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Open beta or Production release....Whats the difference?
rkrider
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Silverstars Posts: 80
If your not doing a wipe, what's the difference?
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
I've ridden through the deserts of Athas on a Horse made of Flame....
I've ridden through the deserts of Athas on a Horse made of Flame....
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Tiko
This.
And I'm also assuming that the cash shop will probably not be active during the OB.
They can...but that has become less and less in time.
So the thing is changes and issues may still occur during Open Beta. It's not "launch" but it will, in a sense, act as a launch.
Here is an article which should explain it from a third party perspective. It's hardly an excuse. It's common practice.
Will it end after a couple of days, and there will be no gameplay until launch?
Or, will it continue until launch?
For example, if they scrap and rewrite a system because of problems, doing it after a final release would spell more problems than during beta iterations.
In other words, you are playing a Release Candidate, but if it needs to be changed, they are going to change it.
I am almost 100% certain the cash shop will be open during OB. Part of the point of OB is getting the game up so they can start recouping their investment.
But yeah it makes me wonder....Friday at Noon to Sunday at 11:59 were the longest the servers were open for our Closed Weekends..Im' sure they probably used a timestamper rather than "someone flick the switch at 11:59 please". But honestly in the past 3 weekends for me I've only been booted maybe twice...maximum wait maybe 5-10minutes. I still lived my life normally...I ate breakfast when I should..went to the bathroom...and ate dinner etc; no major hiccups for me (servers)
Open Beta...yeah I guess that means that at anytime the servers could plop to log in screen and like others have already stated..since its still 'beta' that means we cannot really complain.
Perhaps its their way of completely ironing out any remaining bugs.
If I seriously had to guess....Open Beta 1-3 weeks. And I'm sure admist their daily/every few days/weekly patches one of those major patches could say "We are Live, Open Beta has expired"
Because I'm sure they dont want to say "Game is Live April 30th and have 50 people play a class with no gear because the item says..Required Class: " and is left blank LOL......BTW I'm sure that bug is fixed!
SimCity is hardly the worst game in history, it's not even the worst game of 2013 (that "honor," I think should go to either Aliens: Colonial Marines or The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct).
so far its $5 for 2 slots
mounts are overpriced though, need to steer clear of them same as pets. I dont know who would pay $40 for a mount or $25 for a pet
Anyone still searching for guilds you can check out HCG Hardcore Christian Gamers.
NW FAQ | HCG NW Host Site
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Somebody set up a very thorough list on reddit, from the last beta weekend.
I haven't been playing MMOs in any great numbers or with great regularity, but the one idea that i do appreciate is the option to earn zen through the conversion of astral diamonds. I am thinking of some of the younger players that don't have sources of income to devote to such games or those who may be economically challenged in some way but still want to play and offer moral support to the game until they can afford to buy zen with real money as is hoped.
I know that as with Rift and GW, there were a great many younger kids playing at certain hours of the day. For as many of them that were simply able to have the game given or gifted, you could find those who had saved allowances or found other ways to get the money to buy the game. I even met a group of kids who had all pitched in to buy the game... they each created a character under the single log in, and took turns playing that way. when they ran out of slots and wanted to buy additional ones they all chipped in and purchased enough for the group. For the character personalization items (dyes for armor, mounts, etc.), they were on their own. if they had the money to buy it, they could. As GW moved forward into it's expansions, I found much the same held true. Yes you could trade for some items, you could even buy or sell them at auction. But as should be with any game like this, there should always be some things that are out of reach and should be only available to purchase through cash transaction.
If the game is truly free to play, then we can play to our hearts content all the way through to end game. Sure it might be made a bit easier if you purchase this or that to help out. But I have a difficult time believing that this task will be a, "without purchasing this item you cannot complete the game..." Mainly because those who get to end game first (that refuse to make the purchase) will more than likely end up in this forum and any other they could possibly complain in, telling the world. They would make sure that anyone who is playing, or even considering playing, that free 2 play is a lie. I am sure that more than a few disgruntled players would crusade to ensure that it gets fixed, or to see to it that they influence everyone possible to either boycott/quit the game and badmouth the company to as many as possible (thought process: if they wont give us what we want, then we will force them to either give in or quit).
The end result of such action is potentially damaging to the majority as well as the company. They shut the doors due to ongoing loss of revenue (either because they gave in, or because they didn't) and those of us who truly supported the game in whatever we we could, simply lose out. All of the real money we spent, would be lost. If we chose to pay for the "help" to finish the game, and then either don't get to finish; or worse yet everyone else get's the same help for free we lose.
Look ultimately, for as much as they may have taken on this project for the love of the game, the goal is to make money. Should it be a buy once, forever free concept? I don't know. I think I would much rather have a micro transaction model for a game of this potential magnitude. Because between the current and future content created by the developers and all the available content that will potentially be created by us, for us (i.e the players) I can't see the finished product costing the average 40-70 bucks games cost. The $200 Founder's Kit some people are complaining about buying would be the starting cost. AND it would come with a lot less than it does. It would cover the cost of your online access to the game and all content earned through quest completion. it would possibly give you access to user created content for a certain time period. and the list of conditions goes on...
But ultimately you know what? you still end up with micro transactions anyway to pay for customizations and items unique to payers (flashback to the WoW thing with the MR. T grenade and such).
Like many others I could debate both sides of this forever. For now, why not have hope that the final decisions made will be as fair to all sides as possible. I mean without them, we get no game and without us they make no money.
In the long run it becomes win-win or lose-lose. I just hope that they get what they need and we get to enjoy this game and it's evolution for years to come.
(editorial rant... Sorry)
It was more like "worst release", not worst game... Sim City if I am correct didn't had any stress tests, so simply servers couldn't handle traffic.
Keep in mind that Open Beta is usually time where you get stress test. While earlier you can predict/control server population. During OB you usually have high population increase
For all intents and purposes, open beta IS launch... but it provides the neat "this is just beta, wait for release" line as a sort-of-universal solution to the inevitable launch issues. Then when the game is really stable enough, the "official release" happens, and the people who've been playing since open beta enjoy the advantages of their open beta gameplay. All systems (including cash shop) should be fully operational during the OB. Everyone wins! (sort of)
Most importantly: this is really commonplace nowadays when it comes to MMOs... it isn't like Cryptic or PW are trying to "deceive" anyone here. It's just a smart thing to do.
Getting good content to players in the Foundry - challenges and solutions
Handle: @zaphtastic
I think the pricing for Characters will be the same as in STO and CO that is around 600 zen or $6 each or four slots for about around 1100 Zen.
Back on topic the difference dont make much difference to us the players (well there might be a few annoying bugs etc floating around).
On the other side I guess the developers consider the game to be incomplete (release usually means the game finished outside of expansion packs), this means stuff on there list of stuff for the release is not done. In NWO case that highly likely to be extra classes (rangers paladins etc) and races (Gnomes etc) and some parts of the end game (the lvl 60 mega dungeons/raids stuff), it also possible that it might include stuff that be considered more expansion stuff like levels 60+ (since it free to play).
This is the only game I've known to do it this way. And off the top of my head I can think of a few ways it could bite them in the rear:
1. The founder's pack early access is promised "when it launches". What happens when they change "open beta" to "release"? Do they kick all non-founder's out for a few days? Or will there be confused and maybe even upset founders?
2. They're probably going to hurt their "launch" numbers by calling it a beta since there are still players who prefer to wait until release to play a game.
3. What happens if during the beta a large exploit, database error, or other serious bug is found? They've promised no more wipes.
4. What happens if a founder decides during beta they aren't interested in the game anymore and wants a refund? After all the game hasn't "launched" yet. I'm sure they've included something to protect them in their EULA, but why risk it?
What I can't think of is a really good reason to do it this way. "The game isn't finished" complaints will still happen, both during the open beta and whenever they finally call it "release".
At any rate, here's to hoping for a smooth "open beta" for this game.
Okay, Panic.
Out of the concerns you voiced, this one is the most worrisome for me. I was still finding some exploits (and I'm not terribly exploity) that allowed me to finish difficult encounters last BWE. I bugged them all, but if I'm "just playing" (not exploit-finding) and can locate them, what about the clever fellow who can exploit? Item dups? All these things will happen with fair rapidity. And no matter how much logging you have, there are some people who are brilliant at manipulating logging.
"This game is a broken mess"
They can keep the game in "OB" until the issues are addressed, or they can do like Bioware did and release the game anyway. I have seen several times Alpha and Beta testers missing major issues that Joe gamer discovers right off. It's one of the major reasons I have always been against small insular groups testing content.
Actually the Founder's packs are worded like this:
There is no mention of launch. Note how it says "Beta Perks". Open Beta is Beta, so one should reasonably expect the Beta Perks to be applied at that time, and not again at launch.
On the contrary, I believe it to be largely a marketing scheme that will net them more players. They release the game as "Open Beta" with all the hype associated with a launch, and then some time after have a big Launch Day event as a second huge marketing push. Just like when a retail store opens up and then has their "Grand Opening" days or weeks later with radio stations, balloons and free food. They get two launches.
There are "exploits" in every single MMO on the market and there always will be. I have never seen an MMO wipe because of an exploit. At most, game companies have very rarely taken action against the specific players involved. Usually, they just fix the exploit and move on.
The game is built with the Cryptic Engine, which has been around for years. It is a proven, stable architecture and database structure. I have seen database errors in a Cryptic game necessitate a server rollback before. Such a rollback is usually the worst case scenario for a proven platform and only causes you to lose a short amount of progress in game (anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or two) as they have to reset the servers back to a known good state.
Lastly, just because they have promised no deliberate planned wipes doesn't mean that something might not happen causing the loss of character data. But, such a thing is virtually unheard of yet covered as a possibility in the TOS/EULA of all MMOs.
MMOs and video games in general usually do not issue refunds unless required by law in a particular jurisdiction. Those laws usually allow refunds within a specified time frame regardless of whether or not the product has been used. Outside those specific jurisdictions, the "right" to a refund is usually dependent on whether or not the product has been used in whole or in part. Once Open Beta begins, the products in question are being delivered in full to the purchaser and used just by logging in.
Having said that, it looks like Cryptic is very generous with refunds in the name of customer satisfaction. But, the Founders packs being what they are I'm pretty sure that most of the purchasers understood what they were buying. I don't think that will be an issue. A certain number of refunds is to be expected with any product. Just guessing based on Forum titles and Beta Weekend populations, I think this game has already sold more Founder's packs than most MMOs sell boxes before release.
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1) ignore exploiters.
2) Ban exploiters.
I expect they will go the route of banning the accounts that exploit a bug repeatedly and ignore the people who just stumble on a bug/exploit (as this seems to be the norm in MMO's).
They could also just do roll backs.
A city to protect
innocents to save
"Why?" They ask "they hate you"
We're heroes it's what we do.
*patiently waiting on Paragon City*
Not that any of this really matters but...
Actually it says "Five-day head start access to Neverwinter when it launches." right here on this website.
Again though, I don't really understand the whole point of this launch being called an "open beta". Even if I'm wrong and there's nothing to lose what's to be gained?
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck would you call all your duck-watching friends over to show them the "bird I'm unprepared to name at this point and time"? That's how odd this seems to me. But meh, I'm still eagerly looking forward to trying out the game for real, the little bit I've played already I enjoyed.
Okay, Panic.
Don't punish me for being an early-adopter, or I will hate you forever. And I have a long memory.