I personally think this is a bad idea to pay to access alpha or beta. If you pay for something like that, it wouldn't be surprising to hear that people would have a sense of entitlement in terms of what they expect to see in the game. Best way to find a tester crowd would be to handpick them in terms of things like forum contribution or if they show up to like events or dev meetups. Clearly those would be the crowd of people most tolerant of bugs and lack of features in the initial part of the beta process.
I personally think this is a bad idea to pay to access alpha or beta. If you pay for something like that, it wouldn't be surprising to hear that people would have a sense of entitlement in terms of what they expect to see in the game. Best way to find a tester crowd would be to handpick them in terms of things like forum contribution or if they show up to like events or dev meetups. Clearly those would be the crowd of people most tolerant of bugs and lack of features in the initial part of the beta process.
When Blizzard made good games they did this. For diablo and sc, to join the beta, you had to fill out a whole form stating everything from your testing experience to your computer set up. However, for an mmo, you HAVE to pack the servers with everything you can. The point is to actually try to break the servers/clients. It's a constant stress test. Going in to open beta too early is the problem.
No, I think the problem is most Beta testers are just in it for the free ride and don’t help with any testing so the game will release with many bugs...I think mmorpg dev should take beta testing more seriously and expect some sort of week, fortnightly or monthly report from each of their testers or they be kicked
Which is what Bioware is doing. Basically they're going to allow testers a limited time testing certain features and only invite a very few, if any, for the next phase.
I guess Bioware has the right idea then
Thats basically what Mythic did with WAR. Worked out well didn't it=)
No, I think the problem is most Beta testers are just in it for the free ride and don’t help with any testing so the game will release with many bugs...I think mmorpg dev should take beta testing more seriously and expect some sort of week, fortnightly or monthly report from each of their testers or they be kicked
Which is what Bioware is doing. Basically they're going to allow testers a limited time testing certain features and only invite a very few, if any, for the next phase.
I guess Bioware has the right idea then
Thats basically what Mythic did with WAR. Worked out well didn't it=)
It didn't work for WAR, didn't work for AoC and didn't work for CO. Allowing testers a limited access to the game is detrimental to the whole process. People won't have time to really get into the game in order to properly test it and provide educated feedback.
Allowing limited access will ensure that players will rush through the content in order to experience as much of the game as possible in the shortest amount of time.
I think that paying for a beta may not work because then whoever has the most money can play before everyone else. I think that they should give people in the beta who find bugs points or credits(Swtor) so that there is an incentive to try and find bugs, but also remember that they are also looking for feedback on the actual gameplay and how different demographics like the game.
that is a bad argument we are not talking about beta, or even alpha testing with SWTOR, we are talking sectional pre alpha tests so not exactly the same argument. Yet games are not doing enough testing over all before launch, paying will not fix this at all, all it will do is lead some companies to think I can charge people to play a game in "beta" then once I make enough say opps something happened and close up shop, then repeat. We already had a string of companys doing this with games they were "launching" we don't need to give them the idea to start doing it with other titles which they can loophole out of a lawsuit on, as something in development can always have some major flaw come up that leads a company to pursue other options.
The only flaws in beta testing would come from open beta. This is where people "try it before you buy it". People in alpha or closed beta just test mostly. It's when things open up to the public that the problems arise (usually involves people there to play and not test). And companies open it up too soon too often.
Paying will solve nothing
"This may hurt a little, but it's something you'll get used to. Relax....."
I think there are better ways to improve betas, which have already been mentioned - requiring bug reports based on hours played, booting testers who don't report and giving someone else a chance, etc. If the beta is well managed in that way, and the devs are responsive to their testers, I think the end product would be much improved.
This is a decent idea but I don't believe it will work because some folks will just report bogus bugs so they can keep playing the game.
A better beta needs more structure and more supervision from the devs themselves. They need to be online with the players and ask a group of players to test something. Watch the players live, gather the bug info then have the testers move onto the next area of the game to test. Once you have a base of players that really assist with the more structured tests you can release a set of them to do anything they like freely. Proper supervision and structure will weed out those kids who are just there to play a new game.
In this age of corporate monitoring of our systems for established games I think testing should come with monitoring hardware that monitors everything going on on your comp while testing a game. Some things happen not due to the game but what else your running at the time of playing.
Yes I know I just said horray for corporate spyware, I feel dirty now, so dirty.
that is a bad argument we are not talking about beta, or even alpha testing with SWTOR, we are talking sectional pre alpha tests so not exactly the same argument. Yet games are not doing enough testing over all before launch, paying will not fix this at all, all it will do is lead some companies to think I can charge people to play a game in "beta" then once I make enough say opps something happened and close up shop, then repeat. We already had a string of companys doing this with games they were "launching" we don't need to give them the idea to start doing it with other titles which they can loophole out of a lawsuit on, as something in development can always have some major flaw come up that leads a company to pursue other options.
Swtor just went into beta last friday and has been in alpha for a while, but i do see a potential issue with a paying beta, i think that there should just be , likei said, incentive to find bugs and report them.
I think there are better ways to improve betas, which have already been mentioned - requiring bug reports based on hours played, booting testers who don't report and giving someone else a chance, etc. If the beta is well managed in that way, and the devs are responsive to their testers, I think the end product would be much improved.
This is a decent idea but I don't believe it will work because some folks will just report bogus bugs so they can keep playing the game.
A better beta needs more structure and more supervision from the devs themselves. They need to be online with the players and ask a group of players to test something. Watch the players live, gather the bug info then have the testers move onto the next area of the game to test. Once you have a base of players that really assist with the more structured tests you can release a set of them to do anything they like freely. Proper supervision and structure will weed out those kids who are just there to play a new game.
but then if you do report bogus bugs they will find out because they need to fix it and if theres nothing to fix, they'll kick ya
Comments
Pay to play a game that's still in development? I'd never do it.
I personally think this is a bad idea to pay to access alpha or beta. If you pay for something like that, it wouldn't be surprising to hear that people would have a sense of entitlement in terms of what they expect to see in the game. Best way to find a tester crowd would be to handpick them in terms of things like forum contribution or if they show up to like events or dev meetups. Clearly those would be the crowd of people most tolerant of bugs and lack of features in the initial part of the beta process.
When Blizzard made good games they did this. For diablo and sc, to join the beta, you had to fill out a whole form stating everything from your testing experience to your computer set up. However, for an mmo, you HAVE to pack the servers with everything you can. The point is to actually try to break the servers/clients. It's a constant stress test. Going in to open beta too early is the problem.
Which is what Bioware is doing. Basically they're going to allow testers a limited time testing certain features and only invite a very few, if any, for the next phase.
I guess Bioware has the right idea then
Thats basically what Mythic did with WAR. Worked out well didn't it=)
Which is what Bioware is doing. Basically they're going to allow testers a limited time testing certain features and only invite a very few, if any, for the next phase.
I guess Bioware has the right idea then
Thats basically what Mythic did with WAR. Worked out well didn't it=)
It didn't work for WAR, didn't work for AoC and didn't work for CO. Allowing testers a limited access to the game is detrimental to the whole process. People won't have time to really get into the game in order to properly test it and provide educated feedback.
Allowing limited access will ensure that players will rush through the content in order to experience as much of the game as possible in the shortest amount of time.
I think that paying for a beta may not work because then whoever has the most money can play before everyone else. I think that they should give people in the beta who find bugs points or credits(Swtor) so that there is an incentive to try and find bugs, but also remember that they are also looking for feedback on the actual gameplay and how different demographics like the game.
http://swtea.webs.com/ The Exiles Alliance SWTOR guild
that is a bad argument we are not talking about beta, or even alpha testing with SWTOR, we are talking sectional pre alpha tests so not exactly the same argument. Yet games are not doing enough testing over all before launch, paying will not fix this at all, all it will do is lead some companies to think I can charge people to play a game in "beta" then once I make enough say opps something happened and close up shop, then repeat. We already had a string of companys doing this with games they were "launching" we don't need to give them the idea to start doing it with other titles which they can loophole out of a lawsuit on, as something in development can always have some major flaw come up that leads a company to pursue other options.
The only flaws in beta testing would come from open beta. This is where people "try it before you buy it". People in alpha or closed beta just test mostly. It's when things open up to the public that the problems arise (usually involves people there to play and not test). And companies open it up too soon too often.
Paying will solve nothing
"This may hurt a little, but it's something you'll get used to. Relax....."
This is a decent idea but I don't believe it will work because some folks will just report bogus bugs so they can keep playing the game.
A better beta needs more structure and more supervision from the devs themselves. They need to be online with the players and ask a group of players to test something. Watch the players live, gather the bug info then have the testers move onto the next area of the game to test. Once you have a base of players that really assist with the more structured tests you can release a set of them to do anything they like freely. Proper supervision and structure will weed out those kids who are just there to play a new game.
In this age of corporate monitoring of our systems for established games I think testing should come with monitoring hardware that monitors everything going on on your comp while testing a game. Some things happen not due to the game but what else your running at the time of playing.
Yes I know I just said horray for corporate spyware, I feel dirty now, so dirty.
Swtor just went into beta last friday and has been in alpha for a while, but i do see a potential issue with a paying beta, i think that there should just be , likei said, incentive to find bugs and report them.
http://swtea.webs.com/ The Exiles Alliance SWTOR guild
This is a decent idea but I don't believe it will work because some folks will just report bogus bugs so they can keep playing the game.
A better beta needs more structure and more supervision from the devs themselves. They need to be online with the players and ask a group of players to test something. Watch the players live, gather the bug info then have the testers move onto the next area of the game to test. Once you have a base of players that really assist with the more structured tests you can release a set of them to do anything they like freely. Proper supervision and structure will weed out those kids who are just there to play a new game.
but then if you do report bogus bugs they will find out because they need to fix it and if theres nothing to fix, they'll kick ya
http://swtea.webs.com/ The Exiles Alliance SWTOR guild