Is Yu himself really all he need on QA for s3?

[高野和泉]

-The demo desc doesn't even hint at needing feedback.
-We've never given feedback for anything other than the logo which was ignored anyways.
-The only things polls changed was whether we see more of X's background or something to that extent
- Even alpha teaser and images yu releases he admitted he was already unsatisfied over it before all the outraged about it. Just his hands were tied.
- We've never seen beta or final slices of the game to even this day.
-Release date seems to be set in stone.
-People will throw themself for free @ the chance of QA'ing this game yet he ignored all offers.

Yu's vs Modern AAA gaming's method(Players report bugs to be patched after release) of QA is such a stark contrast.

 

[Spaghetti]

Yu is famously very individualistic, but that's not so say the only opinion he values is his own. There are enough reports throughout his career, right up to now developing Shenmue III, that Yu likes feedback from his team and outside the development environment.

That's a very separate thing from relying heavily on, say, Kickstarter backers for feedback. That would tip into "design by committee" territory, and might set a precedent of backers expecting their wishes to be carried out to the letter rather than just being advisory. This is even assuming the unlikely event that backers are able to unify and agree on ideas uniformly. Feedback is more useful from a few distinct voices who know their opinion may be discarded, rather than a cacophony of demands.

But also, this isn't QA. That'll be carried out like it is with any other game with a team finding bugs and unexpected software behavior, and passing it onto the development team to hopefully be fixed before the gold master.

 

[hazuki00]

- We've never seen beta or final slices of the game to even this day.

Maybe this have to be with the agile method Suzuki is using. Basically he can't show anything finalished because this comes at the end.

 

[RiGoRmOrTiS]

You think we would have heard about the backer demo at this point...

 

[Spaghetti]

You think we would have heard about the backer demo at this point...

I think people may have been getting ahead of themselves imagining it'd be a backer beta used for feedback purposes. Considering the reward itself is called a "trial" and Yu intending to make something similar to "What's Shenmue?", I don't really expect it'll launch until a few months out of the game itself.

 

[Guppy]

I don't recall QA being part of deal for backers in the Kickstarter, so I'm not sure where all that is coming from. As for the demo, as long as it comes before the launch of the game the team is fulfilling all their promises towards the backers (of which actual QA is not part of).

 

[RiGoRmOrTiS]

In the bscker Q&A I asked Yu Suzuki directly if the demo was going to be quite early in development so we can provide feedback and would they create temporary forums to recieve and discuss the feedback and he answered yes to both those questions... When I get home I'll trawl through my twitter/Reddit history to try and find it... can't remember what method it was done through back then..

.. I'm not that bothered but im pretty sure that was the original intent.

 

[Guppy]

Even if that was the case, there were no such stipulations on the Kickstarter page or slacker backer campaign, which are the obligations Yu and the team have to fulfill. On the reddit AMA Yu also said something about introducing interchangeable characters at some point in game but if the mechanics isn't featured in the actual game, it's unreasonable for fans to raise pitchforks because as you said, it was the original intent, and these tend to change with the development process but they were never an obligation towards backers.