Make Way for Open Beta

Sigil's Nick Parkinson on Open Beta

Interview by Shayalyn

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It was the shock heard 'round the world--or at least throughout the
Vanguard community. First href="http://fileplanet.com">Fileplanet posted a
front page advertisement stating that subscribers would be the first to
receive an invitation to beta, and offering the "6.6 gig game client"
for immediate download. ("Download for hours on launch day, or sign up
for beta notification and get the file now!") Then a member of the
official Vanguard forums href="http://www.vanguardsoh.com/forums/showthread.php?t=95929">posted
that he'd talked to an SOE customer service rep in live chat support
who told him that the "expected date" for open beta was January 4,
2007.



News like this (and the accompanying speculation) spreads like wildfire
through a gaming community, especially when it relates to open beta,
the dropping of the Vanguard non-disclosure agreement (NDA), and the
impending launch of a game many are anxiously anticipating. Is Sigil
really ready to kick off beta 5 (open beta) soon? What does that mean
for the game? Some can't wait for a chance to play Vanguard, while
others fear that the game may be rushing to launch unpolished.

Sigil's community manager, Nick Parkinson, was kind enough to take a
moment to answer my questions and share some information about open
beta with the Vanguard Ten Ton Hammer community.





[ style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">Ten Ton
Hammer]:
Many of us have seen the rumor recently leaked on the official Vanguard
forums which suggests that open beta is expected to begin January 4,
2007. Of course, “expected” doesn’t mean
for certain, but can you say with certainty that open beta will begin
some time in early January?



[Nick Parkinson]:
Beta 5, or “open” beta, will be starting in early
January.





[ style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">TTH style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">]: Some Vanguard fans
consider moving into open beta so soon after beginning beta 4 (which
started in mid-December) as rushing things. We know that much of the
content on Kojan was just added and has had limited testing. What
prompted this move to open beta so soon after the beginning of beta 4?
Does Sigil simply feel the game is ready for open beta, or are there
other motivating factors?



[NP]:
It’s just the right time for beta 5 to start. I think our
unusually long prior phases probably threw some folks off and they
(understandably) assumed the final two phases would be equally long.
Fortunately, we’re at the point where they don’t
need to be now and we feel the month or so that beta 4 will have lasted
when we move on to beta 5 will be sufficient.  





[ style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">TTH style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">]: An open beta in early
January would likely put Vanguard on target to launch shortly after
Blizzard’s first World of Warcraft expansion, The Burning
Crusade, which will launch January 16. Is it Sigil’s intent
to go head to head with the WoW expansion?



[NP]: There
are a lot of gamers out there. We think that as long as the games are
good, both titles can do just fine.





[ style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">TTH style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">]: Will the NDA be lifted
at the beginning of open beta?



[NP]: Yes.





[ style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">TTH style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">]: Sigil representatives
have often said, “Vanguard will launch when it’s
ready.” Will open beta only last a specific length of time,
or will it continue until Sigil deems Vanguard
“ready?”



[NP]:
We’ve got a target date in mind (which we’ll be
making public in the near future) and unless something drastic happens
between now and then we’ll be ready. It’s hard to
say anything else given that there are so many different situations
that the answer could vary quite a bit for. I can say though, that we
will do what’s best for the game.





[ style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">TTH style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">]: Since beta 5 means many
new players, how many beta servers might we expect? Will the number of
beta players help determine the number of shards Vanguard will launch
with? When might we know the official names of the shards available for
launch?



[NP]: The
servers will be named after famous heroes in Vanguard lore. Keep an eye
on the affiliate fan sites over the next week or two to get a full list
of their names. We do have plans for how many servers we’ll
have during open beta and launch, but player numbers during open beta
can also affect that. (i.e. If 50 bazillion people sign up for open
beta, we’ll probably get some more servers set up before we
launch. :-P)





[ style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">TTH style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">]: What are
Sigil’s goals for beta 5? What does the team hope to
accomplish with this new push forward?

 

[NP]: Beta 5
will mostly be stress testing with LOTS of bug fixing and polish. The
“core” systems and game play will be in and
we’ll just be tweaking the final parts before we send it to
the store shelves.

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style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Is open beta
coming too soon, or not soon enough? Talk about this interview in our style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;" target="_blank"
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=1856">forum style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">!