24/7 Beta or "Weekends"?

[kunzadar]

usually open beta weekends are more about getting large groups of new players to try the game before launch, while 24/7 testing is more about testing.

[QuantumMechanic]

Originally Posted by kunzadar

usually open beta weekends are more about getting large groups of new players to try the game before launch, while 24/7 testing is more about testing.

This. SOE is doing "technical testing" right now (testing various hardware configurations) but at the same time they are stress testing the servers. Each test is getting more and more people (but only up to ~500 sofar, not close to the 2,000 mark yet).

Once the servers can run reliably with 2,000k players there's no reason not to run beta 24/7. More testing coverage that way.

[kaffis]

Originally Posted by QuantumMechanic

Once the servers can run reliably with 2,000k players there's no reason not to run beta 24/7. More testing coverage that way.

High player-counts aren't the only thing that crashes servers.

When you have high likelihoods of server crashes, you don't switch to 24/7 testing. 24/7 testing means that you have to have staff on-hand 24/7, including staff that's capable of making code changes.