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Open Beta or Not?
Worf
Member Posts: 264
Sadly there are many new trends that disturb me when it comes to Betas of soon to be released games.
Signup for a Beta List
Then you wait and wait and wait for that e-mail that seemingly will never come. Some of the betas that I wanted to see didn't even have the common courtesy of sending an automated e-mail to you saying that they even got your application!
"Beta Weekends"
Why should I bother playing a game ONLY on the weekends when I play ALL week long?
Pay to Play Betas
This is a very recent and very very sad NEW trend. Leave it to GameSpy (Er GameLIE as I prefer to call it!) to do this to attempt to get people to "subscribe" to play. DOH!
You must live in a certain region of the world to play some betas.
I can understand someone not playing a beta of a game when it is in a language that they don't understand. But to restrict a game to only a certain country of the world seems odd especially when it is "advertised" on the internet!
You are forced to buy a magazine to get a "code" to play some betas.
ACK! I refuse to be baited into trying a beta.
Betas that won't even let you try the game at all!
I'm sad that all too many fall into this category.
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Well excuse me for not having a lot of money to throw away.
I've rejected many games that just didn't make my grade for being on my "must buy" list.
If I can't play test a game then there is no possible way to know if I would want to play it long term or not.
I've seen lots of games that have nice "screenshots" yet when the game is released the user interface is so bad that it ruins the gameplay.
Either make the Beta of the Game OPEN or forget it!
Geez!
Comments
I agree with everything except your comment on beta weekends.
I assume you are referring to guildwars as that is the only one doing it.
You do realize that GW is still in Closed beta, not Open beta right? The beta weekends are something GW offers to its Pre Order customers as a Chance to Preview the game as it progress's. This is an opportunity that no other company offers, you are either in beta or your not. Now they like any other company run the usual contest's to allow players to get into the main closed beta, but they are still in closed beta.
Don't look the gift horse in the mouth, This is something they do not have to offer, they could well enough keep it closed beta until the week before release, but they have chosen to allow those who preorder to preview the game through its development process and provide feedback. This is the first company that has allowed gamers enmasse to actually provide input on how they feel the game should be, and not limit it to a select few beta testers only. Now before you say a thing, I played the game in the World Preview event which was free to Everyone. Nearly 200,000 players participated, Name me a single MMO that allowed 200,000 people to play for free while the game was in alpha? I decided then based off that experience that I would be buying the game, the fact that I get to participate in the beta weekends as an added bonus to a game I was already pre ordering was just icing on the cake.
Final thought, They do not have to offer you a damn thing, quit complaining about it.
That's not a new trend. Beta programs have operated in this manner for as long as I can remember, single-player and MMOG alike. I'd love to see more correspondence, but it's not like this is a new trend.
Again, not a new trend. MMOG betas often had periods of up and down access, since the entire point of allowing lots of people in the game was to gather data...and then lock the system down to tweak it with that data. Remember, the point of the open beta is not to allow you to play but for the developer to make the game better.
I see no problem with what FilePlanet does and some developers do. Open betas simply need a lot of players, they are not there to give people a free preview of the game. If FilePlanet can give a developer a large enough playerbase to satisfy their needs for a stress test or open beta then everyone comes out ahead in the equation. Again, open betas are not there as a free preview for you.
International laws and localization have more to do with this issue than anything. Learn a bit more about the subject and you'll understand why this not only affects betas but the final releases as well. It's not prejudice, it's politics.
I don't even know what you're talking about.
You have an example of this?
You want to know the real disturbing trend here? That open betas are being used as marketing ploys and free previews of games. The entire concept of beta software is for users to engage the product, find its flaws and report them, and improve the product before it is released to the public. But since companies have begun engaging in the open beta as a part of their marketing push to retail we've seen a clear trend of players starting to expect to be able to play the game for free under the guise of "beta".
I have no sympathy for your perspective as a whole. You're just upset that you can't play a game for free on your terms.
DINGDINGDINGDING!!
Thats why I hate the "pay to play betas". preview NOR testing shouldnt cost anything. (From the consumers point of view of course).
Anyone remmember SWG beta bugs? They are being fixed NOW. Thats a great example of not listening of beta bug reports (they do however listen to all the whiners & go crazy with the nerf bat, but thats a different issue).
FilePlanet I despise so much (too much off topic to discuss), does FP pay the game company money to be able to offer "exlusive" beta acces becuase I hope so.
Finally Open Beta can be seen from a consumers view & the companys view, they will never meet. (fun VS profit). Example: that mmorpg that went dead after Beta2 phase.
Long ago it was a lot easier to get into betas ... I would just apply and get into every one ... but a hell of a lot more people try to get in now and they can't really let everyone in. But let's face it - betas used to be primarily a testing tool. They actually expected you to test things and file reports, and some of them were pretty sticky about it. Now people just think of them as free trials.
To me the Guildwars deal has been pretty nice. I got to play a couple weekends for nothing, which was enough to entice me to buy the pre-order, so now I am looking forward to cracking a few skulls this weekend again
What's not to like.
DINGDINGDINGDING!!
Thats why I hate the "pay to play betas". preview NOR testing shouldnt cost anything. (From the consumers point of view of course).
Anyone remmember SWG beta bugs? They are being fixed NOW. Thats a great example of not listening of beta bug reports (they do however listen to all the whiners & go crazy with the nerf bat, but thats a different issue).
FilePlanet I despise so much (too much off topic to discuss), does FP pay the game company money to be able to offer "exlusive" beta acces becuase I hope so.
Finally Open Beta can be seen from a consumers view & the companys view, they will never meet. (fun VS profit). Example: that mmorpg that went dead after Beta2 phase.
Well that's probably the point of the original post. I'm sure Beta testing and the variety of methods of doing it has been around for awhile BUT , how many MMORPGs have there been to Beta Test? During Everquest/Ultime Online days, that's probably the full range of possible Betas that could've been tested. Currently there's a heap of games trying to make their entrance into [what i believe] is an overcrowded and very competitive market.
Companies are thus forced to pull a few stunts to get themselves onto the map before they spend too much money on something that might fail. So yes, i'd say alot of the beta offers are more about advertising than actual beta testing. It's also a very convenient platform to work from if you don't want to be accused of bringing out buggy software. [Microsoft Anti-Spyware BETA, MSN Desktop Search BETA , Google Gmail BETA ......notice a trend? ] . I think companies will probably now try to even make money out of it [if they're not already] ...how's that for killing 3 flies with one hit?
This is what i'd say the term "BETA" means to software companies lately [if not now, then it will soon]
1. Advertisement
2. Pre-Orders, Early-subscriptions, Beta-"subscriptions" and other forms of known income before even being on the market officially.
3. Forecasting [popularity of beta request might indicate the interest in game]
4. Continious Improvement without being flamed for buggy software as the "Excuse" of BETA can be thrown at everyone that complains.
So somewhere i think companies are bringing out games that are pretty much complete and entering into the market under the "Beta" disguise, giving the impression that alot of changes can occur with our so called inputs [yea right].
And as i've mentioned, this is not restricted to games actually. Microsoft is pouring out the "beta" programs, which are very convenient because if we do find a major security bug they can just say
"it is still beta afterall" . Luckily we're not paying for it yet [which will probably change very soon].
If you order these online now, there's often a clause that states that you can't cancel your preorder. There's a whole thread about this related to MXO.
PLEASE READ the details to what I posted above.
I don't mind signing up for a beta but to NEVER get an e-mail telling you that your request was received just doesn't cut it. Then to add insult to injury, they don't even e-mail you to let you know about the Open Beta!
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As to FilePlanet/GameSpy, I'm not against the Free Enterprise system... What I am against there is that they want YOU to pay to play the betas for games.
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In the early days of Shareware, you could Pretest games to see a subset of the whole game. Sadly a lot of New Games don't even let you do this anymore.
DOH!