The State of Beta Testing

By -
 Beta Testing Frustration

Beta testing isn't what it used to be.  A beta test used to be the second formal round of testing (after the alpha) and it was used to test all the ins and outs of the game.  Players find thousands of ways to break a game that developers would never think of.  Bugs pop up when your testing base goes from a few hundred to thousands.  Betas were used to solve these problems.

Some companies still use betas this way, but more often than not beta tests are glorified demos that are released to the public for a limited time.  Look at the giant media push for the Halo Reach beta.  They were trying to give everyone a small taste of the game in the hope of getting them to buy it in the fall.  They aren't the only culprit.

MMOs are among the worst offenders.  "It's still in beta" isn't an excuse that MMO beta testers accept anymore.  They expect the game to be content complete with all the features in place.  Testers just want to try out the game to see if it's worth buying when it comes out for real.

When did this happen?  I'm just as at fault as anyone else.  If a beta is buggy I end up thinking less of the game.  I know I didn't always think this way.  I really don't know when I mentally shifted over, but I treat betas as demos more than I like to admit.

Maybe we all need to give developers more slack during their rounds of beta testing.  We expect way too much and don't help the developers as much as we should.  "It's still in beta" should, once again, be a valid excuse.

Comments

  1. KlelithMay 30, 2010 at 2:28 AM

    I very happy that blizzard is treating the Starcraft 2 beta is a real beta and not a bemo.

    ReplyDelete
  2. KlelithMay 30, 2010 at 2:34 AM

    Hey, I just made up a new word!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AndrewMay 30, 2010 at 7:58 AM

    MMO companies are so obnoxious with their demos that they deserve to be judged by them. They try to use the things to generate hype, and often times they even charge (indirectly - i.e. preorder) for people to get in early.

    ReplyDelete
  4. VoidMay 30, 2010 at 10:59 AM

    I agree with you Andrew. I think that MMO developers should release a free trial of their game on day one instead of making us jump through hoops to test an unfinished product.

    It drives me crazy when MMOs don't offer free trials. How are you supposed to know if it's good enough to play if they won't let you try it?

    ReplyDelete
  5. VoidMay 30, 2010 at 9:16 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Latest Board Gaming

By -
Image
Besides video games I also regularly play board games when I'm hanging out with people face to face.  My brother, my wife, and I end up playing a lot of 3 player board games, but sometimes we get other players involved too. I realized I haven't talked much about what I've been playing in the world of board games, so here goes: Ticket to Ride - We own 3 different base versions of Ticket to Ride, 2 expansion sets, and an extra map set.  We love this game.  This is the game that gets the most overall table time when I'm playing board games with friends.  It's super accessible but still holds fun for people who have been playing the game for a long time.  I recommend this as a great beginner board game for anyone. Masquerade - A hidden role game where roles are constantly switching hands.  You're limited in actions on your turn and can only take one action.  This means that a lot of the time you're not entirely sure what role you currently have.
Read more

S2E22 - E3 2017 - “Who doesn’t want to be a dinosaur?!”

By -
E3 Hype! E3 2017. Not comprehensive. Not VGNN.  Only talking about things we think are interesting enough to talk about.  You have video game news sites for the rest :) We’re talking about Press Conferences, if more news comes out throughout the rest of the week it won’t be here because we’re recording on Tuesday night! http://e3recap.com/ has been my friend Overall trends Esports being forced onto games that aren’t even out yet “Influencers” being put front and center BJ: torn on the current “influencer” boom. Feels like a bubble that’s totally disingenuous Shorter press conferences with less big game announcements Really hard to tell what is actually exclusive Microsoft “Console Launch Exclusive” Most of these press conferences would have been better pre-recorded as just a series of trailers instead of having a stage show, honestly. Updates on games we already knew existed.  This is what we get for so many years of announcing games way ahead
Read more

What is Blaugust? 2023 Edition

By -
Image
I jumped right into the previous post without actually explaining Blaugust.  So... what is it?  Blaugust is an excuse to get people blogging... in August.  Hence, Blaugust! I'm not the best person to pitch it, but Blaugust is put on by a long time friend of mine, Belghast.  Here's what he had to say about Blaugust for the 2023 kickoff: Blaugust is a month-long event that takes place in August each year that focused on blogging and other serialized content. The goal is to stoke the fires of creativity and allow bloggers and other content creators to mingle in a shared community while pushing each other to post more regularly. For years blogging has been dwindling, and in part, Blaugust was my attempt and reversing that course by compiling a bunch of veteran bloggers in one place and making it super easy to ask questions and get answers. The idea is that this festival of blogging can help reignite dwindling fires for the next year and give folks a sense of kinship as a result. Ea
Read more