Philosophy in a "closed" beta.Thoughts.

Hello everyone,

I have been playing PoE for a month or so now, absolutely loving it, already a fan and brought 5 or 6 persons with me.
The Philosophy behind Path of Exile has changed in my point of view with the implementation of donations for closed beta acess.
A game or software in the beta phase will generally have many more bugs in it than completed software, as well as speed/performance issues. The focus of beta testing is reducing impacts to the incoming users or final customers.
The users of a beta version are called beta testers. They are usually customers or prospective customers of the organization that develops the software, willing to test the software without charge, often receiving the final software free of charge or for a reduced price.
Developers release either a closed beta or an open beta, closed beta versions are released to a restricted group of individuals for a user test by invitation, while open beta testers are from a larger group, or anyone interested.
Early access in this terms will be after an open beta, a paid early access will grant you as it says an early access of the final product, not unfinished has a "closed beta" status should be.
This concludes that the game is not a closed beta or even a open beta, but a release candidate of a almost finished product.
This mentality can, and is, bringing controversy to the software fans, opening the doors to open public will get the product commercialized and saturated before its even released.
Dont misunderstand me, im trying to save your own interests.
Like i said before im already a fan and what im not wanting to see is a satured product before its released.

Peace to you all and thank you for your attention.

Hello Chris,

I understand what your saying.
My question is: Arent you worried that this could commercialize and sature the product?

They plan the open beta for june, what do you mean by "saturated"?
In the end, tons of people should be able to play the game...

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mooks wrote:

Hello Chris,

I understand what your saying.
My question is: Arent you worried that this could commercialize and sature the product?

I don't know if you realize this, but people need to make a living in order to develop a game. People can't do a project of this scale, a project that takes years, and then not come out of it in the end with money.

So how can they not "commercialize" this game?

WE wanted this. WE wanted to throw our money at the game for a beta key and a few game credits.
You still don't have to pay a cent to play this game, nothing changed, everyone still gets wiped when the game goes open beta

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kodr wrote:

They plan the open beta for june, what do you mean by "saturated"?
In the end, tons of people should be able to play the game...

By saturated i mean, people will get tired of the game before its even released.

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Disolve wrote:

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mooks wrote:

Hello Chris,

I understand what your saying.
My question is: Arent you worried that this could commercialize and sature the product?

I don't know if you realize this, but people need to make a living in order to develop a game. People can't do a project of this scale, a project that takes years, and then not come out of it in the end with money.

So how can they not "commercialize" this game?

By commercialize i mean, the company is selling an unfinished product before its even a release candidate.

My question remains the same to Chris.

"

mooks wrote:

By saturated i mean, people will get tired of the game before its even released.

That shouldn't be a problem if the game is interesting...

The way I see it, because it is an unfinished product I don't think it will be saturated but rather have more appeal only because we know it is unfinished yet we still love it and play it. I for one am excited to see what is to come and how better can the game get as the days progress. That's what truly keeps me playing an unfinished product.

Do you know how much money Grinding Gears Games *actually made* with Path of Exile before today?

Me either, but whatever it was, it didn't come from us. That money they've made with Path of Exile before today didn't come from the people working for them. It didn't come from the servers. It didn't come from the tens of thousands of man-hours. It certainly didn't come from the investors.

So when thousands of people suddenly say "we WOULD pay to play this, right now, unfinished or not," you don't really sit and wonder, "gee, what if this makes us look like sell-outs? Like we're commercialising our...product?"

You conceive of a fair but profitable series of price-points and (this is the important bit) throw in a beta key for free.

Let me repeat that: the beta key is free.

It's as free as that bonus dvd you get with your favourite PC gaming magazine.

It's as free as frequent flyer points.

You are not paying for the key; you're paying for future transactions in the cash store for a game that is (are you tired of hearing this word yet?) free.

...And nothing's ever REALLY free. Not lunch, not bird, not Willy. Seriously.

It has to come from somewhere. Who better than the players, who get the most out of whatever funds GGG receives for the betterment of the game?

PS I'm not a serious tester, as Chris puts it. I just play. As far as the game is concerned, I'm just a little more lag to deal with, a little more data to process. The game doesn't care about me at all. In fact, I'm pretty sure it hates me. Most of the time, I don't really care much about it either. It's there, I play it, it's fun.

I do, however, care very much about the idea of its existence, because a lot of people do care about it. That is the cause I want to champion. Not the game itself, but the fact that it should exist, it should be supported, it should be as good as is possible.