Beta testing?

In that case I better post a whole lot of shit

 

*facepalm*

 

Double facepalm

 

are you kidding

 

You are wrong. Minecraft beta was not beta test. It was basically a way to get money for game developing and such. Proper beta testing is mostly unknown for most people and almost completely unknown for all young gamers. Most beta testing is done ( in big studios) by hiring bunch of people with NDA. They sit and test one part of the game ( sometimes more) for hours only to see if it works as intended. Of course not always. For Indie game developers selling beta games is just great way of funding and as a bonus free testing. Most beta testers ( real one) get paid for what they do. But that just one side of things.

 

i still wonder what kind of beta test they have in mind. a bunch of handpicked individuals, or a few hundred active forum members, or maybe a thousand random people who registered?
either way, i surely wont be one of them. im used to applying for a beta test and being chosen only 2 days before the games gets released to public ^^

 

Madomat is right, as beta testing is indeed not just playing the game, but actually looking for bugs, trying to make the game crash or do things it's not supposed to be doing, ...
(server-)stress-testing is also part of beta, but in a later stage. Most of the time, beta testers are NOT having fun as it's very repetitive work.
The up side of the minecraft-type "beta" is indeed some monetary income to support development. But it also played a huge part by giving the game a certain amount of popularity and attention. Also, more people playing the game = more people encountering bugs (that is, if those people actually take the time to actually report them properly...)

I think what Tiy means by being active/participating in the community is that you actually participate in the creation of both the game and the community. That can be on several levels: making suggestions, giving ideas or commenting on other ideas, making fan-art, participating in the community events, helping others with problems or questions, ...

 

i think it's fun to run around and figure out ways to break the game, i always sit with a little notepad and write down glitches etc i find. beta is jolly good fun

 

He said, that the ones who are in the community the longest get to participate in the beta. This basically means you have to be one of the lucky guys which discovered this forum really soon and posted frequently till now. But for me, it should be not the ones with the most likes or the most posts or the oldest account, but people who try to make constructive and deep suggestions, people who try to help other forum members in need and contribute to the overall creativity and atmosphere of the forum. Nothing numbers can value.
Such passion would be the best foundation to be able to make the game better while TESTING, and not just playing it for fun.

 

Well, yeah. I'm not really sure. Just because you're a competent forum member doesn't mean you'll be a competent tester. Also you might not have a lot of time to post that frequently, or be adverse to forums. I personally don't post all that much. (This is a new thing for me) but I was lucky enough to find this forum fairly early.

 

note the "If/When" in the beginning. They're far from a beta at this moment. Meaning you all are still in the early stages of the community. Meaning you all make a chance. So, go forth and get yourself noticed ... in a good way!

 

Like artisticly noticed, only posting in a forum for a game we all seem to like even though it's not even out right?

 

In whatever way, I don't know
Maybe you can be the one making a game-changing suggestion that gets implemented, how knows? The sky is the limit! .. no wait, the SPACE is the limit!

 

I bet alot of people are just gonna spam now to seem active... 'tis a shame

 

Even if they did that would only guarantee they wouldn't be selected.

 

Notch became a millionaire before his game was even released.

 

The game was also treated as a full release the entire time.

They said themselves there would be no difference between the ''test'' phases and full release other than the fact they could say, ''It's 'official' now''.

 

All this encourages is spam, really people who actually post useful or meaningful posts should get beta or even better every one registered will get to test...

 

That's a sure-fire way to get yourself banned.