No Public Beta Testing: good bad for the game?

[Awarewolf]

I mean because you answered your own question as to why PTR is a bad thing as it ends up spoiling the game for you months in advance rather than letting you experience it yourself when it releases. Also, as others have mentioned, why would you want to pay a monhtly fee to test the game for SE?

But I also said I wouldn’t mind a PTR as long as it was just to test job changes. No new zones, or story.

I’m paying my sub regardless. Whether it’s to test job changes after an expansion launches or to test job changes before an expansion launches, I’m still paying my sub.

I see what you mean, I just don’t look at it from that perspective.

[linayar]

I’m paying my sub regardless. Whether it’s to test job changes after an expansion launches or to test job changes before an expansion launches, I’m still paying my sub.

I think the difference is there should be a certain level of quality/completeness that is to be expected from a released product.

The problem with public testing is that people will also complain publicly (sometimes without giving constructive feedback), which will also be met with "it's only alpha, wait until beta" or "it's only beta, wait until release."

Even in FFXIV, we apparently had issue with job changes in preliminary patch notes, which is why we no longer have them there.

When we get changes on release after it's been privately tested, at least we see the "complete" idea that the devs had and people can just respond to that. As long as they keep releasing at an acceptable standard of quality, I don't think public testing would be necessary and might even complicate the process, especially with FFXIV's release schedule.