81 replies to this topic

[PadyEos]

n0way, on 02 March 2012 - 05:38 AM, said:

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"Hello everyone,
Admission to testing takes a while because we have tens of thousands applications. I am sure you will get an invitation sooner or later. Hope you will join us. I will probably add everyone who submitted an application(of course if he/she had not written age 666 and other funny trolling lokes)

James."

.. so, you are mad at him for basically saying "you will get invited as long as you aren't a troll, but it takes time so just wait" ? Kinda rushed for someone whos work requires a lot of patience and regularity. I've been mad at WG quite often, but never over nothing.

Nope, I'm just tired that, again(lost count how many times this happened), WG has announced something and has given no timely updates on how it is going. If you want people to be interested and if they are interested at least you can write down 5 lines in an announcement daily about how acceptances are going and make a basic plan for people to know when they should expect an invite and when not. Case in point:

Big announcement is made.
People rush to sign up.
WG gets flooded.
Only 4 days later they give another news statement to that fact.(although they mentioned it on the forums a few times, so word of mouth basically warned people 2 days earlier than the announcement).
There is that vague statement that most probably everyone will get in, with no details on duration at all.
Now silence. No people who signed up have any idea what's going on.
Overlord has a statement buried in the Q&A thread saying that the acceptances have been stopped until sometime next week.
No official news on the main page at all.

Do you get it? All people needed was a plan and some updates for the acceptance process so they don't have false hopes. Keep people informed and most of them will feel that WG cares about their application and they will be happy.
All that was needed was 5 lines of text in an official news report daily.

The cloack and dagger forum thing with overlapping and contradictory posts by devs just doesn't cut it.

Edit: after this I fully expect to not get in, but someone had to say it for the masses.

[csandazoltan]

PadyEos, on 02 March 2012 - 08:51 AM, said:

Nope, I'm just tired that, again(lost count how many times this happened), WG has announced something and has given no timely updates on how it is going. If you want people to be interested and if they are interested at least you can write down 5 lines in an announcement daily about how acceptances are going and make a basic plan for people to know when they should expect an invite and when not. Case in point:

Big announcement is made.
People rush to sign up.
WG gets flooded.
Only 4 days later they give another news statement to that fact.(although they mentioned it on the forums a few times, so word of mouth basically warned people 2 days earlier than the announcement).
There is that vague statement that most probably everyone will get in, with no details on duration at all.
Now silence. No people who signed up have any idea what's going on.
Overlord has a statement buried in the Q&A thread saying that the acceptances have been stopped until sometime next week.
No official news on the main page at all.

Do you get it? All people needed was a plan and some updates for the acceptance process so they don't have false hopes. keep people informed and most of them will feel that WG cares about their application and they will be happy.
All that was needed was 5 lines of text in an official news report daily.

Agreed...

At least put out a counter (acceptable players/accepted) - date of next player incrase (Approximation, but not "next week")

Furthermore the selection system still alludes me, because most of the player who got accepted, stated "I got my invite 1-2 day after aplication" This is not random... and I do not understand the principle.

[Darth_Thanatos]

EvolGrinZ, on 02 March 2012 - 06:53 AM, said:

Well said, that is exactly what Alpha testing is all about.
I been in so many tests for games and there are always people complaining how the game is unfinished. That just makes me laugh, since they are testing an unfinished game.

The reason why WG lets in small groups of testers is simple. They don't want to overload the server by letting over 100K people in at the same time.
They promised they would probably let almost everyone in eventually, so just be patient. If you can't be patient, alpha testing is not for you, because you often need a lot of patience when the game keeps crashing or constant getting the same bug etc.

This.

The reasons I applied for Alpha are:

1) I might get accepted early, and
2) it might allow me easier access to the closed Beta, which is actually when the game is really playable.

Beta stage has an almost finished game client, and it's usually for connection stress testing and discovering bugs that only happen when lots of players are accessing the server at the same time.

Alpha tester is a nice title to have, but truth is that, if you take it seriously, it's a heap of work. And you not always can do what you please, but what you are asked to do.

For example, you may get asked to fly your plane in a straight line from bottom to top of the map, while shooting your weapons until you run out of ammo. You may be placed in a map by yourself, and told to do some acrobatics without surpassing a certain ceiling or floor altitude. This is not "playing", but "alpha testing".

The "real" fun starts in Beta, actually.

[Drakenkorin]

Well before saying if it's random or not, think about how many of those 100k people were waiting for a long time for the testing to start, and how many just noticed news on some other site that WoWp testing has started, remembered that there was going to be a game like that, and registered for the tests. I'd guess there are many, many more players like that. If take it into account than random invites have much bigger chance of getting into hands of one of those players, don't they?

[csandazoltan]

Darth_Thanatos, on 02 March 2012 - 09:03 AM, said:

This.

The reasons I applied for Alpha are:

1) I might get accepted early, and
2) it might allow me easier access to the closed Beta, which is actually when the game is really playable.

Beta stage has an almost finished game client, and it's usually for connection stress testing and discovering bugs that only happen when lots of players are accessing the server at the same time.

Alpha tester is a nice title to have, but truth is that, if you take it seriously, it's a heap of work. And you not always can do what you please, but what you are asked to do.

For example, you may get asked to fly your plane in a straight line from bottom to top of the map, while shooting your weapons until you run out of ammo. You may be placed in a map by yourself, and told to do some acrobatics without surpassing a certain ceiling or floor altitude. This is not "playing", but "alpha testing".

The "real" fun starts in Beta, actually.

Sorry for being offensive!!!

Why are you reducing the chance of us who are want to "test" not "play"? It is much more easier to get in beta (key giveaway on million of sites)
My friend you are "stealing" our places...

Again, I'm just expressing myself, i do not have anything for you personally! Sorry again!

[Savarok]

col_Kurtz, on 02 March 2012 - 01:48 AM, said:

Hi...

Good words. Thanks. I appreciate your work I understood and... just want to try out, how it is smelling. And I think more players in/out more experience and the game start (I hope) faster.

No offense.

Regards

Sorry for my English

Well if you want to try a game out, you wait for the demo.  Simples.

This just sums up the OP point completely.

[Br1nz1ka]

Yep, I'm still hoping to get invited as I am studying game designing at the moment,,helping WOWp develop will not only be great fun for me but also important experience!

[csandazoltan]

Savarok, on 02 March 2012 - 09:33 AM, said:

Well if you want to try a game out, you wait for the demo.  Simples.

This just sums up the OP point completely.

Oh honorably Senior Alpha Tester!

Demo? We can wait for that a long, long, long and long time!  

[Savarok]

Indeed, my point wasn't simply for WoWp it goes for any game that is in Alpla/Beta "TEST" stage.  

You can't pass judgement on a game that isn't complete, it's like reading a book that is 3/4 finished and saying you don't like the ending - even though the ending hasn't even been written yet.

[csandazoltan]

Savarok, on 02 March 2012 - 09:41 AM, said:

Indeed, my point wasn't simply for WoWp it goes for any game that is in Alpla/Beta "TEST" stage.  

You can't pass judgement on a game that isn't complete, it's like reading a book that is 3/4 finished and saying you don't like the ending - even though the ending hasn't even been written yet.

Agreed...

And I want to contribute to this potentially blockbuster game... I'm here not for the fun (at least not entirely   )

As you can see I'm here since October, 2011 waiting (Whining mode off)

[Ricox]

Indeed, majority of the gaming community nowadays doesn't understand the concept of alpha & beta testing. Althought closed beta is not as "early" phase as alpha, there were still people on World of Tanks Closed Beta complaining about how bad the game is and whatnot, many of them going into rage mode when everything they had was wiped upon switch to open beta and then to the full game with no beta involved, most of the beta participants didn't even feel that it was their duty to report glitches, exploits etc. and instead abused those themselves (especially the bots, it's just ridicilous, althought from the other side you could say they contributed as it allowed Wargaming to find ways to combat them before the original game comes out).

[aai_123]

So,let it soon soon and soon.

[Pezhetairos]

Ricox, on 02 March 2012 - 10:05 AM, said:

Indeed, majority of the gaming community nowadays doesn't understand the concept of alpha & beta testing. Althought closed beta is not as "early" phase as alpha, there were still people on World of Tanks Closed Beta complaining about how bad the game is and whatnot, many of them going into rage mode when everything they had was wiped upon switch to open beta and then to the full game with no beta involved, most of the beta participants didn't even feel that it was their duty to report glitches, exploits etc. and instead abused those themselves (especially the bots, it's just ridicilous, althought from the other side you could say they contributed as it allowed Wargaming to find ways to combat them before the original game comes out).

I agree, however there are still some people who are well aware of their task as an alpha-tester.
I for one, recently finished beta-testing Risen 2 and submitted my ideas and experiences to the devs.
Now I would gladly do the same with WoWp but as of yet I'm not invited. Although I do fully respect
the system after which they invite people, it's kind of frustrating as I do have the time and opportunity right now
to maybe help in any way.

Nevertheless I hope that the current alpha-testers do contribute enough for the devs to further improve the game.

[Fajtl]

I agree with the OP but I think WN opened the alpha testing more because the testing advanced to stages were the game needs some more population. This will inevitably bring quitters and leakers, but I can see how quitters can be replaced and leakers reprimanded, so I guess it's calculated risk.

I am sure the game will be success and won't be spoiled by some individuals that cant behave or cant commit to some work.

[Bonkers_81]

Father N0way said truth.

but i like topics/posts with "WHERE IS MY APLHA INVITE" i like to troll them

Spoiler                     

Quote

I forgot to mention how annoyed I was when I invited some 1PAD guys to the sueprtest and they logged in only when a new patch was released, or when a lot of leaked stuff was posted on your news website , I really loved spending my free time cleaning that up bro

1PAD... half of supertesters login only for checks new maps or stats of new tanks.
and leaked stuff on 1PAD site... haha, we saw a leak on wot forum, so we copied and added to our site, problem ?

[Laughter]

n0way, on 02 March 2012 - 02:52 AM, said:

On a side note - lets not bring this old 1PAD vs PTS crap here. Truth be told, I'm sick of it.

He is a guy, we kinda "know" each other from WoT for around 2 years by now.

2 years of arguing , well atleast we can truly call ourselves WoT vets.

[Bonkers_81]

Laughter, on 02 March 2012 - 12:24 PM, said:

2 years of arguing , well atleast we can truly call ourselves WoT vets.

but everybody knows the 1PAD is the best !1111!!!

haha, try to stay on topic
its nice to see wot veterans here

[Darth_Thanatos]

csandazoltan, on 02 March 2012 - 09:06 AM, said:

Sorry for being offensive!!!

Why are you reducing the chance of us who are want to "test" not "play"? It is much more easier to get in beta (key giveaway on million of sites)
My friend you are "stealing" our places...

Again, I'm just expressing myself, i do not have anything for you personally! Sorry again!

I'm not "reducing" anything, and much less any "chance" you might have of getting in or not.

If you are a dedicated alpha tester, the more power to you, and I do hope you get into alpha, but I was addressing the people that THINK that "alpha" means "free play without bugs".

Also, most of those THINK that any plane they get in alpha, they will keep, which is NOT the case. Your account and all your achievements may be erased if the alpha dev team discovers a bug that forces a database cleanup, and this can happens several times in a day, until the bug is fixed. And very possibly, everything will be deleted prior to the beta phase. So you will have to start again in closed beta. And depending on WG decision, the transition from closed beta to open beta may also mean that all players, alpha, beta or not, get all their planes deleted and have to start from zero.

[cptdavepilm]

n0way, on 02 March 2012 - 01:39 AM, said:

I was one of the first ~500 people on the planet (outside DICE) to lay my hands on Battlefield: Bad Company 2. We had access to an late-alpha build and our own dedicated server (passworded ofc) up around the clock. Was it fun from a gamer perspective? Nope, it wasn't. It was searching for holes in the map with entire teams walking across it side by side, trying to reproduce crashes step by step to report when they occur, fighting with hellish frame-rate issues, reinstalling drivers every 2 days and tons of other activities that I wouldn't call "playing the game".

so thats why BFBC2 Sucks

[EvolGrinZ]

Yeah, if you want to test out the game, Alpha and Closed beta isn't really a good way to do that. Since most of the content is subject of change, for balancing sake or just because it was annoying and no fun.
If you want to test out the game, the best and most early option you have is open beta. In open beta the core of the game will stay the same and will just get some final tweaks and bug fixes. In Alpha testing you are testing and helping with building the foundation of the game.