Beta 3 Question

[CorathSS]

Lifting the NDA Does not mean Open Beta, it just means no NDA is in effect. Unless Trion states other wise, the beta is still invite only. The only real reason to lift/negate the NDA now is the time frame, and to tempt more people. Presumably also, they're confident beta videos won't show a terrible bug, thats alot of the times why you see a NDA. Incomplete product, being shown by non employees as the 'final product'.

[ZombieTech]

Nah, even open betas will rarely let you keep progression, as technically you're still playing an incomplete game. Unless its actually a disguised 'demo'.

Perhaps. I know most MMOs I've beta'ed over the years... typically have the "closed beta", which is invitation-only and wipe all data before moving into the "open beta" phase where everybody is welcome and usually got to carry their data over. But I suppose it also depends on the company behind it.

[Radz]

I'm not trying to be a jerk but thr Beta isn't a privilege when its being sold as guaranteed with preorder of the product. A good example would be if they did not put up a beta at all after advertising like this they would be found guilty all day of false advertising.

I'm not overly irritated by the limited beta as everything I have seen shows the 360 has been extensively tested but I am glad they did not welch completely. I am disappointed however.

True, to not have beta at all would be a problem, but we were not guarenteed any amount of time for beta. If it was only an hour long stress test, we still got beta access.

The privilege in this case is the time, not the fact that it exists at all.

[ZombieTech]

You have no facts to back up this claim. I cannot verify anything, but I saw stats that 360 had the MOST pre-orders followed by PC then PS3. In reality, 360 is probably the most stable platform and therefore requires less testing.

All facts and issues considered... I'm not so sure I'd technically refer to 360 as "most stable", but hey, that's just me.

[Raizell_Hunter]

All I have to say is look up sale units for the Xbox 360 since its release worldwide the only country that really bought into it was the US at something like 24 million plus units, every where else its not even half of that and some its not even a quarter of it. While the Playstation 3 has more units actually sold in most other areas across the board. However, I don't think it has sold as many as the Xb360 in the US but I think last I looked its getting close.

Now before I get a troll or someone saying fan boy and what not I am just saying facts and giving a thought of why they might have a shorter test which would also be why they have the PS3 starting a day apart from each other based on region.

Side thought also, this information is for units sold, not resold though 2nd hand dealers and also doesn't take into account how many are in a junkyard from Xb360 "Red Ring of Death" and like a bunch of other things which as gamers we all know claimed many systems from the first 3 years. Then you have first Gen PS3 with the "Yellow light" and a few other things, which would also be in the junkyard. Although keep in mind was much fewer and far between problems whichi is why they sold more outside the US. So how many of the 24+ million Xb360 sold in the US since release are still working systems is all I am trying to say. Information like this is a bit tricky to look at.

[Asheki]

Perhaps. I know most MMOs I've beta'ed over the years... typically have the "closed beta", which is invitation-only and wipe all data before moving into the "open beta" phase where everybody is welcome and usually got to carry their data over. But I suppose it also depends on the company behind it.

It does really, and namely what is the product they openly 'beta' its not impossible that its part of the actual final product, and that when it goes live they can just dump the rest on top of it so you can freely keep your things. Most of the open beta's I've gone through generally never let me keep my stuff.

Then again I'm not generally interested in MMOrpg beta.. as when its about stats and the like, I'd rather play single player games like Persona, or Disgaea.. I never really tend to make it to the end anyway in the long run because my friends never tend to stick together. And I loath solo grinding ha ha...

Still, had good times with UO and Ragnarok Online.. And this one sounds like something I could enjoy playing for a long time.. especially since its action-ey enough to keep me amused for a while. Can't wait for the final product.

[Nerdy Ryuu]

I used to work for Funcom, and almost got hired on by the team behind FE. Oh that was fun stress testing. 'Crap, well, we broke the tutorial. I guess thousands of users in the same zone at the same time proved instability!'

THATS what Beta testing should be.


As far as Xbox players being the smallest Play base, Look at Borderlands 2. It was on all platforms, and 360 still had the smallest playerbase. PC will easily have the largest player base, and will also be hammered the hardest by stress testing, especially when a bajillion people all hit the same zone at once. :P

you are wrong about BL2 having the smallest community on xbox it had the biggest sale rate here is a link
http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=borderlands+2

Most 3rd party shooters sales the most on xbox 360 then any other.

[IxTrYxT00xHarD]

I dont understand how everyone can assume that just because we xbox players pay for subscription that we dnt have the fan base, what most people cease to see is that the number of people that play shooters, either first or third person, on xbox. Xbox is ment to be the online multiplayer console, thus more people actually play xbox over playstation, y do you thing we get ALMOST all the multiplayer exclusives before everyone???? Thats part of y we pay to play. Yeah ive been in closed beta's on xbox before, and yes they were stress tests, BUT because everyone thinks that no one is going to play on xbox, like so many other betas, the servers will crash within a few hours because no one give xbox enough servers because suposedly we dnt have as many ppl that play the game. look at call of duty, we have by far the most players, usually over 2 million people playing, maybe not at the same time, but on occasion i have seen 3 million players on at once. so before everyone knocks on xbox lets not forget who got hacked and shut down for over a year........maybe my subscription aint lookin so bad now.

[Raizell_Hunter]

I dont understand how everyone can assume that just because we xbox players pay for subscription that we dnt have the fan base, what most people cease to see is that the number of people that play shooters, either first or third person, on xbox. Xbox is ment to be the online multiplayer console, thus more people actually play xbox over playstation, y do you thing we get ALMOST all the multiplayer exclusives before everyone???? Thats part of y we pay to play. Yeah ive been in closed beta's on xbox before, and yes they were stress tests, BUT because everyone thinks that no one is going to play on xbox, like so many other betas, the servers will crash within a few hours because no one give xbox enough servers because suposedly we dnt have as many ppl that play the game. look at call of duty, we have by far the most players, usually over 2 million people playing, maybe not at the same time, but on occasion i have seen 3 million players on at once. so before everyone knocks on xbox lets not forget who got hacked and shut down for over a year........maybe my subscription aint lookin so bad now.

Ummm... you do know Microsoft got hacked also. The difference is they don't care enough to pull down there servers to admit they have a problem. Reason being they would loss money because they would have to give you extra time while the servers are down and being rebuilt. Compared to when Sony went down they admitted they had a problem and the game some free games. True the games they gave where there own games so its not like it cost them anything but still.

[IxTrYxT00xHarD]

Ummm... you do know Microsoft got hacked also. The difference is they don't care enough to pull down there servers to admit they have a problem. Reason being they would loss money because they would have to give you extra time while the servers are down and being rebuilt. Compared to when Sony went down they admitted they had a problem and the game some free games. True the games they gave where there own games so its not like it cost them anything but still.

i kno, but the fact of the matter is that people bag on xbox because we are subscription based, so they assume we wnt have the fan base that pc has