General Discussion

Originally posted by bobtheblob

I dont see why people say not having an open beta means the game sucks.. now im not following AOC but im interested in WAR and that is also not having an open beta.

Closed betas in some ways are better they are more focused and the devs have more control over what they want tested, I tried the LOTRO open beta and im sure many people wre only in there for a free game, closed betas have people who are generally more dedicated to finding bugs and hence closed ebtas are more usefull.

sure open betas could be used for massive stress tests but when were looking at the number of applicants for beta AOC and WAR have they dont need an open beta they have more than enough willing people who want to find as  many bugs as they can.

Warhammer is not having an Open Beta either!?

Wait one second,please .It's stated on the WAR  route of beta-phases:the NDA will decay when  pre-order s are avalaible,in the last stage before release, of together with the promotonial gift of a beta key.That's it.You couldn't play or test unless you buy it, that's true,but you could know everything before and after the NDA break.It's similar to an open beta .After, it becomes a question of trust both new and old testers.

Originally posted by Tenebroso

 

Originally posted by ajm563

Hmmm.... I'm always suspicious when there isn't an open beta.  It makes me wonder what they don't want me to see.

I hope this game is good.  We've been waiting for a good MMO for a few years now.  But, I guess we won't know until release?

IMO they arent doing a full open beta, to prevent the Vanguard effect. The game was still in BETA, which means being polished and optimized, and ppl flooded the foruns with bad reviews for Vanguard, which kind of ruined the launch.

 

 

Hopefully, even though they wont have an open beta, they will still have enough people to stress test the game, and deliver it on march 25 08, as promised.

Vanguard's launch ruined it's own launch, the beta reviews were the nail in the coffin, which was Sigil's fault, not the player's.  Crappy product = crappy reviews.

Open beta's are critical for stress testing and finding those hard to find bugs that don't show up unless you have lots of people playing the game.

I am glad open beta has been canceled. I beta tested Tabula Rasa and what Richard says in this interview is true.

Specifically, “I think the formal marketing did fine,” he replied. "They let people know the game existed, and was coming out. I actually think the biggest mistake was made not by the marketing department, but by the development team. We invited too many people into the beta when the game was still too broken.”

“We burned out some quantity of our beta-testers when the game wasn’t yet fun," he said, adding, "As we’ve begun to sell the game, the people who hadn’t participated in the beta became our fast early-adopters.”

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=16490

Funcom I hope you guys pull this off!!!

Originally posted by TheDoughboy

As others have pointed out, no open beta usually means developers are hiding something.  If they have a fantastic game, they are losing marketing momentum and potential subscribers by not having an open beta.  If they have a train wreck of a game, they are misleading their trusting pre-order customers by selling them something that's not ready for release.

Keep in mind, Funcom is the same company that created Anarchy Online, a game with one of the worst MMO launches ever.  It wasn't until nearly a year after release that AO became reasonably playable.

I'd shell out the $90 to pre-order a collector's edition if I had a chance to try the game before buying, but without even two weeks of open beta, I'll keep my money and wait for a trial.   I'm sure I'm not the only potential subscriber who feels this way.

It's part single player, they could be hiding the story line   I'm glad there is no open beta.  Although, I'll take this time to say, it's a mature game so anyone who is under age really shouldn't be playing the game.

'"We invited too many people into the beta when the game was still too broken.”

“We burned out some quantity of our beta-testers when the game wasn’t yet fun,"'

thats a really good point and makes sense. i believe thats why funcom isn't hosting an "open beta". its the hardcores that beta test, and its the hardcores that make the most noise which can be very influential to the average person.

not having an open beta can be translated into either it sucks and they wanna hide it, or they don't want to show an unfinished game to ppl who don't understand the meaning of "unfinished" and/or burn out influential community members. either way we wont know for a few months. may as well be encouraging to the employees of funcom and stop flamming on unfinished work.

The last MMO I pre-ordered to get into beta was Hellgate, and that didn't turn out nearly as well as expected. Before that, it was EQ2, and the same.

I won't ever pre-order a game specifically to get into it's beta again. Now, that doesn't mean I won't pre-order an MMOG again, but it'll be for different reasons. You bet your arse I'm gonna pre-order the Collectors Edition of AoC. But not in hopes of getting some invite to beta with my pre-order (and so far Funcom hasn't announced such a system) but because from what I am hearing and reading, this game is gonna rock!

Edit: On the subject of TR, I spent some months beta-testing it, and it definitely wasn't fun until pretty close to release. I was to burnt out to play the game after release. The same thing happened to me with LotRO beta. I was in that beta for about 10 months, and was thuroughly burnt out by the time open beta hit, and I haven't tried the game since. I may give both a try in the future, but beta-testing an MMOG for a significant period of time, especially when it's not yet finished and really fun, can burn you out fast.

I wonder if AO will get an engine update since they have a hugely improved engine that they are using for AOC on their hands? So they are inviting 15k beta testers? This will be a interesting new strategy to see how it works out. I hope it all goes very well. Hmmm- Iceland MMORPG's and European MMORPG's are very interesting to play indeed!

Yea AO is getting a tech and graphic upgrade. It won't bring it up to AoC quality graphics mind, but should improve them greatly. :)