Iâve worked in the past.
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Yet another overused clichĂ© by gamers. Every game forum has them. If a SINGLE bug exists in the game, there are people ranting about how the game company doesnât have QA and should hire some, how their QA sucks, or how they should fire all their QA people (or a combination of all the above).
There was news about FC even acquiring a QA studio recently, but people just beat that drum because âbugs.â It doesnât even take much critical thinking skills either about this. But anything to feed the narrative right? (I know Iâm preaching to choir on this, Iâm just ranting cause Iâm tired of it).
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I think youâd be surprised actually. Rockstar for instance has very few of these, and it appears they have little tolerance for such foolishness. Funcom, by contrast, allows us to openly bag on their QA.
The Rockstar title Iâm enjoying now is very tightly packed with bugs. Itâs taken 3 years to get it to this state, which is quite playable. Unlike Funcom, they clearly do not care what the player thinks, what she loses or how her priceless horse glitched out.
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As someone that uses testlive (not every patch, but Iâve done some fairly thorough run throughs on a couple of patches), I do know what youâre getting at. Sometimes it does feel frustrating to report a bunch of findings and then see the patch go live shortly after. But I would say it still serves a purpose - partly, as @Multigun points out, to catch critical issues (and Iâve seen a few that frankly werenât critical at all, but still got fixed in time for release) and partly, as @TeleTesselator suggests, it gets some less critical bugs onto the schedule for fixing at an earlier point than if they went unfound until full release. (A good example of this being some problems with horse behaviour I encountered on testlive 2.6 - I reported them in passing along with some other stuff, and thought theyâd been missed - carried on working on a way to test and reproduce the issue reliably - and then 2.7 hit and the behaviour was fixed - maybe a coincidence, but just as possible that it went onto the schedule and just didnât make it to fixed status until the next patch.)
As for pushing the deadlines when bigger issues are found - I often feel that way as well (and like you, I donât work in the industry so have no idea how it works) - but I suspect there may be people other than the players that expect the release to be on a certain date - upper management or shareholders being good possibilities. Often companies do things that seem incomprehensible to us âmere mortalâ customers - but thereâs usually some behind the scenes reason somewhere.
In my view, the biggest problem with testlive is that we PC players simply cannot find bugs that will apply only to consoles, which is a part of why consoles always seem to take the biggest hit from major updates. I still believe the only real solution to this would be a âconsole-testliveâ, but that has its own problems as well Iâm sure.
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I canât say for certain for your bug fix, but that is typical in game dev. Patches have a schedule and complex processes that can influence that (and so many variables contribute to that). Certification especially complicates factors. Typically there is a deadline date, âget everything in for the patch by this date, else it will have to wait for the next build (or hotfix if itâs critical).â Of course if its super duper critical, patches will get delayed all together, which FC has done before. An 11th hour bug is found, everything is stopped, and the whole process to finalize the patch begins anew.
People think that a simple bug that is found can be quickly added fixed for an upcoming patch. And for once I donât blame them, it seems logical. But as Iâve learned, it very much is way more complex then what your average gamer believes. And ya, as you said, upper management could influence that (and does), but there are things more dev related that can add to the complexities (for example, bake time with the patch, obviously certification, QA processes, etc).
Microsoft/Sony would require Certification for that. Even on PC it isnât very feasible to do a Testlive client on GamePass. Because GamePas, even on PC, requires certification. Certification is enough of a headache, I donât even want to think about adding a Testlive into that process. Thatâs the most obvious hurdle, Iâm sure there are other factors. Even Early Access style games are a rarity on the console platforms (or they were, I havenât kept up with it. A quick Google Search suggests that Sony still doesnât have any, but I didnât look that hard).
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If I may just point out one distinction. There are times when testers go above and beyond, and there are phases when this is accepted by Funcom and phases when they seem to turn a blind eye. For instance @SirBowen has earned legendary status among any and all involved simply by the weight of the tips he shed with every Bug Report. Crude little exploiters like me pick up these crumbs and run off to our respective nerderiesâŠ
However, I have noted exemplary posters during off times receiving little or no recognition, even for things they have clearly contributed to patches. This sets up an inevitable sense of ill health.
For instance, you are an amazing contributor and have made a considerable impact on the game. I have also seen changes in the visual settings as spurred by players like @Fenharellâs dogged approach to getting the best out of our PCs. These go unheralded, but not unnoticed. 
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I wasnât replying to your âcrowdâ, I was replying to your unsubstantiated claim. Specifically, I was pointing out that itâs unsubstantiated. I donât care which âcrowdâ it belongs to, itâs still unsubstantiated.
Sure you do, you made the claim. If I say, for example, âthe numbers show that Conan Exiles is more popular than Terraria among teenagersâ, then itâs up to me to show those numbers. This is not rocket science, thatâs how burden of proof works.
But even if we set aside the burden of proof and go check the numbers on Steam Charts, the claim that the ânumbers support that the game is dyingâ is still wrong:
I donât see a conclusive trend of decay here. Do you?
Finally, Steam Charts only show PC players who use Steam. I have no idea what the numbers are on consoles. Do you?
This bit leads me to think my reply to you was personal. It wasnât. I wouldâve replied in the same way to anyone who talks about numbers without providing any. 
Should I get popcorn? Because that tends to be a controversial statement around here. Repeat that often enough, and people will point a finger at you and say that âthereâs no proof that would satisfy you, you always think Funcom is right and perfect and players are lyingâ. Or something along those lines.
I wish we had a way of browsing and filtering bugs, like in a proper bug tracker. It would be interesting to see how many bugs are actually console-specific.
They have QA. TestLive is not the entirety of Funcomâs QA.
Itâs really not that hard to understand. You know how games have open betas? This is it, but for every major patch.
The whole âhaha Funcom should hire QA instead of TestLive lol kthxbyeâ trope is just that â a trope, born out of frustration and ignorance, and propagated for teh lulz.
Funcomâs QA outcomes leave a lot to desire, but thatâs not because of TestLive. Thereâs nothing wrong with having TestLive. Even if Funcomâs QA worked much better, there would still be bugs they donât catch because they involve some weird combination of hardware and software, or because theyâre triggered under non-deterministic hard-to-catch conditions.
Plus, TestLive also gives players a way to preview the effects of an upcoming patch and raise a fuss if those changes are more painful than they should be.
It really isnât a big investment. Have you checked how many TestLive servers there are, compared to live servers? Itâs pretty much pocket change.
There are few things on these forums that make me want to slap people. This is one of them.
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All good, fir me personally I would say the numbers are sustained on a low level. I really donât want to see it die. Love it too much.
Too your question regarding other platforms, I only know that the percentage of game pass players is veeeery low due to the log in bug, which requires you to uninstall windows updates to be able to play, so that number is neglectable and looking at several forum posts regarding consoles, the main gist is that the game is almost unplaybly broken there, although that might be a misconception by my side. So I am sticking to the numbers I can see and I totally agree, that it is not dying, but the numbers show, that it fails to capture new players after the free weekends, which is really sad.
I wrote the last sentence, because I got the feeling the other way around and wanted to assure you that it wasnât meant personally at all.
Regarding proof, this is an opinionated forum, i take this as a place to see what is on players minds regarding the game and not something where you have to prove every statement by scientific method.
And last, you were able to go to steamDB and check on your own 
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Only if you share. Is it by any chance the chocolate popcorn from Cinerama?
Do I think Funcom is always right? Hell no. I quit playing for about nine months because I was just too bummed about the state/direction of the game to bother.
Do I think players are lying? Yes, in many cases I do. In my opinion, the kinds of people that would get banned for cheating/tos violations are exactly the same kinds of people that would come onto the forums and raise a big stink while all the while claiming innocence. In one form or another, itâs all about their ego.
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Ego in a game that has a pvp mode ? Naaaaah show me proof (sic)âŠjk. I believe ego and laziness are the two main factors for those who protect exploits, exploiters, and other cheaters. I have found players who play dishonestly in games who will yell a game is dead simply because of a LACK of exploits and ways to cheat the system. Often times these players they will say that the game is too simple (dishonest techniques and broken mechanics not available in the game) or casual if it lacks again these things.
It definitely would. I do know many âbugsâ are G-Portal specific. And all Consoles MP is on G-Portal as far as I know.
Iâm also curious to know how many issues are 1300 day old database issues. Because thereâs been alot of complaints lately that leave me scratching my head, âlike what are you all talking about?â
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And @DanQuixote @CodeMage thank you guys! Now I see it a bit clearer.
I really am a causal gamer, Conan is the first where I heard the term âtestliveâ. I canât even download it, no free space 
However with the deadlines my thoughts were the same, that it is not depends only on the devs, but on the upper management (as anywhere, and a lot of times who is responsible for keeping the deadlines tight, have no clue what it takes to keep up with the deadlines, let alone know how those things work).
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Sometimes, the banned are innocent. I was banned. I joined a clan and 2 days later the clan was banned due to actions taken months prior to my joining the clan. 5 day ban.
I submitted a report and by the time Hugo got around to it, 7 days had passed. The ban system is broken and can take additional days to process the ban being lifted.
The clan lost everything, this was unintended, the ban was short enough to prevent decay. The processes added to the ban length and poof everything was gone.
It had nothing to do with ego. When i reported the scenario, under which i found myself, i did nothing wrong but join the wrong clan. So i asked for the ban to be repealed. The Moderators didnt get on the extra days issue until it was day 7 of the ban. Again, i lost everything.
Some people are not liars. Some people are narrow minded. Some people dont mind judging others without knowing a damned thing about them. Some people cannot see their own actions.
Kisses
Yup, Iâve made the same point several times on these forums. I dunno if itâs âegoâ so much tho. Do you call it ego when you were 10 and your mom caught you doing something you shouldnât have been doing, and you repeatedly told her: âIt wasnât me mom! Honest, I swear!â?
The only difference here is that text is so easy to hide behind whereas your mom knew you were full of beans! Also these people arenât ten any longer and know how to fortify falsehoods with half truths and indignation.
So far however, almost everyone who has come here and tried that (and thatâs like 90% of people lodging ban and demolition complaints), has been given enough rope that the truth snuck out during the long and many exchanges. 
Which was good for me because I wanted to know just what was going on and what FC was doing precisely. I now think I have a very good idea.
Name one! Besides Jesus or somethingâŠ
itâs relative but I would say ALL people are.
In the extreme version of this those who donât, find themselves in very bad existential situations.
Like 90% of humanity? Yup, agreed.
Itâs OK though. This is part of the human condition and while we are all and do all of these things the better of us can strive for betterment, love, forgiveness, understanding and harmony. Itâs the contrast that makes this world a beautiful place!
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Then, unfortunately, it seems you appealing was the problem. The ToS are quite clear - all clan members receive the ban, regardless of responsibility, no exceptions. If the ban was not long enough to cause delay, but you appealing extended the ban to be long enough, then that is a problem with the process (since it should not result in extending the ban) but it is also a problem caused by you appealing, since there was zero chance the ban would have been lifted.
It is certainly an unfortunate situation, and arguably an unfair situation - but it is also a matter of personal responsibility, as the rules make absolutely clear. I would say that the rules make it very risky to clan up with anyone that you do not already know very well to begin with. Arguably this may push more people to play solo or in smaller clans - but either way, the rules are clearly stated and clearly posted. It is highly unlikely that anyone was going to make a special exception. An appeal should not extend the duration of the ban, that is an issue, but there was little to no chance it would have been successful.
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I did report the ban as i ststed it. I got the typical responce from narrow minded people. Guilty by association. Day 5 of the ban was over. Still couldnt log. Filed a report, 2 days later i got a response asking for more information. A further delay. No point in continuing at that point. Due to policy, FC accidentally taketh away, due to policy, FC will not give back. Period.
All i was pointing out is i had no hand in any activity in that clan until i joined. I understand the rules. I accepted the ban based on the rules. That does not make me guilty of the clans actions before i joined. Thats my point. Innocent. Not a liar. Accepted my responsibility.
Not everybody is as you would like them to be. Dont make broad strokes.
Nor did I say that it makes you guilty of their actions - merely that the rules state it is your responsibility as you accepted. That may make you âinnocent of the bannable offenseâ, but unfortunately that does not make you âinnocent of any reason for a banâ. These are important distinctions - many of the comments people are making about guilt or innocence take little account of this distinction - including yours which simply states you were âinnocentâ, but the rules show that while you may not have committed the offense you are still responsible (as you have accepted).
I did not call you a liar - nor have I made any âbroad strokesâ or accused anyone of being anything. I simply pointed out to you that the ToS make clear you are not âinnocentâ as far as the rules are concerned, since they do not take account of who committed the offense, they simply blanket impact everyone connected. I think maybe you should re-read my second paragraph -
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