Worst beta's i have ever seen but wonderful testers/community

zoey121

One of the draw backs i have now while not pre order yet was the development team of this offering.

 While in beta it was litterly one of the worse run betas i have ever seen. While there were announcements updates, the powers that be had a strong disconnect from their fan base. There was little cheering squads and the only way we felt involved with the game was the surveys done in latter beta asking about quests/rewards/experience / cost of repairs. Which as of open beta repair costs still to high. 

 The support the community gave one another was part of what kept lot of the players going, it was the other players that answered things in chat in the fourms and did the leadership certainly not the "blues".

 I have beta-ed other games where there was much more involvement with the community. Much more feedback to direct problems questions. I never felt a part of the team and or see communication toward the testers.

 While the proof is in the opening day launch and re tension of subscribers latter on. What it boils down to if they did not hear or pay attention to their testers, then i have no doubt the complaints which have not changed since early on will also be ignored as well.

 

   My question to those that have followed turbine's other offerings did you see changes upon release that changed your mind about your expearince in beta? Or were your inital reactions the same if you decided to buy any way ?

Sovrath

I completely disagree.



They listened to the community regarding the old forest and are still listening. they listened regarding the Champion class and retooled it. They listened regarding bugs and I saw many of the bugs I reported fixed.



I've only been in a few betas for online games, World of Warcraft and Archlord.



I can't say that I stuck around Warcraft long enough to give any valid input or see any thing but I decided to make an effort with Archlord and it was horrible. THAT was the worse beta I ever saw. We were essentially there to stress the servers (it seems like).



In the LOTRO beta the developers would write back to you if you had a question or issue.



Quite frankly, since Beta 1 I had seen many changes implemented.



Though in the end, the developers should not completely listen to the fanbase as that could ruin a game.



Sorry if you experience was not great but that is not the sense that I am getting from my experience or even from what I've heard from others. If you are making your judgment based upon something that you think "should" be done and it's not then I can't really support that stance. I don't believe that developers should follow blindly what the players want (as quite frankly my estimation of many mmo players has gone down quite a bit. So much whining and crying.)





However, Turbine is known to add content on a regular basis so it's possible that something you wanted might get in.

virtuella

Yeah you can't blaim them for not listening.



They reacted when we yelled for a farming fix because it was a free ATM machine.

They maded a replyhotkey we were missing.

They added roleplay and languagetagged servers when we asked for it (codemasters)

They added various requested UI options.

They maded AH searchable on request.

They reintroduced falling damage on request.



And tons more things i have forgot over the last couple of months.



They will be adding fishing as requested.

They will be adding housing.

They will add more minigames.

They will add kinship custom ranks/titles





Don't say Turbine does not listen to their playerbase.

Torak

This game has the worse beta???

lol, Let me tell you something, this is far from the worse........

Vanguard was totally pointless to even have beta testers, I did that one for 4 or 5 months, DDO (ironic because its a Turbine game), Archlord, Dark and Light, Horizons....anything made by Sony. blah blah blah, list anything released in the past 3 years aside from WoW and GW and there you have a sh*t beta. NCSoft is probably the only company I can think of that consistantly launches a well tested, working game.

What game did you beta that work out better that wasn't a train wreck when it launched, you didn't mention the name? Things like the repair cost are reletively minor and can be adjusted is if need very easily.

My question to those that have followed turbine's other offerings did you see changes upon release that changed your mind about your expearince in beta? Or were your inital reactions the same if you decided to buy any way ?

To answer your question: Turbine has dropped the ball with every game they have beta and / or post release. I have my doubts that behavior will change for this game, I'm expecting some serious FUBAR here in the next few weeks. Turbine may still screw it up, they do have a talent for snatching a defeat from the jaws of victory.   I got AC2 at launch because it was the first "second generation" game to release. Little did I know that AC2 was to set the course for an entire generation for flops. I got DDO because I figured that they couldn't mess up a third time (they had killed off AC with negelect and shut down AC2 in the meantime) Now I'm waiting to see with this one. One thing I can say is the beta has been well above average. 

Keogh

Originally posted by zoey121

One of the draw backs i have now while not pre order yet was the development team of this offering.

 While in beta it was litterly one of the worse run betas i have ever seen. While there were announcements updates, the powers that be had a strong disconnect from their fan base. There was little cheering squads and the only way we felt involved with the game was the surveys done in latter beta asking about quests/rewards/experience / cost of repairs. Which as of open beta repair costs still to high. 

 The support the community gave one another was part of what kept lot of the players going, it was the other players that answered things in chat in the fourms and did the leadership certainly not the "blues".

 I have beta-ed other games where there was much more involvement with the community. Much more feedback to direct problems questions. I never felt a part of the team and or see communication toward the testers.

 While the proof is in the opening day launch and re tension of subscribers latter on. What it boils down to if they did not hear or pay attention to their testers, then i have no doubt the complaints which have not changed since early on will also be ignored as well.

 

   My question to those that have followed turbine's other offerings did you see changes upon release that changed your mind about your expearince in beta? Or were your inital reactions the same if you decided to buy any way ?

Claiming you were in LOTRO BETA doesn't mean that you actually were, and judging from your post, you were not. I also doubt that you,ve done any other BETA test. You've certainly never done a closed BETA test.

I've been a LOTRO BETA tester since November and I could not disagree with you more. LOTRO is the most polished BETA I've participated in, and I've been in six BETA tests, three were Closed BETA and all but one were AAA games.

 

 

zoey121

   If  you were there in early beta then the hunting lodge doors had stuckage issues early early on that was latter corrected

I am glad to hear mini games are being added , yes on the fourms we did request more social activites, and I am glad to see that issue will be addressed.

 Also another thing that did impress me was when instruments were added, it was strange having a minstrel and no visual affects of the insturment . That was a nice touch as well.

M1sf1t

Obviously the OP wasn't around for Vanguard's beta.

Mithrandolir

Originally posted by M1sf1t


Obviously the OP wasn't around for Vanguard's beta.

You mean to tell me that VG is no longer in beta?

 

I jest

 

M1sf1t

---

Originally posted by Mithrandolir
Originally posted by M1sf1t Obviously the OP wasn't around for Vanguard's beta.

You mean to tell me that VG is no longer in beta?

I jest

---

LoL - Good one.

Deathstiny

somebody needs to play some VG for some perspective

portallzaine

OP must be smoking crack lol there are soooo many posts claiming that the lotro beta was by far the best beta program that any developer had released. and I agree. well polished befor closed even went live. devs listened well and reacted fast. cheers to turbine for that great beta experience. only complaint... now im absolutely spoiled from this beta. haha

Sephiroth28

I was testing both of these at the same time.  LOTRO was more polished in ALPHA than VG was at release.



However to be more on topic I will agree that I didn't feel much of a connection between the devs and the testers in LOTRO.  However you have to realize that thats just how it works in beta.  You fill out bug reports, make posts on the forums, etc. while the majority of the time its just going to be another tester who has maybe been around longer than you that will end up answering your question.  A dev isn't going to appear and give you a perfect answer every time you submit a bug report or give some feedback.  They'll make broad statements and posts that answer a range of issues every now and then, but remember that you're not really a member of the development team.  You're only there to give your feedback on what you think is wrong which they'll choose themselves to either consider or ignore.



SOE bandwagon-hating aside, EQ2 has had some of the best testing I've seen with developers frequently playing alongside testers doing content and having scheduled zone testing every day for a few weeks.  While sometimes (ok, maybe more than sometimes) they didn't get it quite right, they at least gave the most effort I've seen.

FikusOfAhazi

Originally posted by zoey121

One of the draw backs i have now while not pre order yet was the development team of this offering.

 While in beta it was litterly one of the worse run betas i have ever seen. While there were announcements updates, the powers that be had a strong disconnect from their fan base. There was little cheering squads and the only way we felt involved with the game was the surveys done in latter beta asking about quests/rewards/experience / cost of repairs. Which as of open beta repair costs still to high. 

 The support the community gave one another was part of what kept lot of the players going, it was the other players that answered things in chat in the fourms and did the leadership certainly not the "blues".

 I have beta-ed other games where there was much more involvement with the community. Much more feedback to direct problems questions. I never felt a part of the team and or see communication toward the testers.

 While the proof is in the opening day launch and re tension of subscribers latter on. What it boils down to if they did not hear or pay attention to their testers, then i have no doubt the complaints which have not changed since early on will also be ignored as well.

 

   My question to those that have followed turbine's other offerings did you see changes upon release that changed your mind about your expearince in beta? Or were your inital reactions the same if you decided to buy any way ?

I thought this one one of the best beta's. Sounds to me like you're saying the dev's didnt play the forum game, therefore didnt communicate with the testers. Remember..beta testers test what is offered and give their feedback and can even offer suggestions. They always told us what to expect and why.

As far as repair cost go..they know they're high. They told us that when they did it. They said they were making it very bad..so they could then ease up on it slowly til its at the perfect spot. And to be quite honest..the only people who suffer from the cost of repair are the power levelers. If all you do is group up and do quests as fast as you can to hit max level as fast as you can...you're not gonna have 10 silver. If you play the game like normal people do..you're not gonna hit max level as quick as power levelers, but you'll have plenty of money for whatever you want. Its not a bad trade off. 

jerkson

Originally posted by Keogh

Originally posted by zoey121

One of the draw backs i have now while not pre order yet was the development team of this offering.

 While in beta it was litterly one of the worse run betas i have ever seen. While there were announcements updates, the powers that be had a strong disconnect from their fan base. There was little cheering squads and the only way we felt involved with the game was the surveys done in latter beta asking about quests/rewards/experience / cost of repairs. Which as of open beta repair costs still to high. 

 The support the community gave one another was part of what kept lot of the players going, it was the other players that answered things in chat in the fourms and did the leadership certainly not the "blues".

 I have beta-ed other games where there was much more involvement with the community. Much more feedback to direct problems questions. I never felt a part of the team and or see communication toward the testers.

 While the proof is in the opening day launch and re tension of subscribers latter on. What it boils down to if they did not hear or pay attention to their testers, then i have no doubt the complaints which have not changed since early on will also be ignored as well.

 

   My question to those that have followed turbine's other offerings did you see changes upon release that changed your mind about your expearince in beta? Or were your inital reactions the same if you decided to buy any way ?

Claiming you were in LOTRO BETA doesn't mean that you actually were, and judging from your post, you were not. I also doubt that you,ve done any other BETA test. You've certainly never done a closed BETA test.

I've been a LOTRO BETA tester since November and I could not disagree with you more. LOTRO is the most polished BETA I've participated in, and I've been in six BETA tests, three were Closed BETA and all but one were AAA games.

 

 

Claiming you were in LOTRO BETA doesn't mean that you actually were, and judging from your post, you were not. I also doubt that you,ve done any other BETA test. You've certainly never done a closed BETA test.

Terminus-Est

Originally posted by Deathstiny


somebody needs to play some VG for some perspective

That's not very nice. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

Mars505

Must say this is a very eye opening thread. We can see the line being drawn with  Pro and Anti Turbine folks.



The biggest plus Turbine has , is me. That is correct. I'm the Major factor on this game, just like every other positive poster here, We make up LoTRO, and Turbine has become our tool to make LotRO what it is. Don't beleive, sift through and read at how many times Turbine has bent over for this community, when we gave direct , objective feed back on many elements list in this thread.



Turbine has harnessed the greatest source of information available to them, the player base, and they are riding it all the way to the bank. Look at any other Indie Developer that has had such a community like the one LotRO has, actually , what game has ever had this type of community ? AC 1 , thats who, and the relentless of Turbines  efforts will carry them throw to become the second largest mmo to ever be developed.



There's nothing the ANTI , can say , Turbine has resurrected itself as well as pushing the bar of what can be done inside the space of fantasy mmo's, like environmental dynamics, weather systems with full on volumetric clouds, as well as new standard for water rendering and the use of Technologically advanced A.I systems.



The faster you can post your flames , the faster I can put them out.

FikusOfAhazi

Originally posted by Mars505

Must say this is a very eye opening thread. We can see the line being drawn with  Pro and Anti Turbine folks.



The biggest plus Turbine has , is me. That is correct. I'm the Major factor on this game, just like every other positive poster here, We make up LoTRO, and Turbine has become our tool to make LotRO what it is. Don't beleive, sift through and read at how many times Turbine has bent over for this community, when we gave direct , objective feed back on many elements list in this thread.



Turbine has harnessed the greatest source of information available to them, the player base, and they are riding it all the way to the bank. Look at any other Indie Developer that has had such a community like the one LotRO has, actually , what game has ever had this type of community ? AC 1 , thats who, and the relentless of Turbines  efforts will carry them throw to become the second largest mmo to ever be developed.



There's nothing the ANTI , can say , Turbine has resurrected itself as well as pushing the bar of what can be done inside the space of fantasy mmo's, like environmental dynamics, weather systems with full on volumetric clouds, as well as new standard for water rendering and the use of Technologically advanced A.I systems.



The faster you can post your flames , the faster I can put them out.

Well said, This is how games should be developed. This is what gamers want. Even if this isnt your style of game, respect the people involved in making this game. Let the rest of the industry get the message.

 

Hairysun

Originally posted by M1sf1t


 

Originally posted by Mithrandolir


Originally posted by M1sf1t
 
Obviously the OP wasn't around for Vanguard's beta.

You mean to tell me that VG is no longer in beta?



I jest

 

 

---

 

LoL - Good one.

I second that.....lol.....not sure of the state of the game now, but, I did a 10 day buddy key at launch and it  was a train wreck.  I'm sure the devs have been working on improving it as the game had a ton of potential.  I would actually like to try another FREE trial, as I have since dumped a fair amount of cheddar into a new video card and a couple more gigs of memory.

Now, LOTRO, this is one of the BEST betas I have ever been a part of.  The game is absolutely beautiful, I found the gameplay a little slow and hard to get into initially but the longer I play the more I like.  Just hit lvl 15 with a loremaster and am quite disapointed I can't continue with him until the 24th.  Decided to go off and explore yesterday, and, did I mention how beautiful the world is?  Managed to make it to some lvl 29  Elite Rock Trolls that were very cool.  Cool until they aggro'd on me and were hitting for 330 a pop. 

 Anyway, I would encourage anyone to try out the free download (Ive heard several things about hi-res graphics and the free download not having them.  I most certainly got them with the pre-order and suggest you get them if your system can handle it.)

  If you like it,  spend the $5-$10 for the pre-order to get your founders benefits.  If you don't like it...wait for the next one to come along.

EDITED:  I'll add this because I just noticed the post below this one.......BUGS!  It slipped my mind quite simply because there are none.  I'm sure that they are there, I just havn't run across them.

ownedyou1

LOTRO is probably the best beta i've played. I've encountered no bugs, Unlike others beta's i've played , such as bug online , world of bugs.

Kyleran

I was only in the Closed Beta for about a month..and now in the open beta since pre-orders joined.  I think the beta went pretty well myself.  No, didn't get any direct feedback from the Dev's but I filled out a few bug reports (one that I hit before and after start of open beta but over all this game is tight.)



The game runs well right now...and people will be pleased with the performance (even if they aren't pleased with the game's overall design or direction.



I give the Dev's 2 thumbs up for a job well done.

Ragemore

I have to disagree with the origianl poster.

I have been in Alpha of a few games, beta in many, and I have been in Alpha and Beta of LOTRO and it has been the most polished Alpha expierence I have ever been in and Beta has been done very well.

I think the problem is most people think of Beta as something different then what the Developers use it for. A great deal of Beta is about stress test, and that phase is mostly (I'm not saying entirely) about seeing how the game handles the masses. Balancing, quest bugs, and suggestion are taken through out the enitre process, but I think they are focused on making launch successful.

I am having a great time playing this game, after so many other disappointments. I hope other developers see this and make sure that thier game is as well done.

2hawks

Originally posted by zoey121

One of the draw backs i have now while not pre order yet was the development team of this offering.

 While in beta it was litterly one of the worse run betas i have ever seen. While there were announcements updates, the powers that be had a strong disconnect from their fan base. There was little cheering squads and the only way we felt involved with the game was the surveys done in latter beta asking about quests/rewards/experience / cost of repairs. Which as of open beta repair costs still to high. 

 The support the community gave one another was part of what kept lot of the players going, it was the other players that answered things in chat in the fourms and did the leadership certainly not the "blues".

 I have beta-ed other games where there was much more involvement with the community. Much more feedback to direct problems questions. I never felt a part of the team and or see communication toward the testers.

 While the proof is in the opening day launch and re tension of subscribers latter on. What it boils down to if they did not hear or pay attention to their testers, then i have no doubt the complaints which have not changed since early on will also be ignored as well.

 

   My question to those that have followed turbine's other offerings did you see changes upon release that changed your mind about your expearince in beta? Or were your inital reactions the same if you decided to buy any way ?

I am sensing a lanuguage issue here...  that aside I have only been in open beta and can report that the game runs well and is a blast - the community seems fine so far - I submitted one bug about a mob pathing issue and got a thank you back on it - *shrug*  -

Ryun511

Originally posted by virtuella

They reintroduced falling damage on request.

That's odd, did they remove it again? In beta yesterday I fell from a pretty steep mountain in the dwarven starting area and all I got was a pretty long lasting debuff. No damage though, could this be a bug?

psyconius

Originally posted by Ryun511

Originally posted by virtuella

They reintroduced falling damage on request.

That's odd, did they remove it again? In beta yesterday I fell from a pretty steep mountain in the dwarven starting area and all I got was a pretty long lasting debuff. No damage though, could this be a bug?

You have to fall pretty far to take damage.. But take it from my exploits jumping off waterfalls with my Warg... you can die =P