General Discussion

Heh, sounds like my concerningly-sounded Customer Relations email I sent (2 pages long) got their attention :P.

Btw, you'd be surprised how much little typing is required for two pages. Turn on Microsoft Word and copy & paste some of the longest posts in the forums. They can sometimes reach 5pages in Word.

Yay for community relation managers!!

Originally posted by CaesarsGhost

I find the best testing I could do with my studio was to take copies of the game and my team to the local HS and have them play in class with us standing behind them.  The ones who actually tested after a day or so and wrote up nice little report notes got invited to continue their adventures from home.

You'd be surprised how little actual testing goes on, even when standing on top of them asking questions.  I got TONS of "Just let me play, ok?"

When you have x amount of people playing for y amount of time on z amount of objects and mechanics your bound to get the results and data your looking for. Just let them play and you'll get your data. The most notable route for finding bugs is using an event logger on mechanics your specifically looking to get tested. Though thats known to be EXTREMELY sanity-killing to people who actually have families or sanity to begin with .

Folks, do the math :

*  AoC is announced to release 3/25

*  It will take at least 30 days to master the Gold, create boxes, and ship to retailers.

*  That leaves a mere 6 weeks to have an 'Open Beta'

*  There is currently no Open Beta program in place for AoC.  Applications are not being taken.  Registrations are not setup.

So, when exactly is this AoC "Open Beta" taking place?  The answer is simple :

>  After the customer pays for it  <

Either AoC delays, or there will be  NO  Open Beta worth the meaning of the name.

I think this announcment from Funcom that there would be an Open Beta for AoC is just a smokescreen to quiet down the more gullible portions of the MMORPG community until AoC ships and starts pulling in dollars.

Originally posted by Shoal

Folks, do the math :

*  AoC is announced to release 3/25

*  It will take at least 30 days to master the Gold, create boxes, and ship to retailers.

*  That leaves a mere 6 weeks to have an 'Open Beta'

*  There is currently no Open Beta program in place for AoC.  Applications are not being taken.  Registrations are not setup.

So, when exactly is this AoC "Open Beta" taking place?  The answer is simple :

>  After the customer pays for it  <

Either AoC delays, or there will be  NO  Open Beta worth the meaning of the name.

I think this announcment from Funcom that there would be an Open Beta for AoC is just a smokescreen to quiet down the more gullible portions of the MMORPG community until AoC ships and starts pulling in dollars.

I guess 2 + 2 does equal 3!

If this open beta is run and organised for the same reason and way that open betas/stress tests originated for then fair enough.

However I have my doubts tbh I would say enough of that has been done. I would say this is far more a pr issue baying to the winging tossers who think its their right to play the game prior to purchase. What the hell do you think will be achieved?

Lets say this goes much the same way of WoW's, when I took part in that I honestly couldn't believe so many still wanted to buy the game. If you actually managed to get on the server, you could stand and stare at the wall of the inn you spawned in for 15 minutes at a time if you were lucky, every now and then you got to read the drivel being shouted by people you know irl are forced to wear bracelets on their ankles.

Imo waste of time and will do nothing but serve to those whose have made it their lives work to hate... well everything it seems. I see it as a no win for funcom tbh. Those saying they won't buy without an open beta, will soon enough if the game is good enough and word spreads. But there is little chance of it getting much praise under open beta conditions imo, at least not if its being used as a stress test/net check.