Darth Hater

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Know What You're Getting Into

If you have never played a beta before I bet I know what your thinking. "I get to play the game for free before everyone else." If that is your plan, you would be better off waiting for open beta, or just for release. Closed testing, while fun, is a lot of work. Early on you are told what to do and where to do it. I have heard stories from the early WoW days where you are thrown into one spot such as, human paladin lvl 1-10 today only. You get to fall through the world and LIKE it, because your job is to find these holes so they can get a road crew in to patch them. You also get to enjoy down times when they are fixing things up. If you are familiar with WoW maintenance days think of a major patch day where the servers can be down all day, but occurring frequently.


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With a game like this you also have spoilers. Story is important and being in beta can ruin plot twists for you. (Think about watching The Usual Suspects after helping with the edits of the last 10 min of the movie) When you do finish quests get ready to fill out surveys. They need to know if everything went well and if they need to make it easier or harder. Also get used to being detached from your character. Money doesn't matter and neither does getting that uber loot, because your character will be deleted and often. Bioware isn't letting people keep their characters from beta to carry over to live. Also remember to report hacks for the game, don't be a turd and try to keep the secrets for live. Of course I left the biggest downer for last. The NDA does not let you tell ANYONE outside of beta what is going on. Kinda isn't fun to be a Bioware employee and say "I cant talk about that yet" all the time.

One advantage of beta is you can have bragging rights. "I've been playing since beta started" You also can be that encyclopedia everyone in the guild turns to on where to go and what to do when the game starts. After all, some people like spoilers. Devs also have fun as well during betas. I heard the stories of dodge the fireballs from heaven day for Guild Wars beta. Just remember, this will be a second job mixed in with a game. If you do apply make sure you know what you're signing up for. Be a tester first and a gamer second. Only a limited number of people will be going in and if you don't do your job that is one spot that could have gone to someone that could have helped make the game that much better.

To sum up this entire article I will take a statement that you agree to when you sign up for beta: "We need your feedback. Your access as a game tester for the Game is not a free ride we expect something in return and that is your help."

Comments

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  • sado's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 1623
    #17 sado Posted 10/1/2009 2:42:53 AM
    Fixed, sry.
  • sado's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 1623
    #16 sado Posted 10/1/2009 1:55:08 AM
    Fixed.
  • Zoid's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 656
    #15 Zoid Posted 10/1/2009 1:31:55 AM
    One of the things with fixing the title would also be fixing the url for it and that would mess up people that are linking this article in other places. Glad I am not an English major.
  • Zoid's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 656
    #14 Zoid Posted 9/30/2009 1:06:21 AM
    No, they should let people skip it and if they do it too many times they are kicked out of beta.
  • Chasted's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #13 Chasted Posted 9/30/2009 12:35:46 AM
    If I am lucky enough to see a Selkath in-game, I will die happy.

    SELKATH FOR A PRESIDENT!
  • Bloodkrazed's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #12 Bloodkrazed Posted 9/30/2009 12:12:36 AM
    man they did fail on todays sign up. I got signed up but idk if it took with all the downtime
  • sado's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 1623
    #11 sado Posted 9/30/2009 12:01:14 AM
    I think everyone, especially us, are extremely excited to get our hands on the beta. As Aaron said, it's part of the fun or at least it is for me.
  • Aaronlol's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #10 Aaronlol Posted 9/29/2009 11:31:04 PM
    That's part of the fun of CB. The other part is knowing you contributed to bettering a game that millions will play.
  • dalak's avatar
    Nerf Herder
    • Posts: 26
    #9 dalak Posted 9/29/2009 10:06:52 PM
    I couldn't agree with you more. I think everyone signs up just for a free preview with no idea what's actually involved. I think developers need to start an actual application process that includes more than a two liner on why you think you'd be good for beta and some specs on your machine. It's seriously impossible for a company to completely debug their product on their own, they really depend on beta testers to make it at least a bug free game when it's released. Perhaps they shouldn't be so cheap and actually try to hire more "professional" beta testers instead of getting people who just want a free preview. At least for the more intense closed betas. Obviously for stress tests they don't care anymore.
  • eria's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #7 eria Posted 9/29/2009 9:19:01 PM
    Downtime is going to be a big thing for people who are new to beta. The game will be down a lot, being fixed, or they will do focus testing, which means you can only play from X time to Y time.

    Warhammer early on was pretty open in what you could do, but server was also very empty all the time. When they started doing focus testing, it varied on how they did it. Sometimes they would say, "ok go play Greenskins 1-10 for a week" and the server would be up all week. For the city siege testing, the testing would only go on for a few hours a night.

    The best advice I think you can give anyone...is to remember it is NOT a finished product. You are going to find bugs, bugs that really piss you off and annoy you. You will get frustrated sometimes, so just try to remember it's not finished. Keep your cool, and report the problem and move on.

    Take any surveys, be them in game or on beta forums, seriously. I think this was Warhammers problem. When we did city siege, all I saw was, "5/5, amazing! best game ever!" and I was like...really? Remember, you are shaping the game so to speak, if you don't enjoy something, let them know, and be constructive.
  • Zoid's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 656
    #8 Zoid Posted 9/29/2009 9:23:11 PM
    All of these will be important, but I am not sure on how downtime will work. In theory Hero Engine can do live patches so there may be less than traditional betas. Also never skip these surveys. They are the most important thing about being in beta.
  • RogueJedi86's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 3118
    #5 RogueJedi86 Posted 9/29/2009 9:16:57 PM
    This entire post can also apply to any Test Servers on any game. A lot of people use them as "free preview of the next patch!", but they're also intended to be tested and forced to the limits to ensure it's bug-free when the patch comes out.
  • Hanover Fist's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #4 Hanover Fist Posted 9/29/2009 9:02:27 PM
    I would simply love to be a part of the process myself. I've never got into any tests yet although I've kept trying over the years.
    As small a contribution as a tester is to the over all picture ,nothing would be a bigger honor for me at this point in my life than to have something to do with this game.
  • Amaranth's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #3 Amaranth Posted 9/29/2009 8:52:18 PM
    Well said. Beta testing is certainly not for the faint of heart, especially early on. It's extremely important that those who do get in are dedicated to finding general issues, imbalances, broken quests/abilities, etc. The more issues that are found during the beta process, the more stable the product will be at launch!
  • Zoid's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 656
    #2 Zoid Posted 9/29/2009 8:49:19 PM
    Was my job in WoW as well. I knew almost everything on every class and had all professions except a tailor. If you were ever stuck on what to do you had to whisper me.
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