Software Testing Beyond Closed Worlds: Open-World Games as an Extreme Case

TL;DR

This paper explores the limitations of traditional closed-world software testing by examining open-world games as an extreme case, highlighting challenges like infinite behaviors and unstable test oracles.

Contribution

It identifies key challenges in testing open-world systems and proposes a vision for testing beyond closed-world assumptions, guiding future research directions.

Findings

Open-world games exhibit inexhaustible behavior spaces.

Non-deterministic outcomes complicate testing.

Unstable test oracles hinder traditional evaluation.

Abstract

Software testing research has traditionally relied on closed-world assumptions, such as finite state spaces, reproducible executions, and stable test oracles. However, many modern software systems operate under uncertainty, non-determinism, and evolving conditions, challenging these assumptions. This paper uses open-world games as an extreme case to examine the limitations of closed-world testing. Through a set of observations grounded in prior work, we identify recurring characteristics that complicate testing in such systems, including inexhaustible behavior spaces, non-deterministic execution outcomes, elusive behavioral boundaries, and unstable test oracles. Based on these observations, we articulate a vision of software testing beyond closed-world assumptions, in which testing supports the characterization and interpretation of system behavior under uncertainty. We further discuss research directions for automated test generation, evaluation metrics, and empirical study design. Although open-world games serve as the motivating domain, the challenges and directions discussed in this paper extend to a broader class of software systems operating in dynamic and uncertain environments.