There will be no normal closed beta for NA\EU?

[anicaus]

Originally Posted by Zetsu

Actually, I see what he's meaning and I hope the trend doesn't continue that way. For example, more games seem to be going for the "pay for pre-release access (aka beta)" approach. Like AoC, the game that was available for pre-release and even post-release was quite full of bugs. WAR seems to be having a similar deal going on, and I read somewhere that they might be rushing it too. I haven't followed WAR though so I can't confirm this myself.

Personally, I really don't like the whole exclusive early access for pre-ordering or even paying extra as was the case with AoC.

Yes Warhammer cut down 2 of 4 major cities as well as 4 classes to release the game earlier. Guess their money started disappearing..

[Fleiva]

Originally Posted by Endrance

Um yes, that's exactly what it means. At least, there's a rather high possibilty not to get to test the game if the word "exclusive" is involved (even if some or many will, there are people who wont be able to). Exclusive = exclusion = only a certain group. But I suppose I don't have to teach you the english language.

Yeah, you don't have to teach me, cause I've explained it perfectly in my post, it being exclusive doesn't mean you won't get to test it, means you might not test it.

And yes, open betas are dissappearing, you might be interested in giving feedback, but 90% of the open beta testers will be there just to get a free ride. And we all knew about the lack of global release for a while already, how are these news surprising in terms of feedback? We will give our feedback and wait for things to change, however, the importance of feedback seems to be overrated here, devs haven't changed the game cause players tell them to do so, cause players, most of the time, have no idea about the consequences of their wishes. (Example, players in L2 which first desire would be to see the grind reduced to nothing aren't foreseeing that without the grind, people wouldn't go out of town, and wars would not be as agressive as they are.)

[Koroem]

Originally Posted by Zetsu

LOL...I love how wrong you are.


I'm getting pretty bad L2 Prelude vibes all over again. Hopefully NCSoft has learned a lot from that debacle. I must admit though, at this point I get the feeling that NA/EU feedback will have no impact on the development or patching of the game. I'd hate to see Aion become another Eastern > Western port where all we get to do is tag along and shut up.

Exactly the point I was making. CCR failed because they did not consider the western market, nor did they take localization seriously, which led to probably over 85% of the bugs western players experienced.

Their idea of bug fixes were giving us small content expansions every 8-11 months that the Koreans got every 4-6 months. And even then, those content patches introduced more crippling, game breaking bugs, and a lot of them each time, ignoring previous bugs.

I seriously hope NCsoft doesn't make this mistake. L2 saw a lot of the "we don't care about western gamers" mentality. And it seems to be cropping up again.

I could care less about a beta or being able to preview the game, but it just seems like NcSoft isn't doing much to show the western players that they will get just as much consideration as the eastern, especially considering the amount of work and time it does take to translate a game across multiple languages.

Unless they have some kinda super awesome state of the art language module in the game that allows simple and seamless language alteration/modification, or an English version was developed side by side with the Korean version rather than a port/strip of the Korean game then I'm not convinced at all.

I'd like a working game with updates, where our players are considered and respected just as much as their players are.

[Eau]

Considering the fact that developers from Aion have stated that this game is geared more toward the western gamer... I don't think we should have too many of the older issues stated in this thread.

[Cynthe]

Originally Posted by anicaus

Yes Warhammer cut down 2 of 4 major cities as well as 4 classes to release the game earlier. Guess their money started disappearing..

Ran out of time, time is actually a lot harder to get then money is these days, time will now make or break your game. Also depends on how much time publishers and who ever else you depend on as developers give you... If WAR wants a polished game out they needed to to do cutbacks, they could have rushed this content but it would have been half baked, and then people would have been really angry...

Damnit I don't even want to play that game... ^^;;;

Fleiva:

We will give our feedback and wait for things to change, however, the importance of feedback seems to be overrated here

We're in a society that's all about the me me me, and what I have to say MUST be heard at all cost... I love how big of a deal this has become over something so small. Yes small, having the privilege of an open beta sure is fun and exciting but it's not a right, it is not owed to you in any shape or form. You only to look back at a few releases to realize why companies are starting to do what they are doing. As for Aion, can't say this enough, the studio isn't in the US/EU get over it already. ^^

[Zyuu]

Yeah, EA definitely have money. It's all about time, like Cynthe said.


Btw, I had to delete two posts in this thread which were in another language than english, please only post in English

[lyankyj]

Originally Posted by Zyuu

Yeah, EA definitely have money. It's all about time, like Cynthe said.


Btw, I had to delete two posts in this thread which were in another language than english, please only post in English

it was totally fictional, at least mineDD

[Livvy]

What good is our feedback on a game thats being developed half way across the world, that will have been released already by the time we get to "test" it, and most likely the first expansion will already be in development?

I appreciate the response, but "preview events" are useless unless anybody who wants to can download and try out the game.

And there was nothing posted to clear up any problems that might be between NCSoft Seoul and Austin+Eu..like are we getting a translated version of the Korean game with absolutely no say in development? Is it going to be Lineage 2 again?...Forgive the Skepticism, but this is NCSofts third game, and second one to be launched in the western world...and I dont think anyone needs to be reminded of Lineage 2's problems...What I've seen as of late seems that Aion is going in the wrong direction, but that might just be me.

And not knowing how the beta will be done, if it will have micro transactions, if it will be P2P or not...are all kind of frightening to me.

I agree with this. Also : you can't possibly test server-strain with "events " . You can't emulate massive amounts of logins at same time, you can't check which zones might pose a problem etc.

It would be a huge mistake not to have some - albeit short - kind of open beta testing planned for EU/NA . How do you propose to fix localization-bugs ? On the fly ? It does indeed seem NA/EU are getting the short end of the stick again and if this is the case ( going to wait and see if this indeed release-policy of NCsoft ) I highly doubt Aion will be as succesful as it could be in western market . It would be L II all over again.

Ran out of time, time is actually a lot harder to get then money is these days, time will now make or break your game. Also depends on how much time publishers and who ever else you depend on as developers give you... If WAR wants a polished game out they needed to to do cutbacks, they could have rushed this content but it would have been half baked, and then people would have been really angry...

Damnit I don't even want to play that game... ^^;;;

Warhammer will be rushed into release half-finished and will be such a huge dissapointment it stands a high chance of a complete failure. Too bad , as there were some very good elements in it .

[Xenicide]

Originally Posted by Mark

I was talking about strapping people into chairs with VR sets over their heads and forcing them to play Aion to see if they went into comas. Don't know where you got beta out of that. :S

That's what NCSoft needs... a publicity stunt. Have some asian kid play Aion for 3 days straight and die. I mean, if he played for 72 hours nonstop, the game must be good.

Just for clarity on this plan, I wanted to verify that there won't be any NA OB, correct? We are still going to have preview events, only. Nothing has changed in this respect, am I right? Just making sure that I'm not telling people things without some kind of verification. Thanks

[loganz35]

Isn't this good that there will be no serious beta testing for EU/NA? I think it shows that they are confident in what they have done. I just want to see Aion sooner in front of my eyes on a desk.

[Ethos]

It's true a NA/EU Open Beta won't do bad to the game, testing is always good, but i'm quite sure the Korean testers did just fine.

I remember Age of Conan very well, made in Sweden... yeah, European beta tested... check, and what did they do with the feedback? nothing... It's not the number of testers that counts, it's the way the tests are done, the way testers report vital feedback and most of all the work the developers do to transfer the suggestions to the game to make it better. A translation error in a quest won't be "game breaking" and i'm sure the localisation team has there own tests and test team. The things like mentioned before... stress tests and this kind of stuff has been tested by the Koreans.

I think most here just want an Open Beta to get there hands a bit sooner on the game (i'm one of them, i lack waiting skills). I have done Closed Beta testing for both Age of Conan (failed) and Warhammer Online (i still have some concerns) and tho i can't wait to lay my hands on Aion, i already accepted my fate.

[Koroem]

Originally Posted by Ethos

It's true a NA/EU Open Beta won't do bad to the game, testing is always good, but i'm quite sure the Korean testers did just fine.

Language translations can introduce so many bugs it would make your head spin. It doesn't matter how well Korean testers do, there can still be issues.

Devs never listen to players anyways because their heads are so far up their own asses. If they had listened in AoC that game might have been able to be saved, but right now its on its way full steam to failure.

Sadly, no matter how much these Korean devs promise the western market, you will all see that us westerners will have little to no impact on the game whatsoever. We are extra money for NCsoft outside their primary market and all development consideration will be firstly and ultimately belong to the eastern players and communities.

That said once again I will most likely allow myself to be walked all over in this process because honestly, Aion just looks too cool to pass up. I just won't waste my time or effort this time around trying to make our voices heard when we westerners have concerns about the game, we really won't be heard. When it reaches that point I'll just pack it up and leave.

[Livvy]

It's true a NA/EU Open Beta won't do bad to the game, testing is always good, but i'm quite sure the Korean testers did just fine.

I remember Age of Conan very well, made in Sweden... yeah, European beta tested... check, and what did they do with the feedback? nothing... It's not the number of testers that counts, it's the way the tests are done, the way testers report vital feedback and most of all the work the developers do to transfer the suggestions to the game to make it better. A translation error in a quest won't be "game breaking" and i'm sure the localisation team has there own tests and test team. The things like mentioned before... stress tests and this kind of stuff has been tested by the Koreans.

That's a wrong assumption: you always want to to test in a "live" environment . You can't simply decide "well it worked in Korea just fine so we'll see no problems in NA/EU " . Rohan online- just example - was first released in Korea and was running just fine there , tested etc. But when open beta started in Europe it took about 5 minutes for the servers to crash
Fortunately they were very fast in adding server capacity but imagine that happening after actual release of a subscription-based game ?

Age of Conan's failure- although it's way too soon to state the game has failed - has nothing to do with how tests were conducted but with abysmal relations between developers and player-base ( the devs do absolutely zilch with all the complaints and feedback even after release so I'm reading ) . If I were FC I'd sack the entire community-relations department and have a far more direct route between players and devs . If you check the AoC forums you see how frustrating it has become for players who were there since beta and who are not only being ignored but whose forum-posts are being edited into oblivion .
When you do that you have a failure waiting to happen on your hands . Communication is everything and funcom aren't doing it ( it's a one-way street of announcements by FC ) .


If there's one thing that's of vital importance to any MMO - or to any game in general - it's how the developers keep in touch with their player-base and make sure they know what the gripes are of those players . There is no better first line of defence against "nasty surprises "than to include players into the release schedule by means of beta testing . That way the most serious bugs can be fixed prior to official release and you can have one massive event if you want on release date .

Sadly, no matter how much these Korean devs promise the western market, you will all see that us westerners will have little to no impact on the game whatsoever. We are extra money for NCsoft outside their primary market and all development consideration will be firstly and ultimately belong to the eastern players and communities.

I don't know this time around . They seem to actually take NA/EU very serious considering all the communication - including on these very forums - by developers and community relations folks. If they want Aion to be a flagship-product they'd better start attempting to have a truly globally appealing game .

[Charlie]

If the game is good , it doesn't matter because people eventually will get it and play it , but open beta just means , at least for me, "here you want to try our game? see how good it is and you'll want to pay us after you try it". When a company gives an open beta for a p2p game it knows it has a good product and stands behind it 100%, not giving me an option to play before I buy just leaves me with a thought that they want me to follow them blindly because Im a fan of the game and that's just wrong.