20 replies to this topic

[Morkani]

Pre-script: dev's & anyone else involved in the decision of who gets into beta, plz don't take this post to mean i don't want to be in beta lol .

Of course everyone can see the pro's of being in beta...YOU GET TO PLAY SOONER!

but am I the only one who also see's the con's of playing in beta?

1. unfinished product might get you disenfranchised with the game
2. incessant bug reporting ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
3. constant restarts, starting from the begining over and over.
4. when game launches, wishing for "back when such and such was in the game"

I'd hate to have a beta experience influence my enjoyment of the final product....I think I just have really high hopes for a game i've been waiting for, for nearly a decade.

[Adridos]

It surely doesn't matter for you. One way, or another, you'll die at the end.

[wwiiogre]

beta testing especially closed beta testing is real work and you should only do it if you really love the game and don't mind putting in long hours for no pay just to try to make it better.

chris

[MausGMR]

Alpha testing is work.
Beta testing is modern day stress/config testing. Submit the occasional crash report, play the game, profit.
Don't expect much from your opinions unless its a generally made point across the whole community.
Beta gameplay is release gameplay, you won't ruin your experience of the game by playing in beta. Professional companies don't public release cruddy beta's that barely work any more, they pay people to deal with those kinds of release builds.
Hopefully, they'll let us keep our beta progress like High Rez did with Tribes Ascend =)

[Chuckie]

Morkani, on 09 March 2012 - 08:44 AM, said:

but am I the only one who also see's the con's of playing in beta?

I have to say yes.. what Con..?

If you don't understand its a Beta, if you don't understand that you are to help fix balance issues, fix bugs, fix and highlight server problems.. then sure.

But you shouldn't be in a Beta if any of this:

Morkani, on 09 March 2012 - 08:44 AM, said:

1. unfinished product might get you disenfranchised with the game
2. incessant bug reporting ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
3. constant restarts, starting from the begining over and over.
4. when game launches, wishing for "back when such and such was in the game"

Even remotely bothers you..

Being in a Beta is far more than just being first to play.. its about being part of a team to make the game the best it can be.. Its the nature of a Beta..

** Note not talking about you per se **

Nothing ticks me off more than listening to whiners and complainers in a Beta complain about lag, broken code, server reboots, balance issues, etc.. etc.. then see them go and bad mouth the game to the gaming community. All the time forgetting they are in a BETA, and by its nature its a beta and its there to be broken..

As the saying goes don't fix what ain't broken.. on the flip side, you can't fix whats not broken either.. so you have to break it to fix it.. While this is more true in Alpha builds and Closed Betas.. Open betas can have bugs as well.

Edited by Chuckie, 09 March 2012 - 09:28 AM.

[Opus]

I love Beta testing, I have beta'd such games as Earth & Beyond to D&D online, and I loved every minute of bug hunting and loading test drama... half the fun was getting locked up, and watching the devs scrabble to see why, and then try force the error again...

One of my favorites was gating into a new area on E&B, and having every mob&boss in the area swarm on you - it was a death match from hell, as a team we asked them to leave one area like that so we could just kill endlessly,, but alas, no we were shunned...

Give me Beta, I want to push my new fiber optic connection to fail point, HA!

Edited by Opus, 09 March 2012 - 09:31 AM.

[Sarah Dalrymple]

Morkani, on 09 March 2012 - 08:44 AM, said:

Pre-script: dev's & anyone else involved in the decision of who gets into beta, plz don't take this post to mean i don't want to be in beta lol . Of course everyone can see the pro's of being in beta...YOU GET TO PLAY SOONER! but am I the only one who also see's the con's of playing in beta? 1. unfinished product might get you disenfranchised with the game 2. incessant bug reporting ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 3. constant restarts, starting from the begining over and over. 4. when game launches, wishing for "back when such and such was in the game" I'd hate to have a beta experience influence my enjoyment of the final product....I think I just have really high hopes for a game i've been waiting for, for nearly a decade.

I get to do all of this and help make the game even MOAR AWESOME? For FREE?

Sign me up!

[TheRulesLawyer]

Beta is about getting a chance to shape the game a bit. If you're worried about all the rest Beta might not be for you. Some people are just better off waiting for the finished product.

[Listless Nomad]

I'll risk it lol

[Thornn]

Chuckie, on 09 March 2012 - 09:25 AM, said:

I have to say yes.. what Con..?

If you don't understand its a Beta, if you don't understand that you are to help fix balance issues, fix bugs, fix and highlight server problems.. then sure.

But you shouldn't be in a Beta if any of this:



Even remotely bothers you..

Being in a Beta is far more than just being first to play.. its about being part of a team to make the game the best it can be.. Its the nature of a Beta..

** Note not talking about you per se **

Nothing ticks me off more than listening to whiners and complainers in a Beta complain about lag, broken code, server reboots, balance issues, etc.. etc.. then see them go and bad mouth the game to the gaming community. All the time forgetting they are in a BETA, and by its nature its a beta and its there to be broken..

As the saying goes don't fix what ain't broken.. on the flip side, you can't fix whats not broken either.. so you have to break it to fix it.. While this is more true in Alpha builds and Closed Betas.. Open betas can have bugs as well.

Couldn't have said it better, Chuckie.

[Stripes]

I am, myself, will be happy to play beta - and most importantly work on beta to make whole game better.

[billyzero]

Its a fair question. For me, I love beta testing. It's a chance to help move the game along and feel like you're part of its development. Plus, any chance to improve this game is an awesome opportunity.

[Ragotag]

From the GDC gameplay video, I got the sense that there would only be an open beta that involved the community -- not a closed beta. I assume that the closed beta will likely be an internal-only affair, plus perhaps some very quiet community invites.

Also, the GDC gameplay video mentioned beta sign-ups, but aside from registering on these forums, I've not seen such. Anyone know any more about this?

[Chuckie]

I am almost positive as complex as this game will be, with such a new engine and with such a big fan base, a closed beta will be needed for at minimum stress testing servers and the game under a heavy server load. Also it lets them debug different machine setups before its released to those that want to whine or complain and give the game a bad rep because it doesn't work well on their barely DirectX9 machine..

So yea I fully expect a closed Beta before the Open beta for QC at minimum..

[Vexgrave Lars]

I don't care how often it breaks my system.. I'm in for any Beta.. If the Devs want to remote my crate.. I'll give them firewall access.
I-2500K (OC)4.2 Ghz/ ASUS Sabertooth/ 8GB/ GTX460 Win7 64, tuned. KB/M/HOTAS, tons of drives space for log files. 5/1MB Internet Connection and in Western US.
Me.. 15 years in IT support, I troubleshoot 10 hours a day (fear not..I have plenty of vacation) then write white papers and root cause for a living.

Give me a beta slot any old time you want

Edited by Vexgrave Lars, 09 March 2012 - 11:57 AM.

[Lord Banshee]

It'd be an honor to exist as another point of data in their bug-feedback-implementation loop.
As a professtional MCSD-cert software developer who loves mechs, I'd seriously wonder about me if I didn't.
This game must function at its peak, and for us who truly love the genre, it's our duty to get it there. We will gain experience in playing and all our worst performances get dissolved before go-live. Too sweet an opportunity to miss.

[Cake Bandit]

I'd love to be a part of it. Encountering anything broken or buggy is usually pretty fun in and of itself.

That said, LEMME' AT 'EM.

[Alan Grant]

Closed beta is the real nitty gritty. You have to over come your childishness and really pay attention to what your doing. It isn't a "game" at this point. Its work in progress. Ironing out the obvious and obscure in the execusion of the concepts is the main idea at this point.

Open beta to me is stress testing. Having large numbers of people going through the game, and every eventuallity that cannot be predicted to find things that were missed, or need to be retouched because of the stress being put on all systems, espeically servers and such.

That's how I view it, I'm sure someone else could say it more eloquently.

That being said, open beta I'm there. Closed, I'd love to participate if I was asked, and would do my best not to get giddy at playing the game.

[Aristotelis]

I wll be happy to play the beta and help to improve the game!!Don't see the cons cause we'll fix them!!

[Blackfire1]

F2P games generally follow a "soft beta" with open beta. Meaning after a few character resets they stop resetting and the people who start in the beta get a slight head start over all. Its not uncommon and it doesn't give much of any advantage. We'll see.