This idea that Fileplanet offers a valuable service that is required by the gaming community is tosh, absolute rubbish.
Have you people never heard of P2P software? This is how blizzard disseminates their patches, in advance, to save their servers collapsing. All you need is say 10 Computers at your office running the P2P software with your Beta Client lined up and ready to go, within 10 hours you would have 1,000 computers with the client running, within 20 hours 10,000 computers ready for people to connect to and download.
This idea that fileplanet offers us anything that isn't available to us anyway is proof of the strength of their marketing bull. It isn't the truth and it isn't anywhere near the truth.
Games companies could easily put their Beta Clients out there with no trouble at all they don't need Fileplanet.
A lot of people are playing the betas for....FREE. !0,000 CB keys were given out on two different sites a week or so ago for Champions. All closed beta people didn't need to pay for OB, they were allowed in. I saw some sites still giving free keys away. Heck, I posted a link to one. There were other options other than paying. I got keys for my husband, 2 friends, and I. All were free. If you failed to get one of the MANY free keys, and then come here whining, then I have no sympathy for you.
Testing is still occurring during OB. Sure, many people use it as a trial, but there is still testing going on.
I never asked for a Key to the closed Beta.
My "whining" which is what apparently discussing something that happens in the MMORPG community without saying it is wonderful amounts to, is about the fact that an OPEN beta is not open if only select people can get into it and the fact that those people had to pay is outrageous and SHOULD be counter productive for the companies doing it.
But like soo many of the muppets on here, don't let the truth interupt your epeen stroking.
Originally posted by Dafong I never asked for a Key to the closed Beta. My "whining" which is what apparently discussing something that happens in the MMORPG community without saying it is wonderful amounts to, is about the fact that an OPEN beta is not open if only select people can get into it and the fact that those people had to pay is outrageous and SHOULD be counter productive for the companies doing it.
But like soo many of the muppets on here, don't let the truth interupt your epeen stroking.
This
Gods forbid that we discuss the business practices of MMO companies on a forum site ahout MMOs.
Face a few realities: What these companies are calling "open betas" are, in nearly all cases, hardware/network code stress-tests and demos for free marketing. The games have already gone to print, no significant content changes are being made and multiple devs have admitted as much in various interviews. Everything about these "open betas" is a service to the game company, not you as a player.
The current "standard" in the industry is for a cash-strapped company on the edge of failure to rush a faulty piece of garbage onto the shelves in the hope that box sales will at least pay off their debts before their numbers crash. With that kind of market, it is stupid to assume on faith that any game is even playable off the shelf, unless they prove it to you. Thus, the "open beta" as free trial/marketing ploy.
Lastly, there are multiple other options to FilePlanet - other sites that don't charge, other distribution methods.(Also, since $7 bucks is nothing, should MMORPG.com charge a few bucks a month for their services too?)
This idea that Fileplanet offers a valuable service that is required by the gaming community is tosh, absolute rubbish.
Have you people never heard of P2P software? This is how blizzard disseminates their patches, in advance, to save their servers collapsing. All you need is say 10 Computers at your office running the P2P software with your Beta Client lined up and ready to go, within 10 hours you would have 1,000 computers with the client running, within 20 hours 10,000 computers ready for people to connect to and download.
This idea that fileplanet offers us anything that isn't available to us anyway is proof of the strength of their marketing bull. It isn't the truth and it isn't anywhere near the truth.
Games companies could easily put their Beta Clients out there with no trouble at all they don't need Fileplanet.
Hey bro I am still awake too. I wouldn't go out and say fileplanet is a messiah to us gamers....this is how/why I paid the 5 dollah!
One day I deleted DAOC off my hard drive then next day Im like damn I still wanna play and I had just got 20.0 broadband and I said hell I got 6 bucks think I will use fileplanet to Download the full client and it was fast but then I started downloading all sorts of demo's and mods and I was like damn for 5 bucks it was worth it.
Bandwidth cost so do these servers! but.....now here is where I do agree with you on something. I think its weak for some of these companies that put patches and demo's only on fileplanet...but you can download most of that free. Plus check this out I wouldn't know about half of these games or demo's but on fileplanet there all consolidated and in one spot...so yeah maybe its marketing but hell id buy that for 5 dollah!
Every MMO launched in the last two years has been in a beta stage, imo. Get level 1 to 20 polished and you are ready to launch, seems to be the MMO mantra these days. So yes, we are all expected to pay for a beta, as alpha is a word which no longer applies to MMO’s until way after they have launched.
This idea that Fileplanet offers a valuable service that is required by the gaming community is tosh, absolute rubbish.
Have you people never heard of P2P software? This is how blizzard disseminates their patches, in advance, to save their servers collapsing. All you need is say 10 Computers at your office running the P2P software with your Beta Client lined up and ready to go, within 10 hours you would have 1,000 computers with the client running, within 20 hours 10,000 computers ready for people to connect to and download.
This idea that fileplanet offers us anything that isn't available to us anyway is proof of the strength of their marketing bull. It isn't the truth and it isn't anywhere near the truth.
Games companies could easily put their Beta Clients out there with no trouble at all they don't need Fileplanet.
Hey bro I am still awake too. I wouldn't go out and say fileplanet is a messiah to us gamers....this is how/why I paid the 5 dollah!
One day I deleted DAOC off my hard drive then next day Im like damn I still wanna play and I had just got 20.0 broadband and I said hell I got 6 bucks think I will use fileplanet to Download the full client and it was fast but then I started downloading all sorts of demo's and mods and I was like damn for 5 bucks it was worth it.
Bandwidth cost so do these servers! but.....now here is where I do agree with you on something. I think its weak for some of these companies that put patches and demo's only on fileplanet...but you can download most of that free. Plus check this out I wouldn't know about half of these games or demo's but on fileplanet there all consolidated and in one spot...so yeah maybe its marketing but hell id buy that for 5 dollah!
Still got that Champ beta for ya if you want it.
You offering me a champ beta key?
Chuck it over man. Would appreciate that. Can you send private messages on this board, I am assuming you can. I got a mail icon in the corner.
Can I suggest this to you also, sincerely, try investing your 7 bucks a month into a decent Usenet provider. Not only will you be able to download every single thing you could download from Fileplanet, but it also opens up a world of OTHER downloads that Fileplanet doesn't offer.
Of course it will mean going without the Beta options, but you seem adept at getting them anyway.
PM sent set up new password for ya and such so hope you dig it!
Thanks!
Although really i shouldn't be thanking you I been up since 7am yesterday and its now Midday and now you given me that beta key, its unlikely I will be going to sleep anytime soon.
Open Beta is a misnomer and gets argued about every time a game has one. All open beta means is that the game is no longer under NDA. It does /NOT/ mean that the game is open for everyone to play. That is simply marketing misdirection trying to get people hyped about the game and everyone knows controversy gets recognition.
This argument comes up every single time and people still argue about it. Whether or not you agree with Fileplanet, it provides a service. Whether that service is worth it, is up to you, the consumer. However, keep in mind that numbers do not lie. If FP wasn't successful, then why is it the largest kid on the block, as well as the most recognizable? Another thing to keep in mind is that you're paying FP to beta test, not the actual developers.
We all know Game companies are out to make money. If they could squeeze a few buck out of the beta lovers that can't wait for the official release so be it. Does this even matter? so what you need to have a 7 buck fileplanet account to play a Open beta. People act like that's a lot of cash or something. There was no rule that Open betas should be free. The OPs title asks "Why should anyone have to pay a companies open beta test?" I simply said he shouldn't if he doesn't want to. Also the OP goes off and starts a bitch fest crying how he won't ever buy a MMO that charges for a Beta lol. It's silly tbh. Seven bucks is real cheap for early access to a game you're dying to play I think every MMO should do this.
It is the principle of the matter not the amount.
These companies need us as customers to be successful, to be ripping us off at the earliest opportunity doesn't really bode well does it? While i understand the need to make money, I don't agree that ripping me off is acceptable. And to say, well they are only ripping me off to the tune of 7 bucks a month!
Its a damn cheek. They need us more then we need them, there are hundreds of MMORPGs and we can pick and choose whichever ones we want. How about a bit of common decency from the companies trying to take my money?
So what. These companies are ignoring your principles. What are you going to do? Boycott them? I don't think they need you.
My take is that the only principle that truly matters is that it is a free world. They are free to charge or make whatever deal. You are free to vote with your wallet.
There is really nothing else, aside from voting with your wallet, that you can do.
I understand your point OP but still as its been said if a company wants to charge for open beta and people are willing to pay then why not. They would not be able to charge for open beta if there wasn't a demand for it.
OP, you're confusing an open beta with a free trial. I'm sure you do want to get a look at all the latest and greatest games on release day, for free, in the same way that I'd like to get laid by a different supermodel every night of the week, but the reality is that the industry has never worked that way. MMOs don't start offering free trials until months after release. Open beta, despite what you may wish, is not an invitation for the cheapskate masses to come in for free samples. There is still testing going on, and these game companies have much more to be concerned about than some idiot who can't afford five bucks. If you wanted to see Champions and FE for free, you had ample opportunity to do so as they took thousands of beta testers over the past year. Pay up or stfu.
I think an Open beta now IS a free trial. The developers themselves have stated that by the stage of Open beta they are no longer beta testing the game. Aion has gone Gold BEFORE the Open beta. This means the game is ready to ship and they not done an Open Beta test yet.
No I won't pay up or STFU what I will do is ignore both games for the foreseeable future until they do Free Trials for 14 days etc.
Now while I am sure in your smugness you don't care, the company which will face a release that is less then what it could have been will care., the creditors will care, their shareholders will care, because they are out to make money and anything that diminishes that they will care about.
My message is more to them then to you, while you are a member of the community and it would be nice if you grew a back bone and stood up to these companies, thus sending a larger message, I have come to realise that some people are just fools, and fools and their money are easily parted. Thankfully there are enough people within the MMORPG community that are not fools and are not so easily parted from their money and they are the ones that make the difference between a GREAT launch of an MMORPG and a medioce launch of an MMORPG that is destined to be nothing more then a niche market game.
Blah blah blah, I'm entitled to free trials at release, gimme gimme gimme, blah blah blah.
As for your estimation of my backbone, that's really irrelevant. I've got disposable income, and I chose to spend a very small portion of it on a couple of FE pre-orders because I like what they tried to do with the game and I think the vast majority of the rest of the MMO industry is creatively bankrupt. The only one looking foolish in this conversation is the one expecting a handout.
Having tested the game extensively and been a part of the community since alpha, I can tell you that the FE devs know that they're making a niche game, it's you who is projecting your expectations of a "GREAT" launch onto a game you clearly know nothing about.
In the end, you come off as a whiny little bitch who didn't get his free toy. Good job on that.
Comments
This idea that Fileplanet offers a valuable service that is required by the gaming community is tosh, absolute rubbish.
Have you people never heard of P2P software? This is how blizzard disseminates their patches, in advance, to save their servers collapsing. All you need is say 10 Computers at your office running the P2P software with your Beta Client lined up and ready to go, within 10 hours you would have 1,000 computers with the client running, within 20 hours 10,000 computers ready for people to connect to and download.
This idea that fileplanet offers us anything that isn't available to us anyway is proof of the strength of their marketing bull. It isn't the truth and it isn't anywhere near the truth.
Games companies could easily put their Beta Clients out there with no trouble at all they don't need Fileplanet.
I never asked for a Key to the closed Beta.
My "whining" which is what apparently discussing something that happens in the MMORPG community without saying it is wonderful amounts to, is about the fact that an OPEN beta is not open if only select people can get into it and the fact that those people had to pay is outrageous and SHOULD be counter productive for the companies doing it.
But like soo many of the muppets on here, don't let the truth interupt your epeen stroking.
This
Gods forbid that we discuss the business practices of MMO companies on a forum site ahout MMOs.
Face a few realities: What these companies are calling "open betas" are, in nearly all cases, hardware/network code stress-tests and demos for free marketing. The games have already gone to print, no significant content changes are being made and multiple devs have admitted as much in various interviews. Everything about these "open betas" is a service to the game company, not you as a player.
The current "standard" in the industry is for a cash-strapped company on the edge of failure to rush a faulty piece of garbage onto the shelves in the hope that box sales will at least pay off their debts before their numbers crash. With that kind of market, it is stupid to assume on faith that any game is even playable off the shelf, unless they prove it to you. Thus, the "open beta" as free trial/marketing ploy.
Lastly, there are multiple other options to FilePlanet - other sites that don't charge, other distribution methods.(Also, since $7 bucks is nothing, should MMORPG.com charge a few bucks a month for their services too?)
Hey bro I am still awake too. I wouldn't go out and say fileplanet is a messiah to us gamers....this is how/why I paid the 5 dollah!
One day I deleted DAOC off my hard drive then next day Im like damn I still wanna play and I had just got 20.0 broadband and I said hell I got 6 bucks think I will use fileplanet to Download the full client and it was fast but then I started downloading all sorts of demo's and mods and I was like damn for 5 bucks it was worth it.
Bandwidth cost so do these servers! but.....now here is where I do agree with you on something. I think its weak for some of these companies that put patches and demo's only on fileplanet...but you can download most of that free. Plus check this out I wouldn't know about half of these games or demo's but on fileplanet there all consolidated and in one spot...so yeah maybe its marketing but hell id buy that for 5 dollah!
Still got that Champ beta for ya if you want it.
Every MMO launched in the last two years has been in a beta stage, imo. Get level 1 to 20 polished and you are ready to launch, seems to be the MMO mantra these days. So yes, we are all expected to pay for a beta, as alpha is a word which no longer applies to MMO’s until way after they have launched.
Hey bro I am still awake too. I wouldn't go out and say fileplanet is a messiah to us gamers....this is how/why I paid the 5 dollah!
One day I deleted DAOC off my hard drive then next day Im like damn I still wanna play and I had just got 20.0 broadband and I said hell I got 6 bucks think I will use fileplanet to Download the full client and it was fast but then I started downloading all sorts of demo's and mods and I was like damn for 5 bucks it was worth it.
Bandwidth cost so do these servers! but.....now here is where I do agree with you on something. I think its weak for some of these companies that put patches and demo's only on fileplanet...but you can download most of that free. Plus check this out I wouldn't know about half of these games or demo's but on fileplanet there all consolidated and in one spot...so yeah maybe its marketing but hell id buy that for 5 dollah!
Still got that Champ beta for ya if you want it.
You offering me a champ beta key?
Chuck it over man. Would appreciate that. Can you send private messages on this board, I am assuming you can. I got a mail icon in the corner.
Can I suggest this to you also, sincerely, try investing your 7 bucks a month into a decent Usenet provider. Not only will you be able to download every single thing you could download from Fileplanet, but it also opens up a world of OTHER downloads that Fileplanet doesn't offer.
Of course it will mean going without the Beta options, but you seem adept at getting them anyway.
PM sent set up new password for ya and such so hope you dig it!
Thanks!
Although really i shouldn't be thanking you I been up since 7am yesterday and its now Midday and now you given me that beta key, its unlikely I will be going to sleep anytime soon.
But seriously, thanks for the key.
haha no problem hope you enjoy it...like I said looks solid but not really my cup o tea
Open Beta is a misnomer and gets argued about every time a game has one. All open beta means is that the game is no longer under NDA. It does /NOT/ mean that the game is open for everyone to play. That is simply marketing misdirection trying to get people hyped about the game and everyone knows controversy gets recognition.
This argument comes up every single time and people still argue about it. Whether or not you agree with Fileplanet, it provides a service. Whether that service is worth it, is up to you, the consumer. However, keep in mind that numbers do not lie. If FP wasn't successful, then why is it the largest kid on the block, as well as the most recognizable? Another thing to keep in mind is that you're paying FP to beta test, not the actual developers.
It is the principle of the matter not the amount.
These companies need us as customers to be successful, to be ripping us off at the earliest opportunity doesn't really bode well does it? While i understand the need to make money, I don't agree that ripping me off is acceptable. And to say, well they are only ripping me off to the tune of 7 bucks a month!
Its a damn cheek. They need us more then we need them, there are hundreds of MMORPGs and we can pick and choose whichever ones we want. How about a bit of common decency from the companies trying to take my money?
So what. These companies are ignoring your principles. What are you going to do? Boycott them? I don't think they need you.
My take is that the only principle that truly matters is that it is a free world. They are free to charge or make whatever deal. You are free to vote with your wallet.
There is really nothing else, aside from voting with your wallet, that you can do.
I understand your point OP but still as its been said if a company wants to charge for open beta and people are willing to pay then why not. They would not be able to charge for open beta if there wasn't a demand for it.
I would pay to test open beta. A lot of games are still in beta and are subscription so what's the big deal?
I think an Open beta now IS a free trial. The developers themselves have stated that by the stage of Open beta they are no longer beta testing the game. Aion has gone Gold BEFORE the Open beta. This means the game is ready to ship and they not done an Open Beta test yet.
No I won't pay up or STFU what I will do is ignore both games for the foreseeable future until they do Free Trials for 14 days etc.
Now while I am sure in your smugness you don't care, the company which will face a release that is less then what it could have been will care., the creditors will care, their shareholders will care, because they are out to make money and anything that diminishes that they will care about.
My message is more to them then to you, while you are a member of the community and it would be nice if you grew a back bone and stood up to these companies, thus sending a larger message, I have come to realise that some people are just fools, and fools and their money are easily parted. Thankfully there are enough people within the MMORPG community that are not fools and are not so easily parted from their money and they are the ones that make the difference between a GREAT launch of an MMORPG and a medioce launch of an MMORPG that is destined to be nothing more then a niche market game.
Blah blah blah, I'm entitled to free trials at release, gimme gimme gimme, blah blah blah.
As for your estimation of my backbone, that's really irrelevant. I've got disposable income, and I chose to spend a very small portion of it on a couple of FE pre-orders because I like what they tried to do with the game and I think the vast majority of the rest of the MMO industry is creatively bankrupt. The only one looking foolish in this conversation is the one expecting a handout.
Having tested the game extensively and been a part of the community since alpha, I can tell you that the FE devs know that they're making a niche game, it's you who is projecting your expectations of a "GREAT" launch onto a game you clearly know nothing about.
In the end, you come off as a whiny little bitch who didn't get his free toy. Good job on that.
The real beta test is seeing how much money people give up before they can even play the game.
Are you talking about people who have not tested yet but did a pre-order?