A Guide on How To Be A Good Beta Tester

[exLupo]

They could let all of the current subs in. There can't be that many.

[DxC]

decent post but some of the points are mostly common sense

idea behind betas etc is to Test and make sure things are working properly unforntaly though you will get the Airheads who think its the full game and have every right to bitch about it not working for them

[SKYeXile]

In a game like planetside, it will need thousands of players to stress test it but also since the game is based around pvp, it will need alot of players to test the flow of a battle its game systems for capturing, and playing it like it would be played on live, and spending alot of time doing that, the developers cant spend that much time playing to test that shit. and im sure SOE dont want to pay extra people thousands of dollars to test that shit when they can get us to test it for free and look at the metrics.

[WarChimp130]

Originally Posted by exLupo

The majority will, sadly. Looking back at the Global Agenda alpha, the steam group was small and about 20 of us regularly posted. Early closed beta grew much larger and and still only had about 50-100 regular posters across all forums.

The external alpha percentage is usually fairly good because they're hand picked. CB is pretty poor because it's usually machine selection. However, that's taken into account when making those numbers. You get a percentage of actual analysts and then the rest are there to provide game context for those analysts to do their jobs. Can't test in a vacuum.

Dude they let everyone into Global Agenda's Alpha it feels like. I got into Alpha and I didn't even really want to be in it. Can't stand 3rd person shooters.

[krnasaur]

wait. you mean beta isn't just for playing the game before everyone else?

[WarChimp130]

Beta only exists for bragging rights so that people who get in can lord it over the people who don't and add 3 inches to their e-p33n.

[MgFalcon]

I've Beta tested manyyyy games. I know what to do, and not to do. I even warned the creators back when APB was getting big to NOT release the game cause it was wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too repetitive. They didn't listen and the game was one of the biggest flops ever.

[Duddy]

I was fortunate enough to be an Alpha tester for Global Agenda.

Had a lot of fun testing things such s as the "not-so-invincible" Assault shield and mostly the ins and outs of the Robotics class.

Shame they started going in the wrong direction during Beta though. I did test till release, heck even bought the game, but it just wasn't the game I'd seen promise in.

But yeah, look forward to testing PS:2 should I be so lucky

[Death2All]

I think the most effective way to be a good beta tester is to be a complete asshole. I don't think this will be a hard role to fit for most people on these forums

[SavageB]

Originally Posted by Duddy

I was fortunate enough to be an Alpha tester for Global Agenda.

Had a lot of fun testing things such s as the "not-so-invincible" Assault shield and mostly the ins and outs of the Robotics class.

Shame they started going in the wrong direction during Beta though. I did test till release, heck even bought the game, but it just wasn't the game I'd seen promise in.

But yeah, look forward to testing PS:2 should I be so lucky

I was too a tester for GA, I loved how they never did test AvA at all and expected it to be amazing on release, Hi rez were pretty funny. I gave that game up months ago because of crappy AvA and they wonder why they are losing playerbase.

[Bags]

Originally Posted by Sifer2

I'll believe it when I see it. Did he say ALL subscribers would be the first into beta? Cause if not then I could still be right. That they will pick certain outfits an do most of the testing with them.

I do see your point about it being hard to test large scale combat without thousands to actually slug it out. But that doesn't mean they will open the floodgates for a year or more of testing to every subscriber. Well if you had to stay subscribed then maybe since it would pretty much be a pay to play Beta then.

You're acting like PS1 has a lot of subscribers

[Malorn]

Patience is about the best quality of a beta tester. Its frustrating to play with bugs that can severely cripple your game experience, like crashes, bad framerates and other such things that can make the game nearly unplayable. Horrid balance issues and other such things are also frustrating. Keeping the cool head and being patient, hanging in there and playing it in spite of those issues helps a lot.

That said, you can be the best beta tester in the world but if the devs dont' listen to the feedback or do poor triage of bugs then there isn't much you can do.

[SavageB]

Originally Posted by Malorn

Patience is about the best quality of a beta tester. Its frustrating to play with bugs that can severely cripple your game experience, like crashes, bad framerates and other such things that can make the game nearly unplayable. Horrid balance issues and other such things are also frustrating. Keeping the cool head and being patient, hanging in there and playing it in spite of those issues helps a lot.

That said, you can be the best beta tester in the world but if the devs dont' listen to the feedback or do poor triage of bugs then there isn't much you can do.

Fortunately for us the devs seem to really wanna listen to the playerbase this time around

[Coreldan]

Originally Posted by MgFalcon

I've Beta tested manyyyy games. I know what to do, and not to do. I even warned the creators back when APB was getting big to NOT release the game cause it was wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too repetitive. They didn't listen and the game was one of the biggest flops ever.

It wasn't really about lack of listening, but lack of budget. RTW was bankrupt before the game was even out and they needed to release it and hope it would keep the company afloat enough for it to recover. That didn't happen though.

About the repetitiveness, the ideology behind the game is much like that of Counter Strike. Counter Strike is extremely repetitive like most online shooters, yet that does not bother majority of the players.

One of the problem is though that APB also tried to appeal to alot of MMORPG-playerbase, and these arnt too much into repetitiveness. As an online shooter, APB is the least repetitive I've ever played.

[Tigersmith]

Yea I believe everyone that is a Planetside Sub will get into the beta.

Just please make sure guys. That everyone stays active and reports bugs and posts opinions on everything in the game.

Good Feedback is soo crucial to this game. The Planetside Community needs to step up!