It depends on the individual but I got the feeling it was great for the consumer bad for RIFTs inital box sales. Good for the consumer because they could try before they buyed and could make an informed decision. Bad for sales because there's always some people who buy on impulse and instead they had a chance to, 'scratch that itch',without making a financial commitment.
It was bad for impulse sales, but on the other hand it was good for the overall game reputation. Those who bought it knew what they were getting themselves into, while the voices in these forums crying about same old same old haven't invested any money into the game.
In theory it should help retention after the first month is over.
That's true, I do think Trion did a good job of delivering a customer friendly, stable product, they were proud of. That was my impressions of all stages of the beta actually.
It's just a shame I wasn't really a fan of the game in the end
Maybe I missed this, but it was my assumption that the vast majority of open beta testing was not so we could form opinions early about the game. I understood it to be a tool used to test the stability of software and hardware under various conditions?? The fact that you get to play does allow players to form opinions early, but over all has little to do with the need for open beta for any MMO's.
I will NEVER buy an MMO that I don't get to try, first.
That said, Rift did their beta just right. I remember Tabula Rasa's open beta went on for almost a month, and I think that cost them initial sales. Meanwhile, Rift OB went for... 7 days? A good length of time for testing, and a good amount of time for me to decide if it's a game I'd want to commit to. If I hadn't had that time, I'd have err'd on the side of "nope".
I played in 2 of the betas and felt I had played enough to form my opinion. I got to level 20. My intial thoughts were that it was smooth, beautiful and fun. It felt VERY similar to Warhammer but with a WoW polish that Warhammer was missing. By level 20 it felt redundant. The Rifts were just like PQ's and for the most part less challenging. The quests felt like go kill 20 of x. Which are in all games, but at this point if youre not going to give me something different in progression why would I play it? For graphics? Eh? In the end, the BG's felt like Warhammer, the game felt static (which is funny given the "dynamic" sales pitch). So I did not buy the game, but given the 1st beta (getting to level 10) and the performance of the game, I would have bought it. After playing in the 2nd (and not the final 2) I chose not to buy it because it felt no different than any MMO out there that I hadnt tried or play already. What companies need to realize about a new MMO is that you need to bring me and my friends in at the same time. I had someone ask me about Rift the other day and I told him it was eh. And he didnt buy it based upon my feedback. Had we gotten in together and had more of us tied in. I think we may have stuck with it. Its an idea you see EA doing with SWTOR and their guild registration system. Its very smart to get a whole guild over. More sales, more staying power if all my buddies are there. Just a thought.
For instance, I probably would have bought the game based on the positive buzz and initial reviews if I didn't actually get to play the open beta first. Maybe I would have waited a few days to see the reviews, but once the buzz was clearly positive I would have pulled the trigger and bought it (because I'm bored with my current MMOs). But instead I got to play the beta for free myself and formed my own opinion, which was less positive than the buzz and initial reviews.
But if I was forced to pay to test it out, I probably would have. And who knows it may have eventually grown on me, or I may have simply kept playing because I might have gotten hooked on the advancement/achievement system.
Just my 2 cents. Like mothers used to say to their daughters in the old days: if you give them the goods for free why would they marry you? lol
So you prefer to be deceived rather than know the truth....perhaps you should look into that.
Without open beta, I wouldn't have given this game a second glance.
I believe their sales would be lower...much lower. Most gamers I know didn't know or care about this game until all the hype started because of how they handled their beta process.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
The game might have had better sales if it had LESS betas, but still had one or two. I got sick of the grind after the fourth beta, and I didn't even bother logging in on the last. Don't get me wrong, it's a great game that's been fairly successful so far, but if trion cut the number of betas to about 5, perhaps that would've meant another 50k subscribers (an educated guess, mind you).
..and then I remember that this topic is about the OPEN beta, and my opinion is irrelevant. Well, almost irrelevant. Relevant enough for me to not hit the delete key!
I might have actually bought the game had I not played in the beta, but I would not have stayed longer than my free month I don't think. I used the beta as a free trial - granted I did send in a lot of bug reports and feedback (as every responsible beta tester should), but I just didn't enjoy the game.
So I can't make broad generalizations, but the beta saved me the box fee on the title.
I will not buy MMO games without beta testing first after the many past burns I have experienced. I was at a point that was making me avoid logging onto LotRO when I joined Rift Beta 5......a few hours later I canceled LotRO. I haven't looked back since. I am having a absolute blast in this game.
I have been fortunate to be a part of the Rift experience since the start of alpha testing, and I have seen significantly more content than the beta events let on (past level 20 on the Guardian side).
But this is not going to give anything away about the game; the actual content of the game can and should still be a surprise and wondrous discovery to the players. This will instead focus on what was done right about the design, and what was done wrong.
First off, Rift does not break significantly new ground. Those who were hoping for the pipe dream of a revolutionary MMO will be sadly disappointed, as they will always be disappointed, because there are significant structural limitations built in to the way computer games are made and interfaced with.
So I put the question to those that didn't buy it like myself to see if others, like me, think they would have bought it if there wasn't an open beta. I definately would have, which got me thinking how many others like me and whether open betas are really that great of an idea from the developers perspective?
I'm not throwing vitriol on the game, it just wasn't for me,
This is exactly why I think TRION did the right thing by allowing players to try the game without having to buy it first. The game will not suit everyone, and I'd rather players it doesn't suit find that out early and don't play it.
This then avoids all the moaning and trash talking from players that seem to believe that just because they don't like a game they have the right to insult the game, its players and the developers every opportunity they get. If you want evidence of that check out the AoC forums, many players enjoyed playing AoC but all the forums were full of were posts of players who no longer played it.
OP is only looking at it from one perspective. Sure, they lost people who would have bought if they had not tried, but was that more/less than the people they gained who wouldn't have bought it if they couldn't try it? Considering people proclaiming how "polished" the game was, they got a lot of good press, word of mouth etc. Would the same amount of WoW players given it a shot if they couldn't try it out?
And that is important, because Rift is not an IP that exists outside of gaming, unless of course you count people confusing it with Rifts the board game (and I think this was calculated).
I had been interested in Rift since a while. I had played the open beta. I didn't purchase Rift.
Would I have purchased Rift without having played the beta (ie with having less information about the game)? No idea. Of course, once I started playing the Rift beta, there were a lot of things I noticed that I like, and a lot of things I noticed that I dislike. I assume I'd have spent enough time to gather information about the game prior to buying it, to get to the same conclusion: that Rift is cute but definately not for me.
This is a dumb question since not many people were talking about Rift before open beta started. Just take this website it's hype rating went from 8.0 to 8.4 range. This game is doing alot better than anyone would have predicted 6 months ago.
Comments
That's true, I do think Trion did a good job of delivering a customer friendly, stable product, they were proud of. That was my impressions of all stages of the beta actually.
It's just a shame I wasn't really a fan of the game in the end
Maybe I missed this, but it was my assumption that the vast majority of open beta testing was not so we could form opinions early about the game. I understood it to be a tool used to test the stability of software and hardware under various conditions?? The fact that you get to play does allow players to form opinions early, but over all has little to do with the need for open beta for any MMO's.
I will NEVER buy an MMO that I don't get to try, first.
That said, Rift did their beta just right. I remember Tabula Rasa's open beta went on for almost a month, and I think that cost them initial sales. Meanwhile, Rift OB went for... 7 days? A good length of time for testing, and a good amount of time for me to decide if it's a game I'd want to commit to. If I hadn't had that time, I'd have err'd on the side of "nope".
Playing the beta influenced my decision not to buy the game. It just wasn't different enough, new enough or had more content than the other games.
So in my case it cost them a sale.
I played in 2 of the betas and felt I had played enough to form my opinion. I got to level 20. My intial thoughts were that it was smooth, beautiful and fun. It felt VERY similar to Warhammer but with a WoW polish that Warhammer was missing. By level 20 it felt redundant. The Rifts were just like PQ's and for the most part less challenging. The quests felt like go kill 20 of x. Which are in all games, but at this point if youre not going to give me something different in progression why would I play it? For graphics? Eh? In the end, the BG's felt like Warhammer, the game felt static (which is funny given the "dynamic" sales pitch). So I did not buy the game, but given the 1st beta (getting to level 10) and the performance of the game, I would have bought it. After playing in the 2nd (and not the final 2) I chose not to buy it because it felt no different than any MMO out there that I hadnt tried or play already. What companies need to realize about a new MMO is that you need to bring me and my friends in at the same time. I had someone ask me about Rift the other day and I told him it was eh. And he didnt buy it based upon my feedback. Had we gotten in together and had more of us tied in. I think we may have stuck with it. Its an idea you see EA doing with SWTOR and their guild registration system. Its very smart to get a whole guild over. More sales, more staying power if all my buddies are there. Just a thought.
I bought the game BECAUSE of open beta.
So you prefer to be deceived rather than know the truth....perhaps you should look into that.
Without open beta, I wouldn't have given this game a second glance.
I would not be playing RIFT if it was not for the open beta, and those that would have picked it up would be dropping off the servers like made.
The server pop is still very high, and Trion has been extremely responsive to the players, without just bowing down to unreasonable domains.
I believe their sales would be lower...much lower. Most gamers I know didn't know or care about this game until all the hype started because of how they handled their beta process.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
Same^^ I tried the game at beta and loved it.
Now I´m enjoying it more and more everyday
The game might have had better sales if it had LESS betas, but still had one or two. I got sick of the grind after the fourth beta, and I didn't even bother logging in on the last. Don't get me wrong, it's a great game that's been fairly successful so far, but if trion cut the number of betas to about 5, perhaps that would've meant another 50k subscribers (an educated guess, mind you).
..and then I remember that this topic is about the OPEN beta, and my opinion is irrelevant. Well, almost irrelevant. Relevant enough for me to not hit the delete key!
I might have actually bought the game had I not played in the beta, but I would not have stayed longer than my free month I don't think. I used the beta as a free trial - granted I did send in a lot of bug reports and feedback (as every responsible beta tester should), but I just didn't enjoy the game.
So I can't make broad generalizations, but the beta saved me the box fee on the title.
I will not buy MMO games without beta testing first after the many past burns I have experienced. I was at a point that was making me avoid logging onto LotRO when I joined Rift Beta 5......a few hours later I canceled LotRO. I haven't looked back since. I am having a absolute blast in this game.
I have been fortunate to be a part of the Rift experience since the start of alpha testing, and I have seen significantly more content than the beta events let on (past level 20 on the Guardian side).
But this is not going to give anything away about the game; the actual content of the game can and should still be a surprise and wondrous discovery to the players. This will instead focus on what was done right about the design, and what was done wrong.
First off, Rift does not break significantly new ground. Those who were hoping for the pipe dream of a revolutionary MMO will be sadly disappointed, as they will always be disappointed, because there are significant structural limitations built in to the way computer games are made and interfaced with.
Can't speak for anyone else but I would of continued playing my other game if i didnt get to try Rift beta event 5.
Currently enjoying Rift while waiting on Guild Wars 2.
This is exactly why I think TRION did the right thing by allowing players to try the game without having to buy it first. The game will not suit everyone, and I'd rather players it doesn't suit find that out early and don't play it.This then avoids all the moaning and trash talking from players that seem to believe that just because they don't like a game they have the right to insult the game, its players and the developers every opportunity they get. If you want evidence of that check out the AoC forums, many players enjoyed playing AoC but all the forums were full of were posts of players who no longer played it.
OP is only looking at it from one perspective. Sure, they lost people who would have bought if they had not tried, but was that more/less than the people they gained who wouldn't have bought it if they couldn't try it? Considering people proclaiming how "polished" the game was, they got a lot of good press, word of mouth etc. Would the same amount of WoW players given it a shot if they couldn't try it out?
And that is important, because Rift is not an IP that exists outside of gaming, unless of course you count people confusing it with Rifts the board game (and I think this was calculated).
You got to add up all the pluses and minuses.
I had been interested in Rift since a while. I had played the open beta. I didn't purchase Rift.
Would I have purchased Rift without having played the beta (ie with having less information about the game)? No idea. Of course, once I started playing the Rift beta, there were a lot of things I noticed that I like, and a lot of things I noticed that I dislike. I assume I'd have spent enough time to gather information about the game prior to buying it, to get to the same conclusion: that Rift is cute but definately not for me.
Let's play Fallen Earth (blind, 300 episodes)
Let's play Guild Wars 2 (blind, 45 episodes)