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Beta Test All FF14 followers need to read this!
braingame007
Member UncommonPosts: 98
Hey, I am bringing you some information from www.Eorzeapedia.com from a GAME Watch Interview just after or sometime during the TGS. Devout followers of FF14 Like myself will have already read this post or this information but there are some on this site who don't know all the good FF14 Sites to get info from. So I am going to give you a link to the Interview and I am going to post the section talking about Beta Testing if you only want to read that part.
Here is the Link to the Whole Interview!
http://www.eorzeapedia.com/2009/09/28/game-watch-interviews-tanaka-and-komoto-at-tgs/
The Beta
Can you believe it? GAME Watch got actual information about beta testing! The first round of beta testing will be done with a relatively small group and be conducted worldwide. It won’t be a continuously running beta test but broken down into small 3 or 4 hour tests held at different times. They plan on doing very detailed testing on FFXIV so users will see how the game develops over time. At the beginning, tests will only be conducted with the Windows version. From the initial 3 or 4 hour tests they will expand to daily or weekly beta tests that run for 24 hours a day. After that comes stress tests which will require a lot of people. Tanaka says it could start with 10 thousand people and go up from there to 20, 40, and 80 thousand people. Finally, there will be a free open beta. Originally he thought it would take half a year to go from a development build to the open beta, but he now thinks it will be shorter than that. The interviewer guesses at a summer release based on that and Tanaka says it all depends on the feedback they get from players during the beta testing. It doesn’t sound like the development build he is referring to is the same demo shown at gamescom. He says whether or not a development build is made by year’s end will depend on the developers.
The interview ends with Tanaka saying things will be different from how FFXI started because they will take action against RMT from the very beginning this time around. People will also be able to use the security tokens and one time passwords. Komoto says visitors to gamescom were able to try out the game first but for people in Japan to please be patient because it will be awhile longer before they will have a chance to play it. Tanaka laughs and says he’ll be lighting a fire under the bums of all the developers.
Comments
If the summer estimate by the reporter is reasonably possible, then we could see a testing schedule like this one.
Beta Theory Timeline
Keep in mind the only data used to create it was information from the wiki suggesting a longer beta then FFXI, and the recent positive remark from Tanaka that the development is moving faster then he expected. It's looking like FFXIV is going to arrive before FFXIII, which ironically won't be a first for the series.
I wonder if that initial pool of 10,000 testers will be friends and family, press only, or from the first subscribers to their newsletter. I was hoping that they would include something [beta?] for people who purchased XIII, but that still might not be out of the question.
Good luck to everyone here, even the ones that are avoiding the coolaid. XD
from that interview , "The demo shown off at gamescom represented a game that isn’t even 50% complete yet." I call BS... they've been working on this for years and if it's only at 50% then how could they possibly expect to finish the last 50% in the next couple of months before Beta starts? -_-
but anyway, finally hearing something about the beta is great and I'm very psyched that they're looking at a summer release... I wouldn't be able to play during the week at night until May since I'm going to be working some crazy hours for the next few months so this is exactly what I was hoping for
You don't seem to know how developing a game works...
The first 40-50% are usually the longest in dev time and it can take many years to even get there.
However from that point on there's a snowball effect and the last 50% usually take only a small time to complete as opposed to the first 50%,
You don't seem to know how developing a game works...
The first 40-50% are usually the longest in dev time and it can take many years to even get there.
However from that point on there's a snowball effect and the last 50% usually take only a small time to complete as opposed to the first 50%,
This is true to a certain extent. More likely though is that the build shown was an older build (maybe put together over two months ago). For any build shown at a public forum, extensive internal testing and multiple iterations are done which takes time and man power.
Also for builds, only complete features that are simple enough to easily grasp on the fly are shown. No sence overloading the poor guy from th e press who only has 30+sec to play a game with concepts that may not directly translate well to non-long time player. Bad press this early in a development cycle is hard to overcome which is why devs stick to the mantra, "Keep it simple stupid" when it comes to a demo. =P
I guess the point of the both my post and the above is that more then likely the game is much much furtther along then the demo showed (even though the demo did show a lot). Assuming they have the vast majority of their ideas implemented and they are just fine tuning content, the theortical beta schedule probably isn't too far off.
Currently Playing: GW2
Retired: Shadowbane, DAoC, WoW, FFXI, Eve Online, SWToR
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I feel pretty confident to say that they prob have the Alpha version of the game complete or damn near complete. Just like the guy above was saying. They only brought out a demo so fans could see what they are getting. I don't think they meant the actual game is under 50% complete. I think they was saying that the demo they are showing ( which is probably an old version of the alpha build) is what is under or at 50% from completion. I expect the beta to hit either by the end of the year or at very latest first quarter 2010. I personally think that first phase of beta is gonna start 4th quarter of 2009. For the PC players and then as the new year rolls around and they go for the open beta and start letting PS3 beta testers in at that point.
I have beta tested a lot of games in the past, From MMOs to FPSs, so I am just making a guess from past experiences. If I am wrong owell, one can hope only hope lol
You don't seem to know how developing a game works...
The first 40-50% are usually the longest in dev time and it can take many years to even get there.
However from that point on there's a snowball effect and the last 50% usually take only a small time to complete as opposed to the first 50%,
Also, wasn't it later clarified that by ~50% Tanaka was referring to the overall detail of the graphics; that we weren't seeing the game in its full detail at those shows? I'd need to find the link to it, but I believe they clarified that for people who misunderstood.
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