What are the selection criteria for the Beta?

Limones

Like many other players I signed up for the Beta a couple of days ago. Put 30+ hours in there (true, but also to show I'm gonna really test it). I only checked General since I'm interested in the gameplay and not the Techical aspects of the game. I just checked Youtube and saw a video of a Beta tester already. So I'm kinda wondering. Did I get passed?

This is the first Beta I've signed up for so I'm kinda new in all this. So here are some questions I hope you guys can answer:

1. What selection criteria do they use to pick Beta testers? Is it random? Or do they only want people who are willing to test both aspects of the game?

2. I'm from Europe: am I wanted in the Beta or do they prefer American players since the market is somewhat bigger there?

3. I uploaded the DXDiag.txt file but I have a question about it. Is it just so they can see what kind of computer you're running or also if you're running any illegaly downloaded software? (I have Dual Core 2200+, 8600GT Geforce and 2GB RAM so I could run it)

4. I played WoW for 2 years, LOTRO for a couple of months, but most of the MMORPG's on the list at the Beta signup I didn't even bother to play so I couldn't select much of them as Online Gaming History. Will this effect their choice?

I'm sorry for the long post but I'm just really hyped like many others about this game (I need a new addiction after I burned out on WoW and LOTRO). And this glimps of hope they call they Beta would allow me to play it sooner than the 23th of May (soooo far away ). So I'm acting like a little school girl now but having a chance of getting into the Beta would really brighten my day.

Greek_Matt

1. Difficult to know the exact criteria Funcom is using, but as a general rule Beta testers are selected on a combination of factors such as (a) previous beta testing experience, (b) system specs, (c) maturity and in the case of Conan I'd also expect (d) community involvement (over on the AoC community site).

2. Funcom is based in Europe so I'd expect they'll be looking for a mix of Euro and American testers.

3. No, the dxdiag is only so they can check your hardware/system specs since many people don't know their exact specs, or get it wrong. I'm sure Funcom doesn't really care if you run pirated software or not. Why, guilty conscience?

4. The number of MMO's you've played in the past will go towards showing your overall experience level in this style of game, which might give some indication of how useful a tester you'll be. Since there's no way of Funcom knowing whether you're telling the truth or not though, I don't expect this factor would have a huge impact on their selection process.

Also there are a couple of other things you should keep in mind. Firstly, over 100,000 people have signed up for this Beta test. The chances of your being selected are extraordinarily low. Secondly, a beta test is not, as many (including you it seems) mistakenly believe, a free preview of the game. It's an opportunity to help the developers by systematically working through the content finding and reporting bugs, testing new features as they're added etc. It tends to be a lot less fun than the finished product, since many of the features are often disabled or lacking optimization.

It's likely there will be an Open Beta shortly before release which will be involved mostly with stress-testing the servers, and this is probably the soonest you (along with most of the rest of us) will get to glimpse Hyboria for the first time.<//p>

AmazingAvery

Here you go my friend, from todays Friday Update:

What does the AoC team look for in a beta tester?



Lots of different things, actually. Sometimes, it’s about  the hardware they have (like we need to test high-end machines, low-end machines, laptops, whatever). Sometimes, it’s location-based (like we need more North Americans to test servers there or something like that). Sometimes, we pull from the forum “veterans,” as we call them, and selection criteria there can basically be described as “Has this person been around for a while? Are they a good poster that would give us useful feedback?” rather than simply relying on their registration date or postcount. Above all, we look for a good attitude and someone who seems like they can deal with the fact that it is beta and not a free trial of the game, rather than someone looking to play for free  or demanding a key for various reasons.

http://community.ageofconan.com/wsp/conan/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&&func_id=2354&table=CONTENT

 

Recant

I have a friend who bought his beta (for both technical and general beta) account on ebay, for £120 (about 230 USD), which I think was a complete waste of money, but he insisted it was worth every penny.  I think he was just trying to convince himself, considering he is back playing WoW atm

So if you have money to burn and really want to play, that's how you do it.

Shannia

Originally posted by Recant


I have a friend who bought his beta (for both technical and general beta) account on ebay, for £120 (about 230 USD), which I think was a complete waste of money, but he insisted it was worth every penny.  I think he was just trying to convince himself, considering he is back playing WoW atm
So if you have money to burn and really want to play, that's how you do it.

Back playing WoW after paying $230 to buy an AoC beta key?  LOL, some people I just don't understand.

 

Recant

Originally posted by Shannia


 
Originally posted by Recant


I have a friend who bought his beta (for both technical and general beta) account on ebay, for £120 (about 230 USD), which I think was a complete waste of money, but he insisted it was worth every penny.  I think he was just trying to convince himself, considering he is back playing WoW atm
So if you have money to burn and really want to play, that's how you do it.

 

Back playing WoW after paying $230 to buy an AoC beta key?  LOL, some people I just don't understand.

 

To be honest if you work and you're single like he his, that's not a lot of money.  I remember anticipating Vanguard beta so badly (please don't laugh), that if I hadn't been accepted into beta, I might have paid the same to get in.  Thank god I didn't though lol

And he still plays the beta as far as I'm aware.  Like most players that get into betas for any game, he's probably pretty useless. 

To antagonize beta hopefuls you should know that there are probably thousands of beta accounts not being used because players can't be arsed to download and install the gigantic client.  This isn't a indication of the quality of the game, which is strictly NDA material anyway, just what beta testers in general are usually like - pretty hopeless.

I was in the EQ2 / Vanguard / LOTRO betas and a few others I forget.  If I can't get into AoC beta I'll convince my friend to lend me his key, but I'm not paying for it!