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Was Open Beta a bad idea?
tort0429
Member UncommonPosts: 297
After reading many of the posts I'm thinking that many players who tried open beta got the wrong idea of the purpose of open beta. To judge a game completely and fairly in my opinion one should do so when the game goes live. Now before you jump in and say, "it's only a few weeks to release, how much different can it be?" hear me out first.
Suppose, theoretically, that Square Enix purposely left out a portion of the game that was not considered necessary for the purpose of Open Beta and that very option which was excluded from Open Beta is something that would have convinced you to stay with the game long term. Now maybe that's a far stretch, but then again, isn't it possible?
Maybe Open Beta should not be Open and a better system of stress testing should be implemented to avoid the huge misinterpretation of the game features that seem to have taken place with FF14. Just wondering and would love to hear everyone's opinion on this.
Comments
I think many of the gripes that I personally have aren't going to change when the game goes live.
1. Unresponsive UI. Anything related to inventory, moving items to retainers, selling, crafting, etc.
2. Terrain. Having to run halfway across a map to go down a small ledge (exaggeration for effect)
3. Hardware requirements. Experience varies per user, but a bit steep nonetheless.
Drop the next-gen marketing and people will argue if the game itself has merit.
Honestly, I am still going to try it, but your hypothetical would indicate incompetence which isnt very encouraging. If they know they left something out that will indicate to OB testers that the game is lame, then wouldnt it seem like common sense for them to mention it?
Open Beta wasn't a bad idea. The backlash would've likely been a LOT worse had people bought the game before they found out wether or not they liked it. Sure it might have secured some income for SE, but in the long run, I doubt they want FFXIV to be as empty as FFXI and alienating their player-based where they must buy the game before they find out they don't like it might have been a lot worse.
Good point, thanks for the response.
Player feedback on content is very important during beta, especially in closed beta given that these days open beta are often used for "try before you buy". Its such feedback that a developer would use to determine what a community finds fun and interesting, so that when it comes to open beta they have something people will be interested in. SE have shown zero interest in this area, to the point where I'm not even sure why they even bothered with closed beta, never mind open. Even if they suddenly added a game's worth of quests (which they aren't going to do), they'd have zero perspective on if they are enjoyable. Developers become focused on reaching their objectives to scopes handed to them, hence why they need external players to assist in the testing.
As a result In the case of FF XIV open beta was a very bad idea, as there's so little content, with a lot of broken mechanics. All they have done is damaged their sales. They'll still hit decent sales figures though, simply on the name and the fact that most people don't read forums or take part in betas.
Not so much. Square is getting the stress data and testing they need done. The people that complain you will notice have an agenda of only complaining and not even acknowledging the good parts of the game. These are just trolls/haters that thrive on this site.
The preorders are still climbing, and the game will do just fine. Open betas are actually important tests for developers to simulate a launch. If a player is going to judge the entire game and write it off for their entire life based on an open beta I don't think the devs will be that concerned about that player.
I think it was good, for the sole fact that it showed many players that they didn't want anything to do with it rather than have them sit on the fence. It probably just killed initial box sales and one/two months of subscriptions of these players to SE.
Good for the fanboys so that these bad players "don't play my game".
Good for the haters so that they don't waste $50+
Yay.
He who keeps his cool best wins.
Actually, if you take play.com, which is one of the major internet retailers in the EU, its dropped quite a bit in pre-orders. A few weeks ago it was sitting at around 13 in their pre-order chart. Its now at 36.
Open betas a mere few weeks before launch are part of a marketing campaign for the game, since by that time the game mechanics and content should have already been in its launch form (RTM codebase has been frozen, discs have been printed, packaging and shipping is underway). Given that it's a marketing push, a competent producer wouldn't exclude content/mechanics/features and include bugs that would stymie the enjoyment of its players unless the producer couldn't help it.
FFXI empty ?? when i played it was full most of the time
morning, noon, evening, night you could xp anytime and even have problems finding a camp to xp at
so don't talk nonsense
The developers at squenix have gotten exactly what they wanted out of open beta. They've been fixing stability issues and other such major problems daily. They are generating tons of metrics that you simply can't do without thousands of players breaking your game.
The problem is that while that was their goal they shot themselves in the foot because whether they like it or not, an open beta is a try before you buy for everyone, including those people who actually consider themselves "testers." A larger closed beta pool, retain the NDA, do your metric busting tests, and then unlock everything for a short open beta when the game is in the best possible shape pre-release.
A company that simply assumes now that an open beta is more test than play session is fooling themselves, at least in this market. So in the end they got their data, but how many customers did they potentially lose with the explosion of negativity?
Actually, I don't think so. Player feedback on content is not as important as you think. Look at all those single player game. The story telling, quest, cinematic do not have open beta before they release. Yet, people still enjoy them without any problem. In fact, release them out to public before release the game would be a mistake because it would spoil the fun when the game is released. What excited is there when you already know, seen all those quest story, cutscene... Duh! Open beta is free, nobody has to pay anything to play. What do you think would happen if a game instead of a limited trial release all its contents to the public for a month? Who would buy the game after that?
The reason why SE hold back on quests, storylines, interesting contents and other things is very valid.
Again, they are not holding back on quests. Its just the complete story arc.
Core mechanics are tested during alpha and usually bleeds over to close beta 1, which is often friends and family, along with employees of the company. From then on while bugs are part of the testing, how a game plays become a key focus (or at least should, and is the norm). The final stage of closed beta is often fine tuning of mechanics and content, while removing the last game break bugs, before entering open beta. Open beta is generally used for stress testing the live systems, amongst minor tuning to the game.
If SE where holding back on quests (which they sure aren't), we aren't testing the game, just its mechanics. Open beta is simply way to late for that. Stress testing was part of closed beta 2, they even called it such. What we are testing now is the game to be expacted at launch, minus the full story arc.
Nonsense? It's true though....and incredibly hard to find groups within some level range. Sure SE made it easier at lower levels, but still.
We needed Open Beta for networking tweaks, the question is whether NA should have had OB, seeing as how there's just a bunch of whiny bastards.
I don't think there should ever be an open beta unless the game is ready for prime time and just needs tweaks.
There should be stress tests close to release. Or perhaps during the development a controlled preview.
But saying "open beta" and letting hosts of people try the game out when it has issues doens't really seem to work.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
A lot of the common complaints coming out the open beta have exisited all the way through the alpha and closed phases as well. Those still hoping that the game will be new and improved at launch may be in for some disappointment.
It can be, but if it is, its an very big mistake from Square to leave it out for OB, everyone knows that OB isnt to test but o show the game to the public, the stress test you get for it is bonus, if you show a game thats not in its state of release in OB you are doing something wrong.
This ^^
If your open beta client isn't 'launch worthy' then you shouldn't bother opening the doors to the unwashed masses as they will bend you over and rectally violate your product.
So just got off the phone with Tanaka I take it?
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
Shut up already godamn, this is for networking troubleshooting, not for your pleasure.
- Every issue I see here that people are complaining about is networking related, quit testing if you'd like, but the more people testing greatly helps in the long run.
- And yes the UI is unfortunately linked with the network.
Completely agree with the OP. Any and all judgement should happen on the 22nd. No if, ands, or buts.
And that's exactly it.
If your game has any issues then people will pounce on it as not being ready. Part of that decision is informed by many games having open betas and issues, players trying them and saying "no worries, it's beta" and then the game launches with many of those issues.
So in truth that was the fault of those companies. But now people approach Open Beta with a jaundiced eye and essentially a preview of what the game will be at launch.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Nobody is saying the game will be 100% perfect at launch, not one person has said this yet.
It will be different and they are definitely working towards fixing the network issues, but if you really have issues with playing a game with some slight issues, then I advise you to wait at least a month or two after release.
But has this really not been said 100 times over? That the Open Beta is for stress testing networks for primal use.
Agreed Elocke. The naysayers came in, saw it wasn't dumbed down like WoW and they quickly called the game horrible. FFXIV reminded me of how gaming was in the good old days.