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Beta Testing is not just a free ride
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darkendreary
Member Posts: 17
I see so many posts by people wanting to get into a game when its in beta just so they can play.
They fail to comprehend the needs of the game developers which can affect us all beta testers AND buyers once the game goes gold.
Case in point:
Beta testing is open and PC requirements are high, and yet people just join (normally they lie about their PC stats) with mediocre computers that would barely run a 4 year old game let alone a new game using advanced engines and graphics. if your PC doesnt meet specs, give them the TRUE details of your computer. If you dont get in, maybe because they need better PCs behind the testing. Thankfully Blizzard is trying something new and checking your PC for you, so that way you cant lie.
People I see constantly saying "Dont worry about the beta right now. its too laggy, and I cant play" , or this game sucks. There is nothing to do. The colors look bad. etc. Its called BETA.
Ask some people if they reported the issues and most will say why bother. They probably already know.
I could go on.
Remember that beta testing is more like a job than it is for fun. The beta testers should attempt to help game developers make a GREAT game that goes gold with the fewest amount of issues. Find a bug, report it. Constantly have lag, report it. Get dropped to your desk top often, report it.
Read up on the bug reports and know which bugs are under investigation, and which are fixed. Dont see a bug on the list that you have run into, report it.
DONT just try to get in because it looks "cool" or because you want a free ride for a few months.
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What depths I may go, dare you choose to follow; grasp my hand in so chosing. Darkness within the light, sought tranquility before forgotten evermore as a grain of sand in a waterless sea of travesty.
Comments
Another reason you should not lie about your computer specs:
Sometimes a company will choose somewhere between 1-10% of thier beta testing group to be players with less than mediocre computers to see how well they run on low-end machines. So even if you still have a GeForce 2 with 32mb of RAM, they might choose you to see if the game will work. These company's are realistic....they know that not everyone is running on an Athlon 64 chip or have the new Radeon 9800 XT.... They realize that many people will buy the game without looking at system requirements and take it home expecting it to work...
It's better be hated for who you are, than loved for who you aren't.
It's better be hated for who you are, than loved for who you aren't.
Thats why I was more than happy to see the WoW beta sign-up use a tool to check my PC itself.
And you are correct Ghost, having a low end machine does not black-list you for never getting into a beta.
Gorukha, Why even beta test then if you feel you are just a twit with a PC playing a game for free because developers could care less about you?
Sure, there have been some notable companies as of late that listened to few of the complaints testers had - Horizons and SWG. Or maybe they did but their communication with everyone lacked any merit.
I would fathom a guess that in a lot of cases they kept records of each bug reported, they just didnt inform those trying to help.
Perhaps in the future gaming companies will take note that beta testers are important in releasing a game with the fewest bugs possible
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What depths I may go, dare you choose to follow; grasp my hand in so chosing. Darkness within the light, sought tranquility before forgotten evermore as a grain of sand in a waterless sea of travesty.
I always join betas with the intention of helping them work out the bugs. But I do not keep helping them if I know there is something about the game that is not broke, but I am not going to like. If I am not going to like it, I quit.
I don't quit because of bugs though, I will hep them find bugs. Like Wish. I got into the beta for that a month or so ago. But it had some serious gameplay flaws that they said were the way they wanted them. And the type of skills/leveling system they were using was not to my liking. I am not going to help them troubleshoot something I know I would not pay to play.
I fully agree with the point made. I've alpha/beta tested a lot of games, it's fun, but you have to do abnormal things to try and "break" the game... Like selling goods to a rock, or trying to make that animal a guild leader, etc... Yeah, sometimes the company will want you just to play normal, or stress test their servers, but most people only "play" the game and then judge how the BETA was when the game goes gold and gives it a bad rating, etc...
I believe there's a lot of great games on this site that have been giving low ratings because people played the "open beta"...
I'm just rambling...
What will he do next?
I'm not sure I understand this mentality.
I'm a software developer, I have been for over 8 years now and have written some highly advanced software - mostly in development shops too not just as IT.
We have a term for people who "work" to test and ensure the quality of software, its typically labeled a "Q&A" and they are paid to do just that.
If you are making a game and want to open it up for people to "test" then you are asking for just that - people to come in an play the darn game and test its viability. You are not giving them test plans and asking them to run scripts against the server for reliability testing, most people would not be interested.
I disagree, beta testing *is* a free ride - it requires you to do some things like reporting bugs, creating/losing characters, etc... in exchange for the opportunity to play the game in leui of cash. If you take this as some kind of "blessing" from a particular developer, let me know as I need plenty of suckers, I mean, beta testers for my own projects.
Bear in mind that any good shop is going to have a good team of internal testers to do the real testing, you are being brought in to test load balancing/gamplay in a real world setting and to do all the silly things that an average user might do in production so they can find and fix deficiencies.
You are correct about QA being the foundation stone of testing, but no QA department has every machine configuration out there. Which is the primary reason for beta testing. It allows the developers to find bugs that would have never been found in the first place.
I do agree with you when it comes to getting a free ride. The developers know that they are offering the game out to people who on the whole simply wish to play the game. However, there are a few who will do more then just play the game. Some want it to get ahead of the learning curve. Some for fun. Some for desire to see a potential fun game become better.
To bring up my point. We are still testing the game. Even though we are getting a free ride, we should at least do what we agreed to in the signing agreement and help them out. They are asking you to be more then just another free ride. I think that's what the original poster's point was: Don't agree to help them and then just play the game (although there are phases of beta for that).
Aelfric
I agree with that.
I agree with that and it sums up what I was trying to say. Though Lypheus too has some points.
Im not saying its only about work, as if it were ONLY work no one would want to beta test. We want to see a fun factor as well, however there is a large number that could care less about reporting bugs, or atleast meeting the requirements, as they just want to play something for free instead of paying out of pocket for the game when it comes out.
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What depths I may go, dare you choose to follow; grasp my hand in so chosing. Darkness within the light, sought tranquility before forgotten evermore as a grain of sand in a waterless sea of travesty.
omg this is so weird right after i said what i did in the above post i get a Ryzom email first line is
Hey,
It's time for another stress test !
thats funny