Comments on: Open betas: Marketing, testing, or both? http://slashrandom.wordpress.com/2008/05/05/open-betas-marketing-testing-or-both/ Thoughts about mmorpgs and the communities that surround them. Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:22:57 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Korriban http://slashrandom.wordpress.com/2008/05/05/open-betas-marketing-testing-or-both/#comment-476 Korriban Thu, 15 May 2008 21:20:17 +0000 http://slashrandom.wordpress.com/?p=101#comment-476 The recent drama, brought about by some questionable decisions by FunCom regarding their AoC open beta, has opened up a larger can of worms as far as I'm concerned. While part of me can understand their logic behind using this the beta as a publicity promo, the underlying problem remains in that they are inviting a certain of gamer into the testing period. Players are using betas as more of a 'is this the next game I'll be buying?' test drive as opposed to approaching it with a 'right, let's see what I can break in an attempt to help fix any bugs' attitude. I think that this is at least partly responsible for the deteriorating standard of games on initial release. However, this response may have moved slightly off track from the OP and for that I apologise. The recent drama, brought about by some questionable decisions by FunCom regarding their AoC open beta, has opened up a larger can of worms as far as I’m concerned.

While part of me can understand their logic behind using this the beta as a publicity promo, the underlying problem remains in that they are inviting a certain of gamer into the testing period.

Players are using betas as more of a ‘is this the next game I’ll be buying?’ test drive as opposed to approaching it with a ‘right, let’s see what I can break in an attempt to help fix any bugs’ attitude.

I think that this is at least partly responsible for the deteriorating standard of games on initial release.

However, this response may have moved slightly off track from the OP and for that I apologise.

]]> By: northsun http://slashrandom.wordpress.com/2008/05/05/open-betas-marketing-testing-or-both/#comment-407 northsun Mon, 05 May 2008 16:38:29 +0000 http://slashrandom.wordpress.com/?p=101#comment-407 I agree that the major failure was not engaging the open beta community. The testers never got a baseline to know what type of test results they should expect. Instead when bombarded with buggy code and glitches they assume, not without merit that the game is not ready for release. I still think they dropped the ball in that respect. I agree that the major failure was not engaging the open beta community. The testers never got a baseline to know what type of test results they should expect. Instead when bombarded with buggy code and glitches they assume, not without merit that the game is not ready for release. I still think they dropped the ball in that respect.

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