I was very impressed with the progress ANet made over the course of the beta weekend. 

The only real issue I experienced was login problems, and after they put out a patch that seemed to go away.

When having the login issues I woudl enter my details then wait about 10-15 seconds, sometimes more for it to spew an error message at me. I could always tell if the game was going to let me log in because just before it did, the pretty background image on the login screen stuttered.....then it let me in, but it still took about 15 seconds after I entered my details.

After the patch, the stuttering thing went away, and I was either logged in immediately or given an error message immediately.

Seems like they had some lag or other network issues with their authentication servers, which they managed to fix in record time!

Originally posted by Wickedjelly

This is what happens when you offer beta access via prepurchase or preorder. Nothing new here and I have no sympathy for companies being taken to task over it. Matter of fact I'm rather sick of people always laying the blame at the feet of the players and giving these companies a free pass. It's getting really old. You reap what you fucking sow. They want to market beta and use it to increase sales? This is what happens when some pay for the product and can't play or have serious issues. Beta or no.

Let 'em rage. They paid for the product. Like I'm supposed to have sympathy for Anet when they essentially had the majority pay to get access to their beta. Give me a break.

 

This is what I have been saying since around 2000 when this really became a fad. I used to pride myself for getting into a beta based on my knowledge, and experience. Actually having to fill out an application to get into a beta test. 

 Now days, you just have to pre-order the game. These "Beta testers" create more problems, and most of them could not even find the event viewer on their computer to properly report a bug. The majority of the people I know that get excited about beta testing these days, would freak out if you handed them one of the old school bug report forms we used to have to fill out.

Originally posted by Wickedjelly

This is what happens when you offer beta access via prepurchase or preorder. Nothing new here and I have no sympathy for companies being taken to task over it. Matter of fact I'm rather sick of people always laying the blame at the feet of the players and giving these companies a free pass. It's getting really old. You reap what you fucking sow. They want to market beta and use it to increase sales? This is what happens when some pay for the product and can't play or have serious issues. Beta or no.

Let 'em rage. They paid for the product. Like I'm supposed to have sympathy for Anet when they essentially had the majority pay to get access to their beta. Give me a break.

I have to agree here.

What a horrible article!

I loved beta weekend. The game is the best MMORPG I have played in 10 years. I have played them all and none left me this impressed after the 1st week I played. Most I hate after i try beta, this game was refreshing in every way. Awesome combat, great graphics and sound, a huge beautiful world, intersting story and quest/event system.

I have a 4 year old PC and played on high with no lag or FPS issues. I was not able to login the 1st day for a few hours but that is to be expected, if you rage over that you should not be trying a beta.

If you had a 330M graphics card liek a guy I saw complaining in game, you should read spec before playing. You need at least a decent graphics card to play the most beautiful MMORPG out there(yes I think it looks better than even TERA that i also beta tested).

Overall, why make thisa article? 80% of the people I see on forums ort know that tried this game loved it. make more positive articles, why write this kind of useless thing?

Asking the general "Gaming Community" to conduct Beta Testing is like trying to train a bunch of chimpanzees to change an auto-transmission.

You'll get an awful lot of noise and commotion and tool bashing sure to ding up the paint and body while the transmission remains a mystery.

I'm sure there are some diamonds in the rough in the middle of all that, but otherwise . . . meh.

Originally posted by khameleon

What a horrible article!

I loved beta weekend. The game is the best MMORPG I have played in 10 years. I have played them all and none left me this impressed after the 1st week I played. Most I hate after i try beta, this game was refreshing in every way. Awesome combat, great graphics and sound, a huge beautiful world, intersting story and quest/event system.

I have a 4 year old PC and played on high with no lag or FPS issues. I was not able to login the 1st day for a few hours but that is to be expected, if you rage over that you should not be trying a beta.

If you had a 330M graphics card liek a guy I saw complaining in game, you should read spec before playing. You need at least a decent graphics card to play the most beautiful MMORPG out there(yes I think it looks better than even TERA that i also beta tested).

Overall, why make thisa article? 80% of the people I see on forums ort know that tried this game loved it. make more positive articles, why write this kind of useless thing?

  I'm guessing sarcasm went over your head?

  Oh, and 99% of all statistics are made up :D!

Originally posted by Silverbranch

Asking the general "Gaming Community" to conduct Beta Testing is like trying to train a bunch of chimpanzees to change an auto-transmission.

You'll get an awful lot of noise and commotion and tool bashing sure to ding up the paint and body while the transmission remains a mystery.

I'm sure there are some diamonds in the rough in the middle of all that, but otherwise . . . meh.

lol so very true

To all people who are raging and mad about this beta event. Anet delivered what it promised to everyone, BETA ACCESS, one of many by the way. They never promised a 100% working finalized game in any way, shape, or form.

I am reading complaints of normal Beta issues, some of these issue I have even experienced on a live game, such as server crashes, login issues, disconnects and so on.

I also notice some complaints about the combat and the ability bar. Most say it's broken, doesn't , work, is crap and so on. I would like to know how it's broken or doesn't work considering it's the only MMO that has this kind of ability bar.

Yes I did have a few gripes, but nothing I can't handle. I will either get used to their options and how things are done or wait for a fix.

article = "dont rage"

yeah, that'll work.

this was such troll-baiting

i had fun, got dc'ed a couple times,

sorry to hear about some of your experiences, my sympathies.

Originally posted by Maisson

To all people who are raging and mad about this beta event. Anet delivered what it promised to everyone, BETA ACCESS, one of many by the way. They never promised a 100% working finalized game in any way, shape, or form.

 

 

 

Nope they didn't. I did not have any beta access worth of this name (unless you count 20 mins at 4am in the morning)

So here you go, had this been free beta - no problem

But I purchased BETA ACCESS, not staring at a login screen

Originally posted by Isometrix

Originally posted by AlphaBootis

Originally posted by Wickedjelly

 

This is a load of horsecrap. With all due respect.

If you buy a game because it gives you beta access you also buy the probablity it does not work from the word go and possibility that it does not work at all. Because when you buy something beta that is what it is.

 

No. When you buy something, you expect it to work. When you buy something that'll be done in the future, it's called a pre-order. You reserve your copy, pay and get the copy on launch date. When you charge up front, you invent something new called a prepurchase. You're asking me for my money without giving me any product. In return, you give me beta access. The *only* reason for anyone to toss out $60 right now is for the beta access. Not the game itself as it isn't out yet.

They're promoting prepurchases madly and are trying to get cash up front. If you choose to do this, you're dealing with people that have already purchased a product. At that point, the "It's beta!" comment doesn't fly anymore. The fuck you mean it's beta, you have my money! I understand why companies use it in defense, but I'm on the side of the ragers this time. They give you money, you give them a product. If you're not giving them the product you promised, then don't ask for their money.

I'm gonna do something lame that's all the rage these days and compare it with a bollocks real-world comparison. Ferrari is releasing a new car for $40.000 sometime in the future. If you want, you can pay the entire amount right now. You don't know how it drives, how it feels or what it's going to be like. To incentivize you to give up cash for something you don't have yet, they'll give you testrides in it on select weekends, You ponder a bit and pay up. The first test drive weekend, the car takes 6 hours to even start up, then stalls at every traffuc light, runs out of gas in just 2 miles and has the tendency of flipping over on the highway. You think they're going to get away with saying "well it's a prototype"? No. This is unacceptable in *any* medium, and should not be different in video games. The second you charge money, you either deliver what you promise or face the wrath of your consumers.

 

I'm glad that some people understand that Arenanet brought this beta access rage upon themselves.

I honestly think that if you count the actual number of rage posts, youll find that there are actually more posts akin to your article telling ALL the whiners to get over it.

I'm not entirely sure which is more annoying.

Originally posted by Vepgenus

Originally posted by Silverbranch

Asking the general "Gaming Community" to conduct Beta Testing is like trying to train a bunch of chimpanzees to change an auto-transmission.

You'll get an awful lot of noise and commotion and tool bashing sure to ding up the paint and body while the transmission remains a mystery.

I'm sure there are some diamonds in the rough in the middle of all that, but otherwise . . . meh.

lol so very true

I disagree in this case.  ANet had a million beta applicants.  They had a huge pool with a lot of hardware profiles to choose from.  They could have sent out questionnaires and refined the pool down to a large pool very interested in BETA testing.  Did any significant portion of that pool even get chosen to test?

No, instead they chose to sell preview access to their game for marketing purposes.  It worked.  Their marketing department is genius.

They also deserve everything they get with that.  It is in no way shape or form the fault of the the "stupid gaming community".

Originally posted by Torvaldr

Originally posted by Vepgenus

Originally posted by Silverbranch

Asking the general "Gaming Community" to conduct Beta Testing is like trying to train a bunch of chimpanzees to change an auto-transmission.

You'll get an awful lot of noise and commotion and tool bashing sure to ding up the paint and body while the transmission remains a mystery.

I'm sure there are some diamonds in the rough in the middle of all that, but otherwise . . . meh.

lol so very true

I disagree in this case.  ANet had a million beta applicants.  They had a huge pool with a lot of hardware profiles to choose from.  They could have sent out questionnaires and refined the pool down to a large pool very interested in BETA testing.  Did any significant portion of that pool even get chosen to test?

No, instead they chose to sell preview access to their game for marketing purposes.  It worked.  Their marketing department is genius.

They also deserve everything they get with that.  It is in no way shape or form the fault of the the "stupid gaming community".

 

They didn't advertise "game is done you guys that bought it early get early done-game play time".

They advertised access to Beta test weekends.

That it also served other purposes like previewing the game by highly expectant gamers is simply reality and not a bad thing for them to have realized.

Your response does nothing but prove my point.

Originally posted by WoW_Refugee



Fabulous column, and I agree wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, you're dealing with the worst generation of spoiled, entitled, self-centered, childish gamers ever...so I doubt you'll create much (if any) consensus.

 

No kidding, and it isn't like all this hasn't happened before with other MMO's.

As far as  I am concerned they can release even current version of the game :)

Of course if they will work on performance & bugs post release :)

I had good time & rage was actually smaller than in usual betas.

Besidesthere ALWAYS will be ppl raging. Always.