7 replies to this topic

[VertoPrime]

Would it be to much to ask for continuous blood shed (play time) between beta cycles, it gets really boring to wait and wait and well you get the idea_  Besides it would help get the crew up to par for the Mass Open Beta wouldn't it_

[Fragxile]

I believe that is what the open beta is for. These closed beta cycles are for the purpose of collecting information and feedback for a controlled period of time and then let the devs work undisturbed for a little bit before they show us the changes they've made and want more or new feedback on it.

It would also be a right pain to work on network code or server side stuff if they were to have them open and running not to mention all the whining the frequent server downtimes would cause on the forums if they were to do this.

[Elix]

Having downtime without players around also lets the devs work on potentially-dangerous things without having to worry that some random tester is going to stumble upon the dangerous stuff and mess with it, or worse, tell everyone about it. A lot of "prevent users from doing bizarre and unexpected things" code has to be written to account for the infinite variety of things a large amount of people will do when given a program to use. All that safety work is time spent away from adding new things to the game.

It's certainly important to be safe as well as add new features, but as long as the user-proofing is done before it gets handed to us to test, it's okay, and it's very important to try and break it before handing it to a hundred thousand people, because if you don't find the break and fix it first, they will find it.

[Deu]

People are so greedy. The game isn't even released and everyone wants more.

[Elix]

Hey, I was twitchy (okay, not really) and wanted to play since the first round of testing ended. I just recognize the practical aspects of software development.

[VertoPrime]

Fragxile, on November 08 2012 - 07:50 AM, said:

I believe that is what the open beta is for. These closed beta cycles are for the purpose of collecting information and feedback for a controlled period of time and then let the devs work undisturbed for a little bit before they show us the changes they've made and want more or new feedback on it.

It would also be a right pain to work on network code or server side stuff if they were to have them open and running not to mention all the whining the frequent server downtimes would cause on the forums if they were to do this.

Everyone knows that at least half if not more of the open Beta participants don't test at all so I would disagree they are the grinders and whiners of the problems that already been found ...the true testers are from the Alpha and Closed Beta, so once you open a game to the public its anarchy.

Elix, on November 08 2012 - 07:57 AM, said:

Having downtime without players around also lets the devs work on potentially-dangerous things without having to worry that some random tester is going to stumble upon the dangerous stuff and mess with it, or worse, tell everyone about it. A lot of "prevent users from doing bizarre and unexpected things" code has to be written to account for the infinite variety of things a large amount of people will do when given a program to use. All that safety work is time spent away from adding new things to the game.

It's certainly important to be safe as well as add new features, but as long as the user-proofing is done before it gets handed to us to test, it's okay, and it's very important to try and break it before handing it to a hundred thousand people, because if you don't find the break and fix it first, they will find it.

You know as well as I do Open beta is cannon fudder besides the last beta was server tweaks and code test run as well as a new client launch.  I noticed a lot of texture glitches where you can get shot through and because of a short 1st beta it is still there and there still more maps to glitch proof, where are the collisions...  Besides devs knew the job was dangerous when they took it...

[Saunders]

I'd prefer to jump into a game anytime also haha.  After the beta tests are over I always get sad.

One of the biggest things we're testing is our back-end systems and servers.  We're trying to make sure we get as many people as possible to play during the short periods to see if things break (and they did during closed beta 1, so - success!).  We all want the open beta to be as smooth and awesome as possible, and thanks to you guys it will be    

Only a month or so to wait!

[akatrio]

Actually, I like how the closed beta is only open for days at a time. It's great for the developers to gain a good chunk of feedback intervals at a time instead of being hammered constantly with it since they can dedicate/focus their time analyzing what they received and deal with those/work on other content for the next iteration (so, essentially what the first two replies were saying). It's also great for the players too because... It's like a LOST episode. You get teased with just enough sprinkles of new info to leave you wanting more at the end of each one. At least, that's how I'm finding it is for myself.