NDA for UXO and NDAs on betas in general

Kiamde

Does anyone think that UXO's beta will have an NDA? Like most poeple know, I plan on writing 5 page reports on UXO everyday on mmorpg.com and it would be a shame if I had to *gasp* type them on Word and then post them when the NDA is lifted.

NDAs in general-

Everyone dislikes NDAs. They hide information from the people and people want to know everything. Horizons had its NDA lifted less than a week before its release which was not only suspicious but aggrovating. I made a poll. Please state your opinion and vote. A bit of a corny title but think about it before you vote.

No matter how cold the winter, theres a springtime ahead

Kiamde

By the way. 'Hype up a game' means that hiding information may make the public anxious and eager to get the game.

No matter how cold the winter, theres a springtime ahead

ParaTrooper

Like SWG their NDA  hyped up the game heaps.... once it was off it revealed SWG in it's true state.... need i say more? (acctually i think if there wasn't a nda in swg they'd have fixed it b4 release)

Lords Of The Mist - A World of Warcraft guild.
http://www.lordsofthemist.com/

ianubisi

NDAs are a bit of a catch-22 really.

On the one hand, you don't want to expose to the public elements of the game that are undergoing revision. Some people will latch on to a feature that may be phased out of Live, and if news of said feature reaches the public you've allowed an expectation to be set that isn't going to be met. That's not smart.

On the other hand, setting expectations of the actual features of the game can be done via Beta. When the product hits the streets, a good set of reports from Beta can help prospective players get a very good sense of what to expect and what not to expect.

It comes down to managing expectations. IMO, Beta is not there for the management of expectations...it's there to test the game. Early beta is for your main run with outside users, late beta is for stress-testing the infrastructure as well as a flood of (hopefully) minor bugs. It's about testing, not a feature exposition.

I think a company can still manage to keep NDAs and also keep info-hungry gamers in the loop. Doing developer diaries, giving screenshots, skill information, game mechanics insights, etc...all of that can allow prospective players to feel like they know what's going on without the developer losing the ability to properly manage a testing cycle.

BagItTagIt

I agree.  NDA's are a necessary evil IMO.  You don't want to be able to spurt out every cool aspect of the game that you see while beta testing, but at the same time you think other people should be able to know about some of it. 

i guess what I think is that we should leave informing the rest of us non-beta testere up to the Dev team, EA, etc.  uxo has been promoted very well thru site updates, screen shots, etc.  so i think nda's are a good thing.  and we'll still continue to get those updates from time to time to tide us over. 

only wish I had GOTTEN to BE A BETA TESTER!  arggggg....im infatuated with a game thats not even released yet...is that bad?  

TalionNelson

As disappointing and infuriating as an NDA may be for everyone that wants to know about a game prior to release, it is good business to have one, not only for consumer expectations but competitive reasons as well. It would not be cool if every game looked the same and had the same features.

Betas are meant to provide stress testing and real user feedback (developers are too close to the forest to see the trees) not pre-promotion of the game.

I still wish I got into the beta, too.

BagItTagIt

TailonNelson....I'm very impressed with the apprentice rating after only 1 post.  You must've done somethin right....heheh.

anyway...i agree with you completely.  what games have you been playing?  ive been toying with DAoC while waiting for the glory that will be uxo. 

Alistair

NDA's are definitely a necessary evil.  They allow devs to completely test every aspect of what they want to test without risk of upsetting public opinion.  This allows them to test less popular ideas without fans going "ewww...soandso game is going to have this instead of this now?  I'm not even going to bother with it.", even if such ideas are alternatives to other things and not actual replacements.  They also add an element of suspense to the game release.

I'd much rather have them test all the boring, unnecessary stuff during beta WITHOUT the public knowing about it.  Without the NDA, they just might as well test extra features after the game is realesed, and that's an even more distrubing prospect...Anyone remember SOE having the new run models patch for EQ a while ago?  WTF was that?  In my opinion, games shouldn't need to do that after they've been publicly released, especially in the hands of a company like SOE who couldn't even get the file patch right the first time...

Besides, in UXO's case, I'm sure EA will still release a lot to the public anyway...it's a beta, it's not like everyone needs to know exactly what's going on...leave that to the dev team and the testers and just be happy with the final product.

(And Kiamde, I'll be keeping a journal too, but that's just for my own personal use.  If EA doesn't let us post the stuff right away, it'll be ok.  It's not like there'll be that much to post anyway in the beginning.)

 

Kiamde

Well it seems like you all know what you want. Developers do have the right to put up NDAs but it still is disapointing. IF UXO has a longterm NDA I am going to freak.

If you go flying back through time and you see somebody else flying forward into the future, it's probably best to avoid eye contact.

Yordo

Whenever I'm in a beta with an NDA...and people start asking questions that i know...I want to just burst and give them the answer....but of course I could get totally busted

::Revan::Yordo::
EQ2
Guild Search

TalionNelson

BagItTagIt: For posting on this board, I'm almost afraid to say it, but I've not played an MMORPG for over 2 years since I quit EQ.  I've been a faithful PC gamer for some time, though (no consoles here), so I'm always doing something (like buying a Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB for HL2 that hasn't shown up ).

I've been watching the development of what I've been thinking of as the "Big 4" for some time: UX0, EQ2, WoW and Lin2.  I'm excited about this round of MMORPGs because of the more thoughtful and unique ways they're saying they're going to keep it fun for everyone.

A friend of mine constantly proselytizes the fabulousness of DAoC, but I've never picked it up and tried to get into it; now with the Big 4 on the radar screen, I'm not going to start anything new that I'm not already playing (SW: KOTOR, Halo PC, CoD) with the exception of a couple of upcoming single player games (Splinter Cell PT, HL2).

Waiting on the Big 4....

Yordo

Ya...u have 3 of them right

That is: EQ2, UXO, and Lineage 2

However, WoW is going to be a bust

::Revan::Yordo::
EQ2 Guild Search
UXO, Lineage 2, KO, Guild Wars, Dragon Empires, City of Heroes