Pareto and ODC

1. First scientific method or ad hoc testing is used to identify the bugs.

2. Then the Pareto method is used to find the bugs that occur most.

3. After the most common bugs are found, a ODC .h can programmed.

The Pareto method is used to narrow down the amount of bugs the ODC has to catch, otherwise the number of bugs that needed to be checked would be overwhelming.

Defect Analysis

World of Warcraft Patch Notes


World of Warcraft is the top mmorpg in the world right now; it has about 6.1 million subscribers. With that many concurrent players there’s bound to bugs that the QA team missed. So what Blizzard does is they produce incremental patches that deal with bugs and sometimes add content on top of that.

We’re going to take a look at patch 2.0.7 released on February 13, 2007
The link below shows the complete patch notes

http://www.worldofwar.net/patches/2-0-7.php


These are some of the bugs found by the Blizzard team.

Art:
PVP flags and graveyard nodes can no longer be captured through collision.


Sound/Music:
The Crust Bruster has had a loot icon and sound change.
Fixed the local defense channel so that it will properly change based on the player's zone.


Development:
20 slot bags are now bind on pick-up.
The Crust Bruster has had a loot icon and sound change.
When sharing a quest, the order logic has changed to check whether or not the player has completed or is ineligible for the quest before checking whether their quest log is full.
Players are no longer able to accept the quest "The Opening of the Dark Portal" while the Black Morass encounter is engaged.
Attempting to prospect less than 5 pieces of ore will no longer cause a game crash. (Spanish Only).

These are just a couple of bugs produced by WoW. One thing that needs to be kept in mind is that WoW is being tested constantly by the live customers and if a serious bug is found they usually hot patch it. Since the game is so big and dynamic most of the bugs caught are by the end users. Blizzard does have a dedicated public test server but sometimes bugs still slip through. Since WoW has been out for over 2 years there really isn’t any sound or graphical bugs. The serious terrain bugs are still there but its hard to pinpoint all the positions that produce the bug.

Superhero

Superhero

Most people pick super heroes they wish they could be or just because they are on the good side. I personally like super heroes that are actually a bit more realistic. Wearing pink and yellow jumpsuits aren’t my idea of super hero attire. Right now my two favorite superheroes are Batman and Constantine. For the most part these two superheroes primarily work by themselves, but they do have people that help them out. Batman is a member of the Justice League but he for the most part works by himself. Also unbeknownst to the other members of the Justice League, Batman has a contingency plan to kill every member of the Justice League. Constantine on the other hand works together with his friends. For Batman if the job is too much for him to handle, for example if Apocalypse was entering earth; he would call on the Justice League. They would have a pow wow at their base and decide on a plan of action. Everyone has their own job. Superman would probably go toe to toe with Apocalypse and the rest will take care of the minions. So for the Justice League it’s mostly a team effort except sometimes Batman will go Ronin. Constantine for the most part fights demons by himself. The help he gets from his friends are usually just items and information. Constantine actually has a kind of support team rather than a whole guild like the Justice league.

TFD VS Finite State Machine

Test flow diagrams are usually used to test a certain sequence of detailed events. A finite state machine shows the different states an application can have. A state consists of different types of actions.

1. Entry state
2. Input state
3. Transition state
4. Exit state

This is a basic series of events in the hack and slash game

State
The player enters the game

Event
The player talks to the NPC quest giver

Action
Player accepts quest

Event
The player is on the quest

Event
The player approaches demon

Action
The player kills the demon

Combinatorial testing for Texas Holdem

For the Texas Holdem game we will use combinatorial testing. The parameters to be tested will be the card object attributes. Specifically we will be testing what hand beats what. For that objective pairwise testing will be used. First we will make a data chart that shows all the possible card combinations and how they stack against each other. Then we will make sure the coding matches the object value, for example an ace of spades = x value. The final step will be making sure the values in the data table are correct.

https://login.live.com/login.srf?wa=wsignin1.0&rpsnv=10&ct=1170781217&rver=4.0.1531.0&wp=NFS_24HR_10_COMPACT&wreply=https:%2F%2Fsas.zone.msn.com%2FZoneServices%2Fsas.aspx&lc=9&id=20960&cbid=

Ad Hoc Testing: Pokemon

There are 5 main types of ad hoc testing, and each test focuses on a specific aspect of the game. Depending on the stage of the game, a particular test can be used for a certain goal. Ad hoc testing is extremely useful because it let’s us explore the many paths of the game. For the Pokemon game two methods will be used play testing and directed testing. Since only the balancing aspect is to be tested only two types of tests will be used.

First directed testing is going to be used to make sure the base stats on the creatures are all correct. Since the fighting system is already functioning we just need to concentrate on the balancing between the creatures. We take the battle chart and test each individual function of the creatures in relation to each other. Then we make sure all the creatures are balanced and none of them are overpowered. After the directed testing we will start the play testing phase. In play testing we will further test the balance of the creatures against each other. If the fighting isn’t balanced and the player’s feel the game is unfair they will more then likely not play it. So a large team of alpha testers will be used in the play testing phase.

Here scientific method is used to document a game

A game created by Eric Brady is used in the testing and debugging. The documentation includes analysis and added game functionality.

Below is the documentation for download:
http://tong.po.gm.googlepages.com/tanktest.doc

This is a sample ODC error catching file

This is a basic error catching class. What this program does is catch a error and reports it to a designated file.

Two methods are used in this class:

ErrorFound: This method catches the error

Report: This method writes the error to a file This generic class can be put in any program and the actual error declaration is handled in the "main.cpp".

Here's a sample program:


// This is the main project file for VC++ application project
// generated using an Application Wizard.
#include "stdafx.h"
#include "ODC.h"

using namespace System;

int _tmain()
{
ODC* tester = __gc new ODC();
Console::Write(S"Menu\n\n1. Press one\n2. Press two\n\nEnter here: ");

int choice;

choice = Int32::Parse(Console::ReadLine());

if(choice == 1)
Console::Write(S"You entered 1");
else if(choice == 2)
Console::Write(S"You entered 2");
else//error catcher

{
Console::Write(S"Error");
tester->Report(S"User entered wrong number at Main Menu");
}

return 0;
}

Here's the actual .h class that catches the error


using namespace System;
using namespace System::IO;

public __gc class ODC

{
public:
ODC()//constructor
{
file = __gc new StreamWriter(S"C:\\Dell\\Game.log");
}

void ErrorFound(String* e)
{
error = e;
}

void Report(String* e)
{
error = e;
file->WriteLine(error);
file->Close();
}

private:
String* error;
StreamWriter* file;

};

H M L

Sample Game: Action/RPG

High Level
Sense of accomplishment
Gambling aspect
Immersion

Mid Level
3D game world
3D character models
Dynamic lighting
Dynamic dungeons and environment

Low Level
Played in the 3rd person point of view.

Heres the definitive hardware guide

This site is probably the most up to date and realistic hardware review site.

http://www.hardocp.com/

Heres an nicely done bug forum

World of Warcraft has a special forum dedicated discovered bugs. WOW also has a Test server forum where they collect bug data, but that is only for test servers. For the most part live bugs are reported through this forum.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=10023&sid=1