Beta Testing and You

I think people today are mistaking beta testing as a free demo or early release. Every time a beta comes out you have the same people bitching and moaning that the game is down and that shit isn't going their way. Isn't that the point of a beta? To test shit out so things will go their way in release? What is the exact definition of beta anyways?

Developers release either a closed beta or an open beta; closed beta versions are released to a select group of individuals for a user test and are invitation only, while open betas are to a larger group from the general public and anyone interested. The testers report any bugs that they find, and sometimes suggest additional features they think should be available in the final version. Open betas serve the dual purpose of demonstrating a product to potential consumers, and testing among an extremely wide user base likely to bring to light obscure errors that a much smaller testing team may not find.

Well, basically it means we're free guinea pigs. It doesn't mean everything you see in the beta will appear in release it means everyone can stop freaking out. What is annoying though, is widely reported things in beta making it to release then having an emergency patch fix it hours to days after release. Its those things that piss me off. Why bother having a beta if you're not going to do shit about it. Are you just using it for marketing purposes? One big thing in open beta is stress testing. They want to know if they can handle the amount of people. This means you don't go on the forums and post 500 posts about how you can't log in and the company is fail or a piece of shit. This is beta, expect this shit. Don't join if you can't handle it. Don't post threats of quitting because no one gives a shit.

Then theres the hardcore players who grind shit and or play the hell out of beta and when the release comes out they wipe everything in beta. These people will bitch and moan and whine. Why? Because the time they spent there is wasted. Do you really think they would let people in closed beta get a month head start on the rest of the player base? Those are probably the same people to whine theres not enough content in release because they played it all through in beta.

Beta is about you, the testers, trying out the game and finding bugs, problems, and or suggesting things. The company will take in those ideas and weed out the problems until they feel its good enough for release.

Yeah... in a perfect world.

What you get instead is a unmoderated mess filled with whiny babies who bitch about every bug ruining their game play and how the game is a failing piece of shit. Every so often something good is posted and it gets drowned out by the whine. The developers all turn a blind eye to everything and expect their game to be well received instead of the bitching and therefor ignore everything until release and watch everything crash and burn. Then ask themselves what went wrong. I'm honestly appalled by games with glaring bugs or errors when there is a beta and it was widely reported. Its like they don't even give a shit. And probably because of that, people don't give a shit about beta anymore.

Nowadays beta are used more as a free demo, and as a marketing tool. Pre-ordering or buying games will let you in betas. They are nothing more than the demos they placed with games in the old days. When you buy a game it would come with a 10-15 min demo of other games they had made. Is this what beta has become? Probably.