24 replies to this topic

[xxx WreckinBallRaj xxx]

They said a while ago there will be no more wipes except to stats. But as for whatever your account actually owns; you will keep it. As far as "beta" goes; that's more or less just a sticker on the logo at this point. The game is released. It's being marketed and sold. It has been for some time. Releasing unfinished products and selling them while developing them seems to be a new unfortunate trend in this industry, but they're simply focusing too much on revenue and things to sell to justify calling it a beta. Slots, skins, paints, hero variants, and now consumables, all on top of Premium, wonder what's next?

[Roadbeer]

Abrahms, on 27 March 2013 - 12:24 PM, said:

not very common, much smaller user pool to do that, and it still wasnt considered a public release

this game is in full fledged "accept your money and earn your constant" stats mode. Its now functioning like almost EVERY. SINGLE. OTHER. game out there. Post release content and patching.

You compared apples to oranges. How you beta tested an ACTUAL beta back in the day is not how today's games function, and it was actually a test.

To use your analogy, itd be like, back in the day, they all stuck the BETA box on the shelves for everyone to buy just like a normal game, with the final release to come a year or two later. Basically, buying an unfinished game.

PGI is following the normal, release and patch system that most games use today.

If this was truly BETA, its be how it was in closed beta, there would be stat wipes, and we wouldnt have access to 100% of the content. A lot of Betas today are like BF3 beta (test server load on 1 or 2 maps) or like Starcraft where it doesnt cost you anything/and or its special for people the key codes, and its constantly evolving the stats in anticipation of release to all.

I see your point, and on MANY levels I agree. Most notably the fact that there will not be future wipes (aside from possibly stats) makes it feel VERY much like release status.

The fact that they're accepting money... well, let's just call that neither BETA nor Release. We'll agree to disagree on that.

The fact that CORE elements have yet to be implemented yet, scream ALPETA to me. I not familiar with a project where one of the very premises it's founded on isn't implemented at "Launch" and comes later as a DLC expansion. Though I'm sure examples can and will be cited.

In short, too much emphasis is being placed on a word, that in modern software development, needs to be redefined.

PoLaR, on 27 March 2013 - 12:30 PM, said:

This game and Duke Nukem Forever must be the longest games to be in "Beta" ever.

O.o

Completely untrue... the first line of code in this was written just over a year ago, CB was too short and the jump to OB was too soon, but I know games that have been in BETA for over 2 years, and have no exit strategy to reach launch (Im starting to believe they have no intention of launching and are just keeping the BETA tag to avoid litigation).

Edited by Roadbeer, 27 March 2013 - 12:40 PM.

[dal10]

actually the point where they claimed it to be considered a full release state was when community warfare was fully implemented. however the thread proclaiming that went the way of the CB forums.