Let us examine the word BETA in the gaming industry

Off-topic
#1

Let us examine the word BETA in the gaming industry…

This post is designed to help backers understand what a BETA is. I am tired of seeing posts on several different forums of EARLY ACCESS games when people state things like “so disappointed in this game (beta) because it’s essentially unplayable…” and they judge the game itself on the BETA, which is ignorant and unfair to developers. So, let us delve into the word BETA and see EXACTLY what it is.

A BETA is a part of the game or sometimes the whole game released from developers for people to test and report bugs and to see what developers have been… well, developing. A BETA also gives testers a taste of what the final product MAY be like.

BETA’s are a WORK IN PROGRESS. I cannot stress that enough. WORK. IN. PROGRESS. It does not guarantee that you will have the same experience on the final product.

So before ANYONE backs a game to play a BETA KNOW that it CAN BE BUGGY. Usually forums of said BETA games have reports of bugs and their own experiences of the BETA. KNOW WHAT YOU ARE GETTING INTO WHEN BACKING A GAME.

There may be a correlation with BETA’s and releasing the game soon after. This is not always the case, (like KCD) and the final game may be delayed because of some groundbreaking bugs.
BETA’s DO NOT:

Resemble the final game. However, they may be similar.

Guarantee STABLE PERFORMANCE because there may still be (most likely be) bugs, low fps, and other stability issues because the developers usually have state of the art systems to develop games that common folk may not have. That is why BETA experiences vary from person to person.

ARE NOT demos. A DEMO is a part of the final product that gives people an idea on what the game is going to be like so they can decide whether to purchase it or not.

With that being said lets talk a little about the KCD BETA. WARHORSE WILL NOT UPDATE THE BETA ANY MORE TO FOCUS ON FINAL PRODUCT SO ANY BUGS RIGHT NOW WILL NOOOOTTTT BEEEE FIXXXEEDDDD!!! I see this every week or so on the forums like “will this bug be fixed?” and all they have to do is SEARCH FOR IT.

If you have not attained the KCD BETA let me say that experiences usually vary from person to person. But most experiences include low fps and “horrible performance”. Also there are quite a few bugs (such as a save game one that does not let you load previous games.) The beta is nowhere close to the final game.

I am not trying to offend anyone, but I had to say something about people judging a game from a BETA. I am so tired of it. Please read this and understand what a BETA is and spread the word. Copy and Paste if you want to. I don’t care as long as people know what a BETA is.

You can also replace BETA with ALPHA. ALPHA kind of resembles more of what I am talking about because a BETA is supposed to resemble more of the final game, but does not mean that it DOES resemble the final game.

17 Likes
Laughable experience
#2

This thread deserves to be pinned.

5 Likes
#3

Beta in this game simply means final alpha so Knight tier can access it. The naming is irrelevant beyond that.

A lot of betas are simply the final game released a week before the final game to test multiplayer.

At other times, a final release is simply a beta test, and they try to patch things in months later… No Man’s Sky most recently.

Then you have the perpetual early access games that never get out of alpha/beta as an excuse to be a buggy mess.

#4

I guess I’ll comment on this once in a while so it won’t drown below the other topics…

2 Likes
#5

I aint scared Ill BUMP this bitch up too. :wink:

#6

Normally I would agree with that the OP is stating but I’d feel that Warhorse has itself in a pickle here. From my observations of whats recently happening about Kingdom Come and the opinions of its backers and watchers the game itself does pose symptoms of previous fallouts of kickstarted and Hyped games (i.e Mighty No.9 and No Man’s Sky. 2016 is the year that got into the eyes of many fustrated consumers, it’s hard not to expect the virtrol from critisising the BETA itself.

The problems of the BETA is that it still felt like an ALPHA. Whilst the game itself starts to hold up weight with it’s impressive map, working combat system and a playable questline, it’s riddled with Optimisation problems, game-breaking bugs, unpolished audio, and such. Optimisation is very, very bad and even with low settings and a decent hardware, I still get 15 FPS every now and then.

For a BETA, expectations will be higher, and while I understand Warhorse wants to stop working on BETA to focus on their game and that was meant for backers, people are fickle when it comes to definition about the difference of ALPHA and BETA.

Even with the BETA phase, it has to have at least some level of Polish, which I see that ire some of the backers and buyers.

That being said though, I am not entirely disappointed by it. The devs decision to focus fire on finishing the game is wiser than spreading out resources and create an unpolished one at that. And in steam and the forums, the response of the devs are generally amiable compared to many other failed projects that often got the flip. For a span of almost 3 years accomplishing what they currently have is a huge undertaking, it looks on par than most current gen games, and the combat system is solid.

What Warhorse is getting themselves into is too much ambition. With kickstarter promises and rewards it will boggle their ability down to either catering to all on a weak product or disappoint other parts of supporters. I feel that Warhorse can pull this off if they play their cards right, that is if they do.

The freshness of a ‘realistic’ RPG is what they seem to tout these days, and I hope for their sake, they can put that part right.

And oh, more update videoes please, helps to put out the flames.

2 Likes
#7

Next one will be here in 2 days. And it will be very informative. :slight_smile:

7 Likes
Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions
#8

Oh yeah! forgot Rick posted about it on the steam forums.

sweeeeeet.

1 Like
#9

BUMP
For the new people

1 Like
#10

I’m going to start bumping this every week so I STOP seeing people posting stuff about the beta.

1 Like
#11

bump 10 ch

#12

In an theme to most pre-showed games, BETA is an word which little people can’t understand.
Today most ppl thinking that a game which was shown on E3/GamesCom has to released in that state…
3 years before the final release. And then everyone is wondering why it isn’t same game anymore XD

#13

Bump
10 char

#14

For me it’s less about the differences between beta and alpha, and the intent behind having a beta or an alpha. Typically a beta exists because the developers are nearing completion of a product and want to get it in the hands of users so they can identify issues with the product and ensure that the fixes put in place to correct said issues actually… well… correct those issues.

What concerns me about this approach to beta is they’re essentially saying “K, thanks for the input, we don’t need you anymore. Time for feedback is closed, we’ll see you at launch 6+ months from now.”

Problem with that is, many things can, have, and will change over that time span, and they’re shutting users out of the ability to continue to aid them in ensuring they’re on the right track with meeting expectations.

#15

Bump
10 characters

#16

Weekly Bump

#17

Weekly Bump

#18

Weekly Bump

#19

Weekly Bump

#20

Weekly Bump

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