About Beta invitation

[vax]

If don't want to read the wall of QQ text, please go a bit down.

On 26/11 i got up really happy, ARR alpha it started and for some reason i was thinking something like "Hey i was so loyal to SE, played FFXI for 7 years, then bought the collector edition back on september 2010, maybe i got a bit luck on getting an alpha invitation". After checking my email account my happyness tourned to angry then sadness.

Then, the next day one of our favorite devs Bayohne (at least is my favorite with Camate ) posted this:

Greetings everyone,

I know the alpha tester selection process is a hot topic, and while I cannot disclose the selection process, I do want to pass on some additional details to help you better understand the situation. To ensure a broad scope of testing for the Alpha Test, we did accept users with specific types of machines, setups, connection types, ISPs, geographical locations and other configurations that we need to test that may, or may not, meet every requirement on the application. Alpha is an important first step for testing and we need to make sure we have a wide breadth of users testing it.

We appreciate your understanding, and we look forward to further expanding our selection in the future. In fact, there are a few Yoshida posts that we're working on today that go into further detail on this.

Geographical locations, this was my first problem, I can't remember where it says that alpha went only for NA, EU and JP people, i'm from south america, so i'm not there, starting to worry about if i'll be getting an invite or not, but since my game it's from NA, maybe i fit it there, who knows.

Later, Yoshida told us that the next monday there will be more invitations, so i started to look for it. Same as 26/11 on 3/12 got up really happy looking for my email, nothing there, same feelings. But hey, now two people from south america got to play alpha, so there is a chance to get some invite. Then 5/12 come like 3/12 nothing there, 7/12, same.

One of the guy who got to play alpha told me how he pay the game using crysta (people from south america can't pay with crysta), so yes, he use a fake NA adress, same with other people who got invitation. I know 10 people of my country playing the game, and only 2 got the invitation, and yes, those two who got to play are using a fake adress. After i realized this all my hope on getting something went a bit loss but there was a bit of it, but well, today is the last day and nothing from SE got on my email.

Note that i'm not angry with my friends that using fake adress got to play alpha and also more important (at least for me), being able to pay using Crysta.

___________________________________________________

Now that alpha is ending, i'm totally fine to not being invited, but i'm worrying about not getting a spot on Closed Beta, my question to devs is if there will be a restrict to geographical locations again?


Thank you and sorry if the text is a bit long.

[Malakhim]

There's always open beta!

[vax]

There's always open beta!

Yes i know, but when open beta start i will be a very busy xD, being from south america i got more time from december to march.

[KiriA500]

Everyone needs to stop treating alpha/beta like early access demos to the game. They're supposed to be for testing purposes.

[vax]

Everyone needs to stop treating alpha/beta like early access demos to the game. They're supposed to be for testing purposes.

Totally, i want to test it. Live everyone want it too.

[Skies]

Conspiracy theories! Conspiracy theories everywhere!

Really, now...
You're worried for no good reason, ma'am. Think a bit about what is the purpose behind the alpha testing: Testing the game's server structure and connection. Having a sample size with various different ping responses is important for that, seeing if the person with 10ms ping and 10000ms ping are getting the same lag is part of the process (I was being hyperbolic with the times there, by the way)

Beta testing has a completely different reason to be. "Can the server handle 1000 people doing quests at the same time in the same place" is for alpha, "In what ways can players skip actions in this quest to cause it to break and become uncompletable" is for beta. Your geographical placement (in other words, your ping response) does not plays any role for beta.

It does for alpha, though.

[Cedri]

Just throwing in my two gil on the geographic location thing. I assume what they mean about that is testing the areas where they get the highest flow of traffic. Because after all to quote a space elf, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

[vax]

Conspiracy theories! Conspiracy theories everywhere!

Really, now...
You're worried for no good reason, ma'am. Think a bit about what is the purpose behind the alpha testing: Testing the game's server structure and connection. Having a sample size with various different ping responses is important for that, seeing if the person with 10ms ping and 10000ms ping are getting the same lag is part of the process (I was being hyperbolic with the times there, by the way)

Beta testing has a completely different reason to be. "Can the server handle 1000 people doing quests at the same time in the same place" is for alpha, "In what ways can players skip actions in this quest to cause it to break and become uncompletable" is for beta. Your geographical placement (in other words, your ping response) does not plays any role for beta.

It does for alpha, though.

It's not a conspiracy theory, it's a fact when you know 10 people of your country, 8 with real adress, 2 with fake NA adress and only those two got invited.

When i think the purpose on an alpha testing i find more important to look on people from different region, more region outside NA, JP, and EU as well too, same as you say, i don't see the point of why SE won't let people outside those region play the alpha to get a better test.

We left forgotten, back withgame contest, crysta and now with testing.

[moriandrio]

Some countrys get left outen of certain payment methods or contests cause of certain laws. Just cause this happend with 2 of your friends doesn't means it counts for everybody in your country. Prolly their is a bunch of South American players in the alpha that use their real adress.

[vax]

Some countrys get left outen of certain payment methods or contests cause of certain laws. Just cause this happend with 2 of your friends doesn't means it counts for everybody in your country. Prolly their is a bunch of South American players in the alpha that use their real adress.

Maybe they are some countries that has been left out because the law, but it's not the point of my country, there is no law here to left it out, they just don't want it to look for us when it's about contest, and even for crysta, like i said, if i put any adress from USA, i could use crysta here paying near my house, but now that i use my adress i don't has any option, can't even switch the region :/.