What are peoples thoughts and feelings towards Open Beta?

[Toasty]

Hi there, I've been a pc gamer for around about 10 years now, and i remember a time when hearing the words "beta tester" was like you were hearing about some veteran or elite player who helped bring the game to its current glory (well, in most cases this is true), and being accepted into a beta was a god-send in which you could call yourself one of the few people who helped make the game.

however nowadays in most games we have this Open Beta, where anyone and everyone can join to test out a game and leave personal feedback. I personally am not sure whether this is a good thing or not. dont get me wrong, whilst the idea of letting anyone join in with helping a game developer create a game sounds good (and rather generous of the game devs might i add), I feel as a community we have taken this for granted.

Everywhere I look where a game has an open beta/alpha I see many people complaining that the game isn't being created the way they want it to be created, or that something has been added/removed that they feel is a stupid decision. now whilst in most cases this is a minority, and I can understand people having there own opinion, but when people expect the game to be tailored to there own needs and not to that of the games community, and we berate the devs for doing such things, i feel we have overstepped our boundaries as gamers and that we need to realise that whilst we are paying for these games, its the devs who create them and therefore have the final say in what is done to them. After all, its also there decision should they wish to pull the plug.

so, I ask the steam community, what do YOU think of Open beta?

[Astral_God]

PC gaming (And gaming in general) over the years has started to rot due to increased corruption and population in the community.

While I feel that just as you said, beta testers back in the day were like a step below gods in the gaming world, there were still some beta testers that weren't so good, or never gave feedback to the game. I think it's better that anyone can give feedback honestly - This way people gain more information. However companies (Or in indie games, the creator) need to be more picky and selective about what features to add - Which ones were the most popular? Which ones did most people ask for?

Deciding whether to have limited or unlimited beta testers to begin with is a hard decision, especially since if you limit yourself you have the possibility to not get enough feedback, while having unlimited garners too much feedback.

In the end, I think it's better to limit to maybe a couple thousand people. More companies/indies should be doing this, however because of how stereotypes/generics are played out these days and how easily influenced people are, it can be hard to decide. Just look at how the community looks at college and graduation - The general idea these days is that as soon as you graduate high school you HAVE to go to college. People shouldn't be pressured/forced into going to college because someone told them too, they should have the free will (and knowledge) to wait until they are prepared to go to college, and this is why we have many drop-outs because of all the pressure. It's similar to the gaming world where pressure can break a game if you do it wrong.

[chibilibi]

I don't have an opinion. Open beta is fine.

However, I am AGAINST Early-Access games on Steam. Finish your game before you sell it IMO.

[Fork_Q2]

Originally posted by FuG chibilibi:

I don't have an opinion. Open beta is fine.

However, I am AGAINST Early-Access games on Steam. Finish your game before you sell it IMO.

I won't likely buy an Early Access game, but I don't have issues with it on Steam, so long as the buyer is made aware of it's limitations and developers don't act like arseholes.

Open Beta is fine, but I rather F2P betas don't have an microtransaction shop (like Loadout does).

[Energy]

way to go, going off topic in 2 posts that must be a new record

[Fork_Q2]

Originally posted by Eye Play Games:

way to go, going off topic in 2 posts that must be a new record

Early Access is essentially open-beta that you pay for, so it's not being off-topic.

[chibilibi]

Originally posted by Eye Play Games:

way to go, going off topic in 2 posts that must be a new record

Originally posted by Fork_Q:

Early Access is essentially open-beta that you pay for, so it's not being off-topic.

[Energy]

a beta is a unfinished version correct, but people dont charge you money to play a beta, in the OP early access wasnt even mentioned so i dont know why people are talking about it

[Astral_God]

>Expected other thought out replies
>come back to this

Steampls

[Fork_Q2]

Originally posted by Eye Play Games:

a beta is a unfinished version correct, but people dont charge you money to play a beta

They do now, and call it "Early Access", which it is.

[chibilibi]

Originally posted by Eye Play Games:

a beta is a unfinished version correct, but people dont charge you money to play a beta, in the OP early access wasnt even mentioned so i dont know why people are talking about it

*cough* Minecraft *cough*

[chibilibi]

Anyway, my problem isn't so much in that they're charging for betas with Early Access (I'll simply not buy them), rather, it's that unfinished games are flooding Steam via Early Access. I don't know about you, but I don't like seeing unfinished products cluttering up the front page.

[Fork_Q2]

Originally posted by FuG chibilibi:

Anyway, my problem isn't so much in that they're charging for betas with Early Access (I'll simply not buy them), rather, it's that unfinished games are flooding Steam via Early Access. I don't know about you, but I don't like seeing unfinished products cluttering up the front page.

There's always a number of threads about this on Steam Discussion board, but to be honest I don't see it as too much of an issue, it's not really that many (about 10 out of 60+ games on the front page at the most) and there are labels clearly stating the game is Early Access.

I think there is an option to remove them from the Enhanced Steam plugin though.

[gleofrocga]

Minecraft was a very good example of an "early access" game that succeeded. It's outsold most games, including GTA V. I don't play it anymore, but I have to give credit to Mojang. The game is 5 years old and it keeps getting updates.

Really, with these Early access games you shouldn't be enjoying yourself, you're supposed to find bugs. They're betas, alphas. Most of the garbage on steam is Alpha, and people don't realise thats what Early Access means. It's really a scam, paying to test a product, and get half of what the upcoming features were supposed to be (Miner Wars 2081)

Something I'm happy to see is that the developers of Universe Sandbox 2 are giving the game to the testers for free when It comes out.

[ACTIVE SHOOTER]

Starbound has entered the server.

[Zukabazuka]

Early Access is not a scam, Its just inexperienced people who decided to make a game. Well most of them. Sure there are always going to be some who tries to scam people.

Without Early access almost all of those games wouldn't be made because they wouldn't be able to afford to pay rent. Not everything is free you know.