Prices for testing phase

ArchivedUser

Diura said:

Pooka said:

FliP said:

I did not pay to test, I paid to support development.

It should be the other way around, we should be paid for testing. If you want access to testing phase so you can try the game out for yourself, don't get your hopes up.

Testing phases are literally what they are called. You will have limited access, eg 2 hours in a timeframe they decide for you.

However, as it has been confirmed on the PAX Stream, Alpha 1 will have a stress test phase that will be open to all registered accounts, so you can test for free.

Pooka is pretty sure most will be fighting the login boss during the stress test.

I think we'd all prefer to fight the login boss now rather than on launch day *cough* Don't want Archeage queues!  ^^ I'm happy Intrepid are doing stress tests early on.

It's been years since stress tests and good  meaningful  beta testing were applied to games being developed.  The free for all betas prove nothing in the scheme of things and usually the games are not fit to be released when they are.   Intrepid has achievement goals and seem to know how to get there.  IMHO this can only be good for those of us who have been searching for a good mmo.  

ArchivedUser

Khaler said:

Alpha and Beta tests are not supposed to be Early Look sessions.  They're not there to let you see if you like a game or not, they're SUPPOSED to be there to help the developers iron out issues, tweak the code and improve the product.

I can not disagree with this goal. But years of trying learn me that test phases are for gathering extra income. Prices of AoC founder packs can not convince me. But also i understand it may be different. From publisher to publisher. Your believe is confident. Good to hear.

Khaler said:

The majority of "beta testers" in other titles...

This is where you are wrong. The "other" word. Lets hope AoC will have more real testers than in other games and also developers ready to listen to them. Seriously.

Diura said:

I think we'd all prefer to fight the login boss now rather than on launch day *cough* Don't want Archeage queues!  ^^ I'm happy Intrepid are doing stress tests early on.

Hehe, login and queue bosses are hardest fights in MMOs history. Right now i going to beat BnS arena queue boss just to kill some time. Wish me luck.

---

Do not get me wrong, everybody before mmo lauch are super nice and after it most of them turned into dicks. I can deal with that. But let me say thank you. Most of you gave me interesting material to digestion.

ArchivedUser

LexLexter said:

Khaler said:

The majority of "beta testers" in other titles...

  ...Lets hope AoC will have more real testers than in other games and also developers ready to listen to them. Seriously.

good point, AoC already has more testers than other titles usually do.

10k Alpha Testers, is way more than what ive ever seen for any alpha-test.
Not to mention the Beta-testers already waiting in the pipelines lol

ITS HUGE

ArchivedUser

reaccon said:

good point, AoC already has more testers than other titles usually do.

10k Alpha Testers, is way more than what ive ever seen for any alpha-test.
Not to mention the Beta-testers already waiting in the pipelines lol

ITS HUGE

I realy do not want burst your bubble, but large majority of these players will not be "testers", just desperated players hoping in better game who will be dissapointed because they have zero *f-word* clue what alfa means. This so called testing will be the same as in other games. It is pretty normal. I just said i hope AoC will have more players willing to help.

ArchivedUser

LexLexter said:

reaccon said:

good point, AoC already has more testers than other titles usually do.

10k Alpha Testers, is way more than what ive ever seen for any alpha-test.
Not to mention the Beta-testers already waiting in the pipelines lol

ITS HUGE

I realy do not want burst your bubble, but large majority of these players will not be "testers", just desperated players hoping in better game who will be dissapointed because they have zero *f-word* clue what alfa means. This so called testing will be the same as in other games. It is pretty normal. I just said i hope AoC will have more players willing to help.

I hate to admit it but you’re probably right.

ArchivedUser

LexLexter said:

I realy do not want burst your bubble, but large majority of these players will not be "testers", just desperated players hoping in better game who will be dissapointed because they have zero *f-word* clue what alfa means. This so called testing will be the same as in other games. It is pretty normal. I just said i hope AoC will have more players willing to help.

You very well might be right, I saw couple in discord while overwhelming majority could be considered helpful though this means nothing since discord is were the "helpful" people lurk in discord while most non helpful probably just download the launcher and tried to get to play without listening to devs instruction. Modern "alphas" and "betas" (aka just let you play finished game early if you pay enough, lets just call it "alpha/beta" ) probably contribute a lot to this.

On bright side they helped to get data for servers right?

ArchivedUser

Sonicfani said:

On bright side they helped to get data for servers right?

Sure, with finding bugs and exploits what can give them unfair advantage over others. I not saying they will report it, but they will find it and it will be enough. Lets be honest, when regular player find bug or exploit.... shitfest start... Ech, this is what i hate. For example: BnS, wallbang exploit in arena: In two weeks there was no single Destroyer or Forcemaster who not using this shit till these  days.

What realy AoC need in my eyes is focus on fair game. Yep, i know, i'm in so small minority in this.

ArchivedUser

LexLexter said:

What realy AoC need in my eyes is focus on fair game. Yep, i know, i'm in so small minority in this.

Totally not fair play is important, systems cant function as intended without it. And I am not so sure you are alone during the stress test we found few characters who were invisible with just weapon showing (no stealth abilities) and testers were very vocal about it.

ArchivedUser

Sonicfani said:

...and testers were very vocal about it.

Good to hear. 

ArchivedUser

Khaler said:

Alpha and Beta tests are not supposed to be Early Look sessions.  They're not there to let you see if you like a game or not, they're SUPPOSED to be there to help the developers iron out issues, tweak the code and improve the product.

Agreed, although you can be certain that Alpha and Beta testers will be enjoying the 'early look/play' aspect regardless. I have no problem with this given that these people (including myself) paid a significant amount of money for the privilege of participating in the testing stages.

It is imperative, however, that they do their jobs properly and seek/report bugs.

LexLexter said:

Sonicfani said:

On bright side they helped to get data for servers right?

Sure, with finding bugs and exploits what can give them unfair advantage over others. I not saying they will report it, but they will find it and it will be enough. Lets be honest, when regular player find bug or exploit.... shitfest start... Ech, this is what i hate. For example: BnS, wallbang exploit in arena: In two weeks there was no single Destroyer or Forcemaster who not using this shit till these  days.

What realy AoC need in my eyes is focus on fair game. Yep, i know, i'm in so small minority in this.

Perhaps some short-sighted individuals will seek to hoard the knowledge of broken systems/bugs in order to gain an advantage post-launch. I figure, however, that a greater amount of people will want to play a bug-free and exploit-free game post-launch, and will report bugs and exploits to Intrepid Studios.

And if they don't, then you can be sure that the victims of these bugs and exploits will report them ASAP.

ArchivedUser

Personally I would really love if we got the chance for paying less for let's say no cosmetic additions and no or only one month subscription. Now it's not really I don't have faith and high hopes in this game, despite only finding it recently, but let's say a 30 bucks (just an example, I'm not calculating prices here) entry fee may be a bit more appealing than having to gamble on the 75 dollars. The late testing phases, like the last beta is usually a decent point to test out a game. The majority of the purpose (in my experience) is at that point a mixture of stress testing and finding and ironing out new bugs that could have been missed or not fixed as well as the devs thought. Players can be very unpredictable, like say finding ways to escape a dungeon while in the instance, get just the right of buffs, gear, etc. to find areas that weren't supposed to be found. Finding a combination of skills, attributes and class combo's that practically break the game. 

I know there will be some free stress testing which is awesome, but just look at some videos from WoW or single player RPG's about all this previous stuff I've mentioned. While it can sometimes take a week or two, it still tends to force a good amount of patches early on and frankly I would rather have a finished and ironed out game before launch, then having to go through 5-10 patches during it's early life span, even with the potential outcry of people who invested more. 

While certainly not everyone may be great testers, I've seen a lot who jumped in early that quickly become very vocal in chat or on forums and while they sometimes tend to exaggerate or "nice" it's still them having found problems that could be looked at. Also please keep in mind, as I've mentioned earlier, I think this specific kinda beta access should be done in the 1-3 months leading up to launch.