How many MMORPG studios are willing to put those who work in the customer service and QA fields in front of a camera to talk shop for players? Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen is one of the few that’s done it in recent memory, bringing customer service managers Michael “Artois” Butler and Jason “Medawky” Bolton on to the game’s VIP developer roundtable podcast.
As is often the case, the podcast went into some nitty gritty about what both devs do, talking about how the team prepares for a focus testing session and focus testing goals, discussing the feedback loop, and outlining some general plans for what the game’s customer service will look like during alpha, beta, and post-launch.
One of the questions featured in the cast was regarding a test server for Pantheon that will be available after launch, which was answered with a “maybe”: Butler mentioned being part of support for the test server for EQ and he talked about how the test server’s population was so low that bugs would often slip their way into the live build regardless, though he does recognize that those who populate a test server form a tight-knit community.
