Programme Launch Offer: Save 20% - Book Now

EuroSTAR Conference

Europe's Largest Software Testing Conference.

Track Talk, W1

Exploratory Testing for Massively Multiplayer Online Games

Oliver Heldt

11:15 - 11:45 CEST, Wednesday 17th June

How does software testing in the gaming industry actually work? Some people associate it with hours of playing.

That’s sometimes part of our job, but testing games, especially massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), is much more complex than it seems. It’s a lot about curiosity, discovering the unknown, and critical questioning. In short, it is exploratory testing.

In this talk, I will show you how we test our MMO games and why an exploratory mindset is so important in our testing strategy and our team. Using real gaming situations, I will demonstrate how we use a healthy dose of orientation and focus to ask important questions and make key assumptions.

We examine situations to see which players and systems are involved, what dependencies exist, and who or what could be at a disadvantage.

This exploratory approach lets us uncover unknown risks and requirements that weren’t on anyone’s radar.

First, let’s dive into one of our game prototypes and show short in-game videos of several weird situations that occurred after a playtest. How do we approach something like this, and reproduce these cases in an exploratory way.

Next, we will look at a bossfight from one of the oldest free massively multiplayer online role-playing games. Bossfights are usually complex, and i will show our process for testing and how i move from checks to exploratory testing.

What questions, risks and assumptions arise during this and what edge cases can be derived from it? Again, orientation, focus, and digging into new game mechanics play an important role. Using these examples, I will demonstrate the exploratory mindset.

In our view, exploratory testing remains an indispensable evergreen, even in times of automation and AI. This method improves the quality of our games and our personal testing skills.

This is partly because we take the player’s perspective. By exploring game situations, we often find critical bugs and prevent weird things and showstoppers for our players. Even though this talk uses games as examples, we think exploratory testing is useful and time well spent for other software too.

What you will learn

  1. Level up your curiosity, sharpen your focus, and think critically
  2. Exploration is the radar for uncovering all the unknowns
  3. Make exploration non-negotiable in your test strategy

Session Details

  • Introductory
  • 45mins
  • Includes 15min Q&A
  • Innovative testing strategies
Buy Conference Ticket

Check out this video from Oliver Heldt to hear more about his talk on Exploratory Testing for Massively Multiplayer Online Games.

We look forward to welcoming you to EuroSTAR 2026.

Session Speakers

Oliver Heldt

CipSoft, GmbH Germany

I’m Oliver Heldt and testing games at CipSoft in Regensburg. We develop vibrant online game worlds, and I’ve been part of the testing team for many years. Before joining CipSoft, i spent a long time as a systems administrator, where troubleshooting and problem-recreation were already my daily bread.

In 2015, I went to the automotive industry as a software tester. I was heavily involved with games in my youth, which is why I was drawn to the games industry in 2017. Today i put a lot of heart and soul into our games, creativity, and a healthy dose of exploration.

Programme Launch Offer

Save 20% on individual tickets until February 28th!

The more you bring, the more you save.

Individual

From €1,840

3 Day Ticket*

BOOK TICKET

Groups

From €1,380

Based on 10 Tickets

Book Group

Stay in The Loop

Subscribe to our newsletter and never miss important announcements, updates and special offers from EuroSTAR.