What do we actually mean by BETA?

Riotgirl

From reading quite a few posts, there is a wide difference of understanding of basic design concepts [WIP]. What I want to open for debate is what do we actually mean, and more to the point, what do we expect when a game (not necessarily a MMOG) is in the following stages of development:

1. Alpha
2. Closed Beta
3. Open Beta
4. Release

I really want a mixture of opinions of gamers and testers who have had practical experience in testing games throughout the various stages. Also, I think it would be beneficial to the discussion if examples could be used to illustrate how previous games have fared through these stages, and how Devs have dealt with issues that have occurred.

My main reason for posting is that after the Anarchy Online [AO] fiasco (possibly the worst launch of any MMOG, period), why are developers failing to learn from Funcom's experience. More to the point, with a number of games going to the wall due to increasing competition and increasing expectations by the player-base, why are developers not learning from Funcom's lead by turning AO from an abortion to an extremely successful MMOG.

Of course, my illustration of AO is purely my personal opinion from speaking to a number of players who experienced the trials and tribulations of AO at the time. Yet, if Funcom turned the game around, why are we still seeing MMOG's that do not appear to have learnt from the past experience of other games.

Hopefully, we'll have a framework to properly assess MMOG's dependent on their development stage, and be able to benchmark them against other MMOG's at similar stages.

Regards,
Riotgirl

Xira

[quote]Originally posted by Riotgirl

My main reason for posting is that after the Anarchy Online [AO] fiasco (possibly the worst launch of any MMOG, period), why are developers failing to learn from Funcom's experience. More to the point, with a number of games going to the wall due to increasing competition and increasing expectations by the player-base, why are developers not learning from Funcom's lead by turning AO from an abortion to an extremely successful MMOG.
[/b][/quote]

In my opinion, the reason devs aren't 'learning anything from AO' is that they did learn something from AO, they just did not learn the right things.

Many MANY MMORPGS released in shoddy state and went on to be successful, AO is one of them. People see the success story and don't see the hard work, and most importantly MONEY, that went into the game _AFTER_ it failed to pump it back into a playable game.

The lesson they take away is that they can release a crappy game and still be a success. They then get people to fund their game half-assed with promises that they can fix it after launch witht he subscriber revenues. The result is a crappy half-assed game that gets no subscribers, has no revenues, and requires a massive cash infusion that it's not getting to save it.

The result is all the MMORPGs that you see running around that are half-finished and half-baked with no real hope of ever getting better.

EPDJ

yeh it is really sad how they release so fast when the game has soo many problems and bugs...

Jorev

Thankfully because of competition, you will see less and less unfinished games released now.

The days of being able to sell a shoddy product because of possessing a monopoly on the market, are over.

Word gets out fast, even if there is no open beta, and players are less likely to tolerate a half ass game when they have alternatives to choose from.

The major problem with MMOG's is that they rely on free labor to beta test their product, and you get what you pay for.

Back in the day, when single box games ruled, game companies hired their own staff testers and actually paid them a living wage. Now however, beta testing is cloaked as a prize or honor to be sought after and to be performed for free, and too many players buy into that marketing gimmick.

Most players who volunteer their time to beta test, are less interested in working to uncover bugs and design flaws, but rather in getting an advantage over retail customers by learning the game mechanics ahead of release either for personal gain ala Ebay, or in order to lvl quickly and be able to brag about being the first maxed lvl character etc.

 

 

Tacklebury

My own expectations are as follows:

1.) Alpha - Game may not even be a game, landscape may be broken or have seaming issues, few NPC's, characters may not be complete, clothed or even animated.

2.) Closed Beta - 2 stages:

     a.) Initial - still very rough, difficult to play, controls should mostly work and landscape should be fairly complete.  Also, you start seeing some NPC's here and there.

     b.) Later - Many bugs still, game is in varying stages of playability, but most aspects are there and many are working.  Controls should be also working properly for the most part.

3.) Open Beta - 2 stages:

     a.) Initially open beta will be open to a decent number of peeps all looking for and killing of bugs.  It should be a couple weeks to 4 months.

     b.) Later - STRESS TEST - Game is basically playable, most bugs squashed (at least obvious ones), this time is for putting large numbers of peeps on servers to verify they will be able to take the loads at release.

4.) Release - Game should be 90% stable, most bugs should be squashed, controls should work properly, cameras should align and work properly and character creation completely working.

I have only been in a couple betas where this actually happened, but this is what they should be striving for.  The only thing I left out of the mix was the money side, which depending on the amount of debt they can sustain, companies often skip portions of the above, like Horizons, so they can release the game.  Sometimes it works like Ao, other times it fails like Horizons.  I think a lot of this can be attributed to whether or not people start seeing fixes right away and the attitudes of the devs.  Peace.

Pk4U

1. A very rough game, that crashes often, or is otherwise unplayable. Major peices of quests (if any yet) and important NPCS not yet added. Still pretty ugly, and resouce intensive. Lots of bugs to report, and lots of downtime for very frequent fixes. For all intents and purposes unplayable.

2. Somewhat stable. Most major NPCS/Quests are in the game, but most likely bugged. The game is starting to look right, still has alot of clipping problems. A more stable server, and less downtime. Its starting to become playable for hours at a time.

3. All major content is in, and most bugs have been solved. The graphics are for the most part finished, and most clipping/animation issues have been solved. They are starting to add the "fluff." They have done some optimizing, and added graphic setting options, to lower the requirements of the game. The UI is now in a usable state. The servers are stable at low population, and are being optimzied for higher player numbers.

If the game isn't starting to take shape now, start praying!!!

4. Major content completed, and bug free. Optimization for both cliant and server are at a nice spot, but the server may need more tweaking over the first month or so. Most of the "fluff" is in game and working. Some minor/rare bugs might still remain. The game should be near its final balance. (altho we all know, no one has ever got it right at the start) Its playable and enjoyable for many hours at a time.

Anofalye

Alpha and Beta are also used from a very long time.

 

The first version of Magic the Gathering was Alpha, the second was Beta...then it turn to silly names(unlimited and so on).

 

When we studies animals, we associated Alpha with the ruling animals couple.  An alpha wolf for exemple will usually slay any animal that would try to insist on having sex with him/her beside their alpha partner(they will not mate with rival alpha either).  A Beta wolf is the second wolf in charge, a beta wolf is like a good lieutnant.  Beta wolfs rarely challenge an Alpha wolf ASAP, often bearing an old leader who is no longer really efficient and might even be sidestepped to the Alpha post by a younger who understand that.  Beta wolf are often ill design for becoming alpha, yet wonderfull beta wolfies.  Alpha are almost aliens to the rest of the pack with their rulership, they are not anymore really family like the others(playing and all), yet they are responsible for the pack and they will face the hardest challenges, while the beta wolf is usually fully accepted like any other member of the pack on every level.  Beta wolfies and regular pack members are a lot more easy going on the sex thing then the very serious alpha, they would ''laid'' anything they can without angering the alpha!

Worf

Take it from this Computer Programming Veteran of 27 years that:

Beta means Pre-Release for final testing to work out bugs in a program/project on a larger than the in house testing usually by people outside the company that wrote the program/project.

Beta testing can, if done properly with the right group of testers, make the program/project much much better.

As with ANY pre-release software, the end-user needs to report ANY bugs in as much detail as they can to help the programming team quickly find and fix the bugs.

This is ALSO the time to make suggestions to improve the product.

Enjoy!