Are We Losing Sight Of What Beta Means?

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Shinjin wrote:

Some interesting points are being made, yet, just because a company does it should it be common practice? Yes, funding in itself is 'the' major factor in the continuation of game development, yet what direction does this type of philosophy of the company and player base do to the integrity of future company development of both the game and how betas are conducted? I am trying to find out why donations would 'not' be considered a donation. I have to ask, if someone 'donates' should they get something in return or are they actually 'paying to play'? What is the difference?

In this case, they are paying for access to some otherwise locked game content that they would have had to pay for anyways and, in addition, they're getting access to the beta. I wouldn't call it a donation.

Most companies that follow this "pay to access beta" model also bundle with it access to the full game, or access to content that they otherwise wouldn't have had. It's not only about the beta. As for the future of beta testing, I don't see this as anything but good. It opens the beta up to a more broad and varied userbase, and increases the amount of feedback. It also, in my opinion, enhances the bond between player and game company. A lot of games that I beta tested I ended up feeling involved in. I felt like I helped make the game, in a really small way, what it is today. And, it helps get word of mouth out for the company. More people playing the beta means more people talking about the game. I don't see this model of paying to access a beta as anything but good for game developers.

Precisely. You are buying something in the cash shop that will carry over to release. It just happens to come with a beta key.

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Dathlos wrote:

Precisely. You are buying something in the cash shop that will carry over to release. It just happens to come with a beta key.

Lol that thought had crossed my mind. Kind of akin to a cash shop model.

If you just wanted a discussion your post could've taken a less fatalistic and elitist approach to the whole thing.

But as others said the simplest way to put it is that it's the earliest form of the cash shop we'll be getting eventually.

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Shinjin wrote:

Beta is about "testing" the game, not "playing" the game. Providing feedback to the company and allowing for the "testers" to communicate with the devs about possible exploits, bugs etc. Shame on the company who creates such a ploy to gain.

Buying your chance to get into the game to play...cross that, "test" it? What a shame. If the company wants to avoid the heat of the press, then they should allow beta access by rotating the people who have been "testing" the game for months (we all know most are not actually testing the game, they are playing the game). Do you and does GGG know the difference?

They have not provided the details yet as of this moment.

Please provide some quality feedback.

*EDIT: I just want to clarify, if this post does not apply to you then please, don't get huff'n'puff about it. Yes yes, there will be some clown who talks about "playing" the game vs testing blah blah. I am only interested in the discussion about "paying to win beta access".

2 Things Shinjin:

1 - "playing" the game is testing it. Devs get a lot of feedback just by the data provided by players playing without them ever leaving feedback themselves.

2 - Minecraft.

GGG can do whatever they want. You are welcome to support or not support what they do. The one thing I can assure you of.. they are the experts when it comes to PoE and so far they have given me no reason to doubt they know what they are doing. You are a casual observer with an opinion.

Bandwidth costs money, so maybe they are keeping their expenses down while setting up for their release.

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ShadowyMOON wrote:

If you just wanted a discussion your post could've taken a less fatalistic and elitist approach to the whole thing.

I couldn't agree more...what I read from the OP is that for some reason you are upset that other people want to have access to the game...like your special because you have closed beta access and as such you dont want us nasty non selected filth playing this game.

What will your reaction be when the game comes out? Will you be upset that people are playing then as well? Just curious...

GGG runs a lot of simulations to guess what the economy will do. However, there is no simulation that will properly guess how often a player will use orbs, or save them for trading. So more people gives more data.

The bottom line for me is that people are paying money for something and as long as that person is ok with what they are getting for their money, it really doesn't concern me. If someone would rather donate $10 to GGG than go out to the movies, that seems fair. 1000 people donating $10 gives GGG enough to expand server space allowing them to have more people online and let them collect more data. More data could mean any one or more of the following:

More stable game
Sooner release date
More Content
More polish
Better Balance

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Wittgenstein wrote:

People can:

1. wait until the game is released, play for free.
2. Sign up for a beta spot, play for free.
3. donate, and play the beta.


Nobody has to donate anything. Nothing is a "ploy" and GGG isn't losing sight of anything.

This is a good representation i would think a lot of people have been waiting to get into the beta or just plainly to play this awesome game,if some are willing to donate to ggg which in my view have been putting a lot of time and effort towards the release of this game let them
more money=more resources for ggg(even if it aint all that much someone has got to pay for coffee lol) i wish the best of luck to all the non-beta on getting in and if they do implement the buy ur way in i woudnt resent it and like it has been said in this thread before this aint gonna be the first time it has been done it is not unfair to anyone
i personaly think that if ur willing to play so much that u would pay for a ticket into a free to play game (which is still in beta) they definitely would make good tester

anywho gl to all

p.s:Saying i didnt ressent the fact that u could buy ur way was a bit of a understatement because personally if i wasnt in the beta i would gladly buy my way in

Which came first: The chicken, or the egg?

Folks've been begging GGG forever to take their donations. Not to get into the Beta, but simply to support the company. GGG has, up until now, politely declined those offers, though they have stated that they would be implementing the Cash Shop during closed Beta, even if only to test it out.

Now, it should come as no surprise that many of the thousands of new folks who have just experienced PoE for the first time are begging to give GGG money... To play in the Beta. The folks at GGG aren't stupid. They've known all along that there would come a threshold past which they would be able to accommodate a much larger player base, and that they needed a way to ease into that.

So, they ran the stress-test, made sure they could handle things, and then offered to open the flood-gates a bit. It's not Open Beta (everyone plays, no conditions), because they're not yet prepared for that. But they are prepared to approach that, and to start testing their business model.

So, my only question (and it's merely academic, and doesn't reflect on GGG's motives) is this: Did they know what they were gonna do before they announced the stress-test, or did they simply decide on the fly to do things this way?

I know what I think. =^[.]^=