I'm still a firm believer that those chosen should be people who have spent some time on Test and proactively submitted /bug and /feedback. The second round should be chosen of people who /bug and /feedback from the live servers. And, the last round should be random candidates from the open registration. Furthermore, those selected but do not provide any feedback or don't report any bugs during beta, should be screened out of the next expansion beta. The basis being, that majority of those who wish to beta test are really only doing so for a sneak peek at the content and perhaps a head start on things such as the new quests, instances and world discoveries. Very few actually participate to actually "beta test" the content. Sad, but that's typically how the beta community works these days in all games. Ironically, the same people are usually the first ones to the forums to complain about bugs that were released with the expansion and pointing their fingers at SOE (or any publisher for that matter) for letting these bugs get by undetected.
Phemme@Antonia Bayle wrote: I am having the same problem. Some help with this would be so awesome. Thanks!
Spyderbite@Venekor wrote: I dont often agree with Spyderbyte but with this post he sums up how a beta should be worked. As i recal my experience of the RoK beta was spent testing Kylong for most part the damage the drolvargs did when i first logged in was insane but it was fun working things out with the devs through /feedback and forums,the fact i didnt see anything much didnt bother me to be honest i just felt like i was helping (in a small way at least) to balance the expansion and for me it was fun,that i didnt see much else of it was by the by so to speak.
I'd be curious where they are at with raid zone testing tbh. I know I was part of the random 24 that went to test VP last time and it was pretty cool. I think the best part was not having to /bug or /feedback since the dev/qa person was just sitting in Vent listening to all the vocal feedback. Our guild applied to test, so I'll just wait and see if that happens, but I'm sure they have full guilds on there like last time already.
If you were truley invited to beta you would have recieved a cd key that will let you on the beta server, no key and itle act as if you dont have an account ofr the beta.
Hecken@Everfrost wrote: In all fairness, that's how it used to work. Glad someone was paying attention =)
Spyderbite@Venekor wrote: These people still server a purpose. Sometimes you just need bodies and they provide that. You only need a small percent of "good" testers to make a beta successful. The other players are there for those few "good" testers to interact with and to help load testing.
To be honest, I fall somewhere in the middle of the two. I want to see the new content and new areas (and really we all do to some extent (some more than others) since that's the point of the game - fun and enjoyment) but I also like being a part of the development process and discovering issues that would affect gameplay. I've been a software developer for 15 years so debugging and testing to find the problems is in my nature in addition to the desire to see what's new and run it through the ringers. I remember my first traversal through EoF. Now that is some awesome graphical content. It's still one of my favorite expansions. I don't think being in the middle here is a bad thing either. Being the casual player I am, I have better perspective at testing those gaming aspects that "raid" players might overlook and pass up.
So, if I applied for beta a couple hours after it was officially announced on the boards and I have not received an invite yet, should I figure that I'm not getting in?
I agree. What I've read here is that they pick players up until a week before the official release. We still have five weeks to go so anything is possible.
Looks like Soe has given us a new way into beta, and something to do while waiting for our first attempt to go through. If you /tcg in game or use the separate client I guess, you can play a new The Shadow Odyssey scenario in which the reward is a loot card, exp potion and beta access. I guess I could be seeing it wrong but it sure looks like a 'magazine' way in to tso beta...
I am not in beta and am unclear how the NDA applies, but can anyone elude to whether "near raid quality" weapons/adornments can be purchased from vendors in the expansion? I read or heard somewhere this would be available by earning shards or something via quests and completing instances. If it does exist, are they really "near raid quality"? The non-raid equipment junkies, like myself, I am sure would be greatful to hear exactly what this is all about.
arry wrote: If typical, the NDA prohibits anyone who signs it (literally or virtually) from discussing Beta, the contents of Beta, or anything. If you've heard rumors, either someone's violated the NDA or someone's making stuff up.
