SE Rep - can you share with us the criteria for selection of Alpha testers

[Hippo]

Dear SE,

Can you share with us how you select Alpha testers? Please be more transparent. Coz it seems that the Alpha testers were mostly people who had spent only a short time with 1.0 - if I had known that this is your plan all along, I wouldn't have bothered to apply for Alpha.

Its too late to cry over spilled milk now but more transparency of your plans for Beta will help your fanbase better plan their time.


Thanks,

[Dannythm]

Main problem seems to be with the active or inactive nature of the account at the moment of the alpha registration.

[Kallera]

Only the choicest gams for the dev team!!

[EinSoFZ]

Criteria is likely just plain arbitrary. Whether they will admit that is something else.

[Vilhem]

And so it begins.. <_<

From the alpha application page:

Please Note:
- The software used during the Alpha Test is under development and will differ from the commercial version.
- Inquiries regarding selection methods and results will not be answered.
- Tester applications cannot be edited once submitted.
- Testers are limited to one application per person. Duplicate entries will be voided.
- Testers are prohibited from transferring, selling, or loaning any software related to testing.

Unless its a bug like with selecting inactive accounts (if it even is a bug) we won't hear from them.

[kimoi]

I'm sure it was a random lottery. They mentioned they will invite more people if these people don't come and keep the numbers they need to test. What they didn't mention is that someone is guaranteed a slot just because that someone "stuck with" the game.

Or I guess we could go conspiracy and say it's because all the people complaining about not getting in seem to be more interested in getting in just to be able to see the game early rather than actually helping test.

[RudyFails]

Coz it seems that the Alpha testers were mostly people who had spent only a short time with 1.0

Where do you even get this from...

[casker]

They wanted people who they thought wouldn't put up with bullshit unlike the people who actually stuck with this game when it was at its turdiest.

[Mjollnir]

An educated guess would be that they collated all of the applications, split them by region and then divided those again between high/required spec PCs (as per the application) and then invited a given number from each subsection, determined completely randomly.

Activity/inactivity/Legacy/forum post count/character name shouldn't play a part in selection.

Just a guess though, based on the application process and what we know is being tested in this phase.

[Aenarion]

What happened was that SE actually invented a time machine, they then traveled forward in time to see who they'd be able to harvest the most /ragetear from, so they can make sure not to invite them in order to extract the most tears.