Beta Testers.....

idk, you asked for any reason why there wouldn't be a closed beta.

 

Well you never really supplied one =/

 

I am going to go with your right on this one and say, I am so... so... very glad they are considering an open beta if there is one. There has been lots of posts about "Hiding" information so others can discover it, but when it comes right down to it sharing that information is one of the best advertisement decisions they could make.

Word of mouth with indie games is one of the only things they have going for them. If you make a good game, you want others to talk about it because that gets others interested, and lets you know hey.. we did good. So I truly hope they end up deciding to have one, because they really need to work up some more hype about this game.

I know the community here (and the unofficial forum) is large, and that's great.. but if there are lets plays on Youtube, and a Wiki with actual factual information (not rumors that this might be in the game because it was in a screenshot), you know how many more people who have no idea about it will start looking into it?

 

If you say so.

 

these things happen with full versions too, and they don't showcase bugs and issues with the game as much.

here is my number one premise against an open beta for pre-ordering or whatever else.
it isn't a beta, its purchasing a game, you are paying money and receiving a product, only its unfinished.
do you buy unfinished movies just so you can get a feel of what it will be like on release?
do you buy a half made pair of blue jeans so you can check the fabric quality it will have in the store?
do you buy 30 seconds of a music track because you'll get the rest later?

basically this same behavior of selling unfinished products is present nowhere but the indie gaming community.

 

So basically its like pre-ordering something, except you get it before the official release. Actually that sounds a lot better than just pre-ordering something like a lot of big game releases do.

 

no it's like purchasing an unfinished product.

pre-ordering, implies paying money prior to the release of something and receiving a item when it is released naturally.
pre-purchasing implies paying money for something already finished before the public release.

open betas don't fit either of those categories, as they imply paying money for something yet unfinished.

basically I like getting a full game, not a still buggy unfinished game and then receiving small updates every once in a while until new content is just pathetically minor by comparison.

 

If I pre-order, I'm still paying for something that isn't finished. I just don't get to play it until it is finished.

 

I think your making the wrong analogy here. The game is finished, it is not like there will be new content, the game is "Done"

I watch movie previews.. that is a very short preview of a movie? But as this is the wrong analogy (IMO of course) I would ask you, Not being "Patched" is like watching a movie in 2d or 3d.. I return to your question of do you watch 2d movies?


I agree to release a full release not a beta will give a better "First Impression" with a lot of people, but if you look at the past games (Sticking to Indie games) that have done this, you can see the response is usually a resounding success. Plus an Open Beta means no-one gets left out.. We both know there will be those arguments of "Hey Why didn't I get in, or that person shouldn't of got in they aren't going to test it..", there is no need or want of any kind of dispute with an open beta, so it is usually the best choice.

Not to mention there are people who may want information when they start or are playing the game for a while, (Not everyone... Bombzero heh) but some do and it is really good to have that information out there, which an open beta would do a lot better.

Edit: Fixed some typos

 

I think those analogies are better suited for demos.
I think a better analogy for open would be concerning a random person helping someone make a pair of jeans... or something.... I dunno. .-. Either way, that would seem pretty awkward. Helpful it may be, I wouldn't trust anyone THAT random. I'm better off if that person was a friend I trust, which could be compared to a closed beta.

Thing is, guys who want open beta because it will spread info and such, demos can do that too. Demos, if done correctly, provide decent amounts of information and can be good enough to convince a person to like it or not. Playthroughs during beta, however, give TOO MUCH of the information a person needs to enjoy the game, leading to spoilers and a shorter lived game. While sure, Starbound may be inexpensive and 250/1000 hours wasted from learning too much from LP's doesn't seem much, but I would rather enjoy 1000 hours than 750. That's one thing I learned from being cheap. I get to maximize the value of my expenses.

 

well yeah, but my point is one I have made with various topics.

you have two options. option A(open) and option B(closed)

group 1 wants option A, because they like lots of info and playing a game as soon as possible.
group 2 wants option B, because they like learning as they play and receiving a fleshed out product.

if option A is chosen group 1 is ecstatic but group 2 is quite disappointed.
if option B is chosen group 1 has no reason to complain and group 2 is happy as well.

so option A pisses off some of the playerbase while neither would be too upset with option B.

 

Lol.. Ever get Deja Vu lol

I don't mean to be picking on ya or nothing, but I think we disagree on a lot of things (A.K.A. Nothing personal of course, but I have to disagree again lol)

Lets go with the option A/B thing and the Group 1/2 those are good quantifiers. Option B (closed) is not going to make group 1 happy? How will not being able to see it (since it is closed) going to make them happy? I don't understand that, because the point is to get information, and you can't do that unless you are specifically in the "Option B"

I think Option A would be the best, because Group 1 can do all the information sharing/gathering they want, and Option B people have the... umm option... to not spoil their experience.. Just play the game. I mean the open beta would be open to you guys too, so you can go playing away learning things as you go without having it spoiled for you.

 

I do believe we won't know why they are happy or not because we don't exactly know what Option B is. Is it "no beta, just release"? If so, they still get information. Only a bit later. You don't miss anything, so why be mad about it?

 

I am not sure if I am misunderstanding, but I think those are the two options we have... Open Beta, or Release. I mean we might be nitpicking over terminology here, and that would make the "Release" an "Open Beta" because it wouldn't of gone past those bug tests other then from the developers themselves. It literally mean from release there might be some bugs, and the same result would happen. Letting people know it is beta gives them the heads up that there might be... issues.

 

If Option B *was* "Release", then my previous post answers it. If it was anything else, say, Closed Beta, I have no idea.

But really, almost anything Open Beta can be done [possibly even better] in Closed Beta, aside from the information part. But in that case:

For the argument concerning "no one gets left out", while that is definitely true in open beta, I don't think a developer would want to go through 1000 pages of messages, 25 each, which only scored a couple hundred bugs. If I was a developer, I would rather spend 5 hours coding additional features for post-release goodies, rather than skim 5 hours worth of messages to figure out how many bugs are out there. Then again, why would I give beta access to people who I wouldn't trust, and I know wouldn't beta test?

Closed Beta may offer a smaller web, but if done correctly, a team of dedicated beta testers are capable of ratting out just as much bugs an open beta can. What's more, no need for thousands of pages worth of messages. Don't forget close beta teams can be relatively large too.

 

Would people really be particularly disappointed/angry regardless of which option is chosen? I mean there's always going to be the whiners/trolls, but to be honest it doesn't seem like that big of a deal either way.

 

An 8 people beta test would be no better than the Devs doing it themselves.

 

I would be quite bothered if they did an open beta unless it was nearly at release.
a few days to a week or so in advance just to iron out some major bugs would be fine.

but, a closed beta can accomplish the exact same things without spamming the devs with useless info on top of the useful stuff.
and about closed beta participants leaking stuff? Non-Disclosure Agreement, nuff said.

overall I still think people are getting the concept of a beta and the concept of buying an unfinished game mixed up.

nobody is saying a small test, closed betas are usually still in the couple dozen to several hundred range, but those people are specifically instructed to provide as much feedback as possible.



and to top all of this off I have one significant question nobody has yet to answer.
why do people want to know everything about a game before the devs consider it done?

 

I'm still game for an open beta. It'd be a nice idea because it'd give the devs an idea on what the community wants in the game. I feel that Tiy wants the community to help out with shaping the game. (With the contests and whatnot) And like other people said, so everyone's happy and nobody feels left out. Now I could see how having a closed beta works too. You could have a small group go in and fish out bugs and issues. But take Minecraft for example. It was released in an open Indev/Alpha and it was a hit! I feel like an open beta would excite and make the community a lot happier than they already are with Chucklefish and would make Starbound more popular than it already is.

 

Because the game is awesome, and people are curious about it. Is it wrong for people to want to get a bit more information? They're like, hey, this game is pretty cool. I wonder if I should get it and what it's like. And once they realize what the game is like, they still want to know more anyways, out of curiosity. When I saw some of the pictures and noticed the ape people, I said, hey that's cool, playable race. I wonder what kind of back-story they'll come up with for them. And then they told us. It's that simple. Sure, we could just wait for the game to come out, but hey, curiosity killed the cat! (Yes, I'm aware that cat analogy had nothing to do with what I was saying, it actually fought my own argument. It was just the first thing that popped to mind )