Beta =/= Early Access.

I keep seeing comments about how excited people are to play the game so they want a beta key. I also see people asking what happens after CB if they get to keep their toons and such. I'm here to point out a few things in regards to beta access.

1) Closed Beta is not the game you are looking for:

I would think this goes without saying, but reading over some of these threads, obviously not. A closed beta is a testing phase. Anything you have done during that point will not be saved. It will be wiped. It is not the final release, so it is futile to wonder. Once the testing phase is done, you will not retain characters, items, level, skills, absolutely nothing that has anything to do with that character save what you kept in your brain. This is true of pretty much every beta ever.

2) Closed Beta =/= Early Access to the game:

I've seen this so many times and it has caused me to rage many times before. Entirely too many people are obsessed with the notion that a closed beta means you get free early access to the game. Which is pointless since your toon gets wiped at the end of it.

A closed beta is a volunteer job. You are supposed to experiment and test different aspects to make sure it is working as intended, and in return you get to help form this new digital world. And many times after a beta the world is so different than what it started it's like a new game.

It's your job to work to make the world as ready for the next wave of people as possible. Which usually takes a lot of work and effort. Yes you are playing a game, but you are also suppose to test the limits and mechanics to see if they will break.

3) Open Beta =/= Early Access.

Just because it drifted out of the CB stage and into OB, doesn't mean you are getting early access. This stage is usually to test the maximum server load and latency. There may still be bugs, but not as many as an alpha or beta release. Tweaking balance is another usual aspect of an open beta, whereas Closed Beta is usually for making sure nothing's broken. Once again, in open beta the chances of a character wipe are fairly high, so don't be shocked when the day comes.

EDIT: I can concede sometimes this does equal early access, (hadn't thought about the Korean MMOs I've been in) but it really depends on the company at this point.

4) NO to anything that distinguishes beta participants.

This is another thing I see in betas. People wanting a "separate server" or something to that effect for closed beta people so they can keep their stuff and progression. Usually devs will give you a massive, overwhelming, resounding NO on this one.

When you have a game, any game, you want the community to come together. To share ideas and hidden, obscure bugs they didn't catch before, builds, boss strategies, or whatever your particular game needs. The last thing you need is to place a massive divide in the community that couldn't be controlled. If you have different servers for paid accounts or free ones, that is usually something people can control.

Beta access is not something people can control. So treating CB participants as special because (in this case) they were lucky enough to be picked by this random lottery, or were staring at Twitter waiting for a message to pop up looking for a key, that places an unfair advantage on players who weren't picked, or didn't win, you will have a bitter rivalry that breaks gaming communities, not brings it together.

TL;DR: Closed Beta is not the whole game, Open and Closed characters and anything associated with them will be wiped, and there won't be a special place for closed beta people to boast their superiority over people who weren't lucky.*

*Note: I am not a Dev or a Mod. Just someone who has been in a massive amount of CBs over the years and get tired of threads/questions like the ones I addressed.

Well said.

I'd just like to state that more often than not (Open Beta does = Early Access)

Well I did say "More often than not you get wiped" I didn't say "Every single time like CB"

Depending on the company (from my experience) sometimes it will, sometimes it won't. But for me, usually it doesn't.

Useless thread is useless.

Very well said. It still baffles me that MMO gaming is over a decade old now, and still one of the first threads in a CB forum is "will my character be wiped".

The answer is always yes. Sometimes OB gets wiped, sometimes it doesnt, actually more often than not, it doesnt. But CB is ALWAYS wiped. No if, ands or buts. Its industry practice, and usually necessary just to clean the databases when the server are ready to load test the Open Betas. It should never surprise anyone ever again that a CB wipe is coming.

On that note, because you know the wipe is coming, you are expected to experiment with gameplay, and encouraged to try to "break" the game, find the exploits and bugs, and report them for fixes. Thats how a game gets a successful launch and is considered more "polished". The more you break it the better it turns out :P

Happy hunting.

"

Xenicide wrote:

Useless thread is useless.

Yet you will go out of your way to post an even more useless comment? I will never understand people like you.

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Eternimus wrote:

"

Xenicide wrote:

Useless thread is useless.

Yet you will go out of your way to post an even more useless comment? I will never understand people like you.

+1

This post is so true, and it's nice that someone put their time to type it up.

agree