Section author: ACF (webmaster@acf-quizbowl.com)

Playtesting

Session Types

Approach

Questions Read in Session Format

Benefits

Downsides

Packet-wise

A fully assembled 20/20 packet

- More diverse playerbase offering feedback and conversion data
- Can discover feng shui issues

- More work required to prepare for a single session
- Longer sessions
- Trickier to schedule due to larger playerbase

Category-wise

A set of N/N questions in a certain category

- Can be scheduled as soon as an editor is ready with a batch of questions
- Generally attracts a playerbase with more expertise

- Cannot discover feng shui issues
- Feedback mostly comes from specialists
- Requires non-specialists to take time on their own to offer feedback and react with conversion data

The choice is ultimately left to the head editor.

Playtesting Cycle

Tip

Share this section of this page with the editing team so that they are aware of how to schedule and run a playtesting session.

Assembling a Troupe

Create a Google form gauging interest for playtesting, and share it on the forums, in the main QB Discord server’s #community-announcements channel, and/or with specific playtesters you have in mind.

Scheduling a Session

Polls

Ase one of the following services to share a poll with both the editing team and playtester pool to gauge their availability to join a session within a given time period.

You can ask about availability for the next week specifically or, if scheduling regular sessions, for given timeslots across specific days of the week in general.

Sessions

Once the time for a given playtesting session has been decided upon via the poll, use the Apollo bot to create an Event for the session in the #scheduling channel. This bot allows editors and playtesters to mark their availability for each session by explicitly marking Accept, Reject, or Tentative, so that you’ll know who to expect when the time comes.

You can have the bot automatically tag the Playtester (and/or Editor, Freelancer, etc.) role(s) upon creating the event so that they are notified about the timing.

By default, Apollo sends a reminder tag 15 minutes before the event. You can disable this if desired.

Running a Session

See Bulk / External Playtesting for the recommended playtesting workflow.

Important

It is strongly recommended that you have at least two people on hand from the editing team to run each session:

  • A reader

  • A paster

Playtesting Bot

See Playtesting Bot for details about configuring and using the ACF Playtesting Bot, which is recommended for ACF playtesting sessions. The bot should be set up before the playtesting cycle begins.