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Why just beta weekends and not a beta week?
cukimunga
Member UncommonPosts: 2,258
Personally I like to do my gaming durring the week, hang out with friends and go see shows on the weekend. I also work all weekend so there leaves little time to test these beta weekends. I actually enjoy testing games and finding bugs and such, but I won't lie I still judge weather or not I'l enjoy a game based of my beta testing experience.
Are there any others out there that like to do the bulk of their gaming durring the week and not the weekends?
Comments
GW started with beta weekend so the delopers could focus, during the weeks after, in fixing and tweaking the game. What is so hard to understand.
I work during the week, so weekends are best for me......
Well they can still focus on developing durring those times just make it 7 instead of 3 days. That way the people whos best time to play on the weekends can still play but us who can only or like to play durring the week can play as well.
It's actually an amazing hype generating method. Simply saying they use it for "developement" purposes isn't true, because that's what they have closed beta players for. These "Sneak Peak" weekends are nothing more than a massive hype inducing method mixed in with "Server Load Testing".
Quite frankly, only giving people 72hrs of play access with a week or more inbetween weekends gives the player enough of that "Hook" without giving them enough time to "burn out".
You won't really experience GW2 until they allow a week or more of prolonged access, and then you'll know if GW2 is a winner or not for you.
More sandbox titles should do something like this :P.
The Theory of Conservative Conservation of Ignorant Stupidity:
Having a different opinion must mean you're a troll.
The developers are going to get the most players during the weekend. The weekend is 2 and half to three days, when the big wigs don't have to come in to work to support the servers. So they can come in and have their late Monday morning status reports on the Beta ready to go to figure out things during the week.
It's not just MMO companies that due this, many companies will beta new clients and systems during the weekend for similar reasons.
Keep in mind - the developers don't want your bug reporting. They've got their "full time" alpha and beta testers for that. They just want you to log in and stress the servers, and be there to play with other people. These Beta Weekends are sneak peaks - not actual beta testing, for the most part.
Why just a beta week and not a beta month?
Why just a beta month and not a beta year?
Why just a beta year and not a free game?
Well.... because 2 days is deemed long enough to get you hooked, and short enough for you to not get bored.
Well saying that the weekends have no use at all for the developers would be probably wrong.
They could at least win something out of the feedback: more people more accurate feedback.
But I agree it's probably some kind of marketing move as well. Play with the hype and people's anticipation.
They probably keep a close look to these kind of forums as well.
BTW isn't NDA active on GW?
I don't think people really understanding what im getting at. I'm not wanting a free game I have already preorded the game, I just would like to be able to partake in the beta tests but I don't really play video games on the weekends.I got to play GW2 for 2 hours that I squeezed in. Ok how about this idea then.
Companies start holding beta privews that last a week long but as soon as you log in you have 72 hours to play the game. That way everyone can enjoy the game on their own times not be forced to only play on the weekends. My best time to play video games would be Tue - Thursday, that is basically my "Weekend".
No, they specifically stated there was no NDA so we were free to post video's, etc. to plug their game as much as we wanted
Personally I had a great time. There were bugs of course but I've seen games released to an unsuspecting public in a worse condition.
If their aim was to give us a taste of what's to come and keep us interested, well, it's worked for me. I'll be playing inferior games till the next beta weekend or release...whichever comes first.
There is probally some kind of closed beta test that is running all the time..
The beta weekends are just to give somthing to the people who pre-ordered and to help stress test the servers.
they not for texting. they are for marketing. people need to get that part straight first. its all marketing.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
Its for testing and marketing.
i disagree somewhat with people just calling it a marketing technique... a.net is very active with it's community and takes alot into consideration from bug / convienience / player reports about everything, they do massive patches between test events and even now are still tweaking the UI based off feedback from the players...
in my opinion they are doing a great job at using the time to actually improve there game rather then just hype it up.. like some other games
Why do beta weeks when you can have beta years! At least that's what LOTRO did 5 times in a row now, 6th in progress
My Guild Wars 2 First Beta Weekend "reviewette" : http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/4944570/thread/349125#4944570
all them Conspiracy Theorists ! lol
Whatever the reason is .... Gw 2 is fun... and im glad i get to have a taste every once in a while rather than be allowed to play untill release , Then come release...your bored of it because you played it for 4-5months straight already lol.
Anyhow , Beta Weekend Finale was a real blast, ill be looking for the next Beta Weekend.
Have a good one folks
You are in the minority as a weekday gamer, sorry to burst your bubble but they won't just cater to weekday gamers, the majority of people that work or go to school have more time to play at the weekend than during the week.
The beta weekends or events are not for your benefit, they are for the developers and for the marketting men, they are designed to test certain aspects of the game and also at this stage get the player interested enough to buy the game.
This ^.
I don't really see how people can still say this is all about marketting w/ a straight face. Maybe I need to pickup a tinfoil hat.
Are they using it to generate interest? Of course, and they'd be foolish not to. But to imply that they aren't using the feedback from these events to improve the game is a bit ludicrous. They are using these as a legitimate beta test, and they are also generating interest from it.
They wouldn't constantly be churning out new builds for the game, if they were just using these events as a hype machine. That's more in line w/ what we saw w/ TOR, and other MMOs that have come out in the passed few years, where we get 1 open beta, in which little changes, and then the game releases. Here we are getting an undisclosed number of open betas, in which lots of things are changing, and we don't yet have a release date. They've even been extremely open with us about the changes they've been making, why they've made them, and other concerns / criticisms we've given them that they will be looking into. It's very much a beta in the traditional sense. Though I'm sure most people have forgotten what those actually are like.
EDIT: As for the OP. It's simple.
Anet works during the week (like most of us), and thus spends that time working on the game. They could have beta weeks, but they seem to get all the info they need over the weekend. I suspect (as with what happened in GW1) that we will have a weeklong beta shortly prior release. That will be more of a marketting beta, though, and less of the traditional beta we've been playing.
It sucks that you haven't had much time to play (though I've had more than 2hours, I have missed at least half the beta time due to reallife stuff), but it is just a beta. On the one hand it sucks not to be able to play, but on the other you will be going in a lot more fresh than some of us will be. And that's not a bad thing.
HAH.....they are teasing the gamers with crack.....you can have it....oops denied. Come back when we get more stash.
IMO anyone saying Arenanet isnt helping to coax the hype meter is sniffing glue. It is in their interest to get the folks worked up n talking about it.
Asking Devs to make AAA sandbox titles is like trying to get fine dining on a McDonalds dollar menu budget.