30 replies to this topic

[Basch]

@DogmeatX
Fair nuff', last comment made for a rather interesting read.

[lsp]

It's me.

[Onmyoudo]

DogmeatX, on 21 February 2013 - 03:53 AM, said:

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.

From my point of view:

You're a customer who has the option to pay for the product when or if you are satisfied with doing so, and given that the product is pre-release a right to expect that the product will improve at least until "release". In the world of software this line is blurred a little given that many of us would expect a product to continue improving post-release anyway through patches and so on.

[AlexEss]

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.

We ARE that public test server... Once the game reaches a stage where the devs feel it is good and remove the BETA tag we will most likley see a test server in one form or the other.

It have been explanied before. No internal test team in the world can beat a open server when it comes to finding broken stuff.. or for that matter breaking stuff. That is why we have a open beta and that is why we are here. But this unruly mass of people are not so good at tackling specific tasks. And that is why they have a internal + invite only test server.

it is actually very simple.

Edited by AlexEss, 21 February 2013 - 04:48 AM.

[Redshift2k5]

you can see that they are considering making the test server more public: http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__1928917

Quote

This confirms a well-known maxim that there is no perfect substitute for live data, we have been working internally towards addressing this by opening up public tests during our staging process and we will likely accelerate these plans to ensure we’re getting better scale testing for future patches.

As for "why bother?" Look at other games like wow. They have a public test server and thousands of players join the PTR even though there is zero reward. some people want a sneak peek, some people want to test-build with no consequences (bad form!) but mostly it's for people who want to help the game by testing stuff and so improve the game quality on the real server.

[Jakob Knight]

I not only expect there to be Elite Beta Testers in this game, I -hope- there are. I -pray- there are, especially after the MM foulup fiasco (let's hope they actually do their job next time).

Why? Just go into any PUG and see how many players are willing to do exactly what they are told to do.

Stress-testing a patch is one thing, and that is when you want to put things through the ringer to see if they stand up to full-scale implementation. However, long before you get to that, you want to extensively test the specific part of the game you are changing. That means having testers who are willing to follow instructions and spend their time doing single tasks that don't involve playing the game.

The point of initial testing is to test, and far too many (90 percent) of the playerbase of any video game just wants to get access to the new content (could care less about bug-hunting or spending hours just carrying out instructions from the devs without a single fight).

So, I really, really hope the Devs have a good team of these 'Elite Beta Testers', because it's clear MWO needs them, and the kind of dedication the job takes is not for the average MWO player.

[ConnorSinclair]

lordlazarus, on 21 February 2013 - 03:01 AM, said:

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 ?

If by chosen you mean boot lickers and gold forum warriors and yesmen.

Then yes, a bunch of brown nosing idiots are going to be selected to call whatever is being done in the test build great.

[Valleye]

SBX (not u) ==> DEV (not u) ==> INT TEST(not u?) ==> PUBLIC BETA (you) || => PRODUCTION (someday)

[Relics]

Its called the ALPHA SERVER.... MY GOD The noobs in this game...................

[AlexEss]

ConnorSinclair, on 21 February 2013 - 05:20 AM, said:

If by chosen you mean boot lickers and gold forum warriors and yesmen.

Then yes, a bunch of brown nosing idiots are going to be selected to call whatever is being done in the test build great.

Envy is never a good thing you know. Having been on similar teams before(other games) it is just a lot of hard work that very quickly threatens to suck the fun out of the game. And while you from time to time get to influence game direction. Most of the time it is just filling a workorder of stuff to do and then a week later do the same stuff again as they fidgeted with the numbers.. rinse and repeat.

[NitroDev]

The first rule of Elite Beta Test club is, you do NOT talk about Elite Beta Test club!