General Category > The Last Federation

New Tactics on the Alpha/Beta ?

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Teal_Blue:
This is just a thought, but one that came to mind and i thought needed to be said, though it is just my opinion.

But basically i was wondering if the Alpha/Beta group hasn't been a little bit un-related to the larger public audience, meaning... that Arcen gets a title ready, they tweak it and bend it and hammer and saw at it, all according to how the alpha testers think... And then we move into launch and crash.

I think we may have a very specific and biased group, that doesn't intentionally mislead, but never-the-less, the result is the same as they are group of such precise and studied and perhaps even acclimated audience. Perhaps so much that what may best serve Arcen is to throw the water out and get a fresh batch?

Please understand i am not saying we are mean or anything, or that we don't know what we are doing, because there are many very smart and experienced people here. But what i do mean, is we may not, in fact i believe, though i could be wrong, that we 'are' not the best group to represent the broader public audience.

To that end, where i am repeating myself, sorry about that, i think Arcen needs to get a new group in. Perhaps even go out and specifically recruit them, not us forumers, (though we love them!) :)  But someone else. Maybe, some of the Steam posters, or those that were harsh on Arcen games in the past? Send them a note and say... Hi, we are requesting your assistance in testing our new game, would you please like to tell us what you think?' sort of thing.  :) 

I'm not trying to put us as forumers down, but i do think we are more than a little biased and that probably can be deadly, when the public thinks one way and we are blindly denying or naysaying it because we don't want Arcen's feelings hurt. All hurt feelings aside, it doesn't do Arcen any good if we give them the wrong impression about something they think is going to be fine, or even gangbusters, when the public feels something entirely different.

Anyway, that is my feelings, i hope i haven't offended or hurt anyone's feelings, but to be honest, i didn't want us to love Arcen and cause them problems because we either subconsciously or purposely try to pull our punches when it comes to saying not only what a game should be, but how it plays and how it interacts with the player. Our group might be 'too' specialized and not 'broad' enough.

Thanks for listening,
Sincerely,
-Teal

x4000:
I think you'll find that the feedback is numerous and nitpicky (in the best sense).  The pre-1.0 list of issues for Bionic Dues reported in mantis was immense, and 1.0 was incredibly polished and has been received very well by press and players outside the core forums.  We've had to make very few alterations to it since that time, and even the most major of them (the customization screen) was more in nice-to-have territory than it-stops-me-having-fun territory (for most people).

Our problem with Bionic wasn't that people tried it and didn't like it, our problem is that people didn't hear about it at all.  I think that the Bionic Dues project actually shows just how effective our forum members are, as opposed to the opposite.

Put another way: most companies do not do a general release of their games prior to 1.0.  Well, until recently.  And a lot of the public alphas lately are getting kind of blasted, and have various other problems.  I feel like our current process is working as well as anyone else's or better, because not only do we have a corps of volunteers, they are all legitimately interested in the game (unlike people in a QA department) and generally not shy about their opinions.  The fact that they say it in a constructive rather than an abrasive way doesn't lessen that.

Teal_Blue:
:)  I am glad to hear that. I was worried we might be leading you down the garden path, so to speak and thought that someone else, a different group could do a better job for you. But you certainly are in a place to know better, i am just guessing from a rather distant outsider sort of point of view.

But i was worried, so that is why i mentioned it. Thank you for the correction, it is good to know that we aren't too bad for you. Thank you for listening, sincerely,
-Teal

x4000:
Not a problem, and it's always good to evaluate and re-evaluate everything!

Arnos:
You can always do a mix of both, keep it inside the forums but allow people in over a few stages so they have a fresh mindset instead of in one big rush.  I know that the folks who made N put up a blog post about how they wished they had done this to a greater extent.

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