30 replies to this topic

[lordlazarus]

i hear there are a few priveleged beta testers that get to test new stuff before the rest of the common pesantry that are beta testers . is this true is there a " chosen few" golden beta testers ?

[Ewigan]

I did hear that, too.
I would like to think that those people are being really lucky, but me being a Softwaretester myself i KNOW that they will be doing hard work. And in this case probably not getting anything out of it despite a hats-off by the dev team and maybe some special priviliges on their accounts.

maybe a few MC here and there, some mechbays.... stuff like this.

[Dagnome]

Yes there are some Beta testers who have access to the "Test server" which is what PGI uses to test new content before it is released to the general beta public. There is no way to apply for such a position.

Edited by Dagnome, 21 February 2013 - 03:10 AM.

[lordlazarus]

fair play to them i say cant be easy working for pgi . dunno why its all hush hush though

[Dagnome]

Because then every individual on the forums who thinks they are an "Elite beta tester" would be pestering administration of a resume of reason why they would be the "Best Test server Player" and would either stop playing the game or would leak content though social media.

[lordlazarus]

so what then the rest of us "beta testers " are just chopped liver whos opinion isnt really regarded by the devs as beta testing just give us your money to get in early to beta test the game as a founder ....ho wait .

[Basch]

Elite beta tester dose exist, but their testing is mostly "stand here and use jump jets for 5 min to see if you fall off the map" or the like. They do this for several hours and its quite draining. However, thay keep it hush hust to keep people from going to them about complaints or bugs that should be submitted via support tickets.

The other beta testers are used to test things on wide scale, like a mob mentality.

Edited by Basch, 21 February 2013 - 03:19 AM.

[Livewyr]

We're not allowed to talk about it.

[Apoc1138]

where did anyone hear this?

it is well known that PGI test servers and have paid testers who's job it is to test things before they are pushed to production, but I've never once heard from a reliable source that there are any non-staff players have access to the test server (and even if they did, why would you really want that? nothing you do there would be replicated on to the live servers so it would be wasted effort from a cbills/XP point of view, and you would have no real input on anything - like they would take something out because a volunteer tester said "it sucks QQ", you would just be providing them with server data and bug reports)

Edited by Apoc1138, 21 February 2013 - 03:22 AM.

[Basch]

@Apoc1138
They do it because they love this game and want to see it continue to grow.

Edited by Basch, 21 February 2013 - 03:25 AM.

[Khobai]

You would think there would be a public test server for each patch... to find all the bugs before they go live.

[Apoc1138]

Basch, on 21 February 2013 - 03:25 AM, said:

@Apoc1138
They do it because they love this game and want to see it continue to grow.

oh, I understand why there may well be some volunteer testers, however I'm not sure I understand why people might get huffy about it and start a thread demanding to know why they aren't one... granted that isn't what the OP actually said, but I can see this thread very quickly deteriorating in to that

[DogmeatX]

You just got the wording wrong.

Elite = "actual testers"
Open Beta = "potential/paying customers"

Welcome to Free 2 Pay development model. Open beta is really soft launch. I experienced this already from Tribes Ascend.

That too had it's fair share of people in denial, right up until "launch" where they ran their special launch code patch:

StrReplace("open beta", "released");

[Ewigan]

you were the FIRST to even go there man ^^

[PoLaR]

Congrats to all the players who have been selected for the Alpha testing team.

I feel comfortable with the future of this game being In their hands.

[Basch]

DogmeatX, on 21 February 2013 - 03:36 AM, said:

You just got the wording wrong.

Elite = "actual testers"
Open Beta = "potential/paying customers"

What about the people that were here since week 1 of CBT? Are we not beta testers?

[Onmyoudo]

Khobai, on 21 February 2013 - 03:29 AM, said:

You would think there would be a public test server for each patch... to find all the bugs before they go live.

This is ironic, right?

[Sifright]

Onmyoudo, on 21 February 2013 - 03:43 AM, said:

This is ironic, right?

Well if this is true it pretty much i would hope it would be the final nail in the coffin for every one that goes "BUT ITS BETA" blablabla

[Stringburka]

Basically, there's a closed test server where they do the basic testing before releasing a patch, so that the patch doesn't like completely bork the game as easily.

The open beta stress-tests the servers, measures game balance and what people want, and allows them to cash in on us a bit before the actual release.

Khobai, on 21 February 2013 - 03:29 AM, said:

You would think there would be a public test server for each patch... to find all the bugs before they go live.

hehe I lol'd

[DogmeatX]

Basch, on 21 February 2013 - 03:41 AM, said:

What about the people that were here since week 1 of CBT? Are we not beta testers?

If you use classic software development model (example, waterfall)

Alpha: initial drafts, very early stage development/testing of ideas etc entire features can come and go at this point

Beta: mostly feature complete, some changes and tweaks but no major overhaul (unless it's a catastrophic design failure, should not happen at this point)

Beta is usually "closed" but sometimes open for the public.

Release: at this point money and payments enter the equation.

So the key thing is that PGI is now accepting payments and has been for a while, actively selling things. It's released just with the cover of "open beta" to paper over the fact it's really still in alpha stages with major features incomplete/being changed and upcoming.

With a software development and business background myself spanning 15+ years I can understand the reasons for F2P model, they may not have been able to develop it otherwise and need money coming in as they develop it but let's not pretend about the state of affairs.

Personally I don't much care for F2P model; invariably it places more emphasis on how to make cash fast than anything else, but that's a topic for another day

Anyway as for your question, you were a tester in closed beta right up until they started selling it and accepting payments. After that you're a customer, no different to every other gamer who has yet to play MWO, with no special extras. Only you get to continue buying stuff if you want.