Epic has come up with a very clever incentive strategy to encourage players to get involved in the upcoming Gears of War 3 beta – STUFF. Gamers love stuff. Gamers want stuff. It’s all about the stuff.
In the case of the beta, the stuff up for grabs includes a beta tester medal, a Thrashball player variant of Augustus Cole, a gold-plated Retro Lancer skin, and several flaming weapon skins.
“We found with the Golden Lancer and the Golden Hammerburst from Gears 2, these were prestige items people wanted to show off, like, oh I got the LC, or I was at the midnight launch,” Epic’s Rod Fergusson tells Eurogamer.
“So trying to tie into that ego pride aspect of that prestige and saying, look, don’t you want to show off you were part of the beta, that you got an early and exclusive look? Hey, he’s Cole Train, WOW, he played 50 matches in the beta, that’s awesome. That kind of stuff we’re hoping will drive people to play more.
“Really what we need to make the most of the beta is data.We need to know how hard it is to Active Reload or whether the maps are balanced. The only way we’re going to get that is just having people play.
“To play two matches and quit doesn’t help us make a better game. It’s an incentive.”
The beta drops 18 April (for Bulletstorm owners) and 25 April (everybody else).
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