Pirates Of The Burning Sea: Developer Log: Introducing... Fraxl!

A new developer log was posted today, and it deviates quite a bit from the normal developer logs we read. Instead of hearing about the game itself, we get an inside look into the "Usability Experience Lab". This "Lab" is where Fraxl can bring in people, assign them a few general tasks for them to try in Pirates of the Burning Sea, and record how they react to each of the tasks. She can observe what they do, how they react to certain features, and find out what sort of things are perplexing, frustrating, or not readily-available.

But what is it that we actually do in this "lab," you say? Well, you probably know about QA- they're the ones who tirelessly hammer away, trying to break the game and find all the nasty little bugs. What I do here is similar, except the bugs I find are in the experience a player has with the game, rather than in the game's functionality. I invite people to come to our offices to represent our users and I watch them play. They're given a series of tasks to do, similar to what they would do if they were playing at home, and I observe and record their experience. What I'm looking for are "pain points" - those frustrating moments where a player knows what he wants to do, but can't do it easily. I'm sure you've hit them before and know just what I mean.

If you wish to read the entire developer log, check out this link! Remember, you can always comment below this news update.