Zoned in
High expectations can lead to high levels of disappointment
Beta testers need to adopt a new mantra before entering a game
Expect less. Be surprised. Enjoy it more.
That should be the mantra for the thousands of beta testers who regularly jump into a game that is far from completion. Unfortunately, many don’t see it that way.
Instead you see complaints, gripes, queries centering on the “what are the developers thinking?” theme. Some treat it as a right to play in a beta, demanding a quality of game that is near perfection, or at least near retail quality.
(Ok, sometimes a game is released that is little more than a beta filled with bugs and other gameplay problems – but that is not the focus of this article.)
What some fail to understand is that they applied to play the beta, and in essence agreed to test a game that was not retail quality – a fact they should have known if they read the end-user agreement. Part of the agreement included finding out what bugs were in the game, exploring, testing and trying to bend the game without, hopefully, breaking it.
Instead, because of the information released about the game, they walk into it with high expectations and often find the quality of the game is slightly less than they expected.
Why bring this up now? Like so many others I have been chomping at the bit waiting for a couple of betas to launch. Reading the forums, checking the Web sites, browsing the developer screenshots, absorbing all I can about the pending massively multiplayer online beta tests – all this leads up to anticipation and expectations.
World of Warcraft is a hot
beta ticket, and with good reason,
but the title is still a long ways from release.
But forget all that.
How many times have you played a game you were all hyped up to see, only to find it to be less than you had thought it would be? It’s like going to a movie you have heard so much about, only to find that best laughs were the ones you saw in the trailers, or the plot was so convoluted that you were lost 15 minutes into the flick.
The same holds true for videogames. You may have read about it, either through developer Web sites, forums or from writers doing previews and first-looks at the title. But you need to realize that all the pre-beta information you are receiving is the surface gloss. It’s bright and shiny, but there is no telling whether it reflects what lays beneath the surface, or is just the whipping cream that covers a mud pie made from real mud.
Expect less …
It is called ‘hype’ for a reason. The publishing companies or the developers are in charge of the Web sites, and it is their job to promote the game. You won’t see them saying things like “the game lacks balance, and the controls are clumsy but it sure looks good!” Rather they will tout the unique elements of the game, some of which are not truly that unique but are variations on oft-used design theme.
While each player entering a beta should have an idea what the game is about, try not to walk into the title thinking that it is a retail release and everything will work as perfectly as it was outlined on the Web site. Certainly you should be familiar with general outline of the game so you don’t spend most of your initial time asking such elementary questions such as “how do I equip a weapon?” or “how do I attack?” Certainly those are viable questions, and you need to know the answers to them, but by doing a little back checking, exploring your in-game options and generally spending your first minutes poking around should get those out of the way.
And expect bugs. The game is not perfect and likely never will be. Games that have been in release for years still get patches to correct flaws. And those are retail games. A beta is sometimes 70-80 percent, or more, complete. Things will not always work the way they will in the final release version. Accept it, get over it, and move on.
The expected version 1.5
of Wish, from Mutable Realms, has just slid
three months while some major work is being implemented.
Titles sliding is part of the joy of being a beta-tester.
Be surprised …
This is the backend of expecting less. If you don’t set your expectations too high for what a game will show you in beta, chances are you will be surprised by what you can do.
Case in point: When Cryptic Studios talked about character customization for avatars in City of Heroes, most of it was relegated to the “ya, ya, heard it before; probably means I can have green pants instead of brown.” Expectations were not all that high. The reality was so impressive that the first couple of attempts at creating a look for the avatar took 40 minutes or more of tweaking, exploring and enjoying the experience. And the look created carried over to the game.
EverQuest II will have more in-depth character customization than EverQuest. Will it have as much as CoH? Who knows? Who really cares? The latter is not a fair question, because players will care. I do know that not every character will look 20 years old. The game is supposed to have an age slider that will let players age their avatars from 20 to almost 50 – at least that was the line at E3. Sounds cool. The screens of the avatars have looked impressive, but not expecting that much until I really see it. And no, not from Missouri, but I do adhere to the “show me” mentality.
That leads to pleasant surprises.
Enjoy it more …
When you walk into a game without high expectations (having some expectations is taken for granted), find the surprises, you will enjoy the experience more. Betas are free, you are not paying for the game, nor are you being charged a monthly fee for MMO betas, as you would for playing a retail version.
Playing in a beta is a privilege, not a right. With few exceptions, most of the characters created in a beta are wiped when the game goes retail. Some beta testers abhor that idea, feeling that they spent so much time creating and developing a character that they deserve to keep it when the game moves to retail. Bottom line is you deserve to keep nothing. No one forced you to play the beta, and no one asked you to power your way up. If you don’t like the idea of starting all over, don’t play in the beta. The game is the lab and beta testers are the lab rats; beta testing is the crash test and beta testers are the crash-test dummies.
The job of the beta tester is to stretch the game, to push it, to report bugs and to help developers correct flaws before the game is sent out to the public. That’s the downside of the job. The upside is that you get to see a game before the general public does; you can make an informed decision about whether it is something you want to pay for. You know the early quests and the general framework of the game better than most of those who buy and launch into the world on the release date.
It is an honor to be chosen for a beta test, so why not sit back and enjoy the ride?
del.icio.us
Digg This
Glink It