Pay to Beta Test?

Once upon a time, the purpose of beta tests was to detect and iron out bugs before games were released. Betas were free and sometimes, testers were even paid specially to search for bugs that normally wouldn't be detected in a casual play through.

Now, a 'beta' is more like a demo for the masses to try out a game. Sometimes, they were an incentive to pre-order a title. But mostly, they are hype builders and advertisements, and as such, betas are open only if the developers know the game is any good, or is it?

Betas can get away with a lot of issues; after all, a game that is still a work in progress can be excused right? Well, currently, people can purchase games that are still incomplete in the form of early access games. Some of these games are like this because of kickstarter backer rewards in the form of alpha and beta access. However, there are games that have been in 'beta' for a long time, raking in sales while being excused of their brokenness. And what is the incentive of coming out of beta? Will people still be interested in a game that has been on the market for so long? Can a game get away with bugs and incompleteness by being perpetually in beta or alpha?

Free to play games have gotten in the 'beta' fever as well. In closed the alphas and betas of many games, we are given the option of buying into the game. These 'founder packs' are a way to make impatient people pay for an otherwise free title. Should the game be officially 'released' and open to everyone, will these people actually pay any amount of money? It's hard to tell, but certainly there will be some who won't. Is there an issue to this? Probably not, but it's important to note that for most of these games, you can buy stuff with real money even in alpha or beta, and there are cases where the game gets shut down, never to be 'released'.  What happens to the money spent on buying in and on items in the cash shop?

I have a few games on early access because I helped kickstart the games, and in the initial phases, they were pretty unplayable, which, funnily enough, meant it was a real beta. However, I realized this would spoil the game for me on official release if I spent too much time, not story-wise, but in the sense that the game might start to bore me. Probably this won't be an issue for most people and most games, but for multi player games, losing people before official release is not a good thing.

Yes, I know you feel like a beta tester playing Battlefield 3, but at least they were brave enough to put it out for critique, so that might be another post. I am not too keen on paying to beta test, but if playing broken games is your thing, feel free. But beware of games that never get released, or you might just end up like a kickstarter backer who gave money for a game that ends up in the void, never to see the light of day.

You know what? Aliens...

By now, many of us have had the chance to read about or play Aliens: Colonial Marines, and to put it simply, it wasn't good.

 

Many had hopes for this game, not only because of the license but also because of Gearbox, developers of the Borderlands franchise. The advertisements and interviews with Gearbox declaring their love for the franchise, and the long development time was encouraging as well, and the demo that they showed to the press dripped with atmosphere.

 

It's no surprise that, people, after all the hype surrounding the game, pre-ordered, and were horribly disappointed by the game at release. The gaming sites exploded with negative reviews and rumours on how the game could go so disastrously wrong after the awesome demo. People took to forums and social networks to express their displeasure, and accusations of Gearbox's dishonest behavior surfaced.

 

Did Gearbox lie to Sega and the gaming press? Why was the end product so different from the demo and trailers? There is talk that Gearbox outsourced the project, preferring to focus on their own title, Borderlands 2 instead.

And so, (some) people realized that pre-ordering games wasn't such a good idea after all, especially if the pre-order bonus was just skins or something pointless. And even if the bonus was good, you're really risking a lot buying a game that you know nothing of, besides a press demo, and as Gearbox has shown, press demos can be fake, and even consumer demos can be faked, seeing they just need to put together say, 30 mins worth of gameplay (whether or not it's taken from the full game doesn't really matter to them) and send it out to the gamers, and we won't know the difference until the game is released.

So that's our little lesson to learn from this saga, and if you still want to pre-order instead of wait for reviews, that's your choice, and if the bonus depends on the number of pre-orders, have fun with your gamble!