What does mandatory beta mean? - Page 9

parlay1 · #81 03-13-2011, 02:23 AM

People are/were kidding themselves if they ever thought "mandatory" and someones free time ever went well together, they don't have to have the server up, but it goes both directions and it's naive to expect people to jump for joy when someone puts something like this together on a weekend with no warning or eta for it to go back to normal.

I have no problem helping beta test, but all this "people suck because they aren't happy about testing" flys in the face of psychology 101. You want people to beta test, schedule a block of time several days in advance, with everything laid out...ie time will start, time will end and clearly stated objectives. You still won't get 700 people in but I bet you would get more then 200 and I know you would get less upset people.

Only suggestions.

Arayus · #82 03-13-2011, 02:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by porigromus [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

With everyone's attitude to assisting in getting Kunark ready to open, they should just not do it and let the server set at classic forever. Seriously, if I was running this I would be thinking that right now. Ungrateful people.

Edit: Or shutting the server off indefinitely

You sir are mixing up ungrateful with shocked by the sudden downtime/addicted. I haven't read any posts since the servers went down that demean the hosts in any way. What I have read are people who are curious when the server will be reinstated so they may resume preparing for Kunark to actually drop. Some of us just found out about the server recently, and are attempting to prepare our characters to have fun in Kunark. We don't all have level 50s that are ready to go already.

I have only been around for a few weeks and am having great fun. I have a couple friends I play with on the server, and we had plans of really pushing out some levels this weekend, while having a blast in solA. Instead we bit and ran over to the beta server to try and help out. However I find myself at a lack of ability to be of any assistance because I don't remember enough about my years on EQ Live to really know what is correct and incorrect about mob loot, pathing, aggro, hairstyle etc.

I have played MUDs for ages, and the ones I play are hosted by devs that also don't make any sort of profit from them. I am friends with a lot of those devs and know the shit they go through. The fact I, or anyone else is curious as to when the live server will come back online is NOT ungrateful. It is a testament to what these devs have built and the fact that people are attached enough to their creation to spend the time asking for it to come back online. The real issue is the lack of information on this mandatory beta. The entire server was told via Server Message that the beta test would end "at some point tomorrow night" or something along those lines. If that goal can no longer be met it would be at least respectful of the devs to allow their community in on that fact.

As for how you would react to a community that is in a similar situation as this. You have to think of what these other people are saying, and put yourself in their shoes. People like me who just came here and are freshly addicted still have goals they want to meet. You may have 50(s) and have nothing left to accomplish in Classic, but some of us don't even have enough platinum to encumber their character [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] . My group last night was having a blast, and were very excited to have a Charred Guardian Shield drop. 10 minutes later we were told the server was being shut down. That's a tough pill to swallow, when you have 5 or 6 guys ready to spend the entire evening doing something they deem as fun. Would it be fun for you if you were out at a bar with your buddies that you had planned on hanging out with and all the sudden, at 10pm, the barkeep told you the doors were closing at 11pm?

Case in point. It was a shock to all of us, and people's reactions do not mean they are ungrateful to the devs for what those devs have created.

Zeelot · #83 03-13-2011, 03:21 AM

Quote:

Would it be fun for you if you were out at a bar with your buddies that you had planned on hanging out with and all the sudden, at 10pm, the barkeep told you the doors were closing at 11pm?

Not so bad at all considering all the booze at this 'bar' is free.

Hobby · #84 03-13-2011, 03:23 AM

You do not have to be 50 or 60 to help test, nor have any extensive knowledge of kunark. There are things that are obviously wrong, such as "hey that mob just ran throw 20 walls to hit me" or "this supposed named has not spawned in 20 cycles....".

http://eqmacwiki.com/eqatlas/atlas

Big help for knowing locations / a geneal map for named.

We do not expect you to know that "hey there are only 6 skeletons here, there should be 18". All we ask are for people to report on what they know and what they feel.

Arayus · #85 03-13-2011, 04:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeelot [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Not so bad at all considering all the booze at this 'bar' is free.

See those advertisements at the top of all the pages on the project1999 website? Free?

Bunny Mage · #86 03-13-2011, 04:10 AM

"mandatory beta" is kind of a silly term. What's mandatory about it? A person doesn't have to play on the server just because another one is down. Personally, I'm playing Rift. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

A better way of putting it probably should be simply "beta testers needed".

Fromage · #87 03-13-2011, 04:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arayus [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Stuff

I can see how it would be annoying, but Beta has been up for what? a couple of months or so(not counting the times it was offline)? The average population was single digits to 20 people on a good night. I figure the choice was either deal with it as is and release a buggy as hell kunark, which im sure would create more server downtime without a beta server as back up to get your fix, or force people to beta now. No one should be shocked that we pretty much forced their hand, unless you JUST started.

On the testers side, it could have been made more melee/newbie iksar friendly(translocaters!) earlier instead of pushing it on people 2 weeks before tentative release.

Either way, maybe more people will be on beta now that they've got a taste for kunark, and more bugs will be reported/fixed.

Also Hobby, no one takes a dwarf paladin seriously...NO ONE!

Ravendawn · #88 03-13-2011, 10:54 AM

I am all for testing and far from ungratefull. I would have preferred to be on live progressing out of 30 but Kunark in my opinion has some issues that i saw. It was hard as hell getting some actual testing done.

The part that is now frustrating is that the weekend is over and i will barely get another chance to play before kunark. The other part that is frustrating is that hardly no one was testing. The point was to post your findings and when you do... crickets. In the end people were pushed to play on a new server and i doubt there were more than 10 issues brought forward.

You cannot force people to play and test but you can intice them to do so. Those who find actaully problems should be awarded... if that was the case youd see a higher population on beta. The reason people play betas is to get in early. Getting in early on content almost 10 years old that is well documented has no reward outside of something new for the evening that will be erased in a few weeks. There is no point to play there at the moment than work at finding bugs. Use the carrot and not the stick.

As for me personally, i have concerns about Kunark's spell resist rate and how bad the nerf is. I suspect they will go live. I do not look forward to Kunark anymore. I now have to hope that when Kunark is released, i am not playing a class that has been gimped in an effort to remain "Historical". I would hope that while the goal is to remain true to the game, all mistakes do not need to be duplicated.

Anyhow, enough of my ramblings.

Uthgaard · #89 03-13-2011, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ravendawn [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The point was to post your findings and when you do... crickets.

If you got crickets it's means we're working on it.

Ravendawn · #90 03-13-2011, 02:05 PM

Sorry Uthgaard if i sounded ungratefull. That is not it at all. I am thankfull for all that you guys have done. I understand the work that goes in to a project of this size. Often a thankless task.