Beta overload

[iostream212]

What's the deal with all these beta releases? Maybe technology is more complicated today... maybe. Tonight watching TV I see a private beta release for this software, and in my email I get a private beta release to try out that software. Is this the cultural norm these days? I don't remember the beta release party for Super Mario Brothers on Nintendo, but I can tell you it was super fun and it worked. Same thing goes with all those old school type games. Modern day it seems like lazy programming to me. "I get paid to code it, but the public can check my work and tell me where I made a boo boo". Or is it that these projects are so fragile that they need constant feed back from the end user community to coddle it to market? The fact is that I have to pay for it and proof read it too.

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[hagak]

What's the deal with all these beta releases? Maybe technology is more complicated today... maybe. Tonight watching TV I see a private beta release for this software, and in my email I get a private beta release to try out that software. Is this the cultural norm these days? I don't remember the beta release party for Super Mario Brothers on Nintendo, but I can tell you it was super fun and it worked. Same thing goes with all those old school type games. Modern day it seems like lazy programming to me. "I get paid to code it, but the public can check my work and tell me where I made a boo boo". Or is it that these projects are so fragile that they need constant feed back from the end user community to coddle it to market? The fact is that I have to pay for it and proof read it too.

Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk

Complexity. Modern software is extremely more complex. Just look at the change in console controllers. My atari 2600 had a 4-way stick with 1 button. My PS3 controller has 2 multiway analog sticks 8 analog buttons and 3 digital buttons plus motion controll and vibration feedback. Never mind the possible options the games give to users within the game, complex AI, complex collision models, much more advance graphics and more. All that while selling the game for LESS.

One thing that I have seen in many of these games during beta is handling balance issues for pvp. It is extremely complex to balance a game were you can have a highly customized character.

Remember you never want the developer testing the code they wrote, sure hire testers for this but even they become blinded by k owing the innards of the software. The public truly makes for a great set of eyes. Yes it is cheaper to use free labor however it does cost some money to handle the large amount of bug reports that come from it. Many of the bug reports are not valid bugs but still need to be reviewed.