Beta Mindset

[Senyu]

Alright, beta is on the way. Were all pretty dam excited and estatic for this. But remember, the beta is our time to shine in making this a better game. Thanks to the dev's amazing interaction with the fanbase we have had little influence with the game. And soon it will be in our hands to test, judge, and play the f*** out of it.

And with that I hope the majority of the beta players will be going in with a positive mindset of improving the game. (And of course have fun shooting NC) I know it will still be there but for the sake of helping this game I am humbling requesting for less rage than there might be. Please no major freakouts and shooting this game down because you don't like something. Please no exessivley negative feedback thats like "Shitz be stupid, games gona fail, broken, OP".

Lets go into this with the goal to find all the balance issues, discover what works and doesn't work with gameplay, find all the bugs, and provide superb and positive feed back on the game. If you don't like something and think it should be change. Bring it up in a respectable way and if possible please include a solution. This beta is only going to be as succesfull as our involvment with it to bring the game up to its amazing potential.


EDIT:Also Hamma, I think you and the PSU staff should organize a group photo of the first beta testers. The first batch of people that come in to meet at a spot and have screenshots taken. Make it a memorable moment.

[Senyu]

Exactly. And don't freak out when you find something you don't like. Don't claim game is ruined by things you don't like. Just try to suggest ways to improve. I'm afraid people will not releaize this is a molding point of the game for it's final details and will be muddy and not "this gun will always rolfpwn and is never changing" or something like that.

[Senyu]

Bump it? Make it a sticky

[Crator]

I would hope by beta we will have official test forums to post about all the issues. You'll still get your dooms-day people though... Just have to ignore them and try to keep the topics constructive... The way that the PS2 devs have been pre-beta launch, it looks like we will be getting a lot of interaction through beta most likely via test forums... It should be great and work well hopefully!

[Nephilimuk]

lets wait to see when the date is for the beta (just saying!!!)

But fully agree with this aproach

[NewSith]

Can I exploit, grief and frustrate the masses? All for the sake of game-testing of course...

[Senyu]

testing greif system is others ways such as vehicle blocking doors should be done perhaps for level design ideas. But looking at the size of those bases I dont know if that paticular problem would happen

[DviddLeff]

My main issue with beta is that many see them simply as a way to try the game (I have done this myself with lesser games ;)) to see if they like it before release day and a potential purchase.

These days we also see companies using beta as a way to encourage pre ordering, with beta as a perk available for those that buy the game early.

Sony have the loyal customers that are still paying for PS, but will the BR40/CR5 remnants that are used to the current state of the game be the best people to gather opinions from when the devs are trying to make the game appeal to a much larger audience?

[Senyu]

Sony have the loyal customers that are still paying for PS, but will the BR40/CR5 remnants that are used to the current state of the game be the best people to gather opinions from when the devs are trying to make the game appeal to a much larger audience?


Well on a techincal standpoint I beleive fans are best. PS series has dedicated fans who will break every part of this game and provide various balance suggestions. But general audience it doesn't seem like Sony is trying to push it in that direction for beta. Least not yet. So far not many know of PS2 still and I don't think they are going to blow it to large proportions media wise until end of beta or for release. But who knows exactly what they will do. Only know that it is still less of a known game that deserves attention.

[DviddLeff]

With the beta sign ups today there is no room for information, the only thing you can do is sign up with your SOE account... surely giving them the ability to see your sub details.

I would imagine that subscribers past and present can expect to get in sooner if they sign up.

[SteinB]

Another mindset issue is to be aware that to be a better game than Planetside, Planetside 2 has to be somewhat different in some of its aspects. Don't go nuts because favorite tactic X from PS won't work in PS2 and cry "If that's not in the game then it isn't PS" What made PS great was its style and scope of play not any particular game mechanic.

[Senyu]

Another mindset issue is to be aware that to be a better game than Planetside, Planetside 2 has to be somewhat different in some of its aspects. Don't go nuts because favorite tactic X from PS won't work in PS2 and cry "If that's not in the game then it isn't PS" What made PS great was its style and scope of play not any particular game mechanic.

very true

[Shogun]

i have a lot of beta experience and i love the process.
my big hope here is, that on this beta we will have a real influence!
so the OP is totally right! if you don´t like something particular, go to the beta forum and make constructive suggestions and never ever do ragespam posts because those never help.
i was on some betas where this worked really cool. we suggested some simple ui changes because some menus sucked, and it was in the game 2 days later for example.
so don´t freak out until release because in a beta everything is subject to change.

look forward to help making this game awsome! keep constructive even if you hate something and maybe it will change or you even may get used to it.

[Justaman]

Exactly.

It is our DUTY, to get things into places they shouldn't. No matter how uncomfortable it looks.

It is our DUTY, to find annoyances in game play as to help improve the experience as a whole.

It is our DUTY, to find something completely over powered, abuse it to no end, and then report why it is so, after you wipe your self off.


It is our DUTY, to help make PS2 awesome, for the old AND the new blood!

[Lonehunter]

I'll be honest, in every beta I've been in I haven't been a good tester. My main priority is trying out the game and just playing as I would after release.

But in PS2's beta, I'll turn it into a damn second job and document every bug, glitch, and exploit. Just playing as normal won't be an option, I have to help make this game what it deserves to be.

[Xyntech]

Spending 3 hours in front of a respawn tube trying to glitch it to give me infinite grenades or something in my loadout.

Attempting to fly/land my Scythe into and on top of as many strange locations as I can think of to try and glitch it through the geometry.

Abusing explosives to try to lag the game or crash the server.

Attempting to find novel ways to abuse physics to kill friendly players without incurring grief.

Attempting to get obscene K/D ratios with every weapon and vehicle combination I can imagine may be overpowered.

These are a few of the ways I'm already planning on occupying my time in beta.

[GTGD]

I'm sure there will be some asshats that end up raging and hating. But I feel pretty optimistic that a lot of players are just going to be so goddamn excited to finally play the game we have been waiting years for. I used to (and even still) get annoyed by some of Planetside's glitches and netcode. But even if PS2 is unbalanced and some aspects are kind of broken, I am going to be having way too much fun simply playing the game, and from what I've seen in this community, it isn't just me.

The only suggestion I have at all is to allow players to make characters from all 3 factions on the beta server.

[Shogun]

yes, 3 faction accounts for beta would make sense.

nice to see, that there are many people here who know how a good beta test has to look like!

i have the great gift to find every little place where you can fall through the ceiling (or outside a beta it´s more of a curse), and i am the kind of tester who tries to reproduce every bug he finds several times to give exact feedback.

but as the community relation man said, just playing helps a lot, too. and i will do this as well for sure! i miss the ps playstyle a lot and would be playing ps1 right now, if it still were populated.

so i guess i will be playing normally until i find something, that seems exploitable or bugged. switching to professor mode whenever bugs cross my way.

oh man, i´m far too excited! roll out the beta soon! please!

[HELLFISH88]

We need one big BETA outfit for fun and ease of communication. PSU BETA OUTFIT PLEASE.

[Shogun]

3 outfits!

psu nc
psu tr
psu vs

[Hamma]

We need one big BETA outfit for fun and ease of communication. PSU BETA OUTFIT PLEASE.

We had this in PS1 :D

[Senyu]

With beta getting closer and some other beta threads are popping up, I'd thought I'd give a bump from the grave to help the mood and remind people

[Meriv]

It would be usefull if you add a poll asking if you received a beta key soo we can understand how many ppl (at least from forum) is gettin in and after reading this post "with the right mindset"

[Bags]

Sure is soapbox in here.

[Furber]

play the f*** out of it.

Will do :D

[Soothsayer]

After every beta I've been in, these threads are tiresome. Without fail they are posted.

So sanctimonious.

[wasdie]

Good post with good points.

Don't expect this beta to be a glorified demo, and we need to make sure all people playing it have that same mentality. Betas in this day and age are becoming synonymous with demo, that's wrong. The PS2 beta will be buggy, glitchy, unoptimized, laggy, and will have a lot of balancing issues. That's what we are here to help with.

The team can only do so much beta testing in house, and a good chunk of that is for things outside of general gameplay (lighting, shadows, effects, collision detection, physics, engine related stuff). They can play test, but they'll never emulate how people will play the game nor be able to test it on the variety of hardware that the community has. Usually playtesters play the game completely different than the community. The hivemind that is the community will come up with ways to play the game that were not ever thought of while designing the game. It's up to us to keep a good line of positive and constructive feedback so that they can diagnose any problems and come up with solutions quickly and efficiently.

Also note that game balance is never set in stone. There is never one way to balance things and there will ALWAYS be more balancing needed. You may not ever be happy with the balances because of your playstyle. If that's the case, you'll just have to keep an open mind.

[The Janitor]

Been in many betas. Love breaking games, love testing things. It's what I do and I do it for days on end. This one will be no different. :D

[Bags]

After every beta I've been in, these threads are tiresome. Without fail they are posted.

So sanctimonious.

Agreed.

[Khrusky]

Hmm.

The main problems I see in betas are when people shoot down every legitimate criticism with "it's only beta". Telling the devs what is bad helps focus things on solutions rather than meaningless obsequiousness.

The only time betas fail is when things which are not fun for most people get forced through by people who insist the devs know what they're doing. We should be polite, but criticism is the point of beta. Leave the praise for the reviewers.

[Littleman]

After every beta I've been in, these threads are tiresome. Without fail they are posted.

So sanctimonious.

This.

It works both ways. Bug hunt, sure, especially since right now the moderators won't come down so hard on those exploiting them, but the other side of the beta equation IS in fact having fun just playing the game.

All the bug testing in the world doesn't mean anything if it doesn't feel right when you move around or shoot your enemies, or if you're just plain bored or find yourself at a huge disadvantage because you have a +100 ping. In a game on the scale of Planetside, pings 3-4 times that high should be playable, especially with the very real risk of all 2000 players ignoring their missions and converging onto a single point. Never mind the video lag.

HAving fun is far more important than focusing solely on bug hunting, and even the most devoted hunters will drop the pursuit to just play.

There's a reason developers treat betas like free demos: they can't tell people not to if those same people don't want to. You can bet there will be enough closed beta testers to fill at least one continent around the clock, just so we get the intended Planetside experience.

Which is more than their hired and paid in-house testing team got to experience during the REAL testing phase. Most bugs people find during beta are low priority and/or already known. They were the ones jumping against a cliff face looking for that small hole they can fall through.

[SixShooter]

Exactly.

It is our DUTY, to get things into places they shouldn't. No matter how uncomfortable it looks.


That just sounds so dirty:eek:

[RSphil]

i shall test the crap out of it like i do with every Alpha or Beta iv ever done. lets get this baby on the road and make it the amazing game we all know it will be

[Darthkorr]

Alright, beta is on the way. Were all pretty dam excited and estatic for this. But remember, the beta is our time to shine in making this a better game. Thanks to the dev's amazing interaction with the fanbase we have had little influence with the game. And soon it will be in our hands to test, judge, and play the f*** out of it.

And with that I hope the majority of the beta players will be going in with a positive mindset of improving the game. (And of course have fun shooting NC) I know it will still be there but for the sake of helping this game I am humbling requesting for less rage than there might be. Please no major freakouts and shooting this game down because you don't like something. Please no exessivley negative feedback thats like "Shitz be stupid, games gona fail, broken, OP".

Lets go into this with the goal to find all the balance issues, discover what works and doesn't work with gameplay, find all the bugs, and provide superb and positive feed back on the game. If you don't like something and think it should be change. Bring it up in a respectable way and if possible please include a solution. This beta is only going to be as succesfull as our involvment with it to bring the game up to its amazing potential.


EDIT:Also Hamma, I think you and the PSU staff should organize a group photo of the first beta testers. The first batch of people that come in to meet at a spot and have screenshots taken. Make it a memorable moment.

Fully Agree.Your here to TEST not play as if its a VIP pass. POst feedback report bugs, find bugs, and try and break the game.

[Mechzz]

Haz beta started?

Coz I haz no email yet.

Hello? Hello? Anybody there?
*all playing the f*ck out of beta*

[Crator]

^^^ Ok, Hamma, you need to make a STATUS OF BETA glowing indicator that is visible on every page on the site! :P

[Hamma]

Yea.. I probably should. rofl