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Lasst beta weekend

SadSurferSadSurfer Member UncommonPosts: 67
in Guild Wars

Is it me or did the beta weekend last weekend not appear to be as much fun as the previous one?

I know there has been a number of updates and the ability to start at lvl1 or lvl20 was nice, but for me it was lacking something from the previous beta weekend. Perhaps it is my rose tinted glasses ...?

SS

Comments

  • LegerfinaLegerfina Member Posts: 37

    All betas sometimes ends and this one will have an end soon enough.
    And there was New Year , Developers didn't work in full strength.

    Hello from Underdark.

    Hello from Underdark.

  • JacekDagonJacekDagon Member Posts: 11
    shame that it was only WEEKEND beta... ive played only january event  but im most excited looking forward for playing final edit of guild wars, damn its SO beautiful!

  • cooldevocooldevo Member Posts: 371


    Originally posted by SadSurfer

    Is it me or did the beta weekend last weekend not appear to be as much fun as the previous one?



    For those that don't know; and no disrespect intended to those that do.  The primary function of beta testing isn't for player entertainment.  It is a very important process through which developers get the game tested in a "life" environment.  The goal is to test the various components of the game to make sure they are performing up to the standard.  As far as I've heard, this beta test was primarily supposed to test out the new questing system in a large user system.  The primary job of beta testers is to help test the game with the developers.  If you find bugs you should report them, so the game can be at it's best on release day, with almost no major problems.

    A beta test isn't even really designed to give players a taste of the game, which it certainly does do.  If you intend on buying the game you are testing, you should be trying your hardest to try things out, to test everything you can; so on release day you have a great product.  Too many games are rushed out of beta testing nowadays with waaay to many bugs in them.  That is a reflection on the testers, as much as the developers.

    I have done beta testing where you were strictly told what you were expected to try and test; such as combat, certain quests, using certain items/weapons/armor etc.  It is a very important job, which too many people don't take seriously enough; and paramount to releasing a great product.  This one has incredible potential, we need to all do our part to give it the best start it can have.

  • _myko_myko Member Posts: 333

    while in most circumstances i'd agree with you, GW isnt really in beta, its really at the 'been out a month' stage that most MMORPG's have when they've been rushed out with too little testing...over the three days i had one crash (which i duly send a bug report off about) and thats it....all the beta weekends are about now are stress testing really, and for spreading the word...after all, the alphas are doing day to day testing....

    ---sig---
    currently training 'hoping for more sci-fi mmorpgs' to level 5

    ---sig---

    PvE in general is pretty lame, if you think long and hard about it. You are spending your time beating a severely gimped AI that would lose to a well trained monkey. Best not to think too long and hard why you are wasting time playing games in general actually...

  • cooldevocooldevo Member Posts: 371

    Yes, it was a stress test, but it is still a beta.  It is/was referred to as the Beta Weekend Event.

    But yes, it wasn't a beta insofar as typical beta testing goes.  On the other hand a stress test will generally have very little limitation on how many people can join.  Guild Wars was quite restrictive on who could join (other than the pre-orders, only a select number of people could get in).  In my experience, a stress test would want as many people as they can possibly get, to push the system beyond it's optimum operating capacity.  To see how much "stress" the system can take before performance drops/crashes.

    The website http://www.guildwars.net mentions that they were using the beta weekend event primarily to implement their new questing system.  As it was the first time implementing it, that part of it was for sure beta.  Of which I personally found several bugs (sometimes one or two per day) that I reported on.  Even though it's not a full preliminary beta, finding bugs is still an important part of the job.    It seems to be a hybrid of beta testing, stress testing, and word-of-mouth.  Of which all are still vitally important.  The success and quality of the final release depend on all three components.

    In this instance I would say we are both half right.


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