Posted by Lethality in News | 9 Comments
Beta Weekends Redux – Re-Invites Go Out To Original Group [UPDATED]
If you were one of the lucky few who were invited to the first-ever TOR Beta Weekend a few weeks back, you should probably consider playing the lottery this weekend. Why? Because you’re being invited back a second time, something we were told wouldn’t happen!
This evening, Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid made a quick forum post on the topic, after news of emails reaching Beta Weekend players was being reported:
Why are they being re-invited? Because we feel for a significant proportion of those invited to test during Beta Testing Weekend #1, they did not have an optimal testing experience. As I mentioned before, we had some issues, including some people not receiving an invite, and others being unable to get the client in time because of issues with their acceptance of their invite. With those factors in mind, we felt that because many people did not experience the game, it was worthwhile to re-invite everyone.
Also according to Stephen, the testing group for the next Beta Weekend will be much larger:
This weekend’s entire testing population is actually just a small fraction of the total number we’re planning to invite to the next weekend, and our number of invites will go up after that.
So even though there’s still no set date for the next Beta Weekend, previous players can rest easy that they’ll be a part of it! You can read the entirety of Stephen’s post here.
[UPDATE] Stephen Reid posted several more comments in the thread, and indicated that not all of the re-invites might be for the “next” Beta Weekend but spread out over several:
We may in fact ‘spread out’ the re-invites over more than one weekend, and just bump up the overall numbers invited to test.
Thanks to BraxKerdan for the tip!
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You know…after the last seven days I just had, I was wondering where all my luck had gone. Now I know.
I am glad they are doing this in addition to their planned invites though. I had my chance with the game already, I don’t want to take that away from anyone else even if I need a fix.
I guess its a non-issue if they expand the overall invites. beta is just that, no promises, having issues and reporting them is you fulfilling your role.
“It’s better to have beta and crashed than to have never beta’d at all”
-Zlatto – half spun on giggledust venting about a lack of invite
Oh, my first priority during the first weekends was to hunt down whatever bugs I could and make suggestions on where I thought they could improve the game.
My second priority was to have fun.
I think that is how every beta tester needs to go in.
The more points of view we give them, the more errors we find, the better the game will be upon release for everyone. ^_^
this will put me into trouble with college… could afford 1 no life week end 2 will hurt >.<
I feel cheated once again lol. I see where bw coming from but at the same time I don’t think that the people who didn’t have a problem in the first beta weekend should get to play again
That’s fair, they invited them but due to the problems people couldn’t actually get in game. So they get their invite back now when the problem is fixed.
I can’t believe nobody sees what they are doing. It’s just making statements to keep everyone satisfied. Let me draw you guys a picture.
1.Some beta inviters don’t get to play due to problems.
2.They announce next beta is for the last beta invites due to the problems.
3.People who didn’t get an invite yet complain as it will take even longer now.
Add those together and you get: Yes we will invite new people(#3. people happy) oh and we are phasing the beta players who didn’t get the play(beta players happy), and then the cherry on top: We will invite even more people ow ye(everyone happy)!!!
Basicly it’s like spitting in your face telling you that you’re a dumb ****.
Let me draw you a picture too. It’ll probably mirror yours, but my artistic drawing skills just aren’t that great, so it may look a little funny.
I see what you’re saying. You could be correct.
The way I see it is this:
A large portion of the original beta weekend’s invites had issues and were unable to test the first weekend.
Imagine, for a second, that you were selected to test the first weekend. (Yay, jump out of you chair and dance around the office like I did.)
Then you realize that you can’t get the download to work for whatever technical reason ended up happening to those poor invitees. You spend a few hours trying to get it to work and give up when you see it is a technical issue in BioWare’s end and they have posted about it being researched. They state that they will inform you, and everyone else who is having issues, when they have a solution.
Fast forward to the first day of the test. They have a solution! But there is a problem.
Though they finally have a solution for you, they tell you that if it doesn’t work, you’ll not be able to test this weekend but you will be invited to a later weekend. You’re heart sinks because the solution doesn’t seem to work for everyone and you are one of the unlucky ones.
Fast-forward to the day after our test was ending. We were told everyone who had been invited to that weekend’s test were now ineligible for all future testing, not just weekends, but we were removed from the ongoing beta test pool candidates as well.
So, not only did you not get to test, as you should have been able to over the weekend, but, contrary to what they had told you on friday, they have removed your chances at getting an invite in the future.
Add to that the added slap in the face of no longer being a candidate for ongoing beta and you just might see why they did.
If you cannot see that that “spit” is actually natural rain occuring from a cloud that has hung over you since the first moment you opened you email inviting you to the test, then maybe your final sentence applies more to yourself than anyone else.
Yes BioWare is trying to make everyone happy. That is what companies do. They appease their customers. These re-invites are in addition to what they had planned all along. The actual amount of people testing will be even bigger than they had planned as a result and that means the test will be much more realistic and therefore even more relevant.
And if you don’t believe that, then why are you even following the posts? You’ll obviously learn nothing from them, aside from maybe how to wear a tin foil hat a bit more fashionably.
Also, I’d personally appreciate it if you refrained from posting such negatively phrased comments in the future. I may not be a moderator, but I am a person. I doubt you’d talk like that to a stranger in such a manner face to face.
Thank you.