The Beta Syndrome (Column)

Caveshen Rajman said:
The Beta Syndrome (Column)

So developers looked to their most vast and untapped resource. Okay I lie, they’ve been tapping this resource – in a manner of speaking – for ages, and just recently, they found the most apt way to do so and certainly one that never actually harms the resource itself."
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Hahaha I see what he did there... but money makes the world go round and unfortunately the game companies want the world to go faster. beta should be pretty much a online demo so people can see if they like the game and can run it.
 
Leyzer said:
Hahaha I see what he did there... but money makes the world go round and unfortunately the game companies want the world to go faster. beta should be pretty much a online demo so people can see if they like the game and can run it.
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i agree but it seems more the beta is used as a marketing tool to get more people payfor pre-oders or LE like the artical said.

It seems that way with BF3 to me marketing not beta testing in any way.
 
Recieved my email with beta key this morning. Currently downloading but I expected the early access wouldn't mean much considering most of us need an additional day to download the beta client.

I'm just keen to see how the game runs on my system.
 
fayainz said:
Recieved my email with beta key this morning. Currently downloading but I expected the early access wouldn't mean much considering most of us need an additional day to download the beta client.

I'm just keen to see how the game runs on my system.
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Yeah a couple of my mates also got their keys now, and you hit the nail on the head there, what ios the point of advertising early access with paid pre orders and then only sending key's after tha beta started? Also most people now need to wait another day to dl...and as far as I know the beta will only run for 10 days....Meh
 
The Joker said:
Yeah a couple of my mates also got their keys now, and you hit the nail on the head there, what ios the point of advertising early access with paid pre orders and then only sending key's after tha beta started? Also most people now need to wait another day to dl...and as far as I know the beta will only run for 10 days....Meh
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You can copy the game files from someone, or d/l locally from the WAGE ftp I think. That should be faster.
 
I have not taken part in any Beta testing as of yet, so I might be completely wrong here.

The concept of having the public testing your game before it is released to even more members of the public, is a good one. Diversifying your sample group from a few play-testers to many random people spread across the globe, might make the "ironing out" process a lot quicker and more efficient. With diverse players, comes diverse game play styles and approaches, that might highlight a few things that would otherwise have been overlooked.

The distribution of these Beta keys is where I do not necessarily agree. Of course, the main aim of video game publishers is to make money (the developers are a different story, since they try to make the best game they possibly can). It is the role of the publisher to sell that game and try to make whatever money they can out of it. So pairing an expensive
edition of a game up with a Beta key for a much anticipated sister-game is the perfect solution for them, since they get to make that money there.

I have to say that this route is not necessarily bad if the person buying the limited edition of a game actually intended to do so in the first place.
 
Firstly, I enjoyed reading this article, I think you hit the nail on the head.

In my experience most people who get access to an early beta, or open-beta play the game for a couple of days, and then that's it.
Where as employed game testers have to provide feedback and reports on their findings. This is where the difference lies, how many people actually provide any kind of constructive feedback for the game developers to chew on.

These days developers have to rely heavily on statistics they receive, and sure often it's targeted at things like game balance, but on the whole I don't thing beta testers go so far as to actually give some quality feedback. Half the time it's filled with "nerf this, or this is OP, game sux0r's".

I think far to many people think beta's have become the norm and they are entitled to them. But that probably just shows how the internet culture has "DEvolved" I guess :)
 
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