Since the earliest days of MMO gaming, beta testing has played a
pivotal role in the success or failure of our persistent worlds. We've
come a long way since the initial tests of href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/154"
target="_blank">Ultima
Online and The
Realm, but what role do our current beta tests play in the
potential outcomes of unreleased titles? To answer this question, Ten
Ton Hammer turned to current and former beta decision makers at Cryptic
Studios, NetDevil, Sony Online Entertainment, Funcom, and Mythic
Entertainment. Some of their answers - and the information they reveal
- will surprise and shock you.



On top of that selection, we also asked our href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/membership" target="_blank">Ten
Ton Hammer premium
members for their thoughts on beta testing as well! Here's a sneak peek
of a section of the article from former style="font-style: italic;" href="http://eq2.tentonhammer.com/"
target="_blank">EverQuest
2 developer, Scott Hartsman:

By the time beta begins, you've made decision after
decision that have
compounded on each other.  Your assumptions' assumptions' have
assumptions about what your game is.  The whole product,
systems, content, operations, marketing, PR, community ramp, you name
it -- is built upon them.  Changing core assumptions about the
product itself is unlikely to be possible without significant delays,
costing progressively more money per month.  (Remember, the
months toward the end of the dev cycle are the most expensive ones by
far.)

target="_blank">To read "The Rigors of Beta Testing: Past,
Present, and Future," click here!