D&D 5E Internal vs External playtesting questions

[Elodan]

Forgive me if this has been addressed before. If it has, could you point me to it?

I'm curious as to if anyone has any insights as to how the whole internal versus external playtests for D&D Next work together. Speculation is welcome.

I'm guessing that internal testers are a couple of "packets" ahead of what we the public receive. I'm curious how the public feedback plays into internal testing. Let's say internally they've changed ability X to something totally different. Then come to find out ability X is much beloved by the community at large. Do they re-implement X, continue with the new direction or morph the two together.

How do they decide which elements to "push" to see if the system breaks or how the community reacts.

Thanks.

 

[ShadoWWW]

As far as I know, the internal playtest groups tests mainly the concepts or big pictures. When the concepts seem fine, they go to public playtest.

Public playtest has two functions.
1) Says, if the concept is right.
2) Ballances the math.

If the concept has good feedback, it is then raised. If it does not have good feedback, new concept is created internaly.

It is needed to say, there are not so many iternal playtesters. They cannot test every single ability, spell and number. It is what public playtest is for.

 

[Iosue]

A recent Twitter conversation:
Benjamin Reinhart ReinhartLogos 4 Aug
mikemearls Could you clarify what is the distinct purpose of your internal playtesting in comparison to the public playtests?

Mike Mearls mikemearls 4 Aug
ReinhartLogos internal = proof of functionality. Can players use and understand? External = proof of value. Does this improve the game?

Benjamin Reinhart ‏ReinhartLogos 4 Aug
mikemearls Has the external material then already passed through the internal process for functionality?

Mike Mearls mikemearls 4 Aug
ReinhartLogos yes, though we still miss stuff, usually due to changes made after internal test.

Benjamin Reinhart ReinhartLogos 4 Aug
mikemearls By changes after the test, you mean that sometimes the totality of the rules presented to the public are not actually tested?

Mike Mearls ‏mikemearls 4 Aug
ReinhartLogos yes. there are always a few things like that. Otherwise, we'd never be able to show anything. typically individual abilities.

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So basically, they try to use the internal playtest to catch the lion's share of broken stuff and things that don't work as intended. Some things slip through that net. The public playtest is used to see how the public playtesters respond to the material, if its popular enough to go into the game, and also catch things that aren't working as intended.

 

[Elodan]

Very helpful, both of you.

Someday I'll have to check out Twitter.

 

[Jester David]

I'm guessing that internal testers are a couple of "packets" ahead of what we the public receive. I'm curious how the public feedback plays into internal testing. Let's say internally they've changed ability X to something totally different. Then come to find out ability X is much beloved by the community at large. Do they re-implement X, continue with the new direction or morph the two together.

They're not ahead, because WotC doesn't hold stuff back if it's ready.

Internal (or rather private as they're outside of WotC) playtesters just get more packages and test things that aren't ready for the public. They get a look at many new concepts and mechanics, as WotC tries a lot of different things before settling on what ends up in the public playtest package.

 

[Elodan]

They're not ahead, because WotC doesn't hold stuff back if it's ready.

Internal (or rather private as they're outside of WotC) playtesters just get more packages and test things that aren't ready for the public. They get a look at many new concepts and mechanics, as WotC tries a lot of different things before settling on what ends up in the public playtest package.

Who determines if a mechanic is ready? Isn't that what the internal playtest is for?