Games: “Report a problem” like a Rockstar

This post has been republished via RSS; it originally appeared at: Xbox Wire.

Hello, Xbox Insiders! Today we want to talk about two of the most important elements of the Xbox Insider Program: games and your feedback. You, as Xbox Insiders, help make this program and the games in it a huge success, so firstly, thank you for all you do. Secondly, we frequently receive sentiment from you asking if we are listening, and wondering if the feedback you report is looked at or even matters.

The answer is yes: we are listening, it does get looked at, and it absolutely matters. The problem is we often receive feedback missing important information that would allow us to better take action. We’re going to give you a few simple tips for reporting game problems, so you’ll be sure the reports you spend valuable time filling out can lead to action on our end.

1. Feedback and problems (bugs) are different.

We love all your feedback! However, “Report a problem” should be used for the purpose of just that, reporting a problem. You are welcome to include a suggestion with your bug report; however, the main purpose should be to tell us in detail that there’s a problem. Please provide general feedback and ideas through Xbox Insider Hub Quests, Surveys, game-specific forums, and xbox.uservoice.com.

2. The smallest details make the biggest difference.

As little as a few extra words can mean the world to us. We aren’t sitting in your living room, so unless you tell us specifically, there’s no way for us to know exactly what you experienced. Some of the most important and easiest details to include are:

• Which game mode you were playing (campaign, multiplayer, 5v5, etc.)
• Crashes: If the game crashed when you tried to launch it (failed to launch) or crashed while you were playing or in a menu
• Tell us what “it” is that isn’t working correctly in the game: a particular game mode, character, skill, weapon, item you are supposed to interact with, vehicle, door, mount, anything

3. Help us take a walk in your footsteps.

Games these days are so enormous. We need you to leave us some breadcrumbs that will lead us home. Walk us through your experience step by step, so we can identify the root of the problem by reproducing it ourselves.

4. Bonus: How often does this happen?

Sometimes, you run into the same problem over and over. Sometimes, it only happens once, then never again. If you can tell us how many times you’ve run into the problem, it will be a great help!

Help us help you. We want the games we all play to be as epic and flawless as possible, and as mentioned before, your contributions are a huge help in making that happen. We hope you agree that spending an extra minute entering details that will help us nail down your problem and squash that bug is worth it. That extra minute could be a game changer. Keep that feedback coming!

– Ashley