130 replies to this topic

[Master Q]

But here goes.

I'm a little frustrated by the way beta keys are being handed out, and I'm sure many other people are as well. I know the devs say the only fair way is to do it random (plus their usual "friends and family" grouping), regardless of system spec. If I don't hit the beta-key lottery, so be it. I can deal with frustration if I trust there's a good game coming and a good team of beta-testers doing their job, testing well, and not holding back exploits for their own use later or otherwise tilting the system too hard.

What is annoying me is how unseriously this seems to be taken, though. MWO is a chance for Mechwarrior, and actual simulation games, to come back. It's a big chance and a big leap after the damage done to the concept, the Battletech/Mechwarrior franchise, and the overall Mech games idea by over a decade in which all we had to work with was *shudder* MechAssault, Chromehounds, and Armored-Core level garbageware.

And now with this beta, it sometimes seems like the beta isn't a beta at all, it's a cheesy word-of-mouth campaign. A whole lot of people breaking NDA. It's making me lose that faith about the coming game a little. It's actually making me less inclined to go for the Founder's Pack, and I already had the 60 bucks set aside a month ago.

If you got into the beta, you got an honor. You got a chance to really help Pirahna make MWO shine and bring Mechwarrior itself back from the land of dead, rescue it from all the damage certain people did to the brand years before. Please, treat it as such. Take it seriously, ok?

[Nairdowell]

Many people cannot take anything seriously.... They are only looking for what they themselves can get... Unfortunately...

Beta testing IS a honor... and a responsibility.... but not everyone can be a tester... and be a good tester.... and based only on what people post as true cannot be used, for obvious reasons..... random is, unfortunately, the only way to go...

[Russ Bullock]

I think your concern might be a little misplaced, yes there have been some NDA violaters but it is a mere handful of the thousands playing the game. For the vast majority of beta testers they are playing, putting in huge hours doing so and are effectively finding and reporting bugs. I agree with you this IS MechWarriors last big hope to re-establish the brand going forward. We really do take it that serious and understand the ramifications for both the brand and our company. I'm sure the days feel like they are just dragging by as you wait, trust me I feel the same way not to play because I get that honor but to release it! I really want this game to be out there, but I must remain patient for a while longer.

[Major Tom]

Nairdowell, on 12 June 2012 - 08:49 AM, said:

Beta testing IS a honor... and a responsibility.... but not everyone can be a tester... and be a good tester.... and based only on what people post as true cannot be used, for obvious reasons..... random is, unfortunately, the only way to go...

actually its a job with responsibilitiies. Which is exactly why it shouldn't be random.

[Sesambrot]

On the bright side, the ones who do breach the NDA, will most likely only be able to do it once...

[Kobold]

I'm not convince it is random, at least not entirely.

</tinfoil hat>

[wpmaura]

when it is random and it is beta its also marketing and letting people play alpha is the more serious of the two. Random is fine.

[WardenWolf]

I posted this in another thread, but I think it bears saying here:


Lots of folks on these forums are complaining about not having gotten a beta key, or how their friend who has one isn't as deserving as they are because he is new to the BT franchise, or how not enough keys have been given out for a proper beta in their opinion, or it looks like a PR stunt, etc. Since the fact is that none of us who aren't in the beta yet know exactly what is going on, and those who are in the beta can't say due to NDA, we all need to just sit tight and wait.

In the meantime, though, I wanted to offer some constructive thoughts about what may be going on in the beta. This is as much speculation as what everyone else has been posting, but may give you all some encouragement rather than the depressing repeated cries for a beta invite that other threads have devolved into.

1) At the moment, I strongly suspect the beta is focused on finding bugs and general balance. Some folks have talked about stress-testing servers, and I think that will come later. At least as of the weight class videos they made there were still bugs / major missing features. Check out the light mech preview, for example:

http://mwomercs.com/...deo/4gEQkyLbCjE

At 2:07-2:10 we see a Catapult get destroyed... and which point it falls over and disappears. Sounds like some missing graphics / effects, and there is no point in stress-testing hardware until the majority of the features are in-game.

Further, at 2:20 - in the middle of a jump - there is some sort of glitch where the visuals change for a split second. Figuring our why those things are happening and fixing them is what the beta is likely focused on at this point.

That actually brings up a good point, in case any beta testers (or future testers) happen to be reading this. If your computer can handle the added load of running a recording program, like FRAPS, it might be a good idea. Then, when you do encounter a bug, you can make a short video clip of it to better help the devs.

2) Because the beta is likely still in this stage, there may be a lot of added debug code running - especially recording info on the server side of things. This would add load on their hardware, making a stress-test of the servers an even worse idea because that debug code will be gone when the full game launches. It also means a lot of data for the devs to pour over, and so keeping the number of beta players relatively low for now means that they have a manageable amount of information to work with.

3) I suspect the devs will want to test on a wide variety of hardware, so that they can get a good idea for what the minimum requirements for the game really are. As such, I would recommend not worrying too much about your system hardware.

That last item segues really well into something else I wanted to mention. I have seen several people post about how they have a friend who got into the beta by just copying their answers to the profile questionnaire, and now they feel disenfranchised. To those folks: this is a *good* sign for you! It means that whatever you put down, and your friend copied, fits the requirements the devs have for who they want in the beta. That means, if anything, that your chances of getting an invite in the future might be better So stop whining, please, and for your friends' sake stop mentioning that they got into the beta... you might just get them kicked out for violating the NDA!!!!

[Glory in the Highest]

I have never seen a Beta for a game before that had this many people feeling this entitled about their right to be selected. O_o

[autogyro]

You know what I love the most?

That the President of Piranha Games is the second reply to this thread to assuage your fears that the developers might not be taking beta testing seriously enough.

If that doesn't show the dedication that PGI have to developing a true Mechwarrior title, I don't know what does.

[SnakeTheFox]

Master Q, on 12 June 2012 - 08:40 AM, said:

Chromehounds level garbageware.

That's it. You, me, flagpole after school.

Anyway, get a hobby or something, fellas. A productive one, one that doesn't involve fearfully venting palpable rivuletes of angst over a game that by all observations and criterea seems to be coming along fine. Besides, the purpose of closed beta testing this close to release has more to do with gauging server stability/capacity and general performance tweaks than anything else, and a few errant people merely misinterpreting what an NDA is and posting on the forums is not going to make or break the quality of the game in the slightest. So chill out. Gamers sometimes, I swear.

Edited by SnakeTheFox, 12 June 2012 - 09:10 AM.

[Pook600]

autogyro, on 12 June 2012 - 09:03 AM, said:

You know what I love the most?

That the President of Piranha Games is the second reply to this thread to assuage your fears that the developers might not be taking beta testing seriously enough.

If that doesn't show the dedication that PGI have to developing a true Mechwarrior title, I don't know what does.

This

[Promptus]

Master Q, on 12 June 2012 - 08:40 AM, said:

and the overall Mech games idea by over a decade in which all we had to work with was *shudder* MechAssault, Chromehounds, and Armored-Core level garbageware.

You forgot Mech4 ;-)

[Gotti]

Russ Bullock, on 12 June 2012 - 08:52 AM, said:

I think your concern might be a little misplaced, yes there have been some NDA violaters but it is a mere handful of the thousands playing the game. For the vast majority of beta testers they are playing, putting in huge hours doing so and are effectively finding and reporting bugs. I agree with you this IS MechWarriors last big hope to re-establish the brand going forward. We really do take it that serious and understand the ramifications for both the brand and our company. I'm sure the days feel like they are just dragging by as you wait, trust me I feel the same way not to play because I get that honor but to release it! I really want this game to be out there, but I must remain patient for a while longer.

And we are very happy that your approach seems to be working. It's clear that you care very much for the production and that you are putting your very life into making it happen. I just know it will be worth it, so hang in there.

With respect to the beta keys, I think the original poster does have a point. We all know people who are playing the beta right now who, quite frankly, could give a rip less. They were randomly selected - had no real vested interest to begin with and likely will not play the game at all upon release. Then, on the other hand, you have guys like the OP (+me). We are so invested in seeing this game, that upon receiving a beta key will treat it just as seriously as you are. We will set aside time in our day, we'll get the Mrs. to sign off on late-night sessions while we bug-hunt and dig for duplicatable errors. And we will treat it like the honor that it is.

That's where the pain point is for us. Is seeing and knowing the people who are breaking the NDA are the very ones who were selected who should not have been. Meanwhile, those of us who really do care, are seemingly left out in the cold when the value to _you_ folks is not being fully realized.

That's all we are saying.

[Nairdowell]

Major Tom, on 12 June 2012 - 08:52 AM, said:

actually its a job with responsibilitiies. Which is exactly why it shouldn't be random.

Most companies cannot afford to have paid testers on the payroll... otherwise, you are definitely correct.... but I do stand by my earlier comments.... and I'm willing to wait for access, be it beta (open or closed) or the Founder's pack method....

[Shatter Shot]

Glory, on 12 June 2012 - 09:01 AM, said:

I have never seen a Beta for a game before that had this many people feeling this entitled about their right to be selected. O_o

You must be new to the internet!

Kidding aside.. "most" games that are this close to release.. That are MMOs or have an MMO "feel" to them have started using betas as a method for advertising their game. This close to release most are basically stress testing. So they let in tons of players.

This ones just a bit different from the norm.

[Kobold]

Nairdowell, on 12 June 2012 - 09:10 AM, said:

Most companies cannot afford to have paid testers on the payroll... otherwise, you are definitely correct.... but I do stand by my earlier comments.... and I'm willing to wait for access, be it beta (open or closed) or the Founder's pack method....

Speaking as someone who was a QA tester for a couple years, I assure you that every major developer has at least SOME paid testers. The scope of their responsibilities and how many of them there are may vary from company to company however. Check the credits for any major release (either at the end of a game, or in the manual) and by far the largest list of names is under QA.

Admittedly they don't have time to test everything though. For example, one place where I worked on an MMO, we didn't have enough resources available to dedicate to fully and correctly playing large sized "raid-style" content, so we horribly misjudged some balance issues which weren't discovered until real players started hammering on our content. Those real players weren't super-sleuth bug hunters, but they were just normal people playing like normal people.

Each approach is necessary, because they find different things.

[Mackensen]

You get what you pay for. If Piranha cannot afford to pay for serious beta testing they obviously cannot expect top quality.

[TheRulesLawyer]

I'm most concerned that random distribution of keys will have an overabundance of people with little to no familiarity with Battletech. This will lead to many suggestions based on non-canon performance of weapons and mechs during the critical tuning phase. Which in turn leads us towards yet another mechwarrior game that doesn't feel like proper battletech. I just hope that the devs remain committed to sticking as close to canon as possible in the face of that feedback.

[Kobold]

TheRulesLawyer, on 12 June 2012 - 09:36 AM, said:

I'm most concerned that random distribution of keys will have an overabundance of people with little to no familiarity with Battletech. This will lead to many suggestions based on non-canon performance of weapons and mechs during the critical tuning phase. Which in turn leads us towards yet another mechwarrior game that doesn't feel like proper battletech. I just hope that the devs remain committed to sticking as close to canon as possible in the face of that feedback.

Considering the population of this forum, and I am assuming the dev's knowledge of TT, I'm not too worried about this. Also, when it comes time to tune weapons and things for balance, I'm more concerned about real team first person gameplay than I am about turn based tabletop rules.