test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
>> Confused by the term "BETA"? READ ON!
therealbrainstew
Member Posts: 3 Arc User
Seems ALOT of people on here fail to understand the definition or objective of an open beta, so let it be known that:
yes, this is sourced from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle because if I used my own words to try and get this point across I suspect I would be banned for use of foul language.
whether or not real money transactions should been included in an open beta release, is debatable, but it concurs with the ethic of a beta release, in that these systems NEED to be tested for bugs. You lot should be grateful that it has occurred in Beta and NOT the end product.
You signed up for a beta product, you are playing the beta product, it is YOUR responsibility to test and report bugs. THIS IS THE WHOLE POINT OF A BETA. If you find a bug, whether its exploitative or not, Press H and click report a bug - dont tell the whole shard. The more people that actually understand the objective of a beta release the better because there will be less bugs/exploits in the final release
To be honest, think PW are in a bit of "damned if they do, damned if they dont' position, same as Blizzard were with the D3 AH exploit. Blizzard did not roll back and faced huge amounts of criticism and QQ from the community, but they had the resources to be able to handle the situation without a rollback - resources I doubt PW has.
PW have handled this well - as many devs will tell you, a system rollback is the LAST thing they want to do - but in this case it was necessary.
you are NOT playing a released game, you are playing beta.
stop the QQ and do your JOB, TEST THE GAME...FEEDBACK ANY ISSUES OR SUGGESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE!
Developers release either a closed beta or an open beta; closed beta versions are released to a restricted group of individuals for a user test by invitation, while open beta testers are from a larger group, or anyone interested.
The testers report any bugs that they find, and sometimes suggest additional features they think should be available in the final version.
Open betas serve the dual purpose of demonstrating a product to potential consumers, and testing among an extremely wide user base likely to bring to light obscure errors that a much smaller testing team might not find.
yes, this is sourced from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle because if I used my own words to try and get this point across I suspect I would be banned for use of foul language.
whether or not real money transactions should been included in an open beta release, is debatable, but it concurs with the ethic of a beta release, in that these systems NEED to be tested for bugs. You lot should be grateful that it has occurred in Beta and NOT the end product.
You signed up for a beta product, you are playing the beta product, it is YOUR responsibility to test and report bugs. THIS IS THE WHOLE POINT OF A BETA. If you find a bug, whether its exploitative or not, Press H and click report a bug - dont tell the whole shard. The more people that actually understand the objective of a beta release the better because there will be less bugs/exploits in the final release
To be honest, think PW are in a bit of "damned if they do, damned if they dont' position, same as Blizzard were with the D3 AH exploit. Blizzard did not roll back and faced huge amounts of criticism and QQ from the community, but they had the resources to be able to handle the situation without a rollback - resources I doubt PW has.
PW have handled this well - as many devs will tell you, a system rollback is the LAST thing they want to do - but in this case it was necessary.
you are NOT playing a released game, you are playing beta.
stop the QQ and do your JOB, TEST THE GAME...FEEDBACK ANY ISSUES OR SUGGESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE!
Post edited by therealbrainstew on
0
Comments
HI DEV !!!!!
Key phrase that you highlighted. "demonstrating a product to potential consumers"
Uh, 'potential'? Not when cash is in the mix.
I agree with the rest of it tho, find a bug? report it and move on.
In SDLC terms tho, the terminology of 'soft release' versus 'open beta' can get confusing and misleading, probably because it's marketing folks that control the publicity, not experienced software folks.
Yea it would help if they fixed the issue when it was first bought up as opposed to ignoring it and letting it run its course for days. But if you want to be a white knight, go ahead. When the game dies, you will realize how much PWE ****ed up.
So why the hell are we being charged to respec our characters? Wouldn't you think they would want as much feedback they can get on all the different combinations?
Normally I would agree with your post, but when you have to use money in an open beta game, I know it's just Cryptic/PWE covering their butts. Which is a pretty dirty thing to do imo.
This is not a beta, this is a soft release.
Also an Open beta usually is not payed, e.g. even if you sometimes need to buy the game your free playtime is not reduced and starts counting with release.
An Open Beta like this is a "soft release" because your real money is involved. The name beta is only an exuse for bugs so they are able to say its only beta. But it isnt a beta!
This is actually, almost a clever whine about whiners thead, but a whiners thread none-the-less.
Developers have already called it "released", so I'm not sure where you get the idea that it's not released. Just because someone in the marketing department decided to throw the word beta onto a game, doesn't change the fact that it's actually released. Just because I call a Honda a Porsche, doesn't mean that it somehow changed the fact that it's still actually a Honda.
But MMO's are never released in "full". You can come back in 1,2,3 years it doesn't matter. Stuff will be added and changed all the time.
LOL nice one! :P
It's not as if they couldn't have reduced the price of all items in the ZEN Market during the beta or even did a refund deal during the beta so people could still test it.
Testing something shouldn't require me paying money. Quality Assurance teams get paid to do this ****, so why should I pay Cryptic?
- exec. speak for 'my wallet needs filling again'
- dev. speak for 'it needs another 9 months to test, fix & polish'
- customer speak for 'I wanna play now [wail]'
What Class Are You?
+1 /10char
You mean, like say, Windows 8?
The Serenity Prayer
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
...
As someone who works in software development, creating large business systems, I cannot stress how important this statement is. Complex systems require rigorous testing by large user bases. And games are enormously complex, typically orders of magnitude more complex than your typical business system.
During the development of any given release of a product, we will cut many releases, and during the beta releases, we cut many releases of them. The beta testers are well aware that it is beta software, and that they should not use it to perform mission-critical operations, because it likely contains defects that will negatively impact their operations. But the reason we do this is so that we can collect feedback, identify and fix genuine defects, and release corrected builds back to the users as quickly as possible.
But here's the catch: in a system like Neverwinter, the game consists of various systems that are integrated with one another. These include billing systems, rendering systems, server communication systems, and a host of other systems that we cannot possibly imagine. They all have to be tested. And believe me when I tell you that defects will appear in the wild that will never show up in the development environment.
This is why it's a beta test. They are trying to ensure that they have covered as much of the system as they reasonably can. And even when they finally decide that it is officially out of beta status, they'll now that there are still defects, but that the vast majority of them are resolved.
I suspect that there are numerous problems here. Google has abused "beta status" for so long that people no longer understand what it means. The term is now synonymous with "cover your ***", and that's a damned shame. To those of us who take software development seriously, beta status is a real term, with a defined, deterministic meaning, and it has concrete value.
To end-users, though, it usually means something along the lines of "The product has been released, and I can use it." They do not realize that it means that they have entered a "QA Agreement" with the developers of the product. When you download the product and begin using it, you agree to identify any defects and report them. But the vast majority of users who download beta software never submit a defect report or feedback of any kind.
And this is where the central problem lays. What the players think a beta is and what the developers think a beta is are frequently two very different things.
*reads intently, realizes it's ANOTHER "whinge about whingeing" thread and calmly and coldly replies*
"no"
If Cryptic had released Neverwinter and called it a final product, then people would have been up in arms that it is a beta product. You just can't please everyone. Someone's always going to complain either ways.
A beta in an mmo, ends the exact moment you decide to not wipe anymore. The moment everything that happens is staying forever, it's not a beta anymore.
Don't you see how easy it is for them to just put the tag "beta" on the title. Calling something as you pelase doesn't make it be that way.