Philosophy in a "closed" beta.Thoughts.

Okay, point taken about the OP. Personally, I'm tickled at all the new folks in the game. I was starting to miss 'em after the stress-test ended. ='[.]'=

firstly, as someone that only found out about the stress test weekend a day before it was on, i have to say it was a blast jumping in and seeing just how diverse and dynamic the game and those playing it were.

as for this topic, i was disappointed the direction of the original post took things.

rather than attribute a potential banality arising from having too many paid players in the mix at this stage i was hoping it would be a discussion on the risk to the game (at a philosophical and design level) from an increase in players generally.

i would wonder if PoE might somehow lose its focus as the numbers of people increase, at any stage in the beta phases, or through to release.

more players means you get more people asking for diverse features and mechanics which could potentially dilute the intent with which GGG have been approaching their work, which could drag the game away from the hardcore detail-driven roots it appears to have at present.

thinking about it (as the thread title suggests) i would say allowing people to participate at this stage via buying into / financially supporting / pre-purchasing access to the game could be a stroke of genius on the developers behalf, and could in fact insulate the game and its philosophical underpinnings from major changes. the reason i say this is many of us that have paid have done so because we believe in the game we saw and played during the open weekend. our money should cement in the devs minds that they are heading in the correct direction, are making the right decisions and have an amazing product that they can be proud of.

at the end of the day those of us 'paying' beta members are not just buying our way in. we're stating (in a way that is available to us) that we appreciate everything GGG and the current beta testers have done to get the game into this shape. and i hope it should never become banal or dumbed-down or simplified to cater for the masses, as that's not what PoE is.

"

Raycheetah wrote:

Okay, point taken about the OP. Personally, I'm tickled at all the new folks in the game. I was starting to miss 'em after the stress-test ended. ='[.]'=

Finally someone made the point I made days ago.

Current common players online: 500
Current common players during Public: 5000
Most players online during public: 7100
Accounts MADE during Public: 40000
Players wanting to keep playing since public: Alot

People have waited a year for a beta key.
1 keys given out every 5 min.
"alot" of keys are currently in demand.
They needed a much larger handout of keys than currently in place without changing the system to do so.
People ASKED to do so.

Those buying larger packages didnt do it for the key. someone wouldnt spend 1000,250,100,50,or 25 dollars for a key they can get for 10. for 0.
You CAN still get keys for 0.
You CAN still get alot of keys for zero.
check the beta key section and do events and the like.

Lets take a half-time break,

and watch this ==> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHKogawGv_s&feature=related

I think you'll find a surprisingly large percentage of the supporters are/were already members of the beta who just loved the game enough to want to support it. Heaven knows I'm not beta tester material, I'm playing for the fun (thank you so much GGG for giving me a key in march :D) and I've enjoyed it fully as much as I've enjoyed many AAA titles. We offered, GGG would have been positively stupid not to take the chance.

Rather than look on this as commercialisation, look on it as an opportunity to reduce the devteam's worries a little bit so they can focus more on making the game great :)

"

Chris wrote:

The money that has been raised from the generous contributions of our community will benefit everyone, not just those who supported us. The awesome thing about free games like ours (once it's completely open access) is that people can a functionally complete game experience for zero cost.

And, if they participate in the Beta, a game into which they will have had some input.

I already had my Beta account when I made my donation. I simply wanted to contribute something more. =^[.]^=

Lets move forward ppl.

There are more bugs to iron out, there are more ideas to recommend.

The decision to make is still Chris alone.

The game wouldn't be this good if not for his decision-making, his team and the alpha/beta ppls behind the scene. (if its isn't, there wouldn't be ppl asking for beta keys)
These ppl should be proud of themselve for the success of the game so far.

We should assist Chris and his team further, to make it better.

See you guy in the beta soon.


-BTW, any serious beta testers i can join up with? I would like to do some serious test on the game.

They are still giving out free beta keys every 5 minutes.

They are giving the OPTION to people that wish to contribute. It is not now and never will be a requirement to pay money to play this game.

I don't subscribe to any philosophy in which that can be construed as a negative thing in any way.

"

Panda413 wrote:

They are still giving out free beta keys every 5 minutes.

They are giving the OPTION to people that wish to contribute. It is not now and never will be a requirement to pay money to play this game.

I don't subscribe to any philosophy in which that can be construed as a negative thing in any way.

I don't know what your definition of "now" is, but I can't play "now" unless I buy something first. And I signed up before you did. Your view of this philosophy seems to be shaded by the fact that you didn't get screwed by it.