"Unless you were hiding under a rock this past weekend, you probably heard about the columns that were written on mmorpg.com regarding the Guild Wars 2 beta. The amount of beta related articles increased as the weekend was over. As the columns appeared the fans reached for their pitchforks, and like a swarm of angry Grawl, they rushed into the comment section without reading the actual columns to post comments of rage".
Yeah, and I know for a fact that some of them paid for a pre-order product, not a pre-purchase, which is what they asked for and what they were told they were receiving. How do I know? Some bright bulb had the gumption to examine the DVD case and read the words "pre-order" on it. They were using the wrong keys, sold to them by either an incompetent or shady retailer.
As I understand it, this was also ArenaNet's fault because they received the same email message that everyone did after putting in their key. No fault to the the consumer though, right?
Let 'em rage. ArenaNet has been bending over backwards on the beta forums working with them and trying to explain some of the confusion. I knew what I was getting and had a fucking blast playing. Oh, and here's the kicker --- so did most people. The ones who had troubles were a tiny minority. The servers were still packed, even without them. Also, very few complaint in the game's chat. People that were playing were pretty silent if they had something to bitch about. My experience is that when someone has a beef, it's almost impossible to shut them the hell up (just see these forums where people complain *just* to support someone else's complaints). Chat was all roses and daisies though on my server.
I feel bad for the few who had legitimate keys and still couldn't log in due to account problems. They have a right to complain and demand a refund. Access to all BWE's was guaranteed. The rest though, bitching about bugs and lag? Tough. I tune them out faster than a country music station. To their credit, ArenaNet continues to treat them diplomatically, cooing to soothe their bruised egos. Few companies would even bother going that far.
Did I say customers should never be taken to task or are innocent in all affairs? Don't believe I did. How do you know how was legit or not? You have no idea how many or few it was.
...and where did I say Anet wasn't doing a good job answering issues or concerns? I didn't comment one way or the other far as that goes. My point was that when you offer beta as a marketing tool this is what happens. Well...that and people acting like this should be the least bit surprising or unexpected is simply silly. They come across as clueless as the supposed people they want to burn at the stake for "raging". The moment you start pushing for people to buy your product is the moment some are going to get bent out of shape if they have major issues with it.
Anyways, I agree if people are complaing over minor issues or bugs then they need to simply get over it. But those that couldn't even log in or hardly at all? While the "it's beta" tag technically still works I can understand their frustration. Besides, you know damn well some of these same "it's beta" peeps would be just as irritated if they were having the same problem.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
whats the say- when the table is quiet at dinner the food is good?.... the main chat was mostly quiet and everyone was playin or helping one out in main events! questions where politely answered and
If you or anyone else really still thinks that a "beta" is really a beta your sorely mistaken. All so-called "betas" are no more than a promotional time for game companies to draw in more consumers or potential customers. In other words- giving them a "test drive" of the game. Your article is crap, misinformed, and a waste of time. People have a right to complain, they are the public and the consumer- and in any business the customer is always right! so musssssss!
I had a problem with my wife's computer (which meets all the specs) not being able to run the game properly. Other than that, I had no problems. Even if I had, it would have sucked, but there is one important thing I would have remembered: It was a TEST! Honestly, to get all butt hurt because things didn't go your way in a test is just ridiculous and really smacks of the entitled mentality that's rampant nowadays. Those of you who think you got ripped off because you couldn't log in, or the game wouldn't play, or whatever have only yourselves to blame. You gave a company money so you could get into a testing phase and then got upset because you obviously didn't realize what a test entails. Tests of this nature involve FAILURE all the time. That's why they do these tests. So things will fail before it's released so they can fix it before release. Get off your entitled high horses and make sure you understand what you are doing next time.
Oh, and to clarify a point I saw even in the article. Not everyone had to pre-purchase to get into beta. If you signed up for beta and didn't pre-purchase you still had a chance to get picked to be in it and Anet gave out a whole bunch of free beta keys before this weekend. So, while the majority did pre-purchase to get into beta, it wasn't required.
One last thing: As consumers it is YOUR job to understand what it is you are spending your money on. If you buy something without understanding what that purchase entails (the good and the bad), then it is YOUR problem, not the company's. In this case, Anet was very up front that you would get guaranteed access to the Beta tests and then the final game when it was released. If you spent your money and then got upset when things didn't work in the Beta test, it's YOUR fault for not understanding what you were getting into when you made the purchase.
Edit: Added final paragraph.
You want me to pay to play a game I already paid for???
The main crutch of the problem was that people had to pay to play the beta.
You may expect to find bugs whilst playing but most fundamentaly, especially after having paid, you at least expect to be able to login.
I think that's were most of the rage came from.
That's an outsiders view because I haven't pre-bought the game myself. I was stung by SWTOR and swore never to go down that route again.
Was the prec-purchase really the problem? I mean some people would pay for a DOTA 2, (Diablo 3,) CS GO, The Secret World, Firefall Beta Key. IMO people love to complain. It doesn't matter which game they always find something.
Just my take on the situation.
There are always those who will complain.
Personally, I feel there was some justification with regards to the login issues.
Basically people payed for access and some didn't get it. It's nothing to do with expecting bugs or not. These people were promised access for payment and couldn't login.
I logged in and out at least a dozen times and never once had an issue, Im sorry it seems some of you did. Also, the game ran super great for me considering as the Devs have said the game is CPU heavy and CPU being one of my weaker components( 3ghz core 2 duo) but theyve said they are working to shift some of the load to the GPU where my system is a bit more beefy.
Over all I was very impressed but did see room for improvment. Thats what Beta is for though. So Im not overly worried.
Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny. Lao-Tze
whats the say- when the table is quiet at dinner the food is good?.... the main chat was mostly quiet and everyone was playin or helping one out in main events! questions where politely answered and
I don't remember them mocking the people angry over their beta experience in any other beta ever released. I know they didn't during the TOR beta or the TERA beta. Why are they doing this for GW2?
hillarious how gamers still think of betas as pre release demos and not betas
you think after all these years, but nope!
Golly gee, I know right. Because why would some mistake this when companies start offering access via purchasing or preordering their game? I mean companies certainly don't treat it like a marketing tool or anything.
>_>
Do some of you really believe this shit or what? Poor companies...so misunderstood I suppose.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
i have problem first 2-3 hours there was a lag that icant even play ,even tho i was happy i experience same lag and error as evreryone else so that anet work in that and fix it.
iwas soo happy we got so many error and lissue in the beta cause because of that they fix it and in release we got a clean product ,better now than later.
With all due respect, ArenaNet flooded its gates probably for a purpose: testing, or better STRESS testing its server and its infrastructure.
They had nearly 50 server (FIFTY servers for the first non-NDA beta! - Rift has currently 32 online - i repeat THIRTY-TWO, that's 18 less). They had probably some thousand people on every server (some more some less), for a load of nearly 100k people.
The situation could not be different, probably.
Nonetheless, I'm expecting for the next beta little or no login issue and some less lag. As was seen later on sunday.
This is what happens when you offer beta access via prepurchase or preorder. Nothing new here and I have no sympathy for companies being taken to task over it. Matter of fact I'm rather sick of people always laying the blame at the feet of the players and giving these companies a free pass. It's getting really old. You reap what you fucking sow. They want to market beta and use it to increase sales? This is what happens when some pay for the product and can't play or have serious issues. Beta or no.
Let 'em rage. They paid for the product. Like I'm supposed to have sympathy for Anet when they essentially had the majority pay to get access to their beta. Give me a break.
This is sad. If someone is stupid enough to PAY for beta access, they deserve what they get. Talk about not taking responsibility for your actions. YOU KNEW IT WAS BETA, and yet you still paid.. then, when the game meets the definition of a beta, you rage at the developers like angry children?
You are paying for to TEST, NOT PLAY a the game, then you complain when it doesn't work correctly? That's EXACTLY what a beta is for. This sense of entitelement in our society today (mostly from our youth) kills me. You want everything for free, and if you pay 10 cents for something clearly labeled "beta", you cry like babies.
While i agree that people need to calm down that it was a beta i also do not agree with the current model companies have of pre-purchase and get into beta. People already paid for the game and beta's these days are not for testing they are a selling tool and stress tests thats about it. Remember the days when beta testing meant you were given specific reporting instructions for bugs and a tool to do it. Beta's these days are more advertising than testing. While i agree that its not the final version of the game and people need to realize development is still taking place I have yet to see a game that made any really large changes due to a beta. they mainly fix login issues call it good and release it then fix things after release.
I agree completely, BUT, consumers should have the sense not to pay for an unfinished product. If customers didn't pay, the companies would stop doing it. Hell, I don't even beleive in the pre-order mentality. I see games online that are selling now, that don't come out for a FULL year or more. That's ridiculous. But, if people are dumb enough to shell out money for a promise, oh well...
my problem wasn't the bugs it was the downright awful overflow crap
my wife and i join the game group up we finish up part of our story and she gets a message that she has been kicked into the overflow server. she disappears right in front of me and there is no way for me to find her unless i disconnect and reconnect hoping to get the right instance she is in ..... how do you kick someone to another instance and not give other players a tool to follow them to that instance?
PVP matches were a joke, I can't believe they are going to randomize groups. yep you heard me, you cannot queue as a group and if you do join with others in your guild/friends you may or may not be on the same team. because thats what i want to do when i join a guildies game .... fight against them.
sorry but its not all just bullshit bugs that people are raging over, and yes its beta but these two decisions are just downright stupid of Anet, and they BETTER be corrected before release.
Didn't play, but from the livestreams I saw, I would say these 2 are some big issues. Guessing the overflow will get fixed,but are they planning on keeping the PvP thing like that? Is it intentional? Or is a group join not implemented yet?
I still put my money on the majority of people not following instructions that were posted within an hour or two of beta launch
Cut off your firewalls, update "all drivers, video, sound" and make sure you're registered correctly. I have 3 accounts, 2 ran perfectly before the game began and 1 ran after. I had problems, they were solved by doing this. Considering i have had beta's where i had to make my own exe, this was great.
Totally agree with you, however this is something that needs to be fixed to be not so technical before the game launches.
People ares starting to forget that Beta is to fix bugs like these. It's not about letting you play early, it's about helping fix the game before launch. Areanet is treating beta test like it should be, a platform for fixing bugs not stress test only. Remember they are a smaller company than BioWare, Blizzard etc... They don't have the money for huge internal test groups to keep bugs like this from slipping out. So they are going to rely on beta testing a little bit more than most.
This is sad. If someone is stupid enough to PAY for beta access, they deserve what they get. Talk about not taking responsibility for your actions. YOU KNEW IT WAS BETA, and yet you still paid.. then, when the game meets the definition of a beta, you rage at the developers like angry children?
You are paying for to TEST, NOT PLAY a the game, then you complain when it doesn't work correctly? That's EXACTLY what a beta is for. This sense of entitelement in our society today (mostly from our youth) kills me. You want everything for free, and if you pay 10 cents for something clearly labeled "beta", you cry like babies.
Are you dense? Where did I say I personally had any problems with how beta was handled or what transpired? I didn't even purchase the game nor was I in the beta as I have said in other posts in this thread.
I'm not going to explain my point again. If some of you can't figure it out...well...what can I say. Pretty self explanatory really. Feel free to keep laying everything at the doorstep of your fellow customer's feet. Whatever works for you.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
I was gonna pay 60 bucks for the game regardless. Paying it now ensures I get to test and report bugs myself. I know that I can't count on other players to do the same so some bugs might go unreported if I don't do it.
I think of it more as a 60 dollar loan that I'm guaranteed to have repaid (albeit without interest). In return I now have a direct input on how the finished produt is developed.
Comments
BETA COLUMN RAGE!
"Unless you were hiding under a rock this past weekend, you probably heard about the columns that were written on mmorpg.com regarding the Guild Wars 2 beta. The amount of beta related articles increased as the weekend was over. As the columns appeared the fans reached for their pitchforks, and like a swarm of angry Grawl, they rushed into the comment section without reading the actual columns to post comments of rage".
/shameless column theft
My brand new bloggity blog.
Did I say customers should never be taken to task or are innocent in all affairs? Don't believe I did. How do you know how was legit or not? You have no idea how many or few it was.
...and where did I say Anet wasn't doing a good job answering issues or concerns? I didn't comment one way or the other far as that goes. My point was that when you offer beta as a marketing tool this is what happens. Well...that and people acting like this should be the least bit surprising or unexpected is simply silly. They come across as clueless as the supposed people they want to burn at the stake for "raging". The moment you start pushing for people to buy your product is the moment some are going to get bent out of shape if they have major issues with it.
Anyways, I agree if people are complaing over minor issues or bugs then they need to simply get over it. But those that couldn't even log in or hardly at all? While the "it's beta" tag technically still works I can understand their frustration. Besides, you know damn well some of these same "it's beta" peeps would be just as irritated if they were having the same problem.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
whats the say- when the table is quiet at dinner the food is good?.... the main chat was mostly quiet and everyone was playin or helping one out in main events! questions where politely answered and
never saw a rage in main chat or pvp troll chat.
was a great refreshing experience!
I had a problem with my wife's computer (which meets all the specs) not being able to run the game properly. Other than that, I had no problems. Even if I had, it would have sucked, but there is one important thing I would have remembered: It was a TEST! Honestly, to get all butt hurt because things didn't go your way in a test is just ridiculous and really smacks of the entitled mentality that's rampant nowadays. Those of you who think you got ripped off because you couldn't log in, or the game wouldn't play, or whatever have only yourselves to blame. You gave a company money so you could get into a testing phase and then got upset because you obviously didn't realize what a test entails. Tests of this nature involve FAILURE all the time. That's why they do these tests. So things will fail before it's released so they can fix it before release. Get off your entitled high horses and make sure you understand what you are doing next time.
Oh, and to clarify a point I saw even in the article. Not everyone had to pre-purchase to get into beta. If you signed up for beta and didn't pre-purchase you still had a chance to get picked to be in it and Anet gave out a whole bunch of free beta keys before this weekend. So, while the majority did pre-purchase to get into beta, it wasn't required.
One last thing: As consumers it is YOUR job to understand what it is you are spending your money on. If you buy something without understanding what that purchase entails (the good and the bad), then it is YOUR problem, not the company's. In this case, Anet was very up front that you would get guaranteed access to the Beta tests and then the final game when it was released. If you spent your money and then got upset when things didn't work in the Beta test, it's YOUR fault for not understanding what you were getting into when you made the purchase.
Edit: Added final paragraph.
You want me to pay to play a game I already paid for???
Be afraid.....The dragons are HERE!
Just my take on the situation.
There are always those who will complain.
Personally, I feel there was some justification with regards to the login issues.
Basically people payed for access and some didn't get it. It's nothing to do with expecting bugs or not. These people were promised access for payment and couldn't login.
You have to expect some flak over that.
I logged in and out at least a dozen times and never once had an issue, Im sorry it seems some of you did. Also, the game ran super great for me considering as the Devs have said the game is CPU heavy and CPU being one of my weaker components( 3ghz core 2 duo) but theyve said they are working to shift some of the load to the GPU where my system is a bit more beefy.
Over all I was very impressed but did see room for improvment. Thats what Beta is for though. So Im not overly worried.
Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
Lao-Tze
hillarious how gamers still think of betas as pre release demos and not betas
you think after all these years, but nope!
Wut?
Yup things will never change, an MMO gamer is a stubborn creature indeed.
Golly gee, I know right. Because why would some mistake this when companies start offering access via purchasing or preordering their game? I mean companies certainly don't treat it like a marketing tool or anything.
>_>
Do some of you really believe this shit or what? Poor companies...so misunderstood I suppose.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
i have problem first 2-3 hours there was a lag that icant even play ,even tho i was happy i experience same lag and error as evreryone else so that anet work in that and fix it.
iwas soo happy we got so many error and lissue in the beta cause because of that they fix it and in release we got a clean product ,better now than later.
I think exactly the opposite...it has been years since betas were not pre-release demos.
I would also agree with previous posters that as a company if you charge for beta entry you should expect more grief.
I doubt Funcom, Blizzard or Bioware would have been able to run a pre-paid beta without some major criticism.
With all due respect, ArenaNet flooded its gates probably for a purpose: testing, or better STRESS testing its server and its infrastructure.
They had nearly 50 server (FIFTY servers for the first non-NDA beta! - Rift has currently 32 online - i repeat THIRTY-TWO, that's 18 less). They had probably some thousand people on every server (some more some less), for a load of nearly 100k people.
The situation could not be different, probably.
Nonetheless, I'm expecting for the next beta little or no login issue and some less lag. As was seen later on sunday.
This is sad. If someone is stupid enough to PAY for beta access, they deserve what they get. Talk about not taking responsibility for your actions. YOU KNEW IT WAS BETA, and yet you still paid.. then, when the game meets the definition of a beta, you rage at the developers like angry children?
You are paying for to TEST, NOT PLAY a the game, then you complain when it doesn't work correctly? That's EXACTLY what a beta is for. This sense of entitelement in our society today (mostly from our youth) kills me. You want everything for free, and if you pay 10 cents for something clearly labeled "beta", you cry like babies.
Yeah that's cool and all OP, but when is the release date?
I think a lot of people realized they just dropped money to develope the game ASWELL as beta test it and play it.
Until they give a release date, this prepaid beta for a b2p game is the biggest PR scam in the history of pc gaming.
I agree completely, BUT, consumers should have the sense not to pay for an unfinished product. If customers didn't pay, the companies would stop doing it. Hell, I don't even beleive in the pre-order mentality. I see games online that are selling now, that don't come out for a FULL year or more. That's ridiculous. But, if people are dumb enough to shell out money for a promise, oh well...
Nice read OP.
Didn't play, but from the livestreams I saw, I would say these 2 are some big issues. Guessing the overflow will get fixed,but are they planning on keeping the PvP thing like that? Is it intentional? Or is a group join not implemented yet?
Totally agree with you, however this is something that needs to be fixed to be not so technical before the game launches.
People ares starting to forget that Beta is to fix bugs like these. It's not about letting you play early, it's about helping fix the game before launch. Areanet is treating beta test like it should be, a platform for fixing bugs not stress test only. Remember they are a smaller company than BioWare, Blizzard etc... They don't have the money for huge internal test groups to keep bugs like this from slipping out. So they are going to rely on beta testing a little bit more than most.
Are you dense? Where did I say I personally had any problems with how beta was handled or what transpired? I didn't even purchase the game nor was I in the beta as I have said in other posts in this thread.
I'm not going to explain my point again. If some of you can't figure it out...well...what can I say. Pretty self explanatory really. Feel free to keep laying everything at the doorstep of your fellow customer's feet. Whatever works for you.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
I was gonna pay 60 bucks for the game regardless. Paying it now ensures I get to test and report bugs myself. I know that I can't count on other players to do the same so some bugs might go unreported if I don't do it.
I think of it more as a 60 dollar loan that I'm guaranteed to have repaid (albeit without interest). In return I now have a direct input on how the finished produt is developed.