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What is the purpose of Alpha and Beta?
Karble
Member UncommonPosts: 750
We are not really molding anything at all in Alpha or Beta of EQ Landmark.
From what I read and heard them talk about, it looks as though both land plots and constructed areas get totally wiped.
I am not sure about anyone else here, but if I put alot of time and energy to come up with some really great dungeon or castle, I would be fuming mad if the whole thing got wiped for the next process to start.
In effect, this is like taking a bunch of artwork from an artist's PC or house and destroying it.
Why even have a closed alpha and beta? The only noteworthy things I see coming from it at all are a few upgraded tools and a head-start on claiming a land spot.
Just watching Dev video gives you enough knowledge of the basic fundamentals to start gathering and building right away. I for one will probably etch out some rough drafts on paper or something for now. This way, once we actually get full access to all the tools and everything we will actually be able to keep our art and even sell it on the storefront if it's good enough.
Thing is...the Devs already seem to have everything penned as to how it will all come together, so I seriously doubt player feedback during these phases will amount to anything except to alert of crashes and net code issues and bugs. This paid beta business used to be a free service of interested beta testers so they could assist in helping the final game be good. Now it just appears to be an early money grab for Devs to get some cash while working on a game that is in a non-releasable state.
What are your opinions on this?
Comments
Alpha testing - initial feedback from testers who are not familiar with games - fix feature problems
Beta testing - wider test scale with people who are familiar with the genre - fix bugs and polish
They aren't here for you to get a head start on building pretty ideas. Consider that you spend time building something nice then a pre-release patch screws it up. It is far more reasonable to wipe the slate clean for release.
It is YOUR fault for thinking that betas are such solid states of the game.
Alpha and Beta does not mean release and everybody should expect, unless specifically told, that they are going to lose their stuff on release day.
Play for fun. Play to win. Play for perfection. Play with friends. Play in another world. Why do you play?
My minecraft creations get wiped everytime I think "Hey, a new world would be cool!". I don't mind as long as I know when the wipes are coming.
Just bought a settler's pack and am eager to get started, wipes or no wipes. I actually have very little interest in EQN itself. I just want the sandbox.
You seem confused. Alpha and Beta tests are not early access (unless explicitly stated as such, like all these fake betas that Neverwinter and other games have been doing), so it is common place to lose any character progress. If this bothers you, don't participate and just wait for release.
They are there to participate in helping to polish and prepare the game for release. Most people however just use these as free trials for unreleased games.
Why else would you have an alpha or beta test?
Alpha testing still seems somewhat legit, but most beta (closed and open) have become marketing ploys. Building up hype for the launch, and often as a reward for spending a retarded amount on some form of founders pack.
If a game isn't ready for prime time by the launch of beta, its probably in trouble.
Alpha tests are to test basic gameplay mechanics and content as they are being built to see if the actual systems work in a viable way.
Closed beta tests are generally still heavily test focused just with a bigger player base.
Open beta tests are more or less just load testing and catching bugs and marketing.
Since this game is F2P the open beta test is really more of a soft release. The alpha test people are paying to get into we just don't know if it is really an alpha test or just a marketing ploy. My guess is it will be a true alpha test and you'll see an extremely unfinished version of the basic game.
when they limit your ability to provide "valuable feedback" by selling you the entry to test then they dont care about these things. THey just want the money, ignore the feedback and do their own thing. Alpha and Beta used to be for what you said, thats not the case if you cant test without giving them money.
Alpha - You do not keep raw materials and such, but templates and anything you buy you keep they said.
Closed beta/open beta - Each one you get to keep more stuff I think.
Somebody, somewhere has better skills as you have, more experience as you have, is smarter than you, has more friends as you do and can stay online longer. Just pray he's not out to get you.
This.
Alpha tests generally were very helpful with players offering feedback.
Now I often see more posts about people complaining that the game isn't going the direction they like, character wipes and questions about how to get their friends in so they can 'play together.' It has really nothing to do with testing anymore once they open it up to the public.
In regards to Landmark we know the core fundamentals will be Sandbox and that's about it. Some randoms that get into Alpha could want a Themepark and scream about lack of questing. Is this a good Alpha tester? Should these people be allowed to test the game? No. They shouldn't. This isn't a democracy. Testing should be going after a certain type of player. When you design the game, you are designing for a type of player that likes a certain play style. Having people randomly submit to a website and then randomly selecting from that pool is an awful way of getting quality testers. Is having people pay for it better? Yes. I think it is. A thousand times better. If only because you have an invested play group that will actually test your game and give feedback on the core design. As opposed to a play group screaming for you to change what that core design is.
Which leads to the next phase of testing.
Closed Beta tests are horrible and the majority of players are horrible. Useless testers that are more concerned about trying the game out before buying or just playing for free until they get into the next Beta test for another game to play for free. Closed Beta is basically the new Open Beta. The major perk is that you get to feel special for a short time while other people wish they could get in.
Which then rolls into Open Beta. Open Beta has become the new Headstart. At this point no real testing can be done in the traditional sense. It's all about server load. Now with Landmark this will be a little different because they are developing the game around the player base, but I'm curious as to how well this will bode for the randoms that come into the game and spend money. Many people don't like change and they don't like things 'happening to them' without permission. In a procedurally generated world there's bound to be issues and unexpected events resulting from that. Will the players be cool with that after they have spent money on a 'live' game. Or are they going to scream and scream about how they were wronged with something that happened in game and want a refund on whatever they spent on the store? I'm guessing the latter. That should be fun.
So no I disagree that this situation rests solely on the developers side. This whole system changed when players started using Alpha/Beta testing as a means to try the game out for free and they stopped actually testing the game. That means applications to get into these things skyrocketed. The demand went up. Developers know this and have responded in kind. In my opinion you have a greater potential to get better testing from people that have invested in the game and care about it vs. applicants that won the lottery and often are only looking for a distraction.
Nowadays, the purpose of alpha/beta stage is whatever the suits comes up with. And then marketing then translates it into something advertisable.
Example :
Real situation: Our publisher is pushing us to release this unfinished game, so lets ask our marketing guys how we turn this problem into an opportunity.
Resulting advertising : "With this founders pack($69), we are giving you the unique opportunity to look behind the scenes during the beta stage of AAA MMORPG development! You get to witness first hand how our developers tackle bugs! And not just that, you even get the chance to help us creating the best game possible by providing bug reports!"
Thanks much for the replies.
I feel as if there is no trust in the gaming community any more from devs if what some of you are saying is accurate.
With older alpha/betas from years back, there was limited access with heavy NDA and a lengthy Q & A form to fill out. From there it was getting into special IRC or message boards for the tester feedback.
Maybe I just miss those days when being a part of a small team of hand picked testers meant something and was considered a labor of duty and respect between testers and the devs to get a game polished and ready for the main stream.
Now it seems like more of a paid sneak to the front of the line to play first, and not so much a test.
This seems even more the case every time I look at actual game play clips and read about promised timelines from the devs like "You will be able to play this winter, and I don't mean just beta."
Don't get me wrong. I am all for a process that weeds out those that are not actually interested in assisting in making the game a success. Maybe it's the new Free to Play market that has changed the way devs have chosen to do betas.
as I posted elsewhere,
Blizzard was doing this 10 years ago with their stress test for WOW
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20040826005635/en/Blizzard-Entertainment-Partners-FilePlanet-World-Warcraft-Stress
I had to pay fileplanet to be part of the "exclusive" stress test
EQ2 fan sites
Currently "alpha" and "beta" have turned into marketing and rollout instruments rather than programming instruments.
Not that they weren't it before, for a long time - but now the mechanics and rules of such marketing are very developed.
I also believe they are doing a pre-alpha internal testing at SoE, so I imagine that is where they are getting most of their alpha/beta type input, at least enough to get to a certain stage (that they deem see able by the community) to start the official alpha/beta.
I personally think Landmark is going to be basically in a open type beta till Next comes out, since they are developing it supposedly in parallel and they will probably work on tools as they need them for Next, once all of the core tools of Landmark are complete (building tools).
Alpha: This is what beta used to be.
Closed Beta: Early access
Open beta: Release.
Actual release: "Hey casuals, come play already!"
Welcome to F2P.