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WoW and their Current beta testers?
SarinX
Member Posts: 73
I don't know how much all of you read on forums of games that are in develepment, but WoW's testers have to be some of the worst testers I have ever seen ( this is considering games that you can actually see somewhat of what is going on with the game). I mean these people in WoW do nothing but whine/cry/complain/moan about such minor stuff it makes me want to jump through the screen. I don't intend to even play WoW at this point ( may play who knows), but I like to keep up to date for previews I write etc and try to read up as much as possible.
I guess there is no real point to this thread but to vent some frustration with people that are testing some of these games that potential consumers as myself might buy. Great example is the 50 threads going on in the past few weeks about keeping beta toons at release, I mean come on do these testers even have any common sense on how off balance that would throw the economy into, let along considering pure ethics, pure selfish on their part if you ask me. Now I guess my main reason for venting here is I hope someone working for blizzard reads these sites to get insight from non current beta testers to guage their prespective of whats going on with their game, and I believe Blizz is actually probably smart enough to do this.
These testers act as they are a paying tester, and throw a tantrum if their game play is thrown off from a bug/change in a patch that comes out. Hopefully one day a team will come up with a way to actually pull testers that have proven themselves in the past in helping other games test and and be helpful instead of trying to get a free ride as they think they are a paying customer. Someone needs to start a bank type system for all devs to pull from for potential testers that any team can pull random testers from that have proven themselves in the past, only thing I can think off of the top of my head that might work, any ideas?
Comments
Agree 100%. I personally think beta accounts should expire within 4-6 months. Then add different ones. The ones that have been playing all this time are getting bored, and are complaining about the most inane things. I think their perspective becomes skewed for playing so long.
Anyway, just my 2 cents.
Here's how I see it. Blizzard make it very clear that every beta tester has a voice, and since (from what I can see on the beta forums) the testers are very excited and passionate about the game, and everyone has their own opinion, they all want the game to be their way.
When it comes down to it, the responsibility is with Blizzard. They could just slap a few rules into their NDA saying "You will not question us on point A, B, and C or you will be removed from the beta test" but like everything else in life it's not what people say that matters, it's your reaction to it.
Personally I think it's refreshing that they let their testers say what they like (within reasonable limits) without treating them like kids.
You make it sound like they've signed a contract promising to play the game until release. If people get bored with something, they generally stop doing it.
The naming policy is the latest big issue and since it's an important one, it's generating a lot of discussion.
BTW, are you looking at the beta forum or the general discussion forum?
Actually, it sounds like the majority of their testers are in the 10-14 yr. old range. Then again, it's hard to tell with all the whining. If there's anything that's actually making me have second thoughts about WoW, it's having to play with people of such caliber... I suppose only time will tell though.
As for the original poster's idea, I think it's a very good one.
Otto!
I'm looking for some friends that I lost contact with over the years...
EQ: Horlain (Firiona Vie)
DAOC: Kaizur (Guinevere)
Then you should have no problem looking through the beta forum and pulling out a hefty collection of immature quotes, right? Try actually looking at the beta forum before you come off with such biased conjecture.
Whooo Hooo I agree 150 percent with the original thread starter... I mean here I am a person who actually wants to test so that I can make sure that WOW is at its best before I get it on launch day and do I get in? Hell no.. never that...
Meanwhile some little silly snot nosed kid who is whinning about not being able to name his Troll TehPwnzer is selling his second beta account on Ebay....People over on those boards are killing me, beta is for submitting bugs, reports, evaluations, suggestions, ect.. Its not about omgerz im going to teh loose all that I got this far when the game gets launched urrgghhh@@!!.. Not saying everyone testing the game is not giving valuable feedback, but going by the boards you can tell alot of them dont give a Darn and are just out to play for free and TEST if they want to buy the game, and not test to give good feedback.
Then you got your ones that think they know so much more then the developers and question them at ever step... I found this link http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=342636#Post342636 exp funny. People were complaining about the attribute change and how that was a major f up by the blizzard team... Later on in the thread you have a Dev comming in and laying the smack down and telling them the reason why..
Ugh man I hate it I have the worse luck getting into betas, the only one I ever got in that was Closed was COH.. And I had to buy my way in (pre-order) for that to happen...
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Yeah, I would have liked to be a beta tester too but I'm not gonna whine about it. At least we get to read the beta forums. Some of us skim over the (extremely infrequent, whether you want to accept it or not) immature posts, and others bitch and moan.
Keep in mind some of the people that got into the beta. NOTE: This is not a flame against people that got in legitimately. Many people cheated and scammed the system to get into the beta test. Like I said before, I know a lot of people got in legitimately as well, and this post is not directed towards you. However the people the cheated to get in are also the people that are most likely to be the whiners trying to get Blizzard to let them keep their beta characters.
Like you said, it would be insane for Blizzard to let them do that. So, when you mention ethics and selfishness, keep in mind some of the people who are likely to be the whiners.
I'm not really worried about them keeping closed beta characters. Maybe they would let people keep open beta characters. I know several MMOs have done that. However, that is pretty fair, since an open beta lets anybody in.
-Ashenkhar
Can someone explain to me the lure/appeal of beta testing?
As far as I can see it the only thing you gain is a small learning curve advantage. But since you don't get anything for being the first one to hit the level cap that advantage is pretty meaningless.
Has Blizzard promised anything to the closed beta testers?
If not then they are taking advantage of there most devoted fans.
This thread right here is some of the things I am talking about...
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=366661&p=1#post366661
I mean this guy is whining about spending time aqcuring funds for this weapon like hes paying for the game and it was wrongfully changed on him.. IMO this doesn't even warrant a post about, its not freakin game breaking/bug/exploit. If he was at least half witted, he'd realize they toned current armor/weapons down most likely for the implmentation of legendary type weapons, not to mention its always a ongoing balancing act even long after release of MMO's.
Than you got people crying about dl speed for the patch, I don't think they realize at this point blizzard is not making money and need to cut costs/overheads in some way. They even stated awhile back there will be various methods of dl at release but you still get 500 whining posts about this each time a patch is thrown out. The funny thing is every issue these morons make a thread about dl'in is on their end, I throughly tested it myself, btw you can still dl new patches if you were in stress test and kept the client.
Well it's different things to different people really. You have the people that just want to play a free game. People that are big fans of Blizzard or the concept of the game and sincerely want to help test it and give good feedback to help insure the final product is as good as it can be. And people that just want to check to see if they'll like the game when it comes out to retail. I'm sure there's plenty of other reasons, but these seem to be the main ones to me.
As far as advantages, for people that plan on buying it retail they'll already know how the game works, the best character designs, best mobs, best loot, etc as you already said. A couple games have given beta testers a head start in the game before retail even. 'Earth and Beyond' and 'City of Heroes' both gave testers a short headstart. Although Blizzard has said no such thing and most people doubt they will do this. Now of course these reasons aren't important to some people, mainly to power gamers that want to be the best or the first at things. Like you said, in the grand scheme of things your life won't be complete if you simply become the first person to hit level cap, but to many people the competition of that idea IS important to them. And more power to them, I say. That just means that the higher content will already have been worked through and improved/tweaked by the time I get there if ever.
Otto!
I'm looking for some friends that I lost contact with over the years...
EQ: Horlain (Firiona Vie)
DAOC: Kaizur (Guinevere)
Sometimes a small learning curve difference can make a big difference when a game is released.
In Horizons, there was a repeatable quest where you just had to talk to an NPC, give him some player created items, and you would recieve Adventure XP, Crafting XP, and gold. A few people who were in the beta knew about this quest and did it over and over, hundreds, possibly thousands of times. They had players in the 70s for both adventure and crafting levels when most everyone else was in the 40s or below. Horizons eventually yanked the quest, but by then the damage had already been done.
I doubt WoW will have anything in it as gamebreaking, and an open beta further lowers the chances of their being something only a few will be able to exploit at lower levels, but having been in closed beta long enough to experience high end content will allow the testers to know exactly how to design their characters when they start, plus save an immense amount of time in knowing where to go, what to level off of, etc. And if they are able to hit max level a week or so earlier than everyone else, then they have that time to gain fame from PvP and get the special items that entails.
Check out this post
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=366503&p=1#post366503
Apparrently the patch to make warlocks a viable profession again has only been live for a matter of hours. This person lost a duel to a warlock and is now screaming for a nerf.
Its really kinda funny but at the same time really.....really.....sad.
ROLEPLAYERS UNITE!!!!!
Critical thinking is a desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and hatred for every kind of imposture.
Then I'm sure you have a wealth of evidence to back up your claim that the MAJORITY of beta testers are immature. Until then, your opinion is based on nothing but conjecture.
Also, countering a point by calling it "stupid" doesn't qualify you as particularly mature yourself.
The vast majority of WoW testers currently, from what I experienced and have seen participating in the beta forums seem to hail from other Blizzard titles, and not MMORPGs. And yes, it does seem, at least on the surface that it is a younger crowd.
That being said, World of Warcraft is an awesome game, and I for one will be there playing it. More than likely I will be hanging out with my guildmates from other MMOs rather than mingling with the Diablo II freaks (I mean, come on, it was a great game....back in early 2000!)
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Sothorn
Currently playing:
City of Heroes
Past Games:
Ultima Online, Anarchy Online, Star Wars Galaxies, Earth and Beyond, Eve: Second Genesis, Asheron's Call 2, City of Heroes, World of Warcraft (STBeta)
On another note, however, SarinX, I was just wondering if you could show me another link, to any other beta mmorpg that we could use for a comparison. I'd like to see what you are using for a yard stick to hold up to the Blizzard beta testers... since I am one of them
One of the many aspects that a tester needs to test, is playability, or the fun factor. You have to remember that these (myself included) are not paid testers. These are volunteers. Mostly young people that have the time and interest in playing these games. You get what you pay for.
and I'm sure Blizzard is aware of this. These posts, even the whiny ones you don't like, tell the blizzard dev team something. An obvious thing is, the player base is not going to take any chage lightly, no matter what that change is or why.
Skirnir, Dwarven Mage, Beta (PvE server)
Last of a disappearing breed.
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Veni Vidi Castratavi Illegitmos
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My dog barks some. Mentally you picture my dog, but I have not told you the type of dog which I have. Perhaps you even picture Toto, from "The Wizard of Oz." But I warn you, my dog is always with me.
Actually, SarinX, I just spent my last 45 minutes reading the beta forums <heavy sigh> I got to admit, we do really seem to be a whiny bunch. I prolly just got defensive over your post, because I am in the beta... but reading the forums and the current reaction to the latest patch... yeah. You'd think we were paying top dollar to play.
But on another note, it is more than anything else, training Blizzard dev members and any CSR that Blizzard will have, what to expect when they go live!
Skirnir, Dwarven Mage Beta (PvE Server)
Last of a disappearing race
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Veni Vidi Castratavi Illegitmos
----------------------------------------
My dog barks some. Mentally you picture my dog, but I have not told you the type of dog which I have. Perhaps you even picture Toto, from "The Wizard of Oz." But I warn you, my dog is always with me.
Blizzard lets anyone sign up and picks the beta testers at random. There's absolutely no quality control, so what do ppl. expect? Of course there's gonna be unsavory and inadequate testers that get in. That's just how it is.
All I can say, is that during the stress test, the players were no worse than any other I've experience in open, free beta tests of some kind. In fact, I've seen much worse in games like Lineage 2.
yeah i agree with you guy's beta testers whine to much over the slightest little things. keeping characters at launch is a silly idea.
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65 Druid Tallon Zek, EQlive
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44 Merc Gaheris DAOC,
43 Healer Merlin DAOC,
They really need an age limit to beta test, People who are young are often going to complain about stupid stuff and MMO's normally have an age limit at release. The beta test age limit should be about 5 years older than the release age limit.
If a person doesn't log in and play at least once every 7-10 days the account should expire. If the person isn't playing then they can't provide constructive feedback to the Dev team and help with the process.
A certain percentage of the people who are accepted into beta need to be people who have 3-5 years MMO experience in at least 2-3 different MMO's. It would be helpful if they had beta test experience as well.
They need to expire counts every 2-3 months. If accounts were to expire every 2-3 months they would be able to get rid of those who just sign up to play free games and never intend to buy the game. Once a person decides they are not going to buy the game they are less likely to give good feedback to the Dev team.
If a person puts their beta account up for sell it needs to expire right then. I have been doing my part by e-mailing Blizzard a list of all the wow accounts for sell on e-bay as well as sending a list to e-bay as a violation of user terms and agreements.
With all the expired accounts they should issue new accounts to keep the Beta pool full and active.
Dumin