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GameSpot: What is the QA department working on now?

Chris Sigaty: Currently, Diablo II is our primary focus. Every available QA resource is concentrating on this massive project with the exception of a few testers that are working on localized (or foreign-language) versions of our products. During the testing of Starcraft, there seemed to be no end to the amount of testing that needed to be completed before the game could ship. However, to my amazement, Diablo II has managed to surpass Starcraft by far. From a testing standpoint, the number of features and the size of this game can be absolutely mind-boggling at times.

GameSpot: What is the job of the QA team?

Sigaty: The job of Blizzard's QA team is to ensure that any product that ships out from our offices for public consumption meets the company's high level of quality. The QA team is primarily responsible for finding and reporting in-game errors (that is, bugs) or broken intended functionality as well as ensuring working compatibility with available computer hardware. In addition to that, QA is responsible for providing qualitative feedback on the product's functionality, including level difficulty (that is - too hard, too easy, etc.), unit or class balance (in other words - is a unit too powerful? Is this class entertaining? Is this skill unbalancing? etc.), overall game enjoyment and balance (in other words - is the game fun? Are the choices within the game viable? etc.), and finally questioning intended functionality (in other words - does this naming convention make sense? Should this item cost this much? etc.). Bottom line is the QA team goes through the entire game and ensures each element meets with the level of quality that the public has come to expect from Blizzard products.

GameSpot: Does this process of making sure a product is stable and balanced also extend to the upcoming beta test?

Sigaty: Absolutely! The beta test lasts for a limited amount of time and includes only a portion of the game. For us to ship out a beta that crashes constantly or is heavily unbalanced wastes both our time and that of the people participating in the beta. Ultimately, the goal of the beta is to test the network code and infrastructure, find out if there are any system-related problems we were unable to find internally, and, finally, to hear qualitative feedback on the product from the public. An unstable or poorly balanced beta would render the beta period useless toward meeting these goals, since those involved would spend the majority of the time avoiding or reporting in-game bugs, rather then concentrating on the intended areas.

Next: Crushing bugs and balancing gameplay