serious beta distribution flaw

I know everyone is taking these type of threads as a negative but I think its actually a good reflection on the product that GGG is getting ready to put out. If the game looked like a pile of crap I doubt we would see any such posts. Seems that a lot of people are really excited about the eventual release and simply want to be able to test drive the game. Hence a lot of these "frustrated" posts. Congrats to GGG for making what appears to be a high quality product that people are excited to get involved with.

Constructive criticism is good, yes, but just saying it's flawed and giving reasons that don't really make sense, then being rude to the people making the game, isn't helpful in any way. Yeah, I guess it reflects on the desire created to play, but either way it's not helping anyone.

I know I just joined, but I have been watching closely and almost every one I've seen in the past few days hasn't logged in for at least 2 months, some for over a year, and most have mad less than 5 posts total in that time. I don't really see it as flawed though. As the devs said, they promised that ANYONE that signs up will have a chance, and there's no time limit or login requirement for that. Also, they may have just quit logging in when they visit occasionally and when they see the beta key in their email, they will come back and start playing and get into the community again.

As far as being less likely to see it in email... That has to be a joke. What other way would be more likely to be seen? Site messages? People who aren't logging on to the site obviously won't see those, so they would be useless. Email is by far the best choice for contact.

You also have to consider how often invites are sent. Say one every half an hour max, so 48 per day... If every one they invited were active players sure to start playing they would have to cut that back a lot. They recently said they only wanted about 500 concurrent at this point, so maybe 2500 total actives max. That would only be less than 2 months of invites if they were all actives. How long have invites been going out now, and how many keys have they given away besides the timer?

All in all, I think the system is very preferable compared to pretty much any other game I've seen in beta. It's a real way to sit and watch the invites roll out instead of sitting in the dark hoping that some will go out this month. Granted, it's still a long shot, but I prefer more info to less. I will say that I think it should be skewed to include a higher % of active people just to encourage the community to keep growing and being more active, but I don't think the way it is now is flawed.

/endwalloftext

There really can be only one way forward from this act.

You know the way, don't put off your departure any longer.

Fish Fishy Fish.

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Mark_GGG wrote:

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koryman101 wrote:

literally 70%+ of these randoms are members who have NOT logged onto the site in MONTHS, or even THIS YEAR.

Last time I saw someone actually looking at the numbers on this, it was not that high. Given that you've provided no evidence to support your assertion, I'm fairly confident you don't actually mean "literally" there, and are in fact guessing and/or exagerating.

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koryman101 wrote:

the random system should ONLY give beta keys to members who have AT LEAST logged onto the site THIS month...

Wrong. It should give everyone who's signed up a chance. There are many reasons for this, but one of them is the fact that since long before the beta began, we have advertised that all anyone needs to do to get into beta is sign up. Going back on our word now would be unprofessional, and you haven't even provided any reason for us to do so, just stated that we should like it's a fact.
Also, just because someone hasn't logged in doesn't mean they haven't been visiting the site daily and reading all the news.

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koryman101 wrote:

honestly those people aren't hardcore fans and 100% do NOT deserve a beta key

No-one "deserves" a beta key. That's not how it works.

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koryman101 wrote:

when they won't even know the got it. most people don't check there e-mail often either, i know i rarely check my personal e-mail.

So because you don't check your email, that entitles you not only to assume no-one else does (which isn't true), but to also say that our system should change to accommodate you not checking your email, despite the many people who actually do? Really?

This is very well argued Mark. I guess I will have to be patient.

In addition to the random selection they should sell Beta keys! Maybe with a pre-oder sort of deal. That would make the "Hardcore fans" happy, and it could help fund the development process! :)

Right now people are selling them on third party sites; it seems like it would be better to have that money going to GGG.

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JohnCover wrote:

In addition to the random selection they should sell Beta keys! Maybe with a pre-oder sort of deal.

GGG wants to conduct ethical business practices. Selling beta keys would be unethical for 2 major reasons:
-The game is free; selling something that is free just as bad as the people selling their spare keys.
-People would be able to pay to cut ahead of the waiting line.

I see a massive number of posts from a wide range of users begging for keys claiming the key system is flawed and users are getting keys who "supposefly" havent logged in for ages.

Personally i login once and then i leave the page open and it dosent record me as having re-logged in, every time i come back to the page, so by claiming there are people who havent logged in for mnths and mnths is as has been stated perhaps not quite accurate.

I see the fact of the complaints and the begging for Beta keys or the key system as flawed as a very high pat on the back to GGG in so many users desperately wanting to get into the game and that its worth the time and effort to complaign about some trivial things.

D3 amongst so many other high volume games have such a massive small beta invite range and imho arent as well tested and thought out as what i have seen both in game and posted through the forums.

GGG has made a continued effort of keeping both Alpha/Beta users apprised of whats happening as well as those of us not as yet fortunate enough to have a key to what is happening, whats planned and have actual contact with the makers of the different sections of the game wanting feedback, to me having played a range of MMORPG's i cant say you would get that sort of commitment from anyone else.

So to end my brief rant and to sum up what GGG an others have said. Provide some actual real facts and figures and stats or stop ya bitchin and wait for a key like the rest of us.

Yeah, there's some sort of bug I think with recognizing logins. I have come back to the page and posted every day since I signed up, granted it's only a few days, and it hasn't updated since day 1.

everyone who sets up a new thread about how the invite system sucks should have their account flagged to not receive a beta invite.