17 replies to this topic

[Minami Kaori]

What title says.

Do you think it would have prepared them more for what was coming, and made a difference?
Make them better prepared?

I'm simply asking because while I think ArenaNet did a great job at launch and the follow-up works, there are some major issues that shouldn't have happened (thinking of mostly the Trading Post, guild troubles, game exploits, problems logging in).

[Knuckledust13]

There were several open beta weekend, what are you talking about?

[Dakaa]

They did once.

[Nicator]

I don't think it would have been any different. Those features were already functional before, but somehow things went wrong this week. We just have to be a little patient, it's likely their priority right now.

[Fleshgrinder]

I have found over the years that the number, kind, or depth of beta tests has no direct correlation to the buggyness of the game on launch.

WoW and WAR both had long, arduous beta tests and both barely worked at launch. Every 2nd time you mined in WoW, you had to log due to "loot lag", and this persisted for MONTHS.

SWTOR suffered from many bugs months into game release despite having a decent beta.

MMOs are released with bugs and nothing can be done to avoid this. One can only mitigate it as best they can.

[DrixTrix]

Quote

I have found over the years that the number, kind, or depth of beta tests has no direct correlation to the buggyness of the game on launch.

me too.

the sheer number of people alone on any launch day is enough to cripple the best servers on the planet, its not that they cant cope its the instant shock that does it.

i think Anet did a great job and there where load sof beta's best launch ive taken part in since forever, just my opinion. and as Flesh said, the follow up works they did (and are doing) have been well...great couldnt of asked for more.

[Minami Kaori]

Knuckledust13, on 28 August 2012 - 12:59 PM, said:

There were several open beta weekend, what are you talking about?

No, Anet did Beta Weekend Events, where pre-purchasers had access.
I am talking about the game being open to everyone, thus an Open Beta.
There was never a fully open beta.

Also, I am not being an impatient, entitled-feeling idiot, I was merely curious as to what you guys thought about an Open Beta's influences on the headstart and release.

In contrast to most posts I've read here, I am really happy about the way release went for Anet and GW2. I think they did a great job, I myself had had no trouble with logging in, accessing anything (besides the obvious Trading Post), DEs, hearts, rates of this and that...

I've been immensely enjoying the game, and like I said before, I was only curious about opinions.

EDIT: Spelling mistake

Edited by Minami Kaori, 28 August 2012 - 05:50 PM.

[Itharius]

I don't think so. They should have done more trading post testing, though.

[majoho]

NO, it wouldn't have made any difference.

[Ripperjack]

What do you think you are playing now?

After 12 months of patches and updates, THEN you can consider this game released. Until then, enjoy your paid open beta.

[Ivarr_Ironfist]

Of course it would have helped. Anyone who says otherwise does not understand the concept of load balancing/stress tests. I guarantee you if they ran an open beta upwards of a million people would have played. That would have given them a much better picture of what needed improving.

I think the techies would have liked to have an open beta, given half a chance. The fact that they didn't I blame on two things: the management (i.e. the higher ups at either ArenaNet or NCSoft) and dumbass players.

The management probably decided not to have an open beta because all the dumbass people would make up their mind based on an unfinished product and choose not to buy GW2. Maybe they were right here, maybe they weren't. Either way I blame...

...dumbass people who don't understand the meaning of the words "beta" and "test" more. You only had to take one look at the guru and/or official forums to realize how uninformed and petty minded some MMO players are. These people seem to expect a finished product even though it was clearly marked as "testing". When they didn't get their finished product they either whining excessively on the forums or attempting to send it back.

[chuckles79]

I don't think the open beta would have been that helpful.  Clearly they were not getting the participation during the BWEs that they got during headstart.

I think it would have been better if they actually looked at their total sales and made some better estimations.

Also some functionality (like the trading post) I think was simply not ready; as opposed to crashing due to numbers.

As far as what was promised vs. what is expected, my biggest gripe is connectivity, full servers, and the mind-numbing difficulty of trying to team up with others.
I could sell this game up to coworkers and friends, but the chances of me getting to actually play with them, even getting on the same server are about 1%.

[Omega X]

Open beta would not have been wise on a game this popular. They did have a beta weekend where they gave out a set number of access keys though.

[Khaz]

Ripperjack, on 28 August 2012 - 06:29 PM, said:

What do you think you are playing now?

After 12 months of patches and updates, THEN you can consider this game released. Until then, enjoy your paid open beta.

I will. Out of all the paid beta's I have played (WoW vanilla launch, WAR, FFXIV, SWTOR) this one is definitely the best. And also no monthly fee for a change.

[Natsul]

Its hard to do an open beta when their not making much profit in the first place.

[Ivarr_Ironfist]

Natsul, on 28 August 2012 - 07:39 PM, said:

Its hard to do an open beta when their not making much profit in the first place.

How do you work that one out?

It should be: "It's hard to do an open beta when they're not much profit in the first place."

Edited by Ivarr_Ironfist, 28 August 2012 - 08:19 PM.

[gobberpooper]

This is one of the best MMO releases I've ever seen. A couple things got borked. You can still log in, that's already 90% success. The skills and traits work correctly. Quests work correctly. PvP works correctly. It's just some connectivity issues, trading post issues, and guild issues. Very very minor issues for the launch of a game that already has over 1 million prepurchases(not counting preorders/first week purchases)

[Sheolkyr]

Compared to similar releases, this is about as successful as you can hope for. Is it perfect? No. Can you hope for a perfect launch? Sure I guess, but no amount of any type of beta can truly prepare a game for launch, especially a game as hyped and anticipated at this. I wouldn't mind launch actually going a little worse personally. The type of people who are going to cry and rage because their unrealistic expectations weren't met within 4 days aren't the type of people I want to play with.