I am sure there is a fair dose of stress testing involved as well. It is kinda funny though - this is probably the easiest beta I have ever helped with
95% of all percentages quoted on the internet are made up on the spot 50% of the time.
Server stability, sometimes quest text can crash clients. I had a bug where opening my quest log would crash my client until I completed the quest. This only happened after the game was translated. I doubt a bug like this would have been found inhouse and it would have been a very annoying bug on release. I'm sure that isn't the only bug of this nature they've found.
Also they want opinions on certain things such as the Character length of player names was way too short for example. Also these events are more preview events, I wouldn't have preordered Aion without them, it gives a sense of how many people they should expect to be playing Aion so there isn't a 2 hour queue on launch. I know Lineage 2 launch had just 3 servers, guess how hard it was to get in?
So we are testing the English translations of the game for quests and dialog? Isn't that proofreading, which you can do by yourself? You don't need "beta testers" to proof read.
This far into a game's development, it's mostly polish, so you are correct that a certain level of proofreading is involved in that. If it's following the pattern of most MMO development cycles, right now they are looking for terrain glitches, broken quests, visible debug/invalid strings, texture problems, playability, and what areas/quests are getting the most traffic or being ignored/avoided.
There's two other reasons for the Closed Betas. The most obvious of the two is marketing. The other is that you have a core group of people with familiarity with the game at release. These are the players that will relatively quickly start seeding the auction house and setting up shops, thus kickstarting the market. These players will also advance faster, spreading the players out more and avoiding congestion in the early zones at release. It's one of the reasons for 'head start' incentives for preorder customers.
-- Whammy - a 64x64 miniRPG - RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right? - FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
Its purely marketing - were playing v 1.0 when we play the full release its 1.5 which includes alot more quests, who is proofreading those?
Yep. The best marketing for MMOs is the player-base itself. What's the first thing you do when you play a really fun MMO?... you tell all your friends (that are interested in MMOs) about it. They check it out, they tell all their friends... etc etc.
Granted, the game actually has to be good for a "Free Preview" type of thing to work. But Aion is a pretty good game.
It's basically a cheaper way of advertising as it targets exactly the people they want to reach.
Don't buy into the localization thing, that stuff has been largely completed for a long time. As the previous poster said, we're getting a version with tons of added content that won't ever be touched prior to launch by the English speaking crowd. They are just trying to generate interest and while doing so they are buying time to launch with the most current version of the game(currently in testing in Korea). It's important for a game to put its best foot forward in today's MMO culture... games live and die by how well they are received at launch.
English checking, providing something for pre-orders while also getting an idea on numbers of servers they'll need at release. Pre order offering a late-stage beta access is something very common nowadays, CO, MO (in MO case it's something like an Alpha yet), Aion are doing it and we've seen it in the past with GW and probably other games I don't remember.
Also they are getting a few ideas for features that apparently koreans didn't care to feedback about requesting, like the invert mouse option.
NCSoft marketing strategy is usually to let the players word of mouth do the job - offering them opportunities to play the game without paying is a great way of doing it if you know your game is fun and is there to last for long (yeah, we have the Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa in the past but these were exclusively for the western market, Aion is already a huge success in Asia so there is nothing to worry about lack of popularity danger).
There will be an open beta for all those that wish to try the game without preordering it.
So we are testing the English translations of the game for quests and dialog? Isn't that proofreading, which you can do by yourself? You don't need "beta testers" to proof read.
Yes, you go proofread an enitre MMORPG and tell me how long it takes you
Not only that, but they do have to host it on servers, and make sure the servers are set up and working correctly. Would you rather play it when the servers are crashing, the game isn't setup right on the server, and the translations are barely even there because the novels worth of dialog had to be outsourced to some Chinese workers who barely even know pseudo-English because the cost would have been HUGE doing it in the states.
Yes, the previous poster was correct, it's much longer than a "How I spend my summer essay" frankly, it's probably a bit longer than most large books, even volumes of novels. You forget the amount of text invloved. Every pop-up, all of the EULA and TOS, all quest dialog and options, every kill message, every error message, all the damage messages, place names, misc. messages, tutorials, signs, it goes on. Next to that, there was also English voiceover work, which applies not to the beta, but to the fact they couldn't just do 'every themselves'.
____________________________ Telthalion Rohircil - Guardian - Elemandir - Lord of The Rings Online --- == RIP == Torey - Commando - Orion - Tabula Rasa == RIP == --- Jordaniel Torey - Navy Megathron, Active Armor Tank - Tranquility - EVE Online --- Torey Scott - Rifleman - Fallen Earth ____________________________
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but I know World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." - Albert Einstein
There looking at possible box sales and some minor changes. There gonna have problems with continued subscriptions unless they make some changes geared toward westernize game play.
" Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Those Who Would Threaten It " MAGA
So we are testing the English translations of the game for quests and dialog? Isn't that proofreading, which you can do by yourself? You don't need "beta testers" to proof read.
There is no purpose to this so called beta other then to throw the Aion community a carrot to keep interest up. The release patch is being tested in the korean test server. Nobody is giving feedback to the english translations. 955 of the bug people are reporting are resolved in the 1.5 patch release version. If this was a real beta, we would be testing the release patch as well as all levels. A real beta would not just be limited to a few days a month. A real beta would not be giving away beta keys on joe blow forums to tom dick and harry. A real beta would want to know what your system specs are. A real beta would lay out objectives for the beta testers. A real beta would provide feedback to the beta testers. A real beta would not let the beta forums become the joke that they are. A real beta would be... well real.
Comments
It's a bit lengthier than a "How I spent my summer" essay....
I am sure there is a fair dose of stress testing involved as well. It is kinda funny though - this is probably the easiest beta I have ever helped with
95% of all percentages quoted on the internet are made up on the spot 50% of the time.
Server stability, sometimes quest text can crash clients. I had a bug where opening my quest log would crash my client until I completed the quest. This only happened after the game was translated. I doubt a bug like this would have been found inhouse and it would have been a very annoying bug on release. I'm sure that isn't the only bug of this nature they've found.
Also they want opinions on certain things such as the Character length of player names was way too short for example. Also these events are more preview events, I wouldn't have preordered Aion without them, it gives a sense of how many people they should expect to be playing Aion so there isn't a 2 hour queue on launch. I know Lineage 2 launch had just 3 servers, guess how hard it was to get in?
This far into a game's development, it's mostly polish, so you are correct that a certain level of proofreading is involved in that. If it's following the pattern of most MMO development cycles, right now they are looking for terrain glitches, broken quests, visible debug/invalid strings, texture problems, playability, and what areas/quests are getting the most traffic or being ignored/avoided.
There's two other reasons for the Closed Betas. The most obvious of the two is marketing. The other is that you have a core group of people with familiarity with the game at release. These are the players that will relatively quickly start seeding the auction house and setting up shops, thus kickstarting the market. These players will also advance faster, spreading the players out more and avoiding congestion in the early zones at release. It's one of the reasons for 'head start' incentives for preorder customers.
- RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right?
- FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
Its purely marketing - were playing v 1.0
when we play the full release its 1.5 which includes alot more quests, who is proofreading those?
Yep. The best marketing for MMOs is the player-base itself. What's the first thing you do when you play a really fun MMO?... you tell all your friends (that are interested in MMOs) about it. They check it out, they tell all their friends... etc etc.
Granted, the game actually has to be good for a "Free Preview" type of thing to work. But Aion is a pretty good game.
It's basically a cheaper way of advertising as it targets exactly the people they want to reach.
Don't buy into the localization thing, that stuff has been largely completed for a long time. As the previous poster said, we're getting a version with tons of added content that won't ever be touched prior to launch by the English speaking crowd. They are just trying to generate interest and while doing so they are buying time to launch with the most current version of the game(currently in testing in Korea). It's important for a game to put its best foot forward in today's MMO culture... games live and die by how well they are received at launch.
English checking, providing something for pre-orders while also getting an idea on numbers of servers they'll need at release. Pre order offering a late-stage beta access is something very common nowadays, CO, MO (in MO case it's something like an Alpha yet), Aion are doing it and we've seen it in the past with GW and probably other games I don't remember.
Also they are getting a few ideas for features that apparently koreans didn't care to feedback about requesting, like the invert mouse option.
NCSoft marketing strategy is usually to let the players word of mouth do the job - offering them opportunities to play the game without paying is a great way of doing it if you know your game is fun and is there to last for long (yeah, we have the Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa in the past but these were exclusively for the western market, Aion is already a huge success in Asia so there is nothing to worry about lack of popularity danger).
There will be an open beta for all those that wish to try the game without preordering it.
Yes, you go proofread an enitre MMORPG and tell me how long it takes you
Not only that, but they do have to host it on servers, and make sure the servers are set up and working correctly. Would you rather play it when the servers are crashing, the game isn't setup right on the server, and the translations are barely even there because the novels worth of dialog had to be outsourced to some Chinese workers who barely even know pseudo-English because the cost would have been HUGE doing it in the states.
Yes, the previous poster was correct, it's much longer than a "How I spend my summer essay" frankly, it's probably a bit longer than most large books, even volumes of novels. You forget the amount of text invloved. Every pop-up, all of the EULA and TOS, all quest dialog and options, every kill message, every error message, all the damage messages, place names, misc. messages, tutorials, signs, it goes on. Next to that, there was also English voiceover work, which applies not to the beta, but to the fact they couldn't just do 'every themselves'.
____________________________
Telthalion Rohircil - Guardian - Elemandir - Lord of The Rings Online
---
== RIP == Torey - Commando - Orion - Tabula Rasa == RIP ==
---
Jordaniel Torey - Navy Megathron, Active Armor Tank - Tranquility - EVE Online
---
Torey Scott - Rifleman - Fallen Earth
____________________________
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but I know World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." - Albert Einstein
There looking at possible box sales and some minor changes. There gonna have problems with continued subscriptions unless they make some changes geared toward westernize game play.
MAGA
There is no purpose to this so called beta other then to throw the Aion community a carrot to keep interest up. The release patch is being tested in the korean test server. Nobody is giving feedback to the english translations. 955 of the bug people are reporting are resolved in the 1.5 patch release version. If this was a real beta, we would be testing the release patch as well as all levels. A real beta would not just be limited to a few days a month. A real beta would not be giving away beta keys on joe blow forums to tom dick and harry. A real beta would want to know what your system specs are. A real beta would lay out objectives for the beta testers. A real beta would provide feedback to the beta testers. A real beta would not let the beta forums become the joke that they are. A real beta would be... well real.