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Beta acceptance and post farming forum counts
OneEyeRed
Member UncommonPosts: 515
I got to tell ya I am really sick of sites, designers, etc. giving away beta accounts based on the amount of posts you invest into said site. Alot of intelligent and smart people do not farm post because they only post something when they really have something to say. There are several game sites, designers that are doing this as well as giving Alpha testing to sites that are dedicated to info of their games. I been a gamer and a tester for years and not to toot my own horn but a good tester as well. From EQ beta to 2 years on DAOC to Horizons most recently and you would think the amount of time and beta's one has tested would be considered more than the freaking number of ignorant posts one can make. For that matter I was also very disappointed and baffled about WOW's beta sign up.
For the first time that I have ever saw from a top MMO being published there were no questions about pre testing, anything. Seems they were more concerned as to what I was willing to pay a month for the damn game which leads me to beleive that testing will all be stress test and they have already hammered the rough edges out in their in-house testing dept. I could go on and on about how games end up the way they do as well when there is no communication between testers and community or as WOW has seemed to do allow anyone in to test the game wether you have experience or not. ROT and Dragon Empires are big on this as well as well as MEO now. I have been on the forums of DE and ROT for 2 years now and because I don't post daily or have a farm count of 1000+ posts ( lucky im pushing a 100) it affects my chances of being accepted. Forgot the fact that everytime I have posted I have had something worthwhile to say.
On MEO forums there is a person called MAWorking that joined 1 day after me last year and has a post count of 6000+ now WTF! Does this person sleep? How could you have so much to say???? It is just sad and pitiful I could go on and on but I hope some of you get the jest of what I am saying here.
One angry SOB at the gaming industry and becoming more angry year after year with the pathetic crap being pushed down our throats!
Peace
Through your fear I am reborn. My hand of grief can't be ignored. You know my name.... yes you know who I am. Frustrating turmoil again and again. I am the spike that drives through your hand. for i am eternal battering ram!
Zakk Wylde
Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box. ~ Italian proverb
Comments
What will he do next?
In my view aslong as the people who are selected acctually test the game i'm fine with it, however i do understand why you'd be annoyed.
?
Theres the Fans who just love the game and then theres the fans that love the game and are very active on their forums, i agree this shouldn't be a basis for selecting testers. How do they know you arn't posting because you are properly testing another game at the moment
As for WoW those questions about pricing are rather surprizing, i don't recall any other games asking players how much they think their game is worth. Your stress test theory is well justified, also seeing as they didn't ask for previous testing experiance but they did ask for comp specs it suggests the pick will be completely random. Besides who would go through the reported 400,000 applications?
*Notice: The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author... got sick of holding backspace.
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ParaTrooper, That guy that used to mod the MMORPG.com forums.
I was wondering how they could validate their pricing questions, when the public haven't even had the oppertunity to experience the game to make a sound judgment.
Everyone is aware the average market price for a monthly subscription is $12.95. And only recently did this increase over the past year or so with the introduction of Asheron's Call 2.
I hardly see them raising their price above $12.95, nor do i see them pricing their monthly subscription at $9.95. So what was the point? This i ask you.
If indeed they are needing "BETA Testers" i would have expected more questions regarding experience and expectations rather than a system config spike.
- Malkavian
"When you find yourself falling into madness... Dive." - Malkavian Proverb
"When you find yourself sinking into Madness, dive"
The problem also with Beta experiance is that there are alot of players out there who just join betas for a free game. I have spoke with people who when asked if they are going to get the game they reply with "I won't buy it but I'll play it if I get into the Beta."
Many people do not realize that Beta testing is not about being able to play the game for free or before its out, its about finding issues in the game and helping the development process. Maybe that why so many MMOs recently have been releasing with problems or lack of content... the surge of beta jumpers has increased ten folds...
I think companies need to make an organization or atleast communicated with eachother for background info on the testers. Its not hard to keep track of bugs submitted and amount of contact a tester had.
As for post count beta access. Yeah, I dont agree with that also, I myself am a Forum whore. Once I find a forum I like i wont leave it. Take the Lineage 2 Official Forum. Its been up for about 1.5 days and I already have over 90 posts... the admin only has 5...
I don't even like the current method of "what games have you tested before" well i could list every single mmorpg ever tested couldn't I? how would they know.
Something that would monitor user/bug report's would be great, it would be difficult to work though because some games have more bugs than others. Also maybe post-beta testing if companies submitted lists of players and the bug reports they have made, creating a virtual catalogue of players and their contribution to testing. Then maybe they could select testers 80% from the company and 20% new testers...... That was you greatly increase the amount of people that WILL test the game. I have a great hatred for people who "play" the beta's and don't report bugs they find.
*Notice: The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author... got sick of holding backspace.
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ParaTrooper, That guy that used to mod the MMORPG.com forums.
I feel you are most correct in your assumption of WOW -- they have had a working, playable game, for many, many years already - I believe it was shown at a 2000 or 2001 convention as a playable demo, and it looked and played fantastic, at that time ...
SO,, they have had Years of in house testing working on it ..... A friend of mine is in the Alpha of the game, and playing it smoothly and perfectly -- all that is missing (or was) is a few races -- My hunch is they just have them turned off ... a flip of a program switch and poof they are in .....
The alpha testers are able to do quests - and anything else the released version will do,(with very few exceptions) and they claim this is ALPHA ? Bahhh ... I remember when and Alpha was mostly a small fragment of the play given to players to see if they could find problems .... and example would be they just finished the coding for running lets say .. then the Alpha testers tried out Running with their characters -- running up hills down hills - around rocks over rocks - into water -- up over houses -- or any structures in the game -- watched the animations of how the different characters ran - did it look choppy -- dumpy ..... ect ...
It seems today that companies are going to put out alpha of a completely polished game and just hold back some minor aspects of the game for final release ... it builds hipe ... anticipation ... and word of mouth about how beautiful the game will be when it is released .... Fooling us into thinking that if this is ALPHA how much better will Release be ??? when in fact they are finished with the majority of the game and only tweeking bits and pieces ...........
Look to the stars to know HE is with us. HE hung them as markers, of times and of seasons.
I was very surprised with the WoW beta signup too. So it makes me think that the company wants to get a random selection of people into beta so that they get some good "testers", kewl d00des, greifers, part time players, and those that can't figure out how to really play but still have fun people. You know a population similar to those that will be playing the production version. While I am not saying this is thier thinking, or that i suggest it is a good way to test a game, just an alternate view of perhaps why they chose to approach beta that way. It would seem to me, that like you said, the real "testing" will be done internally and they will piece-meal the game to the beta testers they select, trusting because of thier selection process, that they have a small crossection of the production type population that the game will attract and the feedback they recieve will enable them to sculpt the game to attract more customers.
Then again they might have just used the beta selection process as a front to obtain marketing data.
Don't you mean the WOW beta lotto sign up? They take into zero consideration how long you have been gaming. I have been playing MMORPG's since UO came out, about 8 years now. It would seem to me these would be the kind of people you'd want testing your games, guess not.
MAWorking, haven't seen that name since I left AC. Yes, he has a job that lets him post often and has around a 15k post count of VNBoards. On the VNBoards after about 3+ years of membership I have around 2350 post and I have farmed some.
Rizean of Iseult 50 SM/RR3/L6
Moge of Iseult 50 Warrior/RR2/ML6
Pomho of Iseult 50 Healer/RR2/ML5
Rizean of Iseult 50 SM/RR3/ML6
Pomho of Iseult 50 Healer/RR2/ML6
Koah of Iseult 46 Shaman
Moge of Iseult 50 Warrior/RR2/ML2
While I agree with what people have said about the WoW beta, they did say that it was going to be purely random. How does one really narrow down the applications of potential beta testers when all you have to do is say you have beta tested these games with little to no proof.
Yea I am a avid game player and tester also so I see the gripe, but I guess they just want random people to test the game and looks to be relying on the internal testers to get the testing done. Why they are doing it that way is beyond me. Guess Blizzard knows whats best for their game, and the hardcore testers just have to live with their choice.
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Omol da'Ox
The Blooded
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Omol da'Ox
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.
I to am wondering as in the WOW beta, alot of valid points have been made here. I've never applied for a beta where I've never had to put my testing exp before. How are they going to no those that have really beta tested a game if they don't submit what they have done. This application seemed alittle odd to me. As I understand it, not toally sure on what they call it, Blizzard has a friend/buddy list they recruit from previous beta's, meaning the one's that they no have been in beta and been active in posting bugs and such. I'm altille hesitant if anyone other then people that play their game for long time and the friend/buddy list will get accepted.
I do see a ton of people that post on alot of forums that have nothing to say just so they can get a ton of rankings for post. I'll admit at times I've post for no reason but most of the time I try to post something I've heard about or to reply as I've done in this thread. I guess some think they need a million post for good ratings, who knows or perhaps they just have no life and live on alot of forums. All I no is, I don't want a ton of rankings just to get me to 1000 post. I'll bow out of a situation like this and just post when I've found informatioin about something. If I can't get into some beta due to lack of forum posting, then so be it. I'm not posting just to post, I have a life.
I'm so glad there are a few that think the same, and you have made a valid point here. Although there is nothing that can be done except to vent your fustration. I appreciate your post and am glad others feel this way, as I normally don't say anything about situations like this post.
Nice post BTW and good job
What I hate worse is the stupid game reviews that are done by people who don't spend a lot of time in the game past the newb levels, and they try to tell us how well a game rox or sux.
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Actually its not all about hte forum count.
People with a 1000 posts are likely to have more "good" posts than a person with 100 posts.
They arent stupid, they dont take the top 10 posters, by numbers, and add them to the beta.
Usually they keep a list of people who have consistantly made good posts, imformative post, constructive posts or done a lot for the community.
but there has to be some limits. IF there are people who have been around for ever and have 4,000 posts, and have about 200 really good, constructive posts, and there is a person who has posted 50 times, or even 150 times, and maybe 50 or 140 were all constructive, thats good, but depending on how long they been around, it doesnt show much commit ment to the game, where as a person with 4k posts shows real commitment to the game.
Game companies arent stupid, they know what there doing.
after 6 or so years, I had to change it a little...
spamming message boards to get into beta is nonsense. there is no validation process to determine the content or context of those posts. As mentioned before a person who has made 6000+ posts in a year is well just killing time. I run a community which participates in about 5 different games, I have been doing this for about a year. I don't think I have made even 1000+ posts yet, and thats with all the communicating that's required to keep a community informed.
Essentially betas have become the new Demo. Play it see if you like it and maybe buy it. Thats unfortunate.
Notice: The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com or its management.
"People with a 1000 posts are likely to have more "good" posts than a person with 100 posts."
Quanity does not equal quality.
Rizean of Iseult 50 SM/RR3/L6
Pomho of Iseult 50 Healer/RR2/ML6
Koah of Iseult 46 Shaman
Moge of Iseult 50 Warrior/RR2/ML2
Rizean of Iseult 50 SM/RR3/ML6
Pomho of Iseult 50 Healer/RR2/ML6
Koah of Iseult 46 Shaman
Moge of Iseult 50 Warrior/RR2/ML2
well at this site its not your post number that counts. Its the quality and help you give in each one of your posts.
Matter of fact, I have way more posts then you and we are on the same level. If there was a contest we would have the same chances although i out number you by almost 100 posts.
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If you wait to do something until the last minute, your more efficient since it will only take 1 minute.
Rizean of Iseult 50 SM/RR3/ML6
Pomho of Iseult 50 Healer/RR2/ML6
Koah of Iseult 46 Shaman
Moge of Iseult 50 Warrior/RR2/ML2
Rizean of Iseult 50 SM/RR3/ML6
Pomho of Iseult 50 Healer/RR2/ML6
Koah of Iseult 46 Shaman
Moge of Iseult 50 Warrior/RR2/ML2
lol, thats the point im getting at, but many people think because the guy have 1000 posts, thats the reason he got in.
If you have a 1000 posts, chances are that you could have more quality posts than sombody who rarely ever posts, say maybe 20 times as a better example.
I have never been involved or see one beta where the person(s) who got in the beta were the people with the most posts, for that reason.
after 6 or so years, I had to change it a little...