I am 100% sure the game will be delayed. I said so publicly 1-2 weeks before last delay and I shall say it again. Sometime Februar the delay will be announced. And hopefully it gives FC more time to solve the mess they are in.
Take the combat system for example. Alledgedly not working very well judging the official forums.
I think there is a chance that Norway's biggest entertainment project will be a vanguardesque nightmare. Maybe worse. Reason why there will be no open beta test. I think there might be mass exodus and outcrys from the very fanbois themselves.
I don't hate AOC, but the more I read up on it, the more closely I follow, the more annoyed I am with FC's handling of it. The PR sucks. They seem to try to sell the game with boobs, lurid things (and I am NO purist and neither easily shocked), stale humour, rather than suspenseful, immersive updates, giving good information about the game. It just doesn't work for me.
I sincerely fear that Hyboria will be one pretty, bugged little world that after 3-5 months will be very, very empty. And I bet you my old bicycle, that the Xbox version will be cancelled. Just mark my words and wait and see.
It's not quite as bad as Vanguard was 2 months from launch. It performs better on low settings than Vanguard (still looks like crap though) and it has a bit more content done. On the other side, it still needs a lot more content and it has a memory leak that they ju7st don't seem able to track down.
I think I will be waiting this one out for a few months to see how they do.
seems to me, without open beta its like they're hiding something from us. open betas have become more like trials in the mmorpg genre and i like it like that. too much crap coming out lately to have it any other way really. i'm still lookin forward to the game but they lost my $ initially at least. i don't buy blind, we've all been fooled with these type of game.
Pretty much my point exactly. They are just being ignorant or they are out of money and it's time to launch it's really that simple. We don't have nearly enough info about this game for me to drop $50, because if I don't like it I can never play it again without dropping another 14.99, it's not like a single player game where I can just wait for that first good patch to fix everything.
Like I said above, and many other people have as well, with just 2 months until launch where is all the info about the game? And I think Avery works for Funcom :P
AmazingAveryAge of Conan AdvocateMemberUncommonPosts: 7,188
Originally posted by Maverick123w
Like I said above, and many other people have as well, with just 2 months until launch where is all the info about the game? And I think Avery works for Funcom :P
Expect alot of stuff to appear Monday 21st / Tuesday 22nd from the weekend previous. Ill be bringing home hours and hours of video footage hopefully!! and lots of answers to alot of people's questions!
Like I said above, and many other people have as well, with just 2 months until launch where is all the info about the game? And I think Avery works for Funcom :P
Expect alot of stuff to appear Monday 21st / Tuesday 22nd from the weekend previous. Ill be bringing home hours and hours of video footage hopefully!! and lots of answers to alot of people's questions!
Haha your question just shows how much BS the term "Open Beta" has become.
The fact that people are considering not buying a game because they don't get a chance to TEST it shows that these things are not tests.
What you want is a FREE TRIAL. Not an open beta. They may have become the same thing but they are not the same thing.
No MMORPG should ever have an Open Beta prior to release, because no one comes to actually test. The most they should do is preview events like Guild Wars has done in the past.
It's a TEST drive for people. Obviously the game is done by the time open beta rolls around. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't buy a car without a TEST drive.
I wouldn't buy a car that was still in the testng stages.
Haha your question just shows how much BS the term "Open Beta" has become.
The fact that people are considering not buying a game because they don't get a chance to TEST it shows that these things are not tests.
What you want is a FREE TRIAL. Not an open beta. They may have become the same thing but they are not the same thing.
No MMORPG should ever have an Open Beta prior to release, because no one comes to actually test. The most they should do is preview events like Guild Wars has done in the past.
It's a TEST drive for people. Obviously the game is done by the time open beta rolls around. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't buy a car without a TEST drive.
I wouldn't buy a car that was still in the testng stages.
Me neither, but I wouldn't have bought a plane or a space shuttle that was in testing stages either. Software made for the sole purpose of entertainment on the other hand...
Haha your question just shows how much BS the term "Open Beta" has become.
The fact that people are considering not buying a game because they don't get a chance to TEST it shows that these things are not tests.
What you want is a FREE TRIAL. Not an open beta. They may have become the same thing but they are not the same thing.
No MMORPG should ever have an Open Beta prior to release, because no one comes to actually test. The most they should do is preview events like Guild Wars has done in the past.
I believe, you are very much mistaken if you think a company can "test" any kind of software and fix most of the bugs and stamp new CDs and distribute packaged game to all retailer across the world in just couple of weeks. This takes at least a month even today with all our efficiency and technology.
Open Beta is usually used for promotion of a product. Nothing more. What worries people now is that developers do not believe that their product can advertise itself if people would try it.
The simple fact is that many devs do use Open Beta as an honest to goodness test.
Case in point Tabula Rasa. Richard Garriot even said this mentality was a big mistake. And he is right it was.
Another fact is that outside of the gaming industry Open Betas are in fact still in the testing stages. They generally are considered pretty solid but not completely solid and the devs know there may be a few embarassing things in there but its mostly operational.
Some very large products are sometimes put into Beta for a year or so and then distributed to let bleeding edge type people work out all the kinks. Microsoft did this with Visual Studio. And yes MS did use this to market to some degree.
But here is the kicker the MMORPG mentality is completely adverse to this. You should never do this as an MMORPG company. You aren't selling a product that mostly works for what you need it to do. An MMORPG needs to be on rails. That is the lesson of Blizzard.
The fact is Open Beta as the term is normally used outside the gaming industry is a horribly misleading QA disaster that MMORPG devs should run away from as fast as they can.
Preview events are fine, but never ever ever fool yourself into thinking it is part of the testing process. Using a preview event to do some stress testing is fine too.
Notice I am not saying they shouldn't have a preview event. Guild Wars preview events were great for the game. The population doubled temporarily. New people tried out the game in general. Old players tried out new stuff. And the devs collected all kinds of stress test and skill use data for later tweaking.
But that is not an Open Beta. Open Betas DO in fact EXPOSE BUGS and are meant to do so. You should never willingly expose MMORPG customers to bugs. Because they will punish and punish you badly for it.
MMORPGs are constantly tweaking things for balance or to fix little things here and there. By the time of a so called "Open Beta" the game MUST be in this state. This is not Open Beta unless you believe that MMORPGs are constantly in Open Beta. This is the beginning of the maintenance phase.
An MMORPG company should never show anything to the public that is not on the cusp of entering the maintenance phase. The fact is that in the past MMORPGs companies other than Guild Wars were running real Open Betas with many bugs to fix. Even WoW had a rather bug ladden Open Beta, Blizzard gets forgiven for that for some reason that is hard to grasp. The market no longer works that way. It is much more like a car.
No one buys a car in the testing stages and if you let people drive around in a car still in the testing phase you would get pummeled by word of mouth. You only let reviewers you know will take things into a forgiving light because of the testing part have any real official look at things.
Once you open the gates its not in testing anymore. This is basic human psychology that all software developers become familiar with. You can give a customer fifty billion qualifications and "its in testing" statements, but once you tell them to use it. Its a release and they expect perfection and all deviations from their flawed conception of perfection is the developer's fault, even their own stupidity.
This is why the GW model is so smart. Its because they take it away and you don't get a release for at least a month or so maybe more. They do a little sleight of mind with customer. They make it brief and they stay on message. "Hey we are letting you in on what is going on, but just for a peek."
But look at the more traditional Open Beta of TR they did over a month of Open Beta then ran release a week later. In people's minds this means the game released when Open Beta started. They opened the gates, its a release. Saying it isn't doesn't mean poop.
You should NEVER ever do an Open Beta in any form for MMORPGs. Do a quick preview and take it away immediately. Never let it be a release until you release. Two - three days nothing more. Maybe a few iterations of that spaced at least a few weeks apart. And only do visible portions of the game you feel should not have "Test" in them in any manner. Tweak is fine. Test is bad. Stuff the customer can't see is fine to test unless it causes major problems. Anything other than that will be bad for the game.
There is only one reason any one in this thread can even come close to stating for a "Test" that they can openly access and that reason is volume. Well you don't need an Open Beta for volume. You just need people to login and that is easy to get without airing your dirty laundry.
All projects no matter how nice they appear have dirty laundry and you can never ever show that dirty laundry no matter how reasonable it is compared to other projects. People will not and are incapable of saying that is reasonable they will simply react unfavorably because its dirty laundry.
Haha your question just shows how much BS the term "Open Beta" has become.
The fact that people are considering not buying a game because they don't get a chance to TEST it shows that these things are not tests.
What you want is a FREE TRIAL. Not an open beta. They may have become the same thing but they are not the same thing.
No MMORPG should ever have an Open Beta prior to release, because no one comes to actually test. The most they should do is preview events like Guild Wars has done in the past.
It's a TEST drive for people. Obviously the game is done by the time open beta rolls around. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't buy a car without a TEST drive.
I wouldn't buy a car that was still in the testng stages.
Me neither, but I wouldn't have bought a plane or a space shuttle that was in testing stages either. Software made for the sole purpose of entertainment on the other hand...
Sorry the principle holds up either way.
You are merely stating that games are not as dangerous to use and therefore you are fine taking a risk.
Point is you acknowledged the risk and therefore the STATE of something in testing. Namely that it is not finished and solid.
People clearly are trying to have it both ways they want it to be both a test and trial of the finsihed product. Well only a company run by fools would let you evaluate a test product as if it were a release. You don't TEST drive test cars. You test drive released final product cars. Only professional reviewers with an understanding are allowed to TEST drive TEST cars.
Finally in the end polish is the last thing done but also one of the things that has the greatest effect on the average customer. Things in the Test phase generally lack this anyway.
An average person could drive the fastest, most reliable car but won't pay for it without the leather interior. The car companies don't let people even see that car without the leather interior. They will let a professional reviewer do that, maybe, if they know the guy and think it won't affect the review.
Every statement of concern in this thread boils down to one thing. They want a test drive. Fine I understand, I prefer games with free trials. And I certainly do not buy a game without some serious research into gameplay.
But understand this no test drive at all is better than a test drive of a test product. If you are applying the word "test" to anything customers CANNOT see it.
People want a preview event or free trial fine great. But if I were a Funcom dev and people demanded an Open Beta TEST I would laugh at your neurotic asses. Maybe I am just jaded from dealing with too many software customers of my own, but the amazing consistency of the way people act tells that I am being realistic.
Would I buy AOC without some kind of preview or free trial? NO. Absolutely not. The gameplay stuff is to up in the air. I would need to try it out. Would Open Beta be an advantageous time to get exposure to that? Yes personally it would be. But Funcom would be foolish to have a traditional Open Beta even with all those thing being true.
Hmmm i don't know. Did Funcom learn about the horrfic launch of Anarchy Online ? An open beta allow to see how the servers handle stress. No open beta, i feel launch will he hellish again.
Hmmm i don't know. Did Funcom learn about the horrfic launch of Anarchy Online ? An open beta allow to see how the servers handle stress. No open beta, i feel launch will he hellish again.
The reason for no open beta is simple Funcom doesn’t want players to know about the still huge issues with the game...but we know they exist anyway ....so.....
...here we are again with a MMO destined for lackluster sales and subs. Pretty sad when E A s WAR turns out to be the great white hope of MMO's.
That's why I honestly believe the next big MMo isn't going to come from an established developer, it's going to come from a small Indy developer and take everyone by surprise. I just wish who ever the hell it is would come on the scene already and save us from the Mounds of shit Millions of dollars is buying us.
Hmmm i don't know. Did Funcom learn about the horrfic launch of Anarchy Online ? An open beta allow to see how the servers handle stress. No open beta, i feel launch will he hellish again.
The reason for no open beta is simple Funcom doesn’t want players to know about the still huge issues with the game...but we know they exist anyway ....so.....
...here we are again with a MMO destined for lackluster sales and subs. Pretty sad when E A s WAR turns out to be the great white hope of MMO's.
That's why I honestly believe the next big MMo isn't going to come from an established developer, it's going to come from a small Indy developer and take everyone by surprise. I just wish who ever the hell it is would come on the scene already and save us from the Mounds of shit Millions of dollars is buying us.
If you want an "open beta" so much just pretend the first 30 free days is the beta.
Theres been so many mmorpgs released with big promises, good graphics, and the like that for me i won't buy a mmorpg i can't play first. Why would i? I've wasted enough money on mmorpgs i didn't get a chance to test first. It honestly is the devs not wanting people to be scared off by the poor quality game.
If you want to test a game before playing, wait till a Trial is offered.
Simplest thing in the world. I don't know why people are whining so much.
Theres been so many mmorpgs released with big promises, good graphics, and the like that for me i won't buy a mmorpg i can't play first. Why would i? I've wasted enough money on mmorpgs i didn't get a chance to test first. It honestly is the devs not wanting people to be scared off by the poor quality game.
If you want to test a game before playing, wait till a Trial is offered.
Simplest thing in the world. I don't know why people are whining so much.
2 years from release with the first expansion is not what people want. By the time a trial is released everyone on the servers would have become so far ahead of new players that you have to play catch up, both in knowledge and ability.
Open beta's are important, not to test the game no no no no. But to test the server, even moreso having a "preview" for one weekend and that's it. It let's them test their server technology on a realistic scale, but it always give them a view of what the audience for the game will be upon release.
Look at world of warcraft, the game's ob was filled in almost no time, i barely got into it. And i loved the game, and guess what? I'll still say quality wise, wow is the best mmo out there(even though i am completely bored of it atm.
And the ob was packed, the servers could barely handle it, on release the people coming in were so overwhelming that even with the ob experience they were surprised, and that's where most of the problems came from, they weren't prepared. Heck i actually left my rl friends server because it was so unplayable(and i didn't want to be horde at that time).
I can't imagine the servers on release without a open beta, with the then current mmo subscription standards it would have killed wow.
Theres no reason for no OB or preview without the intention to hide something.
There are quite many reasons, and they have been stated throughout this thread.
Many MMO players today, like yourself, are spoiled. They think they deserve a free shot at the game before it is even finished! That's kinda like going to a car retailer and telling him "Hey, you know that new BMW coming out next month? I want to test-drive that now!" What do you think the answer to that request would be? Hm?
Open Beta's are used for stress-testing of the servers primarily and FunCom is doing that by inviting more people by themselves instead of just opening it up to the general public. References to WoW in this case are moot, since AoC, by default, will cater to a smaller player-group (Mature Rating). Think of that what you will, but it is certainly (in my opinion) no intention of -hiding- anything. As stated above, news still get out and not just from FunCom, you know.
If you want to test a game, wait for a Free Trial. Your point of a trial being released only a year after launch is pretty much invalid, because Free Trials are given to games much sooner on a regular basis. Apart from the fact that you have no idea what kind of Launch-Promotions FunCom will do once AoC is released.
If you can't wait till you get a free trial, well then, risk it and buy it and play it free fr a month, or don't wait and play something else.
Again, I fail to see where the whine has any substantial basis. Open Beta /= Free Trial.
Theres been so many mmorpgs released with big promises, good graphics, and the like that for me i won't buy a mmorpg i can't play first. Why would i? I've wasted enough money on mmorpgs i didn't get a chance to test first. It honestly is the devs not wanting people to be scared off by the poor quality game.
If you want to test a game before playing, wait till a Trial is offered.
Simplest thing in the world. I don't know why people are whining so much.
2 years from release with the first expansion is not what people want. By the time a trial is released everyone on the servers would have become so far ahead of new players that you have to play catch up, both in knowledge and ability.
Open beta's are important, not to test the game no no no no. But to test the server, even moreso having a "preview" for one weekend and that's it. It let's them test their server technology on a realistic scale, but it always give them a view of what the audience for the game will be upon release.
Look at world of warcraft, the game's ob was filled in almost no time, i barely got into it. And i loved the game, and guess what? I'll still say quality wise, wow is the best mmo out there(even though i am completely bored of it atm.
And the ob was packed, the servers could barely handle it, on release the people coming in were so overwhelming that even with the ob experience they were surprised, and that's where most of the problems came from, they weren't prepared. Heck i actually left my rl friends server because it was so unplayable(and i didn't want to be horde at that time).
I can't imagine the servers on release without a open beta, with the then current mmo subscription standards it would have killed wow.
Theres no reason for no OB or preview without the intention to hide something.
Translation: If I can't trial the unfinished game it must be a bad game.
Translation: If I can't trial the unfinished game it must be a bad game.
Intelligence in that thinking = 0
Of course.
Interestingly enough however, Open Betas are not "unfinished games". They typically occur after a game goes "Gold" and are in fact, the most finished version of the game, more finished than the disc version.
So, lets reword your translation a bit:
"If I can't trial a 'finished' game and the testers aren't allowed to give their opinions freely, it must be a bad game."
SW:G springs to mind.... LOL.
By 'finished' I mean, RELEASED version of the game. I know MMORPG's are never "finished", but there is a state where you say "Ok, we've crammed enough into the game to make it complete even if we never added another single thing to it". That SHOULD be the release version. Bug fixes don't matter. Its finished and balanced skills/classes/content/PvP/items/etc.
Comments
It's not quite as bad as Vanguard was 2 months from launch. It performs better on low settings than Vanguard (still looks like crap though) and it has a bit more content done. On the other side, it still needs a lot more content and it has a memory leak that they ju7st don't seem able to track down.
I think I will be waiting this one out for a few months to see how they do.
seems to me, without open beta its like they're hiding something from us.
open betas have become more like trials in the mmorpg genre and i like it like that. too much crap coming out lately to have it any other way really.
i'm still lookin forward to the game but they lost my $ initially at least. i don't buy blind, we've all been fooled with these type of game.
Pretty much my point exactly. They are just being ignorant or they are out of money and it's time to launch it's really that simple. We don't have nearly enough info about this game for me to drop $50, because if I don't like it I can never play it again without dropping another 14.99, it's not like a single player game where I can just wait for that first good patch to fix everything.
Like I said above, and many other people have as well, with just 2 months until launch where is all the info about the game? And I think Avery works for Funcom :P
And no I dont work for FC lol :P
And no I dont work for FC lol :P
They should hire you then
Little birdy said : There is little hope game will be ready for march release
It's a TEST drive for people. Obviously the game is done by the time open beta rolls around. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't buy a car without a TEST drive.
I wouldn't buy a car that was still in the testng stages.
It's a TEST drive for people. Obviously the game is done by the time open beta rolls around. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't buy a car without a TEST drive.
I wouldn't buy a car that was still in the testng stages.
Me neither, but I wouldn't have bought a plane or a space shuttle that was in testing stages either. Software made for the sole purpose of entertainment on the other hand...
Open Beta is usually used for promotion of a product. Nothing more. What worries people now is that developers do not believe that their product can advertise itself if people would try it.
The simple fact is that many devs do use Open Beta as an honest to goodness test.Case in point Tabula Rasa. Richard Garriot even said this mentality was a big mistake. And he is right it was.
Another fact is that outside of the gaming industry Open Betas are in fact still in the testing stages. They generally are considered pretty solid but not completely solid and the devs know there may be a few embarassing things in there but its mostly operational.
Some very large products are sometimes put into Beta for a year or so and then distributed to let bleeding edge type people work out all the kinks. Microsoft did this with Visual Studio. And yes MS did use this to market to some degree.
But here is the kicker the MMORPG mentality is completely adverse to this. You should never do this as an MMORPG company. You aren't selling a product that mostly works for what you need it to do. An MMORPG needs to be on rails. That is the lesson of Blizzard.
The fact is Open Beta as the term is normally used outside the gaming industry is a horribly misleading QA disaster that MMORPG devs should run away from as fast as they can.
Preview events are fine, but never ever ever fool yourself into thinking it is part of the testing process. Using a preview event to do some stress testing is fine too.
Notice I am not saying they shouldn't have a preview event. Guild Wars preview events were great for the game. The population doubled temporarily. New people tried out the game in general. Old players tried out new stuff. And the devs collected all kinds of stress test and skill use data for later tweaking.
But that is not an Open Beta. Open Betas DO in fact EXPOSE BUGS and are meant to do so. You should never willingly expose MMORPG customers to bugs. Because they will punish and punish you badly for it.
MMORPGs are constantly tweaking things for balance or to fix little things here and there. By the time of a so called "Open Beta" the game MUST be in this state. This is not Open Beta unless you believe that MMORPGs are constantly in Open Beta. This is the beginning of the maintenance phase.
An MMORPG company should never show anything to the public that is not on the cusp of entering the maintenance phase. The fact is that in the past MMORPGs companies other than Guild Wars were running real Open Betas with many bugs to fix. Even WoW had a rather bug ladden Open Beta, Blizzard gets forgiven for that for some reason that is hard to grasp. The market no longer works that way. It is much more like a car.
No one buys a car in the testing stages and if you let people drive around in a car still in the testing phase you would get pummeled by word of mouth. You only let reviewers you know will take things into a forgiving light because of the testing part have any real official look at things.
Once you open the gates its not in testing anymore. This is basic human psychology that all software developers become familiar with. You can give a customer fifty billion qualifications and "its in testing" statements, but once you tell them to use it. Its a release and they expect perfection and all deviations from their flawed conception of perfection is the developer's fault, even their own stupidity.
This is why the GW model is so smart. Its because they take it away and you don't get a release for at least a month or so maybe more. They do a little sleight of mind with customer. They make it brief and they stay on message. "Hey we are letting you in on what is going on, but just for a peek."
But look at the more traditional Open Beta of TR they did over a month of Open Beta then ran release a week later. In people's minds this means the game released when Open Beta started. They opened the gates, its a release. Saying it isn't doesn't mean poop.
You should NEVER ever do an Open Beta in any form for MMORPGs. Do a quick preview and take it away immediately. Never let it be a release until you release. Two - three days nothing more. Maybe a few iterations of that spaced at least a few weeks apart. And only do visible portions of the game you feel should not have "Test" in them in any manner. Tweak is fine. Test is bad. Stuff the customer can't see is fine to test unless it causes major problems. Anything other than that will be bad for the game.
There is only one reason any one in this thread can even come close to stating for a "Test" that they can openly access and that reason is volume. Well you don't need an Open Beta for volume. You just need people to login and that is easy to get without airing your dirty laundry.
All projects no matter how nice they appear have dirty laundry and you can never ever show that dirty laundry no matter how reasonable it is compared to other projects. People will not and are incapable of saying that is reasonable they will simply react unfavorably because its dirty laundry.
It's a TEST drive for people. Obviously the game is done by the time open beta rolls around. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't buy a car without a TEST drive.
I wouldn't buy a car that was still in the testng stages.
Me neither, but I wouldn't have bought a plane or a space shuttle that was in testing stages either. Software made for the sole purpose of entertainment on the other hand...
Sorry the principle holds up either way.You are merely stating that games are not as dangerous to use and therefore you are fine taking a risk.
Point is you acknowledged the risk and therefore the STATE of something in testing. Namely that it is not finished and solid.
People clearly are trying to have it both ways they want it to be both a test and trial of the finsihed product. Well only a company run by fools would let you evaluate a test product as if it were a release. You don't TEST drive test cars. You test drive released final product cars. Only professional reviewers with an understanding are allowed to TEST drive TEST cars.
Finally in the end polish is the last thing done but also one of the things that has the greatest effect on the average customer. Things in the Test phase generally lack this anyway.
An average person could drive the fastest, most reliable car but won't pay for it without the leather interior. The car companies don't let people even see that car without the leather interior. They will let a professional reviewer do that, maybe, if they know the guy and think it won't affect the review.
Every statement of concern in this thread boils down to one thing. They want a test drive. Fine I understand, I prefer games with free trials. And I certainly do not buy a game without some serious research into gameplay.
But understand this no test drive at all is better than a test drive of a test product. If you are applying the word "test" to anything customers CANNOT see it.
People want a preview event or free trial fine great. But if I were a Funcom dev and people demanded an Open Beta TEST I would laugh at your neurotic asses. Maybe I am just jaded from dealing with too many software customers of my own, but the amazing consistency of the way people act tells that I am being realistic.
Would I buy AOC without some kind of preview or free trial? NO. Absolutely not. The gameplay stuff is to up in the air. I would need to try it out. Would Open Beta be an advantageous time to get exposure to that? Yes personally it would be. But Funcom would be foolish to have a traditional Open Beta even with all those thing being true.
Hmmm i don't know. Did Funcom learn about the horrfic launch of Anarchy Online ? An open beta allow to see how the servers handle stress. No open beta, i feel launch will he hellish again.
The reason for no open beta is simple Funcom doesn’t want players to know about the still huge issues with the game...but we know they exist anyway ....so.....
...here we are again with a MMO destined for lackluster sales and subs.
That's why I honestly believe the next big MMo isn't going to come from an established developer, it's going to come from a small Indy developer and take everyone by surprise. I just wish who ever the hell it is would come on the scene already and save us from the Mounds of shit Millions of dollars is buying us.
The reason for no open beta is simple Funcom doesn’t want players to know about the still huge issues with the game...but we know they exist anyway ....so.....
...here we are again with a MMO destined for lackluster sales and subs.
That's why I honestly believe the next big MMo isn't going to come from an established developer, it's going to come from a small Indy developer and take everyone by surprise. I just wish who ever the hell it is would come on the scene already and save us from the Mounds of shit Millions of dollars is buying us.
If you want an "open beta" so much just pretend the first 30 free days is the beta.
Theres been so many mmorpgs released with big promises, good graphics, and the like that for me i won't buy a mmorpg i can't play first.
Why would i? I've wasted enough money on mmorpgs i didn't get a chance to test first.
It honestly is the devs not wanting people to be scared off by the poor quality game.
Simplest thing in the world. I don't know why people are whining so much.
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
Simplest thing in the world. I don't know why people are whining so much.
2 years from release with the first expansion is not what people want. By the time a trial is released everyone on the servers would have become so far ahead of new players that you have to play catch up, both in knowledge and ability.Open beta's are important, not to test the game no no no no. But to test the server, even moreso having a "preview" for one weekend and that's it. It let's them test their server technology on a realistic scale, but it always give them a view of what the audience for the game will be upon release.
Look at world of warcraft, the game's ob was filled in almost no time, i barely got into it. And i loved the game, and guess what? I'll still say quality wise, wow is the best mmo out there(even though i am completely bored of it atm.
And the ob was packed, the servers could barely handle it, on release the people coming in were so overwhelming that even with the ob experience they were surprised, and that's where most of the problems came from, they weren't prepared. Heck i actually left my rl friends server because it was so unplayable(and i didn't want to be horde at that time).
I can't imagine the servers on release without a open beta, with the then current mmo subscription standards it would have killed wow.
Theres no reason for no OB or preview without the intention to hide something.
wow with all this crying, you'd think school just got out.
There are quite many reasons, and they have been stated throughout this thread.
Many MMO players today, like yourself, are spoiled. They think they deserve a free shot at the game before it is even finished! That's kinda like going to a car retailer and telling him "Hey, you know that new BMW coming out next month? I want to test-drive that now!" What do you think the answer to that request would be? Hm?
Open Beta's are used for stress-testing of the servers primarily and FunCom is doing that by inviting more people by themselves instead of just opening it up to the general public. References to WoW in this case are moot, since AoC, by default, will cater to a smaller player-group (Mature Rating). Think of that what you will, but it is certainly (in my opinion) no intention of -hiding- anything. As stated above, news still get out and not just from FunCom, you know.
If you want to test a game, wait for a Free Trial. Your point of a trial being released only a year after launch is pretty much invalid, because Free Trials are given to games much sooner on a regular basis. Apart from the fact that you have no idea what kind of Launch-Promotions FunCom will do once AoC is released.
If you can't wait till you get a free trial, well then, risk it and buy it and play it free fr a month, or don't wait and play something else.
Again, I fail to see where the whine has any substantial basis. Open Beta /= Free Trial.
Edit: Highlited some text. <.<
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
Simplest thing in the world. I don't know why people are whining so much.
2 years from release with the first expansion is not what people want. By the time a trial is released everyone on the servers would have become so far ahead of new players that you have to play catch up, both in knowledge and ability.Open beta's are important, not to test the game no no no no. But to test the server, even moreso having a "preview" for one weekend and that's it. It let's them test their server technology on a realistic scale, but it always give them a view of what the audience for the game will be upon release.
Look at world of warcraft, the game's ob was filled in almost no time, i barely got into it. And i loved the game, and guess what? I'll still say quality wise, wow is the best mmo out there(even though i am completely bored of it atm.
And the ob was packed, the servers could barely handle it, on release the people coming in were so overwhelming that even with the ob experience they were surprised, and that's where most of the problems came from, they weren't prepared. Heck i actually left my rl friends server because it was so unplayable(and i didn't want to be horde at that time).
I can't imagine the servers on release without a open beta, with the then current mmo subscription standards it would have killed wow.
Theres no reason for no OB or preview without the intention to hide something.
Translation: If I can't trial the unfinished game it must be a bad game.Intelligence in that thinking = 0
Of course.
Interestingly enough however, Open Betas are not "unfinished games". They typically occur after a game goes "Gold" and are in fact, the most finished version of the game, more finished than the disc version.
So, lets reword your translation a bit:
"If I can't trial a 'finished' game and the testers aren't allowed to give their opinions freely, it must be a bad game."
SW:G springs to mind.... LOL.
By 'finished' I mean, RELEASED version of the game. I know MMORPG's are never "finished", but there is a state where you say "Ok, we've crammed enough into the game to make it complete even if we never added another single thing to it". That SHOULD be the release version. Bug fixes don't matter. Its finished and balanced skills/classes/content/PvP/items/etc.