I've just come back from an enjoyable weekend taking part in a WHFB
tournament in the warhammer players' society club challenge held at GW
headquarters in Nottingham.
There were a few GW staff taking part in some of the events so I took
the opportunity to corner Alessio Cavatore (one of the GW game
designers) and ask him about the issue of external playtesters which
cropped up here recently.
It turns out that they used to use quite a lot of external playtesters
until about six months ago when documents released for playtesting
started appearing on the net. Aparently at this point management
stepped in and told them to stop using external playtesters
altogether. Alessio said that the designers argued their case that
they needed the playtesters to spot flaws, make suggestions etc so
they have been allowed to use selected clubs and individuals only.
I managed to find one player who was being used as a playtester for
the new High Elves book at the tournament, so it looks like the people
and clubs who are being used as playtesters are either local to the
nottingham area or known to GW staff throught the WPS or the
tournament circuit etc etc. Those of you who suggested that GW were
unlikely to use US players as playtesters may be right, if not for the
correct reasons.
A big thanks to Alessio who was very friendly and approachable and
didn't seem to mind my questions at all.
Jez
http://www.MaccWargames.org
Received on Mon Apr 30 2001 - 09:40:17 UTC