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Beta Mysteries

zide56zide56 Member Posts: 356

I would like to know how complete jackasses get into beta tests (i.e., ones who sell their accounts on eBay), yet good honest folk such as myself are left empty-handed.  I realize that the world is cruel, but this really sucks.  Do these people just lie about the games they have beta'd and such?  I tell the truth (I haven't beta'd much), yet I'm just kicked in the ass.  I'm really glad to see how much the online gaming developers really encourage people to tell the truth.

It really makes for a good community, I'm sure. 

Comments

  • smartdudesmartdude Member Posts: 6

    the reason the kacasses get into Beta is because they have Kickass gaming rigs and the devs of the game want to test how far they can push the game in every aspect so they will choose a lot of SUper gaming rigs, a lot of shitty rigs, and only a few middle of the road computers. The best way to get into betas is to upgrade ur comp. to the best possible, or just buy a new gaming comp. Or u can always enter contests, beg ppl for accounts, or be friends with one of the devs

  • zide56zide56 Member Posts: 356

    I have a very good gaming rig.  756 MB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Ultra, etc.  Although, my sound card is always "other"...

    You know what, all the devs look like this...image

    ...and are worth less than the dog crap on my shoe.  They piss me off so much with their screwed up priorities, their selfishness, their unwillingness to help or be helped, and their overall lack of humanity.

    Although, I have my doubts as them actually even being human.  Especially after looking at the photo above.  That's En1Gma's best friend, by the way.

  • MordainMordain Member Posts: 12

    Heh I feel your pain.  I tested this out a few months ago by signing up 2 of my computers to a range of betas.

    The one I usually use for games is; Pentium 4 2.4ghz, geforce 4 ti-4200, 512mb 333mhz DDR

    Needless to say I didn't get into any of the betas I signed up with ;

    So I jumped on to my other box which is used mainly for graphics and video which is; Pentium 4 3.0ghz HT @ 3.3ghz, radeon 9800 pro, 1024mb Corsair 433mhz DDR etc etc

    And I got into all of them ;

    so biased :(

  • digitydarkmandigitydarkman Member Posts: 2,194
    ive tested well over 20 diff games in beta/alpha phases i still dont get picked all the time either thats life

    image

  • rathmarathma Member UncommonPosts: 3,786

     When i get my new rig they better pick me! (amd 3400, 2GB ram, 200gbHD,Radeon X800 Pro)

     I have never gotten into a beta before (well, one was open beta) But my new rig might be able to add to those chances image.

    image
    NVidia - The way it is meant to be played

    ATI - The way it really plays, if it's working....

    image

    image

    http://www.OriginNow.com - Official Fanboi

    EverQuest II : Level 20 Paladin - Antonia Bayle Server
  • MordainMordain Member Posts: 12
    Heh you'd want to make a lot of betas if you were dropping that sort of money on a rig woooooeeey!

  • p00kap00ka Member Posts: 167

    WHAAAAAA!

    Sorry, but this just sounds like a bunch of whining to me...  "Why won't they pick me..."  "Everyone lies on the applications..."  "Devs suck..."  "I have sand in my vagina!"

    It's the developer's choice whether or not to allow you to test their game.  Sure, I'd like to get in a few current betas - I have tested 15 or so MMORPGs, and being a former game developer gives me an edge on a beta application (mostly - I know what they are looking for.)  All you can really do is clearly post what you think of their game, and what you can do to help them.  It's like a job - don't just say "d00d your game rocks!  please accept me" - that does nothing for them.  You need to stand out from the other tens of thousands of fanboys...

    -pooka

  • Wicked_EdgeWicked_Edge Member Posts: 176

    2 gigs of ram is overkill honestly. I have 1 gig and the maximum ive used is 40%. Also im waiting for the pci-x version of the x800's to come out to buy it.


    ALSO to whoever posted this topic. I hear ya dude, Ive seen some newbie ass newbs in WoW forums, who have never played an mmorpg let alone beta tested one. And then my veteran mmoRPG ass doesnt even get a beta invite.

    EDIT: System specs: gigabyte nforce2 mobo, athlon xp 3200+, Radeon 9800 Pro, 1 gig DDR333, and a WD Raptor 10k RPM Hd Drive. <--- kickass system yet i STILL dont get invited.

    ---------------------------------
    UO - 4 years
    AC - 2 years
    AC2 - 6 months
    DaOC - 1 month
    FFXI - 6 months
    Diablo2 - 6 months
    Shadowbane - Beta tested
    Lineage2 - Beta tested
    mmoRPG'er since October 1997

    ---------------------------------
    UO - 4 years
    AC - 2 years
    AC2 - 6 months
    DAoC - 1 month
    FFXI - 7 months
    Diablo2 - 9 months
    Shadowbane - Beta Tested
    Lineage2 - Beta Tested
    Saga of Ryzom - Beta Tested
    Risk Your Life - Beta Tested
    World of Warcraft - Currently Playing
    mmoRPG'er since October 1997

  • MordainMordain Member Posts: 12
    Having been a game developer would you say that being a member of the gaming media hinders your chances of being accepted into beta?  I only ask because lately I've stopped doing it for fear that they think I will break NDA for my work.  Any thoughts?

  • zide56zide56 Member Posts: 356



    Originally posted by p00ka

    WHAAAAAA!
    Sorry, but this just sounds like a bunch of whining to me...  "Why won't they pick me..."  "Everyone lies on the applications..."  "Devs suck..."  "I have sand in my vagina!"
    It's the developer's choice whether or not to allow you to test their game.  Sure, I'd like to get in a few current betas - I have tested 15 or so MMORPGs, and being a former game developer gives me an edge on a beta application (mostly - I know what they are looking for.)  All you can really do is clearly post what you think of their game, and what you can do to help them.  It's like a job - don't just say "d00d your game rocks!  please accept me" - that does nothing for them.  You need to stand out from the other tens of thousands of fanboys...
    -pooka



    Hey, p00kass, stop being such a dumbass.  Considering you've been in over 15 betas, have developed games, and probably look like this...

    image 
    ...you're most probably not going to be able to feel my pain.

    And for your information, I tend to post very articulate reasons as to why I wish to test their game.  But, as others in this thread have said, they don't care.  Devs do suck.  They're just like the powergamers: all they care about are specs.  And I would like to help them, but even if I get a chance to, they're just stubborn asses who won't hear any sort of constructive criticism or bug reports.  I've spent many an hour clicking and clacking away on this keyboard, posting my suggestions to game developers (most of which are backed up immensely by other players), only to have the threads die.  There's no use.  The point is, developers don't give a shit about what beta players think (or paying players, for that matter).  All they do is use them as a stress test.

    And don't call me a fanboy.

     

  • darkmandarkman Member UncommonPosts: 767

    You know what's pathetic about that? That by picking beta testers by their specs, this is the trend Companies just want to follow, graphics, not quality. I mean come on, if you really want to get bugs worked out and kinks, you would be better off chooosing beta testers based on their experience and maybe how well they can write in the subject "why do you want to be a beta tester?". Seriously, what are they thinking? Isn't the sole purpose of a beta to work out bugs and such? Not test to see how high the game can go to. Seriously, this just makes me more angry at how badly this genre is starting to turn, from quality, to visual appeasement. At this rate, in 2 years, we will never see a decent quality MMORPG again. Sheesh, this get's me really angry.

    New PR rep for the North American Version of RYL
    www.planetwidegames.com

  • MunkiMunki Member CommonPosts: 2,128

    wow, Im sorry buy zide56 you have no idea what your talking about.

    It is not chosen on specs what they do is they pool all the applications
    weed out doubles.
    then they divide them into catagories,
    very high end
    High end
    Middle
    Low
    Min

    Then they pick a general amount, usually more come from the high/middle, but they pick Low to min req so they can TEST on lower end systems for compatabilty.

    They also take people with obscure setups and people with common setups to test different things.

    Its all luck, hate to break it to ya, but upgrading your rig, wont help you much.
    In examples like WoW is wasw 100% luck, if you met the min req you had the same chance as guys with there processor overclocked to 4.2 ghz.

    Its all luck, and for you saying that they should base it soely off experience, thats stupid, you gota have experienced people, but you gota let some new guys in, there are people who have never tested before who work hard.

    Also its so easy to lie on your app, they dont generally look at the whole "why would you be a good beta tester" and such, aside from the fact it would take a month of tuesdays to read them all.

    Zide it sounds to me like you just didnt make a beta you wanted to get into and your pissed, life goes on bud, get over it. No need to start flamming people, thats like flamming Metallica because the latest Shania Twain CD sucked. Or blaming Motzart Becuase Slipknot wrong a whole tonne of bad songs.

    image
    after 6 or so years, I had to change it a little...

  • Picolo101Picolo101 Member Posts: 43
    Hey mordain who is that a picture of in you avatar?

    Not alot of people have the balls to put a picture of their own crotch on the net

  • FarseenFarseen Member UncommonPosts: 344

    I myself have never won a beta directly from the game's site itself. I've won 3 beta's though from MMORPG.com and ide like to send a HUGE thanks to them. They've made my MMORPG life much better =) I appreciate everything MMORPG.com does to get these contest!

    Although i'll admit, it really burns to win a spot in the contest, but not claim it in time =) hehe

    -Farseen-
    ______________________________
    Tested: Knight Online, Wish Online, Ryzom Beta

    Played: UO, EQ, AO, SWG, FFXI, Shadowbane, EVE, Horizons, AC2

    Current Testing: Everquest 2 (soon)

    - Farseen

    Current Game: Panzar

  • ElernetElernet Member Posts: 68



    Originally posted by zide56

    I have a very good gaming rig.  756 MB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Ultra, etc.  Although, my sound card is always "other"...
    You know what, all the devs look like this...
    ...and are worth less than the dog crap on my shoe.  They piss me off so much with their screwed up priorities, their selfishness, their unwillingness to help or be helped, and their overall lack of humanity.
    Although, I have my doubts as them actually even being human.  Especially after looking at the photo above.  That's En1Gma's best friend, by the way.



    756mg ram is ok nowdays but nothing special. Whats your processor speed?

    And why did you put that poor guy's picture online (whoever he is) and make fun of him? Thats not nice.

  • FlamingBoiFlamingBoi Member Posts: 206
    zide56, quite whining. U're just a sore loser that didn't get picked in any betas so you are here complaining. If you were a developer, would you fking hell choose someone with a shitty com that can't even play your game? Of coures not. You would want someone who can play at best performance so that he wouldn't have to spend the rest of his gaming time in the centre of a town lagging. Also, they pick people at random, so if you didn't get picked, that's too bad. I've signed up for many betas too and most of the time i don't get it. So quit whining !

  • DaShizDaShiz Member Posts: 375

    Sorry to get off the topic, but Mordain you have the funniest avatar I have seen thus far! "We will hold them ransom for..... ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS!!....."


    Your scathing wit and daring insight into the turbulent political crags of the internet are shining beacons of truth and purity for the slight remaining masses of visionless hypocriticial sheep who bleat at the thought of your glory

    Your scathing wit and daring insight into the turbulent political crags of the internet are shining beacons of truth and purity for the slight remaining masses of visionless hypocriticial sheep who bleat at the thought of your glory

  • zide56zide56 Member Posts: 356



    Originally posted by FlamingBoi
    zide56, quite whining. U're just a sore loser that didn't get picked in any betas so you are here complaining. If you were a developer, would you fking hell choose someone with a shitty com that can't even play your game? Of coures not. You would want someone who can play at best performance so that he wouldn't have to spend the rest of his gaming time in the centre of a town lagging. Also, they pick people at random, so if you didn't get picked, that's too bad. I've signed up for many betas too and most of the time i don't get it. So quit whining !



    lol Nice response, my friend.  Very classy and informative. image  Going just by the post above, I'd say you play Lineage II as a PK-ing Orc Figher who likes to harass other players with ridiculously misspelled words and poor grammar.  Am I right?

  • p00kap00ka Member Posts: 167



    Originally posted by Mordain
    Having been a game developer would you say that being a member of the gaming media hinders your chances of being accepted into beta?  I only ask because lately I've stopped doing it for fear that they think I will break NDA for my work.  Any thoughts?



    Not at all.  Being a member of a few forums won't affect your chances.  Nor will being a former developer - except for the fact that developers typically know how to identify, isolate, and report bugs properly.

    And for everyone who thinks they need a hot machine to test games - you couldn't be farther from reality.  They want the widest possible audience - with hardware that varies between the minimum and the maximum specs.  Ever wonder why most beta apps have the same system specs on them?  It's because they WANT different specs.  They don't want every tester to have the same  system.  Suppose they required everyone to have the top-end ATI hardware, then they release a broken game on every other card?  I think not.  The more audio cards, the better.  The more video cards, the better.  Plain and simple.

    All I'm saying is this:  Your chances for getting into a beta have EVERYTHING to do with what you put on the application - NOT your system specs.  What makes YOUR application stand out?  If you can't remember what you put on your last application, chances are it wasn't very memorable to begin with.

    -pooka

  • p00kap00ka Member Posts: 167



    Originally posted by zide56
    And for your information, I tend to post very articulate reasons as to why I wish to test their game.  But, as others in this thread have said, they don't care.  Devs do suck.  They're just like the powergamers: all they care about are specs.  And I would like to help them, but even if I get a chance to, they're just stubborn asses who won't hear any sort of constructive criticism or bug reports.  I've spent many an hour clicking and clacking away on this keyboard, posting my suggestions to game developers (most of which are backed up immensely by other players), only to have the threads die.  There's no use.  The point is, developers don't give a shit about what beta players think (or paying players, for that matter).  All they do is use them as a stress test.
    And don't call me a fanboy.



    So, from exactly what facts do you draw your conclusions from?  Did you see them throw out your beta application because your system wasn't uber enough?  Did a dev tell you that your rig isn't worth their game?  I think not.

    The selection methods of each company are different.  There is such an overwhelming number of apps these days - many companies are using random selection to narrow down their choices.  If 100,000 people apply for 1000 beta slots, of course they won't read every single app.  So what they do is pull 2000 at random and ditch the weak apps.  So you could be a victim of circumstance, there's no way to know. 

    > All they do is use them as a stress test.

    There are usually 2 phases of external betas.  For closed betas (the first phase,) it's usually a few hundred to a few thousand people on one server.  During this time they iron out the major bugs in the game.  This period requires a lot feedback from good testers - as they help the developers tweak the core game dynamics.  It's not unusual to see coders in-game asking questions, and welcoming your feedback.  The last phase (sometimes referred to as "open beta") is the stress test.  It's all about testing the infrastructure, and network hardware.  In this phase, we are hearded into the game like cattle, to test a "final" product.  Quantity over quality (hence, they are usually easy to get into.)

    I think you are confusing "developers" with the "publisher."  The publisher is in it for the money.    Developers, on the other hand, want to be involved in a project that is fun for thousands of players.  Usually, it's up to the publisher to handle PR and CRM issues - so more than likely, the development team has never even seen your beta application in the first place.  The matter of selecting beta candidates is simply out of their hands.

    > And don't call me a fanboy.

    A true fanboy would apply to test a bunch of games they worship, then whine about how developers suck when they don't get in.  Your statements are misguided, and ignorant - often other traits of fanboys who hang out on gamer message boards.  If this is not the very definition of a fanboy, what is?

    -pooka

This discussion has been closed.