What hope have we? (The never before beta crowd)

[MrVicchio]

Look, here is my fear, I have never before actually tested a game in beta, open or closed. I have two things going for me, a good rig:

P4 1.8ghz
512 megs DDR ram
GeForce4 Ti 4600
Cable ISP

That and I have some in job trainging as sys admin over some silcone Graphix machines and Unix advanced training. Okay I can say I been playing FPS and MMORPG for over three years plus being an advid gamer. (I really do push the 40 hour a week gaming limit.)

To me, that looks cool, but is it? Man I know this is just that insecure little kid in me screaming but man... this is intense! I want in, both because PS looks to ROCK, and from a proffessional educational stand point. But that dont mean shit when you put me (or others like me) against 1000's of others who have been in multiple beta's.


Kinda boils down to that old problem finding a job, all the good jobs want experience, but none wanna give you a chance... that sort of fear is driving me UP THE WALL!

[Hamma]

Who knows, looks like you have good chances anyways.. heh, no way to tell though.

Its killing me too :[

[Ir0nRaven]

i know i'm getting in. me and the devs have... an understanding. it all revolves around monday night... yea, u know what i'm talkin about..

[Sadfre]

football?

and possibly the promise of more football?

[Enkidu]

I've been in a couple betas, and each is different on who/what kinds of people they choose. I would bet that they will mostly fill it up with people who have beta tested before and add in a few who haven't.

They also did say somewhere that they will replace people if they needed too. Just becasue other people have been in betas before dosen't necessaraly mean that they are good at it.

[Kaikou]

more you worry about getting into beta the longer it will seem :rolleyes:

they aren't necessarily going to pick the people who have played the most MMOGs, they will probably take a variety...

And look on the bright side..even if you don't get into the beta, you will most likely get into the stress testing phase :p

[slytiger]

Is it possible to get in the beta if u are under 18 legally?

[NapalmEnima]

Nope. Gotta be able to legitimately agree to their NDA. And that means you have to be old enough to agree and be bound to a contract.

18.

Sucks... but so does the RAM requirement. Yow!

[Unregistered]

I keep my fingers crossed. That's all I can do. The only game I have ever beta tested was one that my friends made.

[NapalmEnima]

I figure between all the people disqualified by age or system specs, they'll be lucky to get their 1000 people.

So *if* you qualify, and aren't a complete looser (why should we pick you: "Cau53 1'11 b10w up y0r h0w53!"), you're pretty much a shoe-in.

I'd say you don't have much to worry about.


But I've been wrong before. Just that one time, at band camp.

[Sadfre]

you'd be supprised by how many people sign up. there ussualy a whole lot more than they are accepting the first go around.

[HopeSlayer]

I don't think they are gonna look to closely at how many betas people have been in. Because it's not to difficult to completely lie, and say that you've been in a whole bunch, and then just list a bunch of games that you know went through beta testing. But, of course, it does help if you've been in a couple. They may share lists with other companies, so some of it may be able to be verified, but not all of it. A big part, will be the written explanation of why you would be a good beta tester. They want people who can effectively put thoughts into words. Because if you can't explain to them in a comprehensible manor of what the exact problem or bug is, then really what good are you? So don't get discouraged if you haven't been in many betas. You still have a good chance. And, they are gonna want a variety of different systems, and people with different internet connections also, so they can see who is really gonna be able to play, and who isn't. It's one thing to test it in the labs, but it's another to actually get out there with hundreds or even thousands of other people. It's possible that a 1.0 GHz machine handled it well in a controlled enviornment, but who knows..Maybe when the server is full of hundreds of people, that 1.0 Gig machine might bog down. I doubt it, but you never know.

OMG I ramble a lot...sorry

Hope out

Hope out

[NapalmEnima]

Originally posted by Sadfre
you'd be supprised by how many people sign up. there ussualy a whole lot more than they are accepting the first go around.


I'm not talking about the number of people who have signed up, I'm talking abou the number of people who are QUALIFIED.

And THAT number will be relatively small, given the average age of gamers, and the relative scarcity of machines with 512mb of ram.

Of course people can lie (and almost certainly have), but the system specs at least can be detected by the game itself. All they need to do is run DxDiag again to make sure they're getting an unedited version, and check that.

Age will be tougher to verify. You can bet they'll take it seriously though... all they need is one invalid NDA (agreed to by a minor, which is not binding) to leak all kinds of stuff to the world.

[slytiger]

I wouldnt have any problems with the ram or speed. Its just the age.

[CoolAid]

I bet they will ask for a credit card number to varify age and to pay for the shiping of the beta disk. Although I hope they make it downloadable.

[Unregistered]

I've never heard of a Beta you have to pay for.

The only real Beta I have been a part of I DL'd the first version, and was mailed the 2nd version that had the CD check in place.

[Incompetent]

Damnit, if the damn beta site didn't lock up every time i tried to go there, i'd still be screwed. Damn ageists

[CoolAid]

I've never been in one i had to pay for either but i know thats what their doing with SWG but I think this game will be smaller and hopefully we can download.... not because of the price, so we dont have to wait 5 days for the mail....

[crash125k]

i believe they will be sending a CD

[Hamma]

Yes I think they are sending a CD.. I bet they ship it via US Mail too so we get to wait :|

[sPooT]

Originally posted by CoolAid
I bet they will ask for a credit card number to varify age and to pay for the shiping of the beta disk. Although I hope they make it downloadable.

This seems unlikely to me, they are looking for foreign testers too right? Well I'm from Europe (The Netherlands) where most people above 18 don't even have a creditcard. We usually pay directly with our bankcards... And as said before I have yet to see the first paid-for betatest :p

[Kussy]

I bet they will do it like at Star Wars Galaxies Beta. you will have got to pay for the beta cd ... for EVERY beta cd ... and it will be shipped to you. But i hope it will be downloadable too. I don't want to wait for a shipment from US to Germany :D but i could imagine that they don'z care about such little problems for foreigners ;(

And yes, credit card payment is a great problem for people in Europe. Only a few people have got one. It's not easy for european people to get a card 8and it's quite expensive too).

@spoot: i'm a student in germany and my bank gives me a credit card. I don't have a regulary income but got a card. Just go to your bank an try it (if you don't have a card yet :)).

[Hamma]

wow, here in the US most people are in credit card dept before they hit 20 :rofl:

[BonnieDundee]

I'm British, and I am.

The NDA says that Sony can charge anything for the beta. However, it's very likely that this clause only means that you have to pay shipping for the CD, as in the SWG beta.

[sPooT]

Originally posted by Kussy
And yes, credit card payment is a great problem for people in Europe. Only a few people have got one. It's not easy for european people to get a card 8and it's quite expensive too).

@spoot: i'm a student in germany and my bank gives me a credit card. I don't have a regulary income but got a card. Just go to your bank an try it (if you don't have a card yet :)).

Yup I believe my bank has them too for a couple of euros each year. Never needed it though. That may change now of course, if I'm one of the lucky bastards who gets accepted into beta :)

@Hamma : yeah well I'm in dept with my bank, just not Visa(or whatever) lol :D

EDIT : added reply to Hamma

[Kussy]

if they only would charge the shipment costs, but 15 $ for the BETA CD? :eek: crazy men

Spoot: hehe, wear a coat und buissines-jacket and everything will be all-right ;)

[CoolAid]

I bet they only charge 6$ for a beta CD .. For the U.S. Thats what Sims online was charging ... I would go with out a T.V. before i would cancel my DSL... Although I download all my favorite shows....

[GhostRanger]

Sony has started taking the approach (see star wars galaxies) to start charging the COST ONLY to make and mail cds. That becuase of the size of the games to send on CD. This can be expensive and as a result it cuts into their development budget.

Currently how star wars galaxies is handling it, and planetside will probably be the same, is that you go to the sony online store and order it there. You must have an access code or something like that to get to the sub site to order the beta version. It is like 5 bucks or something like that plus shipping and handling.

Now there has been speculation that they are trying to make a profit on beta. However, if that were the case they would charge more, and the fact that they are contracting with a cd manufacturing company to do the burns, the price works out in specculation to what they ask.

By the time beta is done, the cost of the CDs could rack up into the tens of thousands of dollars to make and send out (SWG is indicating upwards of 5000 people in beta by end of testing). This money if not recouped would affect development budget and some cool features could be cut because of no development.



That being said, generally getting into beta in the early stages is much like Hollywood. Its alot of shmoozing and knowing the right people. Unlike SWG planetside does not have an official forums for people to post. SWG has used this to kind of monitor people there and track individuals who consistantly provide quality input.

I too am a programmer and network analyst. THis you would think would make for a good candidate for beta testing. However, the only betas I have gotten into were those that I have gotten in through others that put in a good word for me.