The Old Republic Beta Attracts Two Million Testers

[Parnage]

Have you read the books by Timothy Zahn? They're both canon and damn good. They pick up after ep. VI and introduce some really interesting characters and ideas. Granted a lot of those ideas were seemingly retconned by the prequel trilogy, but we of the hivemind are at the point where we just tell Lucas to fuck off and accept the good stuff as canon on our own.

I haven't. Can you tell me, do those books do more than copy and paste the movies (same cantina band, same Twi'lek dancers, etc.) without going as horribly far out as this [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Beldorion]?

The biggest problems I've always had with Star Wars were those two things up there, the black and white morality, and the species-ism (humans are the heroes, everyone else fulfills stereotypical roles while speaking in wacky ooga-booga languages). But the premise is so cool that I've always wanted to see someone do something interesting with it.

Actually, in some respects they're better than the movies. I like how he explores the mysteries of the Force, as well as how a demigod deals with self imposed pacifism/zen attitude when it would just be easier to Force your way around. Start with the Heir to the Empire series; Grand Admiral Thrawn is one of the coolest villains you'll run across and I love reading about him. Humans are still the focus of the story, but in the Hand of Thrawn series the conflict revolves around the Bothans. They're the only Star Wars books that are worth reading to be perfectly honest.

As for your link, that's just further proof that most of the Star Wars stuff out there is nothing more than glorified fanfic. Seriously, fuck that shit.

Don't forget the X-wing Series!!! It's the reformation of Rogue squadron with plenty of viewpoints from non humans.(Nawara Ven a pilot and twi'lek lawyer) I don't know what anyone else has been reading but the majority of expanded universe is pretty freaking awesome.

As for the beta, I liked it.

 

[sir.rutthed]

Have you read the books by Timothy Zahn? They're both canon and damn good. They pick up after ep. VI and introduce some really interesting characters and ideas. Granted a lot of those ideas were seemingly retconned by the prequel trilogy, but we of the hivemind are at the point where we just tell Lucas to fuck off and accept the good stuff as canon on our own.

I haven't. Can you tell me, do those books do more than copy and paste the movies (same cantina band, same Twi'lek dancers, etc.) without going as horribly far out as this [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Beldorion]?

The biggest problems I've always had with Star Wars were those two things up there, the black and white morality, and the species-ism (humans are the heroes, everyone else fulfills stereotypical roles while speaking in wacky ooga-booga languages). But the premise is so cool that I've always wanted to see someone do something interesting with it.

Actually, in some respects they're better than the movies. I like how he explores the mysteries of the Force, as well as how a demigod deals with self imposed pacifism/zen attitude when it would just be easier to Force your way around. Start with the Heir to the Empire series; Grand Admiral Thrawn is one of the coolest villains you'll run across and I love reading about him. Humans are still the focus of the story, but in the Hand of Thrawn series the conflict revolves around the Bothans. They're the only Star Wars books that are worth reading to be perfectly honest.

As for your link, that's just further proof that most of the Star Wars stuff out there is nothing more than glorified fanfic. Seriously, fuck that shit.

Don't forget the X-wing Series!!! It's the reformation of Rogue squadron with plenty of viewpoints from non humans.(Nawara Ven a pilot and twi'lek lawyer) I don't know what anyone else has been reading but the majority of expanded universe is pretty freaking awesome.

As for the beta, I liked it.

All I can say is that you are in the SEVERE minority. The comics are okish, but the novels are almost all trash, usually on par with particularly well written fan fiction. Actually, you're the only person I've heard say otherwise, so what the Hell have you been reading?

 

[Ghengis John]

Is the beta still open and if so where can I go to get a key?

Nope. The beta closed on Sunday.

Great game. Much better than what I expected from it.

Agreed. I tried the beta, didn't expect much... and walked away with plans to buy the full thing.

 

[Parnage]

Have you read the books by Timothy Zahn? They're both canon and damn good. They pick up after ep. VI and introduce some really interesting characters and ideas. Granted a lot of those ideas were seemingly retconned by the prequel trilogy, but we of the hivemind are at the point where we just tell Lucas to fuck off and accept the good stuff as canon on our own.

I haven't. Can you tell me, do those books do more than copy and paste the movies (same cantina band, same Twi'lek dancers, etc.) without going as horribly far out as this [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Beldorion]?

The biggest problems I've always had with Star Wars were those two things up there, the black and white morality, and the species-ism (humans are the heroes, everyone else fulfills stereotypical roles while speaking in wacky ooga-booga languages). But the premise is so cool that I've always wanted to see someone do something interesting with it.

Actually, in some respects they're better than the movies. I like how he explores the mysteries of the Force, as well as how a demigod deals with self imposed pacifism/zen attitude when it would just be easier to Force your way around. Start with the Heir to the Empire series; Grand Admiral Thrawn is one of the coolest villains you'll run across and I love reading about him. Humans are still the focus of the story, but in the Hand of Thrawn series the conflict revolves around the Bothans. They're the only Star Wars books that are worth reading to be perfectly honest.

As for your link, that's just further proof that most of the Star Wars stuff out there is nothing more than glorified fanfic. Seriously, fuck that shit.

Don't forget the X-wing Series!!! It's the reformation of Rogue squadron with plenty of viewpoints from non humans.(Nawara Ven a pilot and twi'lek lawyer) I don't know what anyone else has been reading but the majority of expanded universe is pretty freaking awesome.

As for the beta, I liked it.

All I can say is that you are in the SEVERE minority. The comics are okish, but the novels are almost all trash, usually on par with particularly well written fan fiction. Actually, you're the only person I've heard say otherwise, so what the Hell have you been reading?

Wow I really gotta defend myself? I guess this is why I avoid hanging out with "fans" who are really just upset that the stories told don't please them as much as they'd like. Last I checked, anything by Zahn,Stackpole, Allston seemed pretty damn fine to me. But hey what do I know. I guess because a few bad comics get made(Geeze comics with poor story how unlikely..) and a book or two means the entire Expanded universe is "fanfiction" So long as we are questioning my taste, let me ask you. What the hell have -you- been reading?

 

[tharglet]

My thoughts on the beta... it seems to be pretty well polished, especially considering it's release, and it didn't feel like a bad game.

However, some of the mechanics were not to my liking. I can accept that it's better to be funnelled down the dark/light path than being a mix, but I think it kinda kills the game for playing alts and RPing. As an alt, I don't want to go through the same conversations, but you're funnelled down that way by two things - your rating and your minion's liking for you. Not quite sure the effects of your minion liking you, think I saw some minion gear which required them to like you. With the minion as well to think about, it just makes conversation choices feel too forced. Would be nicer if conversations didn't play such a heavy role in game progress. It's a shame, because the conversation system does make it stand out, but I can also imagine it'll cap the number of alts people make cos they don't want to go through the long convo sequences again.

So all in all, it's definitely not a bad game, but probably one with a limited lifespan.

 

[JesterRaiin]

Hi, my favourite drinkin' buddy.

Be my guest, however i'd like to remind you, that lowering standards for luxury-based industry is as far from pragmatism as possible.

A certain degree of understanding is required to discuss what can and cannot be made in the games industry. If you merely say "everything has to be perfect and screw any difficulties you encounter, I don't care", you might as well be preaching to walls.

So, i guess it's good that i didn't say that ?

Why not place adversitement, let's say... "we're looking for people living in Atlanta ready to spend 2-3 hours daily in our laboratory playing alpha versions of Mass Effect 3" ?

Unpaid work is unpaid work. It's also sloppy work. Why would a game necessarily have "millions of fans" before release? What if someone doesn't like the game and tells everyone it's shit?
How many people do you think will respond to this? Say, 20 max? Getting 20 people to casually play a beta 3 hours per day will hardly do anything. And this still doesn't solve the deadline problem.

20 ?

"We had about 2.4 million people register for the Star Wars fan site, over two million of which volunteered to do beta testing for free."

Simply put : your assumption is wrong. You took it - to cite one nice Escapist - "out of arse". I don't think it holds value and really, how do you expect me to answer such argument based on your own belief only ?

No, we aren't and we weren't talking about now and here, but about possibilites. Where did you get that impression ???

Since when are time and possibility mutually exclusive? You have a habit of taking things I say out of context. Stop doing that.

Likewise. Also, i'm not sure why are you asking about that exclusion. Pizza and cooking aren't mutually exclusive but you can speak about cooking without single mention of pizza or vice-versa. So no, i'm not interested in letting things stay they way they are, but rather in possibilities of correct appliance of free manpower.

And this is another thing that i don't understand - it wasn't me who said that it is enough to consider something "a project" to magically make it happen.

Are you forgetting that you argued the plausibility of what we're discussing with "it doesn't matter, it's a project"? Your words, not mine.

Talking about taking things out of context.
In response to your accusation that one can't compare scientific discoveries to gaming industry i merely observed that from the point of view that interests me there's no distinction between them since i'm not talking about let's say, budget, requirements, ethics or outcome, but about making them work and for that, the underlying principles are all the same. Just like for any given collaborative enterprise i call "project" here.

Also : who said that successfull undertakings must be based on good ideas ? Any idea will do. That's why people invented and use brainstorming, fishbone diagrams, control charts and similiar techniques.

And all of those were good ideas on paper. This is, on paper, a bad idea from a marketing point of view. Hence, it will not fly.[/quote]

Interesting. Marketing is a very wide topic, covering plenty of aspects of existence. It's pure coincidence, but it was also one of my favorite subjects whle studying at the university.
So, please, indulge me, why are you thinking that it's a bad idea and what exactly you mean by saying "from a marketing point of view".

 

[MetalMonkey74]

I'm seeing a lot of comments about how buggy and unplayable it was or how it was just a marketing tool and all that. Now, i got to play in the beta, and i work in IT, so i have a feeling why they sent out as many invites as they possibly could. They said it themselves, whoever ticked that "opt in" when signing up will get invited.

Its all very simple really, what they did was a stress test. A practice run. A wedding rehearsal. Call it what you want, but that weekend was there to see how everything will cope in a realtime live situation.

The game was not 101% perfect, but who cares? The experience was thoroughly enjoyable and the test was there to prevent proper launch server issues.

There will be less queues at launch, there will be less downtime at launch, all because of the huge beta they allowed us to play.

And its a win-win really. You get to see if you like the game enough to get it or cancel your order, and they get to see if everything works fine.

Personally, i cant wait.

 

[sir.rutthed]

Have you read the books by Timothy Zahn? They're both canon and damn good. They pick up after ep. VI and introduce some really interesting characters and ideas. Granted a lot of those ideas were seemingly retconned by the prequel trilogy, but we of the hivemind are at the point where we just tell Lucas to fuck off and accept the good stuff as canon on our own.

I haven't. Can you tell me, do those books do more than copy and paste the movies (same cantina band, same Twi'lek dancers, etc.) without going as horribly far out as this [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Beldorion]?

The biggest problems I've always had with Star Wars were those two things up there, the black and white morality, and the species-ism (humans are the heroes, everyone else fulfills stereotypical roles while speaking in wacky ooga-booga languages). But the premise is so cool that I've always wanted to see someone do something interesting with it.

Actually, in some respects they're better than the movies. I like how he explores the mysteries of the Force, as well as how a demigod deals with self imposed pacifism/zen attitude when it would just be easier to Force your way around. Start with the Heir to the Empire series; Grand Admiral Thrawn is one of the coolest villains you'll run across and I love reading about him. Humans are still the focus of the story, but in the Hand of Thrawn series the conflict revolves around the Bothans. They're the only Star Wars books that are worth reading to be perfectly honest.

As for your link, that's just further proof that most of the Star Wars stuff out there is nothing more than glorified fanfic. Seriously, fuck that shit.

Don't forget the X-wing Series!!! It's the reformation of Rogue squadron with plenty of viewpoints from non humans.(Nawara Ven a pilot and twi'lek lawyer) I don't know what anyone else has been reading but the majority of expanded universe is pretty freaking awesome.

As for the beta, I liked it.

All I can say is that you are in the SEVERE minority. The comics are okish, but the novels are almost all trash, usually on par with particularly well written fan fiction. Actually, you're the only person I've heard say otherwise, so what the Hell have you been reading?

Wow I really gotta defend myself? I guess this is why I avoid hanging out with "fans" who are really just upset that the stories told don't please them as much as they'd like. Last I checked, anything by Zahn,Stackpole, Allston seemed pretty damn fine to me. But hey what do I know. I guess because a few bad comics get made(Geeze comics with poor story how unlikely..) and a book or two means the entire Expanded universe is "fanfiction" So long as we are questioning my taste, let me ask you. What the hell have -you- been reading?

Damn dude, chill out. That was more out of shock than outrage. I've read the Zahn books, which I agree are awesome. I've also read the first book in the Hand of Vader and a few of the ones about Obi-Wan as a Padawan. I don't remember the authors and don't care to look them up, but I remember both of the later as being terrible, and I read them back when I was seriously into Animorphs. It's not just me though, there's a general consensus that the expanded universe is terrible. It's good for you that you enjoy them, but you ARE in the minority on that one.

 

[JesterRaiin]

Hi, my favourite drinkin' buddy.

Be my guest, however i'd like to remind you, that lowering standards for luxury-based industry is as far from pragmatism as possible.

A certain degree of understanding is required to discuss what can and cannot be made in the games industry. If you merely say "everything has to be perfect and screw any difficulties you encounter, I don't care", you might as well be preaching to walls.

So, i guess it's good that i didn't say that ?

Frankly I'm getting very tired to have to explain every facet of every argument again and again because you're just answering the last thing I said without considering any of my other posts or what the topic of discussion was in the first place.

Same here buddy. Same here. For the future record : it would be nice for you to stop speaking for both yourself AND your interlocutor. When in doubt - ask. But do not use assumptions. Simple "what do you mean by that" would suffice. Remember : there's a language barrier. Not everyone uses English language with such skill as yourself. Sometimes people want to express one thing, and they end up writing some nonsenses.
...Or disregard that advice. Still, you'll end up doing what you do here - reversing Ockham's Razor, "multiplying beings beyond any need" and i mean by that : creating more questions than answers and that leads to nowhere.

For the record, I was explaining why it isn't called "lowering my stanards" as much as it's understanding the issue at hand. But I guess yeah, if you were saying any of that it would have been totally wrong and we can gleefully agree that it's good you didn't say it.

For the record : i understand what we're talking about. Probably better than i may sound (espiecally in the middle of my sixpack routine). I know a thing or two about life despite living where i chose to. Simply, there's no "impossible" in my dictionary. "Hard to do", "risky", "doubtful outcome" - with such statements i can agree more or less. In this special case i'm interested in "how"s, not in "no"es and that's what you're serving me all the time.

Simply put : your assumption is wrong. You took it - to cite one nice Escapist - "out of arse".

Oh look, you're doing it again. Should I even remind you of the terms you accumulated so far until you gave the example I was replying to? How it's a single-player game, restricted to one location, involving people driving to work, unpaid, less content, playing by themselves, not a huge brand like Star Wars... 20 people is probably more than they'd get. But hey, you keep quoting from large open at-home, worldwide betas from established brands because they're the exact same thing and work in the exact same way. Sure.

There's this saying "willing is looking for opportunities, unwilling - for excuses". I'm no fool. I know that there's law, that forbids to employ or simply "use" underaged people. I understand that there's money involved. I take risk of "leaks" into consideration.
I was responsible for organizing some, ahem, "joint events" in the past and yes, they are pain in the ass. Still, they are really worth of investing time, energy and resources.

And despite boring you or anyone who's still paying attention to death - you never know for sure. So please, kindly, don't use "it won't happen" argument. Each and every man who achieved something, be it climbing a mountain, reaching the skies or achieving better note on some exam no doubtly heard that expression.

So, please, indulge me, why are you thinking that it's a bad idea and what exactly you mean by saying "from a marketing point of view".

That it isn't profitable, which was the argument all along. But fuck it, this discussion is doing nothing but giving me a headache.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1JWgqiDX0Pg/TfsCZ9TbnhI/AAAAAAAACcQ/3hqYBXMmlhc/s1600/Cookie+Monster_Ciasteczkowy+potw%25C3%25B3r.jpg

Have some cookie. Cookies are best medicine. And if you feel like arguing,.. you know what's gonna happen.

But let us continue. Not profitable ? If i may interest you with
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth-share_matrix aka Boston Matrix. Look for Question Marks section. There's unprofitable sector for every project ! You're mistaking risk - a normal, vital part of marketing - with lack of profit.
Also, please look here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_mix - public beta testing belongs here in the "promotion" section. And yes, despite requiring some smounts of money it pays off - with currency that's more valuable than $$$.

Once again : you have potential, you need beta testers. All you need is step #3 to reach step #4 also known as profit.
...And with that...

 

[Giftmacher]

I played the beta weekend with my other half, and we won't be signing up for ToR.

Partly because we have kids and are, consequently, uber casual players. Therefore, we can't justify the subscription (which is fairly significant-ish for two accounts), but also because it's just like any other MMO out there. Don't get me wrong, the story is great, but the mechanics are nothing new and we were both hoping for more.

I dunno, maybe a better pricing structure would induce us to play for a while but I've a feeling we'd still get bored before long.

-Gift.

me and my lady loved the game, being able to do those conversations together was really fun and even gave us some real life debate

the money thing is a bit silly isnt it, if you go on 1 proper date youll be spending way over 25-30 euors/pounds/usd/etc

Replying a bit late to this, regarding the money, it's only part of the issue, but not really silly for a single income household. I definitely don't go out on dates, as I'm married but I don't go out to the pub either.

I'm sure thing's will be different once the recession subsides, or my wife heads back to work, but meantime inflation is kicking the cack out of my disposable income and if it's a choice between things for my children and things for me... well you won't find many parents spending much on themselves.

While I'm on the subject, I do think paid MMOs miss a trick here though, gamers are grown ups these days, and family discount packs might induce a few more sales. I'm certainly hope they make an appearance eventually, as I plan to have family gaming sessions with my kids when they're old enough (with a little luck tOR with still be around too)

-Gift.

 

[Antari]

Still in a case of mixed feelings on this game. While I love Star Wars, I absolutely despise EA. And I'm not too pleased about the half baked space rail shooter they threw in there. It'd have been better if they'd left it out. I doubt I'll touch this game at all. Even in its free state.