Beta Testing Weekends Cancelled Indefinitely

[Tbone]

Ouch, something either went wrong or took them by surprise. It was pretty clear that testing was going to be EVERY weekend of September once it started. I think they just now got back to us on it because they were still deciding. Well, this reduces the chances of getting to test significantly. My guess is at least three weeks before another weekend. The servers go down on the 11th to begin deployment, which usually takes about two weeks. After that, I doubt they'll want to do a large-scale invite as soon as the build goes up - they'll probably want to have a week with it testing internally to squash any major bugs before doing another weekend.

Meh...

Hello all,

There is no Beta Testing Weekend scheduled for this weekend. There may be further Beta Testing Weekends during September, but we're not going to guarantee it. The weekend that just finished was really our first dry run of Beta Testing Weekends as a whole, and we have plenty of data to crunch, and decisions to make before we start things up again.

Further to that, as Chris Collins explained in another thread, we are about to roll out a major new build for The Old Republic. That build won't be ready for this weekend. Just as we did not feel it was a good decision to ask potential EU testers to download our client only to have to download it again, the same applies for this weekend.

That does not mean, however, that as soon as our new build is available we'll be rolling out a Beta Testing Weekend immediately. As with any new build of the game, we need to get feedback from internal testing and our ongoing Game Testing program before rolling it out to a massive audience. That process takes a while, and that time varies depending on how testing goes.

We rolled out this previous weekend as a relatively small scale event; from now we will do bigger and bigger events, but that doesn't mean it happens every weekend. When we do resume, we'll be inviting many more people in.

While many of you are excited and anxious to know what's happening regarding Testing Weekends, I want to point out that a lot of posts on the subject with a lack of corresponding posts from us does not mean that we're not listening, or not aware of your interest. It shows your interest in the topic, which is understandably high, but we will not always be able to react instantaneously.

In the past couple of days we've been preparing a comprehensive FAQ regarding Game Testing Weekends as a whole, along with some details about the weekend that just happened. We'll post that tomorrow - in all languages, as we know the subject is of interest to everyone.

[Venlar]

[Dread]

then why star testing weekends and then release this build and cancel the rest of the test weekends? why not get the build out test it and then do test weekends on the new build. game developers make little to no sense.

[ZephixLeer (Zephic)]

Most of the surveys they've sent out so far (at least that I was exposed to) all say to answer "AS IF IT IS THE RELEASED VERSION OF THE GAME," just like that, in all capital letters.

I'd guess they're to a point now where they are simply adding polish to an already very close to complete game, as far as content goes. Now it's just bug fixes and small changes.

If that's the case, then they have no need for massive testing of major bugs. They'd want at least a little time with a new release version, but enough to catch any major bugs that they dont care to have reported 1,000 times from a new set of testers who only get a weekend to play.

They're more interested in things like, "How did you like killing enemies? Did you enjoy leveling up? What was your favorite part of playing this weekend? Your least favorite?" Things like that are more what they want valuable feedback on. Not a lot of people all reporting, "I can't level past 9 because X is broken. This game sucks! I'm crashing to desktop every 5 minutes!"

[Ketamininja]

Hmmmn, well if there is a new build and they are not testing that immediately, then I guess there may be hardware issues that they need to iron out. No point in giving beta if everyone is rubberbanding, so to speak. They may have enough data to work on IOPS tweaks on the server side...

Anyway, although frustrating that I am not in beta yet, I'll take this as a good sign that they are dedicated to release a solid product!

[Paitryn]

Yes they announced to us that the servers will officially be taken down monday and new invites will be sent out for the new build.

It has raised a lot of questions such as the reasoning behind giving players high level characters this close to the end and the beta weekends. Somewhere its stated they recieved a lot of information from the weekend test, so Im assuming they are using it for stress purposes.

Its possible that the build was ready ahead of schedule, or they are having to push ahead of schedule to meet their holiday release. this build will most likely be the last build before the release build, or even the release build altogether.

[Caydnn]

I just can't believe the attitudes of the people on the official forums. People talking down about Bioware so much because of one little thing. Other MMOs have had much bigger messes at launch. Eh, oh well.

[Dread]

its because they are nerd raging. thinking that that will speed up the process of launch. they will be the grievers most sot  after kills lol.

[Maglorius]

I guess I can give the Yahoo Mail server a break and slow down on checking my email every hour to see if I got an invite. Blah.

[Paitryn]

its because they are nerd raging. thinking that that will speed up the process of launch. they will be the grievers most sot  after kills lol.

suddenly i want to do a firefly parody using Griefers instead of Reavers.

[CopperSol]

I just can't believe the attitudes of the people on the official forums. People talking down about Bioware so much because of one little thing. Other MMOs have had much bigger messes at launch. Eh, oh well.

I can respect Bioware for wanting to launch a solid product. Not going to lie though, I'm dying for release. But I know if release comes and the game is buggy, crashy and incomplete I will be extremely disappointed.  Therefore, it takes them however long it takes them and thats that.

People really need to learn to chill. When STO launched, it had so many problems and was so incomplete that Cryptic lost a bunch of subs and didnt get some of them back until a year later. Bioware doesn't need to be doing that garbage.

[CopperSol]

its because they are nerd raging. thinking that that will speed up the process of launch. they will be the grievers most sot  after kills lol.

Dread, are you already making your list and checking it twice? lmao

Be nice to the nerd ragers, they provide endless hours of amusement. lol

[Dread]

its because they are nerd raging. thinking that that will speed up the process of launch. they will be the grievers most sot  after kills lol.

Dread, are you already making your list and checking it twice? lmao

Be nice to the nerd ragers, they provide endless hours of amusement. lol

yes that way i can put them on ignore and be done with it.