Will GW2 closed beta be under NDA?

claytos

Do you think the closed beta of Guild Wars 2 will be under NDA? I've heard rumor that it wont be under NDA.

 

Any thought?

fony

most likely, and hopefully, the GW2 closed beta will be really, really closed. as in not letting a legion of fanboys sign up. it'll obviously be under NDA for closed testing, though that NDA will be long gone 3 months from launch.

Master10K

I doubt there would be much of a difeerence between the Alpha and Closed Beta, in it will be pretty much the same, just that all the main features and content pieces would be in. So there likely won't be a huge wave of beta invites and the NDA will remain the same.

Lord.Bachus

Originally posted by Master10K

I doubt there would be much of a difeerence between the Alpha and Closed Beta, in it will be pretty much the same, just that all the main features and content pieces would be in. So there likely won't be a huge wave of beta invites and the NDA will remain the same.

In general the word closed indicates its under NDA...

 

To many spoilers before release could seriously impact the gameplay .....  So opening up the NDa to early is never a good thing

marz.at.play

Originally posted by Master10K

I doubt there would be much of a difeerence between the Alpha and Closed Beta, in it will be pretty much the same, just that all the main features and content pieces would be in. So there likely won't be a huge wave of beta invites and the NDA will remain the same.

I think closed Beta and Alpha will have a difference. Although I can't speak from experience, I can only assume based on past Alpha / Closed Beta changes to games.

Shroom_Mage

The difference between alpha and closed beta will be the number of players and how those players are chosen. That's about it.

Lord.Bachus

Every company has its own alpha/beta testing ruleset...

 

EQ2 is allready completely inhouse tested, they only need to test the massive part of the game in beta....

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Lord.Bachus

Originally posted by Fion

It's hard to say. With GW1 all during beta they had free weekends without NDA. But if I remember correctly the regular beta was. So, it's really hard to say. I guess we'll see before the end of the year.

Those free weekends as far as i remember didnt allow access to the whole game but only to certain areas... It allowed people to spread the news that the game was fun. Just as the hands on experiences at Gamescom...

 

Having a full Beta without NDA will get the spoiler sites running before the game even goes live, it will remove very much of the fresh game experience people want to experience when they buy the game. Despite what most people here beleive, NDA is a good thing for games.

Shroom_Mage

An NDA is present to prevent bad press. It doesn't matter how many warnings you put. It doesn't matter how much you stress that your game will have bugs. People are going to treat it like a final product. Every time.

I've seen games in beta lift the NDA and go through great lengths to explain that it isn't a joy ride, you're supposed to be finding and reporting bugs, and it doesn't represent a final product, but every time, most of the people who play will still complain about how buggy the game is, how much it crashes, how little fun they had, and how nobody else should ever try the game for any reason.

It wouldn't matter if there was a giant red message that said, "WARNING: This game does not work. It is the buggiest thing you will have ever played in your life. It will constantly crash if it even runs at all. In fact, this isn't even the same game we're going to launch. This is just something my son made," people would still boycott the game if they were allowed to talk about it, and some of them would talk about it anyway.

CantGuessMe

Originally posted by Shroom_Mage

An NDA is present to prevent bad press. It doesn't matter how many warnings you put. It doesn't matter how much you stress that your game will have bugs. People are going to treat it like a final product. Every time.

I've seen games in beta lift the NDA and go through great lengths to explain that it isn't a joy ride, you're supposed to be finding and reporting bugs, and it doesn't represent a final product, but every time, most of the people who play will still complain about how buggy the game is, how much it crashes, how little fun they had, and how nobody else should ever try the game for any reason.

It wouldn't matter if there was a giant red message that said, "WARNING: This game does not work. It is the buggiest thing you will have ever played in your life. It will constantly crash if it even runs at all. In fact, this isn't even the same game we're going to launch. This is just something my son made," people would still boycott the game if they were allowed to talk about it, and some of them would talk about it anyway.

I agree with the gist of what shroom_mage is saying.  Even though people are admitted into beta, I dont think many can contextualize what a beta is.  The beta tester/free trial user equates the beta build with end user content.  I dont believe the common mmorpg/gw2 poster is guilty of this....but we are the minority (the educated minority).  That said, it seems that a-net doesnt put out content for testing that isnt able to withstand this type of scrutiny.

I personally hope that a-net doesnt provide an open beta....but instead expedites the release due to quality closed beta testing.

I have been drinking....I hope i have made sense.

on a side note:  I still think that loyal GW2 fans are far superior to other fans of all other games.  I also believe that we have rights to "prima nocta" over other fans.......we must breed out the insolence directed towards GW2.

 

(j/k)

Lord.Bachus

Originally posted by CantGuessMe

Originally posted by Shroom_Mage

An NDA is present to prevent bad press. It doesn't matter how many warnings you put. It doesn't matter how much you stress that your game will have bugs. People are going to treat it like a final product. Every time.

I've seen games in beta lift the NDA and go through great lengths to explain that it isn't a joy ride, you're supposed to be finding and reporting bugs, and it doesn't represent a final product, but every time, most of the people who play will still complain about how buggy the game is, how much it crashes, how little fun they had, and how nobody else should ever try the game for any reason.

It wouldn't matter if there was a giant red message that said, "WARNING: This game does not work. It is the buggiest thing you will have ever played in your life. It will constantly crash if it even runs at all. In fact, this isn't even the same game we're going to launch. This is just something my son made," people would still boycott the game if they were allowed to talk about it, and some of them would talk about it anyway.

I agree with the gist of what shroom_mage is saying.  Even though people are admitted into beta, I dont think many can contextualize what a beta is.  The beta tester/free trial user equates the beta build with end user content.  I dont believe the common mmorpg/gw2 poster is guilty of this....but we are the minority (the educated minority).  That said, it seems that a-net doesnt put out content for testing that isnt able to withstand this type of scrutiny.

I personally hope that a-net doesnt provide an open beta....but instead expedites the release due to quality closed beta testing.

I have been drinking....I hope i have made sense.

on a side note:  I still think that loyal GW2 fans are far superior to other fans of all other games.  I also believe that we have rights to "prima nocta" over other fans.......we must breed out the insolence directed towards GW2.

 

(j/k)

An NDA has many reasons... Bad press and misunderstandings about changed features during beta are only a few of them...

 

I also hope they will not do an open beta... This should keep the game fresh for all that did not participate in the open beta, which is very important for a fresh first impression...  And people that dont like buying games without testing them first will wayt a few weeks before buying the game when all the possitive reviews tell them its safe.... this will help to overcome some of the releaseday server stresss.....

Master10K

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

*snip*

An NDA has many reasons... Bad press and misunderstandings about changed features during beta are only a few of them...

 

I also hope they will not do an open beta... This should keep the game fresh for all that did not participate in the open beta, which is very important for a fresh first impression...  And people that dont like buying games without testing them first will wayt a few weeks before buying the game when all the possitive reviews tell them its safe.... this will help to overcome some of the releaseday server stresss.....

No, they should definitely do a beta for the WvWvW, because that's the only way they could properly test that part of the game.

Lord.Bachus

Offcourse they should do a beta to test WvWvW just not an open beta but a closed beta under N D A

Master10K

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

Offcourse they should do a beta to test WvWvW just not an open beta but a closed beta under N D A

Nah, an open beta of just the WvWvW would ideal, to help ArenaNet generate more publicity. Also it's the part of the game that they can ensure is mostly working, before releasing it to the public. That an structured PvP, which they already let the public try out. Also it wouldn't be that big of an issue they opened up the WvWvW, as part of a beta weekend event. So that even if the 1st weekend is riddled with bugs, they can help reassure the participants, when they fix those bugs before the following weekends.

TotTWriter

TBH, if it weren't for their policy of telling people how they're doing, I would say that we don't even need to know when the closed beta starts. I mean, people always find out, but if the idea is to have closed beta and then open beta (which we have to assume is still the case as the FAQ hasn't changed), then the closed beta, as people have said, is simply the "complete" game, which is then put through its paces by the people ANet have chosen for this task. It's like an alpha, only everything is in it, and people outside of ANet and their friends/families get to test it. 

I don't think we'll see much until Open Beta though. ANet are pretty darn good at keeping the secrets they're not ready to share. And given that they want people to be blown away when they first play it, I would say that there's no way on earth they'll want to let any bug testing footage run rampant on the net. The closed beta will likely be relatively few people working out any last bugs, and then an Open Beta will serve as more of a general preview, probably over a pretty short period (passing the time while they ship the boxes to stores! )

Distopia

New features? Check

Some focus on a story plot? Check

Game needs testing and issues fixed? Check

You can bet your ass there will be an NDA.

EvilGeek

I would like the closed beta to be very closed and under a strict NDA. I wouldn't like to see a random key giveaway, I'd much rather they invited applications, I want GW2 to be a great game so I'd hate the CB to be full of people just wanting free game time, people need to be testing and feeding back properly.

Shoju

I would be very surprised if Arena Net opened the closed beta to the general public.  I am expecting it to be made up of people/guilds specifically chosen by Arena Net to get the job done, and not piss around like most 'beta players' do.