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Well Brad I "will" play your game at "some" point because that is the fair approach? No? I can hate all I want, but you never know I may be terribly mistaken about Vanguard. In all honesty there is even parts (housing, crafting, and mounts with bags) that intrigues me about V:SoH. Maybe it was IGN and Gamespots lackluster previews that set me off? I mean both articles are written obviously fanboi centric with nothing more than "This game is Everquest with better graphics".

I understand the media blitz. I undertsand the "show off the game" approach to the previews. Doesn't mean I have to like it and blogging about it surely doesn't mean I have to be constructive about it. Thats what folks like Darniaq are for.

Personally I would conduct the preview in a totally different way and probably wind up with my rear on the front steps of your office. Not for being rude or unruly, but for asking questions that wouldn't be sufficient for the media blitz that you are conducting for VSoH. Now if you are so inclined and curious as to how such an interview would be conducted you can check Heartless Gamer or e-mail me yourself at heartlessgamer@gmail.com or hell if I would be so inclined to be granted an interview through Gamergod.com I may even be at your office someday. All three of which I hold no high hope for aside from blogging about it.... cause I'm cool like that.

Banter aside Brad I hope your project the best of luck. Do I think its the right direction for such a large title? No. Does my opinion count. Probably not in the grand scheme of things. I'm not Koster and I'm not Lum. I don't make games. Therefore you can dismiss my ranting and go along with your day. It will still make me happy to just post my thoughts.

So back to my blog and Gamergod.com I go...

I'm not knocking the idea of the seasoned beta tester...they're important as well. They know what to do, and they do it more efficiently and more systematically, but they can't do *everything*. They can't stress the systems as much as a crowd of fanboys can.

That is what I am saying. Let the beta testers that do it for a living get the job done and get the software solid. Then hit the stress test to get as many possible combinations of PCs running the software and hitting the servers to get those bugs out of the way.

The time and resources wasted sifting through 100,000's of beta applications coumpounded by the fact so many people aren't providing very good factual data is time and resources better spent on suggestions such as the back end reporting functions that Darniaq has pointed out.

Overcomplicating the beta process hurts it.

I WISH beta processes were more harrowing to get into. Without a more stringent front end, we'll just perpetuate this cycle of useless noise drowning out any real hope of relevant reporting.

From here:

There needs to be a good back end reporting system too. Forums do not cut it. They may work for a few hundred testers, of which maybe 75% of them would read the forums and 50% actually post. However, when the game starts stress testing the servers, the players will generate much more noise than actual signal on the forums. Most of this noise will be rehashing long standing bugs or incomplete features, requiring even other testers to skim posts so much they may miss something relevant.

In my opinion, all reporting should be done through ingame interface. And, the reporting should be based on the developers pushing specific agendas for specific results, at least most of the time. There is a lot to be gained by allowing your testers free run of the experience. This helps generate discussion about what is fun versus what is not. However, without specific focus on features and systems, some bugs and incompleteness can either never be reported, or doesn't get reported sufficiently enough to prioritize it being fixed prior to launch.

I understand load testing... hence why I pointed out that is what the MMORPG developers need to do. Skip all these baby step "only a few in at a time" elitist testing phases. Drop 1,000 players in a day and keep going until the servers don't work anymore. The whole process of selecting a few select beta testers only wastes time and resources which could be better placed into the back end bug reporting systems or fixing the actual bugs themselves. Darniaq pointed out something on his blog that I totally agree with about the actual bug reporting features.