I heard stories of this sort of thing happening in a MMO often.
But what leads up to a game being previewed as more fun during the Alpha/Beta testing phase, than during the Launch?
I heard this happen in Warhammer Online, as well as SWTOR. But what exacly happen that made them worst of Launch than during the testing?
I don't know why you think you heard that from those two games because it is false. The beta wasn't better.
It is probalby more like they were having fun when it was new (starting in the beta) but it got boring by launch.
It did happen in WAR....
Here's how the balance issues started....
Take out 2 of the tanks and 2 durable melee DPS from the game during early beta... this leaves a bit of a gap in terms of competition for high damage melee stealthers...
Steathers kick ass.... especially against casters.
They nerf stealthers....
Casters now have really no competition...
Casters get nerfed......
Healers now have no competiton....
Healers get nerfed....
WAR down the toilet because they took shit out during beta.
TSW had better pvp in closed beta, because we were all wearing level 10 greens and only pvpers went there rather than token farming gear monkeys. Other things improved in live though, particularly the graphics.
Regarding war, you forget how ridiculously op knights were when they introduced them later, I know I played one.
Well, as the latest Alpha I played was DayZ, I think it's mainly about those hilarious glitchy experiences you can get while playing. I guess it requires a guild/friend at least, don't think I'd have as much fun solo.
For example in that game I ran too close to my friend and somehow broke his legs and made him faint, picked him up and carried him around for 10 mins, laughing all the time, while he was begging me to let him go.
I'm sure that bug will be fixed by the time DayZ stand-alone comes out, but I'll miss that.
In the case of WAR, it felt like the codebase got out of control - for every bug they fixed in beta, they seemed to add two new ones. Which often happens during crunch time.
I thought we were talking better as a whole not a few better features. Beta and especially Alpha has always been really buggy and near unplayble compared to the launched game so because of that I wouldn't say that is better.
Yes they do cut key features near the end -- but the very worst is when they ditch some major feature near the end and replace it with something cobbled together at the last minute that is at best blandly standard. When you throw out something major and then end up rapid-coding some filler to take its place -- it always ends up longing.
When the decision for any feature is "This isnt going to work" or "We simply do not have the time now to finish it so yank" near the end, disaster always seems to strike.
Fairly easily. There is a lot less load during Beta (Even with Beta weekends). It takes a launch to really test the system, and then react to the issues that arise.
Does anything work in this game? The previews were alot better....No AH? WTF....Cant get on....Booted constantly(which btw should not take me out of ventrillo or keep me from getting on the internet....I have to reboot my comp??? WTF kind of BS are you doing to my video cards as well???? Now its down for maintenance at 1130 pst(BS lies).....RIDICULOUS!
Comments
I don't know why you think you heard that from those two games because it is false. The beta wasn't better.
It is probalby more like they were having fun when it was new (starting in the beta) but it got boring by launch.
It did happen in WAR....
Here's how the balance issues started....
Take out 2 of the tanks and 2 durable melee DPS from the game during early beta... this leaves a bit of a gap in terms of competition for high damage melee stealthers...
Steathers kick ass.... especially against casters.
They nerf stealthers....
Casters now have really no competition...
Casters get nerfed......
Healers now have no competiton....
Healers get nerfed....
WAR down the toilet because they took shit out during beta.
Regarding war, you forget how ridiculously op knights were when they introduced them later, I know I played one.
Well, as the latest Alpha I played was DayZ, I think it's mainly about those hilarious glitchy experiences you can get while playing. I guess it requires a guild/friend at least, don't think I'd have as much fun solo.
For example in that game I ran too close to my friend and somehow broke his legs and made him faint, picked him up and carried him around for 10 mins, laughing all the time, while he was begging me to let him go.
I'm sure that bug will be fixed by the time DayZ stand-alone comes out, but I'll miss that.
As to features going missing, it is cheaper for devs to cut ones that aren't ready, than spend the time/money to fix them or work on them.
And that is the long and short of it.
Yes they do cut key features near the end -- but the very worst is when they ditch some major feature near the end and replace it with something cobbled together at the last minute that is at best blandly standard. When you throw out something major and then end up rapid-coding some filler to take its place -- it always ends up longing.
When the decision for any feature is "This isnt going to work" or "We simply do not have the time now to finish it so yank" near the end, disaster always seems to strike.
I self identify as a monkey.