What hope have we? (The never before beta crowd)

[MrVicchio]

Look, here is my fear, I have never before actually tested a game in beta, open or closed. I have two things going for me, a good rig:

P4 1.8ghz
512 megs DDR ram
GeForce4 Ti 4600
Cable ISP

That and I have some in job trainging as sys admin over some silcone Graphix machines and Unix advanced training. Okay I can say I been playing FPS and MMORPG for over three years plus being an advid gamer. (I really do push the 40 hour a week gaming limit.)

To me, that looks cool, but is it? Man I know this is just that insecure little kid in me screaming but man... this is intense! I want in, both because PS looks to ROCK, and from a proffessional educational stand point. But that dont mean shit when you put me (or others like me) against 1000's of others who have been in multiple beta's.


Kinda boils down to that old problem finding a job, all the good jobs want experience, but none wanna give you a chance... that sort of fear is driving me UP THE WALL!

[Hamma]

Who knows, looks like you have good chances anyways.. heh, no way to tell though.

Its killing me too :[

[Ir0nRaven]

i know i'm getting in. me and the devs have... an understanding. it all revolves around monday night... yea, u know what i'm talkin about..

[Sadfre]

football?

and possibly the promise of more football?

[Enkidu]

I've been in a couple betas, and each is different on who/what kinds of people they choose. I would bet that they will mostly fill it up with people who have beta tested before and add in a few who haven't.

They also did say somewhere that they will replace people if they needed too. Just becasue other people have been in betas before dosen't necessaraly mean that they are good at it.

[Kaikou]

more you worry about getting into beta the longer it will seem

they aren't necessarily going to pick the people who have played the most MMOGs, they will probably take a variety...

And look on the bright side..even if you don't get into the beta, you will most likely get into the stress testing phase

[slytiger]

Is it possible to get in the beta if u are under 18 legally?

[NapalmEnima]

Nope. Gotta be able to legitimately agree to their NDA. And that means you have to be old enough to agree and be bound to a contract.

18.

Sucks... but so does the RAM requirement. Yow!

[Unregistered]

I keep my fingers crossed. That's all I can do. The only game I have ever beta tested was one that my friends made.

[NapalmEnima]

I figure between all the people disqualified by age or system specs, they'll be lucky to get their 1000 people.

So *if* you qualify, and aren't a complete looser (why should we pick you: "Cau53 1'11 b10w up y0r h0w53!"), you're pretty much a shoe-in.

I'd say you don't have much to worry about.


But I've been wrong before. Just that one time, at band camp.

[Sadfre]

you'd be supprised by how many people sign up. there ussualy a whole lot more than they are accepting the first go around.

[HopeSlayer]

I don't think they are gonna look to closely at how many betas people have been in. Because it's not to difficult to completely lie, and say that you've been in a whole bunch, and then just list a bunch of games that you know went through beta testing. But, of course, it does help if you've been in a couple. They may share lists with other companies, so some of it may be able to be verified, but not all of it. A big part, will be the written explanation of why you would be a good beta tester. They want people who can effectively put thoughts into words. Because if you can't explain to them in a comprehensible manor of what the exact problem or bug is, then really what good are you? So don't get discouraged if you haven't been in many betas. You still have a good chance. And, they are gonna want a variety of different systems, and people with different internet connections also, so they can see who is really gonna be able to play, and who isn't. It's one thing to test it in the labs, but it's another to actually get out there with hundreds or even thousands of other people. It's possible that a 1.0 GHz machine handled it well in a controlled enviornment, but who knows..Maybe when the server is full of hundreds of people, that 1.0 Gig machine might bog down. I doubt it, but you never know.

OMG I ramble a lot...sorry

Hope out

Hope out

[NapalmEnima]

Originally posted by Sadfre
you'd be supprised by how many people sign up. there ussualy a whole lot more than they are accepting the first go around.

I'm not talking about the number of people who have signed up, I'm talking abou the number of people who are QUALIFIED.

And THAT number will be relatively small, given the average age of gamers, and the relative scarcity of machines with 512mb of ram.

Of course people can lie (and almost certainly have), but the system specs at least can be detected by the game itself. All they need to do is run DxDiag again to make sure they're getting an unedited version, and check that.

Age will be tougher to verify. You can bet they'll take it seriously though... all they need is one invalid NDA (agreed to by a minor, which is not binding) to leak all kinds of stuff to the world.

[slytiger]

I wouldnt have any problems with the ram or speed. Its just the age.

[CoolAid]

I bet they will ask for a credit card number to varify age and to pay for the shiping of the beta disk. Although I hope they make it downloadable.