I’m catching up with Holiday blogging, so you’re going to see some stuff about the end of the year this weekend. I’m hoping to get everything posted out so that I can pick up where I left off on Monday. So yay!

I wanted to point out a post by Moorgard from the last week of December about the uselessness of MMOG Beta tests. From his post:

It is a prevalent attitude among today’s MMO players that beta is a time to evaluate a game and decide whether it’s worth buying when it officially launches. Others see beta as a free trial period during which they can run through the game, learn its secrets and shortcuts, and get a nice head start on other players who will have to learn all the basics at launch. Both these attitudes are exactly wrong, and are part of the reason why it’s so hard to find good beta testers these days. Now granted, part of this is the industry’s fault.

I want to be ranty and say ‘It’s completely the industry’s fault, and game companies suck’, but I know better. In fact, while I agree that marketing has muddied the waters quite a bit with giveaways and such, I very much think player expectations are what have screwed up Beta tests. I am constantly amazed by the attitude of some gamers. To hear them talk, you’d think the very idea of a company making a game without consulting them is the height of stupidity. This is kind of a sticking point with me, and I think reflects on the psyche of American citizens in general. This attitude of entitlement is something I can go on about at length - ask me next time we’re in a bar together.

The point here is that the Beta test has to be about one thing - it’s either an event for the game’s makers, or it’s an event for the fans. If it’s an event for the game makers, the purpose of the Beta is to refine the game. The people ‘in’ the game should be playing it, yeah - it has to be fun. But there should be a purpose to the fun. There should be a process - individual elements tested, iteration on portions of the game, actual testing. If it’s for the fans, there should be events! With the small player population, you can do things that you can’t do once the game is out. You can create hype for the game, establish lore, make players want to play the game with their friends. Bump people to the higher levels, make people want that endgame content.

As someone who has been in a number of Betas, I always try to make sure I report a bug after every session. I’ve talked to a number of people that seem to think that Betas should be free gameplay time … if’n you want that, man, go become a game journo.