Why I think that the beta should be nearly completely closed...

Excuse me.

I was simply worrying for the sake of the finished game in the adversity of some people suggesting that the game NOT be tested before release by any group at all to ensure it isn't filled with bugs and exploits.

I have no desire of partaking in any beta event - There are plenty of people who have already expressed an interest and frankly I agree about information being leaked or spoiled = bad thing. But that's no excuse to allow a game that looks as promising as Starbound to flop on release because some people didn't want beta testing done.

 

Well the discussion hasn't ended, so apparently not.

Or showing more content = more people interested in the game = good for the game.

There's more than one way to look at things you know.

 

You can say the devs are beta testing it, they are alpha testing it as we speak, thats a group right?
I never heard a whisper of the beta testing in Terraria, sure it had its bugs but they were not huge and the patches was great.

The topic's name is "Why I think that the beta should be nearly completely closed...", closed = a tight group of people and works hard on beta testing, while open = lots of spoils, lots of gamers gaming but not commenting on bugs etc. etc.

So appearently we misunderstood each other, or atleast I missunderstood you.

Yeah, but is it not fair that the devs who love this game, that they release information and screenshots, controlled so we get to know enough to still wanting the game but not enough to spoil it.
Don't you you think they will release an awesome trailer to get peoples attention rather then have a bunch of inmature people who leak videos just to get some internet cred that will be forgotten in a few minutes while alot of people get spoiled forever?

 

I'm not following your logic here when you say that. Alpha and beta testing a game is about finding and reporting bugs and issues as well as gathering feedback from the community. You sound like you're mainly concerned about your (and others) personal experience with the game itself. Who cares if information about the game gets propagated over the net?

What you said about closed beta being a tight group of people who works hard on beta testing is also not quite right, since beta testing (closed or open) usually involves random selection of participants. Unless Chucklefish sits down and interviews all potential testers, what's to say that 90% of the closed beta test applicants are not going to knuckle down and try to break the game?

 

I am with you here Doc.

Look at the King Arthur's Gold community. They have had people testing zombies for 2 weeks now, and no spoilers at all.

It all depends on WHO you invite into the beta.

 

And a closed group of beta testers cant give feedback? are they not in the community? I do not follow your logic there.

Well considering on how little was leaked from Terraria and the impact it had, I imagine quite alot of people cares.
Considering they had a very closed group, I imagine the devs cared.

 

I don't know what you mean by "And a closed group of beta testers cant give feedback? are they not in the community? I do not follow your logic there."

Please don't try to be snarky. I'm not trying to be a douche in my posts.

I'm talking about the spoilers (what I meant by 'your personal experience with the game') that people are worried about in this thread. The logic that I can't follow is how people are saying 'no open beta becos we don't want spoilers'. You don't want knowledge leaking from the game (and ending up on wiki sites or whatever), slap an NDA on the beta. What I'm trying to say is that the closed beta selection process is typically random. It's quantity limited, not quality.

 

Stop talking in absolutes, seriously. Its not helping at all. A small group can give feedback, a bigger group can give more feedback. Everyone, big group or small group, is part of the community. That isn't even the question in the first place. The question is how valuable that extra feedback is compared to the leaks that will likely also come from a larger group.

 

Its not just us, most people dont want to be spoiled but can't help it to seek all information there is too know about a game.
Spoiling usely makes someone go from "Oh this gun is much better then my last!" to "I know that that gear sucks because there is a better one".


http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_closed_beta_and_a_open_beta
" select group ", they select it. Even if you and I don't know there is a beta testing going on, its still closed meaning closed for public and its still being done.

Yeah, are you suggesting that NDA stops you from leaking anyway without a trace back to you?
I really don't want to google every game that had a NDA and had footage leaked on youtube.

 

My two cents:

I agree with the OP completely. Leaking small amounts (as in Terraria's leak cycle towards the end: the odd screenshot to give speculation) rather than releasing a Beta that can be shown to everyone would generally ruin the game. It would create elitism in that people that know what's going on because they played the Beta/watched LP's of Beta footage are going to go over the mechanics and learn the majority of the ins and outs of the game before anyone else. I think that a more secretive pre-release process would build anticipation within the community and give more scope for "Hey guys, look what I found!" posts on this very forum. I like things like that - I like to be surprised and see things that I haven't seen before, speculate on what it does and hope that I find one so I can experience in myself. And best of all, the rest of the community will be surprised as well. It would give the feeling that even as we are exploring our game universes on our own/with friends, we will be part of a much bigger exploration team who will slowly discover the game and all its intricacies.

...

That turned out a bit more philosophical than I originally intended!

 

Ok look, in the case of the answers.com link you posted, 'select group' does not mean the same thing as a 'selected group'. If it helps, 'select' in that case could translate to VALD or EXKLUSIV (according to Google) Ett fåtal utvalda (according to other translation sites). What you're thinking about is VALDA or HANDPLOCKADE.

Now on to the other issue which is what you're referring to as spoilers. All I can say to that is if someone is that interested in the game that they go through all existing information and find out everything there is to know about weapon progression (wooden sword > stone sword > iron sword etc. etc.) then that is BECAUSE they are interested in the game and want to find out that sort of information. But that is not the point.

The point I am trying to make here is that saying 'There shouldn't be an open beta because I (and people like me) don't want our experience spoiled by knowing too much' does not make sense and is not a valid argument against having an open beta.

It isn't hard to make yourself go into spoiler-free mode before a game is released. I'm doing it right now for Mass Effect 3, and I'm still talking to my friend who is the opposite of me and tries to keep up with all the news and info about ME3.

 

Pretty much this. It's why we aren't all still banging away at checkers. New stuff....exciting stuff....exploring....surprises. That is what keeps us coming back for more.

 

I don't mind either way if there's a beta or not. Although, If there IS one I'd love to be a part of it.

 

Nothing much to say but

"I'm with g33k on this one".

 

i rather have a open beta

if you dont want to use the beta dont use it, but atlest the opsion is nice

 

Oh here we go...

 

well it is a sandbox/advencer game so i LOVE spoils and teasers, infact i get pissed if there arnt any lol

and if im going by your knowage its like saying im not gonna use the Kikori Sword becouse i get the Master Sword later when playing a Zelda game

 

I'd have to agree with G33K here, although I would like to add a point that I always bring up on 'Beta releases" especially for indie games. The whole point of beta testing is to get feedback and bug reports. Having too much of the community involved in a open, or even closed beta results in a decrease of the overall effectiveness of the beta. For example, 100 people are allowed to beta test, these 100 people will each have their own unique experience and will likely find problems along the way, which will be reported to the developers of the game... usually. If 1000 people play then there is a much, much higher chance of the same problems being reported over and over again. Perhaps a large portion will not even do their job as a 'beta tester' and remain silent while playing. Not to mention games like Terraria, Minecraft and Starbound are somewhat hard to bring out a reasonable beta. You can't just test half of the game. In games like these, beta testing equals access to the full game.

I'd much rather that it would be restricted to 100 people at most just as G33K said, with the occasional screenshot to keep us guessing. I know that it's fun watching peoples videos such as PBat did for Terraria - but tell me, when you finally bought the game after watching every episode... did you enjoy yourself as much as you could have? Did you feel the excitement of finding cool looking and exciting new gear? It's hard to say really since you couldn't do both, although it does seem logical that it would be better to experience without knowing what is waiting around every corner.

To put it short, I agree with what G33K said. However, I also feel that having a large open beta would result in poor efficiency and defeat the purpose of 'beta testing'.

You're missing the point Sure, an open beta would be nice and you could "Just not use it". This isn't about personal experience, it's about the community. I'm not rejecting your opinion... it's just, you're not giving a very good argument to state your point.

 

I will.. Agree to disagree with you.
I have too little patience and too little experience in arguing in english to continue this.

But it was cute of you translating words into my native language insted of pointing out my bad grammar.

 

You are missing the argument. I'm not saying that I care if the game is spoiled for me, I'm saying the game would be better if it was spoiled for NOBODY in the community. EVERY SINGLE PERSON would have no knowledge of the game beforehand. That small 100 in the beta has to never speak about the beta, even after release. That can be written into the NDA.