Open Beta - Want or Not?

[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.

[Shogun]

the closed beta has to be long!
open beta should only be for optimization and stresstesting the finished game. at least for a free to play game i think most of the bugs have to be hunted down in closed beta.

[Razicator]

I find it kinda weird how games nowadays don't have demos but betas essentially doing the same thing. Or maybe it's just the games I usually look at.

[Karriz]

It's difficult to draw the line between open beta and release in F2P games, since they're in contimuous development all the time.

PS2 should go open when it's polished enough so people don't get the wrong picture of it. Transition from open beta to release will probably happen seamlessly.

[Mr DeCastellac]

Originally Posted by Razicator

I find it kinda weird how games nowadays don't have demos but betas essentially doing the same thing. Or maybe it's just the games I usually look at.

I totally agree. I think it was in a Tribes: Ascend video I was watching where someone mentioned that most people, including a lot of game developers, see open beta as some early marketing demo. It used to be, and should still be for testing and improvement.

[Stardouser]

Open beta in many ways IS release. The question I have is, will open beta have a functioning cash shop, and if it does, how will they address the possibility that something you pay for might change before true release?

[KiddParK]

Originally Posted by Shogun

the closed beta has to be long!
open beta should only be for optimization and stresstesting the finished game. at least for a free to play game i think most of the bugs have to be hunted down in closed beta.

this.

[Mechzz]

Originally Posted by Shogun

the closed beta has to be long!
open beta should only be for optimization and stresstesting the finished game. at least for a free to play game i think most of the bugs have to be hunted down in closed beta.

seconded

[KTNApollo]

OBT will be necessary to stress the servers/netcode. Shouldn't be as long as CBT though.

[Shogun]

for boxed games that you have to buy open beta has to be a real beta and more than a demo. and it´s right that most kiddys and sadly a lot of developers abuse the name beta for a marketing demo nowadays.

for a f2p game the closed beta has to be the main testing-and developement-ground. because of the pretty seamless transition to release. especially with games that are going to be constantly improved after release. ps2 will not be "finished" at release. there will be massive changes after release, so technically the game will always be in open beta.

[NewSith]

Originally Posted by KTNApollo

OBT will be necessary to stress the servers/netcode. Shouldn't be as long as CBT though.

I disagree, the server caps for a persistent world is something different from servers with instances. In planetside 2 one full server is more than enough, imo. And, as I said if all PS vets are invited to CBT, than the playercount of ~6000 will be covered straight away...

[Immigrant]

Short OB (3 months max) to test out few things they aren't sure about. They should fix 95% of the problems in CB stage. And of course total reset of all character stats and exp earned before actual full version release.

[bullet]

At what point does an open beta achieve its final status? That really depends on how the devs view their product, or until marketing says they need some $$$$. Patch by patch the game gets better until a point where they feel its final. There shouldn't be any decisions premade on how long a beta test should be. They just need to polish their product and get it to the public in a timely manner, unlike Minecraft's 5 year beta.

[phazon]

T:A did the beta really well, ran alpha until it was polished then made it somewhat exclusive but if you supported the game early on they let you in, and then made it progressively easier to get in (if you really wanted to get in you could), with the massive scale of ps2 i think this is an appropriate approach once a month goes into cbt

[Neurotoxin]

It isn't something that can be determined by the community. Open Beta is going to take as long as it needs to, in order to work everything out that couldn't be in closed and shouldn't need fixing after it goes live. I'd imagine that stress testing on individual servers will be complete by the end of closed beta, so there may not be much need for an open beta in general beyond maybe balancing.