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With the World Cup coming down to the final round of matches the action
is becoming more and more compelling. Watching the tournament has been
interesting to me, even as someone who doesn’t necessarily care about
football, because of its global scale and the interesting mix of people
you meet who share the game’s passion. I feel sorry for the majority of
AAA-only gamers because they never get to experience this wide array of
cultures in quite the same way those of us that partake of free-to-play
games do.



Facebook told me all I needed to know about MMOG news this past week as
many of my friends’ status messages changed from the usual banter about
the weather and their kids to virtual shouts of “I GOT A BETA INVITE.”
With fewer folks habitually playing their regular game now that the
weather is nice and the typical cycle of summer fun has kicked in, beta
is certainly an enticing idea as it offers something new and
unexplored. But mostly I think folks just like that feeling of
exclusivity it brings, like being invited to a party at the head
cheerleader’s house did back in high school. But just like that party
with the in crowd, beta testing can leave you feeling that you are
surrounded by something shallow and vapid and cause you to miss your
real friends. Fear not, I may have the perfect solution for you so keep
reading past the break.

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So the first rounds of invites to your most highly anticipated beta
test have been sent out and you didn’t get an invite, eh? 
Before you go contemplating thoughts of suicide or dropping flaming
bags of poo at the doorstep of the developer that has shunned you so
far, calm down and read this article first. I too was once enamored
with the idea of being one of the few, the proud, the beta testers, but
something funny happened to me after several years of downloading and
installing shiny new test clients--I came to the stark realization that
beta testing sucks.



It may sound blasphemous to say that having the honor to play a new
game, or a new expansion, months before it opens to the great unwashed
masses is something less than desirable – but there are several
downsides to this beta racket. Karen Hertzberg brilliantly described
one of the
foremost pitfalls in Loading… last week: the fact that
playing a beta can negatively influence your perception of the game.
Another Loading… column from the same week by Reuben Waters href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/loading/2010/jul/2">confirmed
that assertion by reporting some news from our style="font-style: italic;">World of Warcraft site
-- that players in Cataclysm
beta are already flooding the forums with ill tidings of doom…DOOM!



Seeing an incomplete game isn’t my top reason for avoiding beta like a
Justin Beiber concert. No, my reason is much simpler – I don’t like
playing the same content I will end replaying when it goes live.



Knowing what I know now about the toll that beta testing can take on a
player, that once the game goes live you go back to square one and get
to do it all again, I wish I had invested that time in another game
instead. If time has taught me anything, it’s that you only have so
many “Oh wow!” moments in your gaming lifetime, and they are inversely
proportional to the number of games you play.



In 2004 I was invited to two beta tests, EQ2 and WoW, and I thought I
had hit the lottery. Being a happy EQ player at the time, I spent the
lion’s share of my time in the new version of Norrath, leveling two
characters to max level and playing nearly every class. While I was
able to report several bugs, and keep my guild mates apprised of how
awesome the next generation of the series was going to be, I quickly
burned out on running the same content when it finally launched. It was
disheartening to hear my friends “oooh” and “aaah” in wonder and
astonishment over content that I had grown used to, so much so that I
eventually quit altogether and went to WoW – a game I had only played
sparingly in beta and one that still felt new and exciting to me.



So what exactly do I propose to those of you who got beta keys this
week? Go slowly and pace yourself; don’t overdo it. Like everything
else in life, moderation is the key. For those of you who didn’t get
that coveted email? Grab a free-to-play game and make your own beta
test of it for the duration of the summer or until the next big thing
comes out. With quality, quantity and variety at an all time high in
the free-to-play world you should have no trouble finding something
that flips your switch. Just like a beta test, there is no cost to
download the client of a free-to-play game, and you can play them
without any subscription cost. Unlike the beta test however, these
games are already live so there’s no worry that a server wipe will
delete your characters from existence, erasing all the time spent
playing them in the blink of an eye.



So which games should you play? Microcosms has chronicled many of the
latest and greatest in free-to-play and microtransaction games, so
peruse the archives and see what tickles your fancy. My personal
recommendations are Allods
Online or Aika
for the PvP crowd (be advised that most free-to-plays feature PvP), style="font-style: italic;">Atlantica Online
and Mabinogi
for those that love to explore, or Free
Realms for the younger or the young at heart. And for fans
of AAA fantasy action, you can't go wrong with DDO or
LotRO. So, fear not the summertime blues and don’t weep over
spilt beta keys, my friends, with free-to-plays abounding there is
never a lack of new worlds to explore.





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