What Kind Of MMO Beta Tester Are You?

Sort of depends on the day I had at work. I’m a Compliance QA Tester so “Beta Testing” (usually wayyyy Alpha) is what I do professionally. I kind of come home to PLAY the GOOD games. I usually look at the product’s potential, if it’s satisfactory enough, I enter issues exactly as I would at work, with a professional template, to help the project develop as much as possible.

What really male genitalia blocks me is when all you have to enter issues is a damn, small text box with a twitter-style character limit. S’like, bros, I’ll detail the CRAP out of this, so please let me. So far, only SWTOR had a really nice beta bug entering feature. Out of what I tested, of course.

For me it seems that when I go to beta tests bugs love me and so in return I report bugs back. Sometimes they fix most bugs (what I experienced in Rift and GW2) and some not so much (try to guess).

I never get a closed beta key, but when I do manage to get in the beta, I talk to people on chat their experiences and I do note them down to see if I experience them too. I’m not a fan of posting in forums but I do mention it on surveys and in-game costumer services.

Is that what I was supposed to write there? I just wrote down part of my grocery list and a few verses from the song ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ by ‘Queen’… o_o;

Guaranteed victory e_e

report few bug reports and see if the game is even worth my time/money

Signed up and hoping I get in to test. Hoping that unlike a lot of betas recently TESO beta will actually be more people TESTING rather than ending up being a glorified demo and sneak peak at the game before it goes live to get hype going. Judging from the application form to sign up it seems at first glance that it should be a serious test of the game and I can’t wait to -hopefully- get in and see what feedback I can provide.

it really depends on how invested i am in the game, how serious the developer is about their beta and how involved they are with the beta testers.  i feel that they would  get more out of their testers, both in attitude and feedback, if they were to provide more focused testing and some direction (like a movie director gives to his actors).  some people feel they fulfill their “obligations” by seeking out all bugs, i’m more the type that likes to test systems and report on as many impressions, problems and suggestions on how to make them better as i can.  if i come across bugs and exploits i don’t shirk from responsibly reporting them, but bug squashing isn’t my focus. 

I like short surveys or step by step bug reporting. I dont want to play for an hour and spend another hour describing a problem. But is it also a way to get the feel of a game for free without having to blindly make a purchase. I follow many gaming channels but I also feel the need to build up my own opinion.

I love to break things, which is much easier in games still in testing. Also I love to make things better, so jump on forums and talk about the things I think could be done better. I think overall that I am a good tester, but I am only intersted in MMOs and not even in all. I signed up for TESO.

As a beta tester I see my self bit disappointed with current aspect of how a beta tests are being conducted currently.  Back in the hay day of New Companies popping out you had a hard time getting into em, and not a 5 year old can get in.  Seems the Gaming companies these days are more about pleasing the vast crowds of wanna be testers to the product and not actually polishing the content or finding your the bugs or the problems that the product has.  I’ve been to few Open Beta’s but I want to see more of the beta testers not just get on a free band wagon and to check out the game.  The gamers of today basically Drive Test the game b4 deciding if they’re going invest 60 dollars into the game when its released.  But 60 dollars is small amount of change, but if the game isn’t finished then the producers of the game should look into it more with fine tooth n pick and see if the game is fully operational and it doesn’t have vast amount of bugs when it goes live.

Im the explorer, surveyor kind-of tester. I like to find sticky spots & other areas less traveled (and I do report it). Other than that… demo player all the way! ;D

I will provide detailed steps on repeatable bugs.  When a character gets stuck or a piece of code that causes a disconnect. 

One challenge in game beta testing is gamers don’t know the expected outcomes.  While gamers will generally report when a class seems OP, we typically don’t have the tools to determine if abilities are functioning properly. 

It’s funny, I mentioned a lot of what you said in my TESO application.
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For me it first comes down to how much interest I have in the game to begin with. I was in the Defiance beta last weekend, I didn’t really care much about it going in, so I ended up just sticking my head in for an hour or so, saying ‘meh’, and leaving. But something like the GW2 beta, I was there when the servers came up till when they went down (minus maybe six hours to sleep, three per night), and when it was over I had over five pages of notes and had submitted bug reports in game for all the bugs I have found.
So it’s a matter of interest. But I generally lean more towards the old meaning of beta tester. I’m there to find and report bugs and provide feedback, I’m not there to “play a demo”.

I try to be thorough when I beta test a game, but the only ones I have succeeded in that are ones where I always have access to it, such as WoW, SW:TOR, and TSW. Betas that only open for a couple hours twice a week are just terrible for me, as even when they move times, they uncannily fall upon work hours; Marvel Heroes in particular is driving me nuts with this. The in between ones like GW2, I tried to get as much testing and reporting that I could in, but any limits on my time put a huge damper on my ability to test.