In Marvel Heroes , there is a problem with its fans who love Emma Frost too much.
Gazillion, the developers behind Marvel Heroes in 2016, look back on what they see as a completely botched test run. The telepath Emma Frost drove the testers almost to madness.
Gazillion sent a new version of Emma Frost to the test center. The idea was: “Tell us if the new version feels good.”
But the first version was far too strong. The problem was: the testers found it “totally okay.” Because the testers’ goal was not to make Emma Frost a balanced character fitting into the hero selection of the Diablo-like game. No, they wanted to elevate her to “Number One” with their feedback, or at least “In the Top 5,” as described by the Gazillion employee.
Emma Frost has been in the game for many years, a revision has now caused trouble:
Emma Frost to Power
Later, the testers shouted down every “moderate expression” and insisted that Emma Frost must be as strong as she could possibly be. A real clique formed in the test center aiming to achieve their goal: Emma Frost to Power.
For Gazillion, this was an extremely unsatisfactory result, as explained in a letter to the fans, where they recounted the failed process. Valuable feedback was lost in the masses, a toxic atmosphere prevailed, and they had to release a version of Emma that still had some bugs and was, due to the lack of real feedback, rather underpowered.
The last time a testing process went so off the rails, the heroine Jean Grey was so strong that she had to be nerfed for weeks. At Gazillion, they ask the testers for greater neutrality and fairness. They will subject Emma to another test run and hope that the testers will then leave the “hate and prejudices” aside and be constructive and helpful.
Our title image shows Emma Frost played by January Jones in X-Men: First Class.
