Vogul's panel was an address to fellow industry professionals - devs, producers, publishers, etc - more than it was to players.  I think we're overlooking one of his most important points: Don't release your damn game early!

Many games released with gamekilling bugs were not launched because the developer declared them ready for retail, but because the publisher said now or never.  Vogul encouraged publishers at AGC to spend some extra money and time to get their games ready, as status at launch can determine the glass ceiling on game numbers.  Vogul went so far as to say "get your bug count in the 100s, and make sure none of them are gamebreakers."

Give 'im a break! :)

Nice article!  And it also explain why I should never be allowed inside a BioWare beta, no matter how nicely I smile!  Rabid fan!    However, I will honestly "work hard to help the game improve", it is just that, I am still a rabid fan, can hurt the feelings of the peoples reading my feedback, I can easily see myself comparing a "new feature" to SoE and Pooh and worse! 

I think he says it, but almost timidly, not underlining it enough...GAME BALANCING is done during beta!  Not afterward!  Keep these nerfs inside BETA.  As a rabid fan, when I will buy the game and start ACHIEVING stuff, you don't want to nerf me, no matter what.  I understand some balancing is nearly impossible to do during beta, but before balancing automatically, ask yourself, is it worth it?

You rather have 500k players in 1 class on a total of 800K players than having them evenly split on a total of 500k players.  Get what I mean?  Nerfs destroy achievements...and achievements are WHY a MMO has such a strong edge over other reasons and factors.  Yes the online community is fun and all, but you can have that in Diablo/NWN, but in Diablo/NWN, there are no such achievements as in a MMO...so again, keep nerfing under control.  Once you release a game (GOLD), these are YOURS RULES, can you stick to them?  An emergency nerf or two isn't something out of control, yet each nerf must be avoided if possible.  But having a nerf every 3 months is plainly insane and destroy that achieving feeling.

From an achiever point of view, nerfs during beta, not after release!  Nerfs after release are costy in player subscribtion, they are harsh on your staff (eh nerf me and then handle the PR, you will be amazed at how bitter I can become, especially for BioWare, since I am, in all proudness, a rabid fan!)...once a tournament start, the rules are usually held and never change unless it can't be done otherwise, you don't change the rule of interception in Football in the middle of season!  Due to the nature of the MMOs, a season = a character for it whole life...basically you should never bring nerfs to existing servers­.

95% of the nerfs I ever saw did more harm than good to the games they where applied on, as it has an heavy cost on the player base...again, nerfs should be apply to new servers that are release after these nerfs where thinked off, there is nothing wrong to change the rules BEFORE the players start to play, but once they do (existing servers), you should stick to these rules no matter how much you dislike something (with maybe a 5% exception for absurd case).

Most devs take nerfs lightly and then try to bully their players base.  Remember, if you have 500k players doing something, you will annoy 500k players by nerfing this, is it worth it?  The players not doing it, do they really care that much about this or can't you make them happy with something that doesn't involve nerfing?

"Sleep lightly nerf-maker!"  (From "The sleep lightly taskmaster!" in BG)

I like to beta test for a few reasons, and not least is to see if game is gonna be worth it once it comes out.     But also i do like to report buggs and anything that seems odd when i find them, but i dont like haveing to log out of game and then try and find the web site to report.  If you want pratical bug reports, make it so folks can report from in game, when they most likely still have the window(s) still open, where they can give a more accurate accounting of what happened then trying to recall it all in there heads.      

Also true it does appear folks who are suppose to be acting on bugs dont appear to be, i beta tested Lineage 2, and lot of the bugs i and others had reported werent fixed for a few into after actual game being released, and the one's i general report are the one's you see off the bat as in cosmetics and functional one's interfering in game whether its trying to read what is being said or trying to make a toon jump or spin or attack.     

I will always gladly beta test any game i am allowed into, but if i gotta spend half hour trying to figure out where to report said bugs or gotta keep shutting game down to do it, then they wont get reported, with todays technolgy, there is no reason for bugs not to be able to be reported from in game, even if something so simple as a key you hit that instantly puts you to a bug reporting page , and also make it accessable if not in game, as there are some game crashing bugs, hard to report if you got screen of death.