Positives to having an NDA?

[Canadian Vanu]

I don't know why we have NDAs. Personally I think having lots of information about the the game is good.

I'm sure there is a reason, but I just don't know it, can someone inform me?

[Goku]

There are numerous reasons why. Biggest one to me to allowing people in early to only still have a fairly buggy game. If they go off saying its bad and what not this causes quite the bad rep even though the far majority of those issues will be fixed.

[MorioMortis]

There is that, plus the fact that the game is still a work in progress at that time, so anything shown could not reflect the final product, and give people the wrong idea about the game. Remember that most people don't track game news that much, and many don't take care to check the publishing dates on gameplay they find on Youtube and such, so you may end up with customers with radically different expectations than what the product delivers, based on what they assume is in the product.

[Raymac]

Imagine a painter showing a half finished painting or a director showing a half finished film. Then you can understand why they want to wait before they fully lift the curtain. Until then, they want to control what information gets released.

[Gonefshn]

The biggest issue isn't people seeing bugs but more accurately people showing how they can be exploited.

In beta and tech tests people are going to find huge exploits and if they show the world a lot of people will be scared off because they are too dim to realize the point of beta is to find and fix these types of things.

[Vancha]

Imagine an artist letting you see his painting when it's half finished, then taking a picture of it when his back's turned and showing everyone...That's what the NDA is there to try and prevent somewhat.

[Warborn]

During betas, bugs and other issues crop up which may make gameplay suck for a while. Or the developers may be testing a feature which ends up being less fun than imagined and may give the wrong idea of the game were someone to take a snapshot during that particular time. If you don't have NDAs, then the "testers" who are really just regular gamers with no interest in actually testing anything will publicly cry and scream and kick and make a fuss over these beta issues, which in turn generates negative press for the game when, come release (or late-beta) the issues may be entirely resolved.

So the NDA is there because you're all goddamn children, and developers can't count on you to act like mature people who are playing their unfinished product. So they make you keep your dumb mouth shut by threatening to take your toy away if you start crying.

[Gugabalog]

Originally Posted by Warborn

During betas, bugs and other issues crop up which may make gameplay suck for a while. Or the developers may be testing a feature which ends up being less fun than imagined and may give the wrong idea of the game were someone to take a snapshot during that particular time. If you don't have NDAs, then the "testers" who are really just regular gamers with no interest in actually testing anything will publicly cry and scream and kick and make a fuss over these beta issues, which in turn generates negative press for the game when, come release (or late-beta) the issues may be entirely resolved.

So the NDA is there because you're all goddamn children, and developers can't count on you to act like mature people who are playing their unfinished product. So they make you keep your dumb mouth shut by threatening to take your toy away if you start crying.

This.