Significance of playtesting

I assume that many people are aware of what playtesting is all about but just in case if you don't know then let me tell you that it's a process of improving game by watching new people play your game and analyze the data. It's all the more important for us at V2G because for long we had been doing simulators so we are good at bringing in the realism of art and science but not necessarily good at making game fun or an experience so we are running closed playtest in our office these days where we are calling guys from clans, known circles and their friends and giving them our latest build to try.
Before we get them to the testkits, we tell them categorically about the purpose of their visit, what is expected from them, we suggest them to be as individual as possible in terms of giving feedback or suggestion which should also not contain vague statements. We make them feel comfortable and tell them that nobody gonna screw them for saying anything bad so go ahead and be specific while telling anything.
We call our team members to observe the players and since these team members are well verse in game mechanics, they are quick to observe any issue or apply the psychological theory to the game design. Second thing we do is to stay away from teaching too many things to the playtesters, we simply give them the build and explain the controller and that's it. If we teach the testers too much then I'm sure that there will be mental blocks which will not fulfill the true purpose of playtesting. We don't have focused sessions but we have focused team members and they observe what is important to them.
In the end of the entire process, we already collect tons of data which is primarily driven by player's psychology but in general psychologically collected data is too abstract so we give a questionnaire to the playtesters and ask them to rate defined aspects, suggest improvement, give other suggestions not covered in the questionnaire and mention their favorite game. We don't necessarily buy every suggestion or rating so we brainstorm every suggestion and its impact on the game design. There are some suggestions which must be discussed with the playtester to understand his/her psyche and arbitrate it in detail. One such example is not having rear view mirror in our game but a particular group kept asking for it and we tried to explain them that it's our design decision not to have it as our game is not a racing game and it's a vehicle combat game like Twisted Metal or Flatout but then we started brainstorming with the group and came to a conclusion which everybody was thrilled about so it makes a lot of sense to open up and discuss with them.
This playtesting phase is helping V2G immensely for making SnS as engaging as possible specially in finalizing the duration of each mission, vehicle balancing, opponent health etc. and lot of multiplayer aspects. Playtesting helps making game an experience and we are striving to provide that to our users.
Tune in for more updates!! Keep gaming