Open Beta - Want or Not?

[Stew]

Originally Posted by NewSith

Basically from what I can tell from certain experiences prolonged open beta tests for otherwise free to play games tend to ruin the overall game population. People see a game, still rather raw and tend to leave it due to some bugs remaining for long time, without realising that they're not playing a final build. That doesn't mean they're wrong, it's just that it totally depends on how long the OBT is going to last.

Especially considering there's rather small server cap in the game, I don't find the OBT necessary because we WILL get the amount of people needed to fill one server even in the closed beta.

EDIT: Something is definitely wrong with my english these days. Sorry for hard-to-read.

Actually If by long BETA you mean a eternal Beta ill say no as possible but OPEN BETA is also important when the game is pretty fairly FIX !

The scales long term testing is really important and also more people who can get in the better it is !

Mine craft as a long term alpha beta and it was a huge sucess for a card board pixel game !

So i think it could be the same for Planetside 2 !

And the thing is In MMO theyre is never a (( full compleate release )) it always have updates and post launch suport so ....

i think when the game is almost FIX in terms of glitchs , weapons balenced , animation etc..

they must go into OPEN BETA as long as they need to scales the thing ! And stress servers like crazy !

People will not leave planetside 2 Because theyre is No others games like planetside 2

[Stew]

Originally Posted by Dreamcast

Tribes Ascend, I got the game in beta I liked the game but when the game finally left beta, it was like whatever.


Is hard to explain but I feel for F2P games like Planetside, Open beta should be short.
.

Tribes assend is shit compare to Planetside 2 ...

Planetside 2 is the kind of games thats Blow ur mind youll be adicted to the game no need to hype the game and then make players play for weeks and lefts ...

Planetside is the game you want to play for years Making alliance with others clans creating structures and applications for the games with all the data they are going to give to us ...

Also all the possibilitys day and nigth combat real time ongoing war you dont get this persistance in tribes you dont get thats scales you dont get this true Triple A gameplay !

Tribes graphics are shit Ps2 graphics are stunning and vibrant !

2 games nothing to do with each others !

Long open beta will not hurt planetside 2 it will just reinforce its player base

[Figment]

Long closed beta would be ideal.

[Oryon22]

Long closed beta. Short open beta for performance tuning.

[Dreamcast]

Originally Posted by Stew

Tribes assend is shit compare to Planetside 2 ...

Planetside 2 is the kind of games thats Blow ur mind youll be adicted to the game no need to hype the game and then make players play for weeks and lefts ...

Planetside is the game you want to play for years Making alliance with others clans creating structures and applications for the games with all the data they are going to give to us ...

Also all the possibilitys day and nigth combat real time ongoing war you dont get this persistance in tribes you dont get thats scales you dont get this true Triple A gameplay !

Tribes graphics are shit Ps2 graphics are stunning and vibrant !

2 games nothing to do with each others !

Long open beta will not hurt planetside 2 it will just reinforce its player base

Orly?


I was just saying F2P on open beta don't get much hype when the game actually launches since is free.


Is hard to explain but is not like Diablo 3 beta or Halo beta...You know games you actually have to buy....so when the game comes out, is exciting.


With F2P being open beta....is just an update that makes the game be "gold" so is like whatever when the game comes out....I mean the open beta will have a shitload of people playing just like when the game goes gold so the hype kind of dies off IMO.

[SKYeXile]

yea open beta is jsut marketing these days, id still expect a 2 week open beta to test how tthings go on the server with full pops over a prolonged period, the game afterall is all player ran so they really need to test how the players will play it.

Not doing this in WAR imo was a mistake, the way they designed their endgame was idiotic and untested, as a result it failed.

[Gandhi]

Originally Posted by Stew

Tribes assend is shit compare to Planetside 2 ...

That's just, like, your opinion, man. Tribes has gameplay that you won't find in Planetside, and vice versa. They're totally different games.

Personally I think it's dishonest to call it an open beta when people are already paying you money to play the game. It's even more dishonest if you don't wipe progression and refund purchases at the end of the 'beta'. If people are paying you, and there's no wipe coming, then it's no different than a conventional boxed game hitting the shelves, and people can and do go apeshit when a conventional game hits the shelves in a beta state.

And in a F2P game your relationship to your customer is MUCH more important, in a lot of cases that relationship will dictate whether your customers play your game for free or decide to drop money on it. With a boxed game you only have to win your customers over once, with a F2P model you have to do it consistently, and that's the difference. It's incredibly important to be open and honest about your plans, because any resentment from your customers will translate into lost revenue.

So in the end a game like this needs an open beta, but I would hope that either a) the shop doesn't open until 'release' or b) progression and purchases are wiped/refunded at 'release'. That last part is especially important if you plan to make any changes to progression rate or cash shop items during the beta.

[SKYeXile]

I cant remember if i said it in this thread or one of the thousand others on this, but anything you purchase with station cash does not need to be wiped, i dont see the reason for them to refund anything when the game rolled over to launch if its available for purchase as soon as the game launches anyway, but what should be rolled back is all levels, resources, achivments allstats and prettymuch everything else.

it makes no difference if things you purchase in beta are kept for live, UNLESS those things are nerfed, then you;re not getting what you paid for and they should be refunded.

[Gandhi]

Originally Posted by SKYeXile

it makes no difference if things you purchase in beta are kept for live, UNLESS those things are nerfed, then you;re not getting what you paid for and they should be refunded.

If nothing changes then sure, it makes no difference. But it's a beta, so the assumption is most things will change. Rather than spend the time keeping a checklist of what you need to refund when, just refund everything at the end back to station cash. I don't see the harm in that, if you still want the thing you bought just grab it again, either way SOE got their money and you got your SC.

[kasiraghi]

Agree with most comments, but it's kind of dependant.

How many people are going to be in closed beta? If it's a lot then it should be a short open because most issues should be sorted out.

If only a (relatively) small number of people are in the closed beta this can be somewhat disastous. T:A made a huge error with their 'gradual' beta progression because a lot of their initial testers were in-house and (imho) must have been a poor representation of the overall gamers who were interested in the game. But in this case the open beta would have to be longer in order to identify 'issues'.

Open beta really should be, as others have said, a short final polish.