Savarok, on 02 March 2012 - 05:44 PM, said:
Nope not kidding/trolling at all.
My view is if try a game then you play a demo.
If you want to test a game then you apply for Alpha/Beta testing.
Someone who applies for a place in the testing stages simply to see what it's like is detrimental to the development of the game as they are taking up someone else's spot who could provide data for some real growth in the project.
It's a difference that many struggle to grasp unfortunately.
Agreed, it is indeed an important distinction but not one people sturggle to grasp, people choose to not be constructive often for the reasons you have stated but it's almost impossible to avoid this situation without stringent recruitment requirments, extensive and frequent recruitment periods, even then you still get a lot of them, as an example:
I sifted through around 300 + supertest applications all stating their passion for the game, the copious amount of time they have to test etc, all in all I can count on less than two hands the amount of people who bothered including me and I was removed for posting a link to a funny video on the forums.