sorry to be the big pessimist, with a capital ASS, but beta isnt just for playing the game; its finding bugs, so the final product can be released..

Here's mark's views on the beta subject;

Folks,

This is my personal opinion this time and not one that speaks for Mythic (since we haven't discussed it). I dislike beta slots for pre-ordering a game. To me, it speaks a bit of desperation by the developer (now, this is not true every time nor for every company/game). Beta slots should go to the true fans of the game (those that have been following it for a long time) assuming of course that they can meet eligibity requirements (hardware, not working for a competing game company, age, etc.). Pre-order perks (fluff or special non-RVR stuff) are just fine. If WAR is not a good enough game to attract lots of beta interest nor to sell enough copies to succeed on release, then Mythic has failed and no amount of "Here Boy, Here Boy, Jump (pay) for Beta" stuff will save us. I also expect that we will look at opening the servers a day earlier for pre-orders as CoH did as that really allows for us to take some of the demand off the servers/bandwidth on day 1 and 2. Mucho kudos to Cryptic, that really was a good idea. Even though DAoC had the best launch of any MMO at the time and it still ranks either as #1 or #2, given what we hope will be the greater success of WAR, if we can spread the load a little bit, that will be fine by me.

Now, I know somebody will say "But, if people get a one day jump on me, that will be soooo unfair!" The fact is that since WAR will not be wide- open PVP (meaing PvP every spot on the map) and that people almost always will have some time advantage over another (people who take off work to play the game on release as opposed to those who have to wait a day or two to play it or those that can't get a copy for days), that time differential is a fact of life anyway. If we can, by allowing some people to get in a day early make it a better launch week for everyone, I'm all for it.

I believe we will do that same thing that we will do some of the same things we did with DAoC to help select our beta testers. While the contests will continue to run, we will be choosing people from these and other boards, fan sites and offer them beta invites at some point if we like what we see from them. Now, it is crucial to note that saying "WAR IS GOING TO ROCK, WoW SUCKS!" and nonsense like that will do you no good at all. I, and others, will be choosing people based on their ability to think critically, the knowledge they show on the boards and the attitude they show on the boards. To paraphrase a line from a movie (which I do all the time), I can't abide save-asses and I won't tolerate kiss-asses and I have no time for we're going to kick-your asses." The beta-testers who will be most useful to Mythic are those that can look at our game and are willing to spend the effort in telling us what they think in a polite and professional manner just as I, and everyone at Mythic, knows that we need to do in dealing with you. I want people who know Warhammer and have experience with at least one MMORPG. And most of all, I want people who want to help us make the best game out of the WH IP that we can.


Mark

P.S. To answer some questions I know will also come up, no, you will not be able to keep your characters after beta on the LIVE servers, no we will not have servers just for those who beta-tested to keep their characters on and yes, we will, just as we did for DAoC, have a special reward for our long-term beta testers (we offered them a special discount on their subscriptions for the life of DAoC) though we haven't even begun to discuss what it is.

Judging from that I doubt it will be open to the public for download. But like he said, that's his opinion...not the official word.

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Originally posted by rsammy
Of all the things that go on in beta that are annoying, by far the most of them is the arguement that they should keep their beta characters after release. For some reason they think that just for spending all their time testing a game, they should have all their level maxed and gear maxed characters sent over so they can have that advantage or everyone else.

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Originally posted by MissFlato
Well if it is available to the public, you can bet your sweet booty I'll be downloading it!  Can't wait!

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