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Tips and Tricks to Make Your Beta Experience a Good One

 

By J.P.
"Agon Thalia" Sherman

Not too long ago, beta tests were reserved for a select few people who had connections, experience and a reputation for testing games, however, as MMORPG’s became more elaborate, more massive and more complex, gaming companies realized that they needed more people in the game to test various aspects of the game.  They needed to see how massive amounts of people doing the same quests simultaneously would affect the stability, they needed to see how the server reacts when the population exceeds normal.  They needed to see how creative people would break the game, find exploits, holes and bugs.  As the games got bigger, game companies began to realize that they needed to expand the populations of the beta tests.  As an added benefit, these players added to the overall buzz of the game before it launched.  As more and more games are released, more and more people have the opportunity to test these games. 

First Step: Getting Into Beta
There are a few ways to get into a beta test.  The easiest ways are to win a contest or be randomly selected by the game company.  If you’re happy to leave things to chance, that’s great… but most people want to start stacking the deck in their favor.  Here are a few tips to improve your chances to get into any beta test.

• Register on the official forums as soon as you hear about the game.  I heard about Lord of the Rings Online back when it was originally called “Middle Earth Online”.  I had just left Star Wars Galaxies and I was looking for something to play again, and this sounded perfect.
• Post often and start threads.  Add helpful or thoughtful comments to the conversation, do a little bit of research on the topic and add to the overall discussion.  Don’t spam, flame or needlessly post.  If you set a goal for a certain number of posts a day, you’ll be able to get a little bit of name recognition and if you’re helpful and creative, you could get singled out for an invitation. 
• Bring outside sources into the discussion.  If you notice an article or thread on a fan-site, post a link and a short description.  If you see something that your peers would enjoy about the game or game setting, let others know.
• Look at other MMORPG forums, find a creative topic that lots of people have participated in and post the same or similar thread on your forums. 
• Join fan-sites, participate in their forums.  Get to know the moderators and admins.  Most fan-sites are done for the love, not the cash.  If you have some skills, volunteer them. 
• Join a guild and participate in their forums as well.  Some companies give guilds special invitations so they can test some of the community and guild support aspects of the game.

 

Now, getting into a beta is rarely guaranteed, but there are some simple, common sense things that you can do to increase your chances.  Like most things worth having, it takes a little patience, it takes a little work and hopefully you’ll have fun doing it.

Second Step: Playing Testing the Beta
Odinseye posted an excellent guide to beta testing last May.  I would highly suggest you take this guide as probably one of the more thorough and definitive works on beta testing protocols and advice.  What odinseye and the entire LOTRO community put together is an amazing example of experienced people working together to create a communal document for the benefit of all players.  I want to give him all due credit.  What follows is more of a summary of the principles involved in a beta test.

• The goal of the beta test is to replicate what players are going to do ingame as well as to attempt to break the system or find the flaws.   There are some who view the beta test as a job, but I think that there is value in balancing the beta-players and the beta-breakers in any beta test.
• If you’re playing the role of the “game player”, you’re playing the beta as if you were playing the live version.  This can provide valuable qualitative feedback for the test. 
• Consider the look and feel of the game, can you find everything you need?  Are the controls intuitive?  Do you hate the color scheme, Do the avatars move naturally?
• Pay attention to the quests, read the description and take notes if it doesn’t make sense.  During the quest, ask yourself if there are particular parts of the quest that don’t fit?  Is it too hard?  Did you have to walk across the world for a measly 50 experience points?
• Experiment with the chat and community options, can you slip easily between different types of chat functions or are you struggling to figure out which one is which.   If you’re new to MMORPG’s, this is an excellent method to see if the system is intuitive. 
• If you’re playing the role of “game-breaker”, you’re probably one of the hard core, highly intelligent and creative gamers who have a lot of experience with the more technical aspects of games in general and MMORPG’s.  If you already have the mentality and the experience to game-breaking, you’ll probably already know what I’m about to say… but for those people who want to start honing their gaming skills, here’s some basic directions to take.
• Be creative, don’t play the game by its rules.  During a beta test, chances are you won’t get penalized for cheating… as long as you bug it… do thinks you’re not supposed to do.
• If you can interact with it, try to attack, buff, de-buff, open then attack… Just because it’s a mailbox, doesn’t mean that you cant do something unintended.
• Socialize with mobs, send them tells, talk to them, open a trade window
• The main point to being a game-breaker is to do things that no one in their right mind would do.
• Have a pad of paper and a pen nearby, take notes, write down locations, names and small details that could help the developers identify the bug.
• Test – Repeat – Test.  A lot of bugs are client-side, which means that the bug is most likely your system’s fault.  Video cards are notorious for having quirks that can affect the game.  If you cant repeat the bug, make a note and when you submit the bug, note the details and if you can repeat it.

 

Overall, whether you consider it a job, a sneak peek or a way to test the creative efforts of the developers, it’s a lot of fun, it’s challenging and it’s a great way to become a resource at launch for those who are entering the world for the first time. 

From Beta to Launch:
The overall purpose of the beta is to refine the game so that it’s a solid, fun and amazing experience for the launch.  Turbine has put together an excellent blend of random invitations, specific invitations, fan-site give-aways (They’re so nice for giving LotroSource @ Ten Ton Hammer so many invites).  It’s obvious that through the other games they’ve produced, they’ve learned from those and put all their expertise and attention to detail on the Lord of the Rings Online beta program.  I’ve been through several beta tests for several games at this point, I’ve been a player and I’ve been a breaker, without a doubt, Turbine’s put together the best beta experience I’ve had the pleasure to be a part of.

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